❧❧❧ Whatever you can do or dream, you can BEGIN IT. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Goethe ❧❧❧
❧❧❧ You were born whole, not broken. Sandra Hammel ❧❧❧
When I read someone else's words that help me through my day, lift me, inspire me, I am always grateful. The power of ideas being put together with individual words that mean little or nothing on their own carry meaning that elevates.
Friend, don’t be a perfectionist.
Perfectionism is a curse and a strain.
For you tremble lest you miss the bull’s-eye.
You are perfect if you let be.
Friend, don’t be afraid of mistakes.
Mistakes are not sins.
Mistakes are ways of doing something different,
Perhaps creatively new.
Friend, don’t be sorry for your mistakes.
Be proud of them.
You had the courage to give something of yourself.
It takes years to be centered; it takes more years
to understandand to be now.
Until then, beware of both extremes,
perfectionism as well as instant cure, instant joy, instant sensory awareness.
Until then, beware of any helpers.
Helpers are con-men who promise something for nothing.
They spoil you and keep you dependent and immature.
Frederick S. Perls
Photo credit: Cassandra Batson
Swedish Lullaby Children's Choir of Portsmouth (Rhode Island) Grades 3 - 8
Today, I began what will take me - what I hope is - the rest of my life, in a way. I say "I hope" it will take me a long time, because that will mean I will be able to stay in my home until "it" is over. By "it", I mean "my life". I began organizing rooms that are disorganized with things I started and never completely finished, cleaning out closets. Someday, the attic, the garage... Here is my recommendation to anyone who hasn't started the lifelong accumulation of things: don't buy so much stuff.
I am not good at throwing things out. I carried the architect drawing board downstairs from the attic, only to get downstairs and see the potential to use it for the possibility of using it to paint on. The easel doesn't suit me to paint. But, nevermind that I haven't painted for a few years now.
But, I did bring some things down to donate to the Salvation Army. And they are still there.
I have dreaded doing this for so-o long. But here is how I look at it....I can start. But, I won't be able to be impulsive about doing it and stay up until it is done as is my typical behavior. So, I will do it little by little. I hope I stay with it frequently and consistently. I, also, have to keep up my piano and singing practicing on an almost daily basis. And I want to start my writing. Again. And that is a huge project, with a lot of organizing and sorting through so much writing over a lifetime. Then there is the video making. You get the idea.
I want to create.
And I have put those impulses to create off for my whole life for the most part.
But, I actually get excited knowing I am going to do these things. And then I do them. I am trying to discipline myself not to stay up so late, so that I don't waste all morning sleeping in to make up for the lost sleep in the night.
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To be more creative,
I am waiting for…
Inspiration Permission R e a s s u r a n c e
The coffee to be ready
The stakes to be lower
M o r e t i m e
An obvious scapegoat
The two-minute warning T o m o r r ow
Jacks or better
The stakes to be higher
A clearly written set of instructions
AN END TO POVERTY, INJUSTICE, CRUELTY, DECEIT, INCOMPETENCE, PESTILENCE, CRIME AND OFFENSIVE SUGGESTIONS
This meeting to be over
You to go first
David B Campbell (Adapted)
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I don't know what is going to happen. I may have to go back and jump overboard from this place of actually living the life I want. But I am going to give it a try for a few months anyway.
So, if the Universe is listening - send me some signals that this is the thing for me to do.
I wrote in my journal May 10, 2010: I'm not going to die with all the creativity still inside.
It is a cry of hoping I am not going to die with the creativity still inside of me, as much as a declarative sentence.
As I sort through my stuff, I come across treasures. One I came across today was moving, even to me. A letter I had written years ago and sent to my mother.
As I was choosing books to donate, I came across The Element Guide of Low Self-Esteem by Elaine Sheehan. I don't know why, but I leafed through it and at the end I found this:
Whatever you can do or dream you can BEGIN IT.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Then, I pulled Goethe's Faust - Part One off my bookshelves, translated by Carlyle Ferren MacIntyre. And I began to read in the back of the book: Appendix II, Prologue at the Theater (A Manager, A Dramatic Poet and A Jester)
I couldn't find the text online anywhere. It so moved me. I have typed a portion with bits here that moved me the most of what I read while sitting briefly in the rocking chair, pausing from the mundane to the sublime.
Manager You two who have stood by me so often in need and trouble, tell me what you hope for in Germany from our undertaking. I wish very much to please the crowd, especially because it lives and lets live. The posts and boards are erected and everyone looks for a big time. They're seated already, with raised eyebrows, patiently waiting to be astonished. I know how to soothe the people's spirit, but I've never been so embarrassed; it's true they've never been used to the best, but they've read a great deal. How shall we arrange it that everything will be fresh and new and pleasant, even though instructive: For really I like to see the crowd rushing toward our show, and wave after wave forcing itself through the narrow gate of grace, in bright day; already before four o'clock they're pushing toward the box office, breaking their necks for a ticket, as if, in a famine, they wanted bread from the baker. It's only the poet who works this miracle on such various people. My friend, do it today!
Poet Oh, don't talk to me of that motley crowd, for a glimpse of them scares off my inspiration. Hide from me that surging multitude which sucks us against our will into the whirlpool. No, lead me to a quiet heavenly corner where pure joy blossoms for the poet, where love and friendship, by the hand of God, create and foster blessings for the hear. Ah, what has sprung forth from us there, what the lips stammered timidly, now failing or maybe succeeding then swallowed by the power of the mad moment. Often, only after it has lasted for years does it look like a perfect creation. What dazzles is born of the moment, the real thing is never lost to posterity.
Manager The portion here is rich, but for now I am leaving it out for time's limited for me. The discussion is whether to give the public what they want or what the Poet deems important.
Poet Go on, and look for another slave! Is the poet to laugh off foolishly for your sake the highest right which nature has given him - that of being a man? How does he stir all heart? And transcend every element? Isn't it because of the harmony which springs from his heart and which draws the world back into itself? When nature, indifferently twisting, feeds the thread's endless length to the spindle; when the discordant crowd of creatures jangles annoyingly - who then shall divide the everflowing monotonous series and give them life so that they move in rhythm? Who calls the isolated to the common consecration where it chimes in glorious agreement? Who lets the storm rage in the passions? The evening sunset glow in thoughtful minds? Who pours out the fairest flowers of spring on the path of the beloved? Who twines the meaningless green leaves to wreaths of honor for all deserts? Who assures Olympus? Unites the gods? The strength of man revealed in the poet.
Poet Then give me those times again when I was still developing; when a fountain of crowding songs gushed forth, fresh and uninterrupted; when mist veiled the world from me and the bud still promised a miracle as I picked the thousand flowers that richly filled the valleys. I had nothing, but still it was enough, the yearning for truth and the delight in illusion. Give me back those untamed impulses, the deep and painful happiness, the strength of hatred, the power of love - give me back my youth!
Jester My friend, you may need youth when enemies press you in conflict, when the prettiest girls passionately embrace you, when far away the crown of the swift race beckons from the difficult goal, when after the violent whirling dance you drink away the night. But to play the harp with grace and spirit, to wander along gaily toward a self-set goal - that is the duty of older men, and we reverence you no less on that account. Age does not, as man says, make us childish, but it finds us truly child-like still.
Manager We've talked enough, now let me see results; while you're exchanging compliments something useful could be done. What's the good of taking about being in the mood? It never comes to a man who dilly-dallies. If poetry is your job make it obey you You know what we need - strong stuff - so brew some at once! What you don't do today - won't be done tomorrow, and not a day should be wasted. Be resolute and grasp what is possible. Then you don't dare let it go and keep on working because you must. You know that on a German stage everyone tries what he wants to; therefore, don't spare either stage-sets or mechanical effects. Use the big and the little lights of the skies, be spendthrift of the stars; there's plenty of water, fire, rock-backdrops, animals, and birds. So on this narrow stage show the circle of creation, and travel with reasonable speed from Heaven through the world to Hell. .......................................................... classical tv goethe-Faust--part-1-of-2 German language - no subtitles ..........................................................
Wall of Doubt
Moving through my wall of doubt to a brighter side Feeling lighter moving freer Moving through the wall of doubt It feels like light raining down around me Cuddling me, all my spirit guides huddling around me telling me I am loved the way I already am, loved just as I am.
Lifted is the duty to feel sad. Why you wanted to hold me hostage in your sadness is a mystery A mystery I don't need to understand, 'Cause I'm already through the wall of sadness.
'Cause I'm already on the other side of pain
I'm standing in the light and broken no more Feeling whole in the light. Come join me Standing in the light.
Written by Sandra Hammel May 18, 2010, Tuesday, 2:45 a.m.
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Click on post title for Geoffrey Oryema - Land of Anaka
I love sunsets. I took this picture recently at Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge Atlantic Ocean Middletown, Rhode Island, USA Photo credit: Sandra Hammel
I needed this. To post a little something that has a good feeling to it before signing off.
I looked for the song "Love Letters" by Patti Austin on Youtube and having failed finding that, I found this.
..................................................... ..................................................... Ketty Lester sings "Love Letters" The poster retracked the video and tried to synch the lips with the video. Uploaded by VJTOMYAZ
............................................................... Heath Ledger in The Four Feathers A wonderful film. Heath Ledger Uploaded by Cliffy4479
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I can't help it. I am in this Heath Ledger groove. I just "watched" the most interesting radio interview with Heath done December 3, 2007 posted on Youtube in three parts.
............................................................... Part 1 Uploaded by springrose147
Stephen Schaefer:
Brokeback Mountain really was, you know, in some ways was a career peak, so, or in many ways.Did it really change things for you, in the way you looked at yourself, or, uh the way you felt what you were able to then go do? …as an actor, in terms of what Hollywood would offer you?
Heath:
Yeah, yeah, yes, it did.Um, I’d like to not to think of it as a peak (laughs)cause I’m only 28, I have a few years."
Schaefer: You can have many peaks.
Heath: Oh, okay, good.
Schaefer: There are peaks and they’re valleys.
Heath: That’s true, true.Okay, um,
Schaefer: One of many career peaks.
Heath: Hopefully.Um, but yeah, it um, I get, yeah it did on many levels, I think personally it did too.I, I um, I’d been looking, I always look for things that challenge me and, and duh, and dum and teach me and, and teach me and, and to be more understanding, accepting human being, an actor and, and, and dum and that was a real task, there were a lot of obstacles and um.
You know, I, uh, I don’t think it was, I don’t think you can say it’s being brave or being courageous.It’s just, you know, uh, I just think it’s being honest, understanding, accepting of myself, and of the story, of the character.It did teach me a lot about that.And about your power.To believe.And, and um. so-o, you know, I-I on a personal level got a lot out of it.And uh, um.And definitely, it, it, uh, um, uh, you know it opened some doors.You know, people are uh, somewhat utterly trusting me more now. (Laughs) Which, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, for them.But, um you know, it’s um..so
Included in this portion is this quote by Heath at 7:06 :
"...and dum, and then I do the Terrence Malik, movie right after that, then um The Tree of Life and then I um, and then I, I'll drop to the ground dead (laughs, Schaefer joins Heath in laughter) for a year...and duh, hybenate...um, mmm".
Transcription of Heath’s answering
The following answer begins at 7:45
Heath: Yeah, I, I guess so. I-I guess you’d… you know, I don’t know whether it’s optimism or just kind of um, I..you know, it’s...
Sometimes , you just, you-you have to kind of throw away the care, like you have to not be too conscious of what will be a success and what won’t be.Uh, cause you really – that’s out of your power.And, and, like I said, look what is success?And um, uh, so I, you know I just, I- I try to look at what I feel like…the, the
Cause for me, like, what a success is – is, I mean the only time that I’m alive, and living and expressing and feeling, and, and relating is, is, is when I’m on set and that time between “action” and “cut” and so that’s the only thing that’s really important is how that experience is, and, and how that experience will affect my life and what I have to give from my life to that experience.And everything that happens after that – is just irrelevant. You know, it’s
............................................................... Part 3
At 3:33, Stephen Schaefer chooses to follow the interview with the Bob Dylan song, "and now as we rock on out, we're going to be doing Antony and the Johnsons version of
Heath: is, is when I’m on set and that time between “action” and “cut” and so that’s the only thing that’s really important is how that experience is, and, and how that experience will affect my life and what I have to give from my life to that experience.And everything that happens after that – is just irrelevant. You know, it’s (transcription above repeated from Part 2 here on Part 3)
kind of um, if it’s a success, great, if it’s not, great, fine.You know, it’s um, it affects you, or it doesn’t.
But it’s, that shouldn’t in my, my mind, it shouldn’t kind dictate what your choices.Um, I, I –I just want to enjoy myself.I want to learn more.I want to work with good people.Um, creatively and as people who really just good people.
And duh, uh, so that, that, that drives me more than, then, well you know Terry had a really hard time on Brothers Grimm and you know, uh for some odd reason is finding it hard to get his next movie up and running.Oh, w-w, that’s too risky, I can’t be involved with that.No, no it’s like he’s one of the most creative, most visionary minds of, of, ever, in film history.I – I – I and a wonderful figure in my life.And had done a lot for me and cast me in The Brothers Grimm, when no one wanted to work with me at that stage of career.And, and, and uh, you know the company even once Terry brought me on boarddidn’t want me in the film and wanted to replace me and Terry said “No! I won’t do the movie without him for some odd reason.
Schaefer: Jesus, who knew?!Oh, God.
Heath: Yeah, you know, he, he’d given a lot to me and like if I can do anything to help him out then, then I will and dum, and so, you know, that’s the reason why.
Heath talks about the life of moving between staying home and working in films.
Schaefer: And final question.
And uh, this is something, you know, we ask actresses more often than actors.How do you find trying to have a balance then between your personal life and your professional life?With, you know, is it difficult, we see in the Dylan movie, the part you’re playing, that his personal life seems to really suffer from it.The celebrity.
Heath: Yeah, yeah it is difficult, but um, I mean, I can’t, I think my struggles are different to Robbie’s, I- I, but yeah, it is, but, it’s, it’s kind of heartbreaking in a sense – like having to-o, the inconsistency of your social life –
kind of clocking in, checking in with your friends, and getting back a routine with your family, and, and life and kind of doing the washing, doing the dishes, maintaining your household, uh, commuting, uh, and then that just being chopped off and having three weeks go to London and, and work through Christmas and act in Vancouver and work to Martin and go off to Austin, Texas, and work there for three months then you’re away from them and everything for seven months and then you then you come back and try to rekindle it again, only to have it taken away, a year later.And, and it can be really tiring, it can be really lonely.
It can be (exhales) all these things, but, but, but we still do it.Like it’s because, you know, it’s what we love, it’s something that drives us to it. Or away from it.Or you know, there’s a fascination, an addiction to the lifestyle as well, I think, um.It’s a bit of a double-edged sword, I believe.Um, you know. Cause part of you wants to stay home and do nothing for the rest of your life, but as soon as you’re there, you want to get out and start working.
Schaefer laughs, then Heath joins him)You know?
Schaefer, Yeah.
Okay, this is Stephen Schaefer for WPS1 Beyond the Subtitles. So long, farewell and “Thank You, Heath Ledger”.
Heath: Thank You, Stephen.
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This interview is precious and priceless.Heath is comfortable and relaxed in this interview.Stephen and Heath appear to be friends, here.What a pleasure to hear Heath in this 3 part interview that springrose147 has blessed us with.It is just so hard to deal with the sorrow to have him gone.Not unlike many around the world, I connected with Heath though I didn't "know" him.But Heath connected through his integrity, minus the pretense and hype.Just by being Heath.
Heath, without knowing, left many with an indelible mark. We never forget those who put us in touch with our own souls.
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UPDATE: This post gets more daily hits than any other post. It must be the title of the post. Since I posted this, the video that was orginally here was removed from its host site, so I am leaving the lyrics of the song from that video below, while posting a different video tribute to the beloved Heath.
Heath and Matilda Rose Ledger
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.............................................. Uploaded by Cliffy4479 The original video posted here is no longer available, but here are the words to the song it used..
Leave Out All The Rest
By Linkin Park
I dreamed I was missing You were so scared But no one would listen Cause no one else cared
After my dreaming I woke with this fear What am I leaving When I'm done here
So if you're asking me I want you to know
When my time comes Forget the wrong that I've done Help me leave behind some Reasons to be missed
And don't resent me And when you're feeling empty Keep me in your memory
Leave out all the rest Leave out all the rest
Don't be afraid I've taken my beating I've shared what I made
I'm strong on the surface Not all the way through I've never been perfect But neither have you
So if you're asking me I want you to know
When my time comes Forget the wrong that I've done Help me leave behind some Reasons to be missed
Don't resent me And when you're feeling empty Keep me in your memory
Leave out all the rest Leave out all the rest
Forgetting All the hurt inside You've learned to hide so well
Pretending Someone else can come and save me from myself I can't be who you are
When my time comes Forget the wrong that I've done Help me leave behind some Reasons to be missed
Don't resent me And when you're feeling empty Keep me in your memory
Leave out all the rest Leave out all the rest
Forgetting All the hurt inside You've learned to hide so well
Pretending Someone else can come and save me from myself I can't be who you are I can't be who you are
We all need to search for peace. Life is too dear to sacrifice that chance to drugs. If you are fortunate enough to live a long life, a healthy body that wasn't abused by drugs will be your blessed aged life's legacy to yourself.
Post script:
I want to be clear, that I don't believe that Heath was abusing drugs when he died. I believe he was trying to cope at a very difficult time in his life and the mixture of prescribed drugs, though were reported to be within the dosage limits, unfortunately when taken altogether were deadly.
We, who, admire Heath on screen and off, certainly wish it could all be different.
Heath showed so much in his eyes. I marvel each time I watch him in one of the many dvds of his movies that I now own. He truly was in a class of one in my opinion.
I have seen Heath's final screen work 13 times so far. It is the first and last film of his, that I have had the privilege to see on the big screen, as I became a fan many months after he died. Here is a review of it:
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus will always carry the unspoken but understood subtitle, Heath Ledger’s Last Movie.
Yet as many critics have already acknowledged, it deserves to be known as much more than that, though the story behind the making of Parnassus truly is a heartbreaking, incredibly touching one. And who better to tell this story behind the story than the master storyteller himself, Terry Gilliam?
Aside from all that, when looked at objectively as simply a movie, Dr. Parnassus is a surreal, sometimes whimsical, sometimes frightening fairy tale, told mainly in the slightly melodramatic but all-in-good-fun “panto” style of acting. It’s got a nice Bohemian vibe to it, right down to the beautiful, slightly threadbare costumes in richly hued brocades and velvets, medieval-looking clothes well suited to the tattered kings, princes and princesses who stride across Dr. Parnassus’s rickety stage.
Christopher Plummer infuses Parnassus with all the mystical wisdom and world-weariness you’d expect of a visionary who’s been on this earth for a thousand years or more. English model Lily Cole plays his beautiful teen-aged daughter Valentina with a nice balance of child-like wonder and womanly wiles. With his dapper Mr. Nick, the exquisitely cast Tom Waits brings us the Devil with a pencil-thin mustache and jaunty bowler hat. After seeing his face transposed through the wonders of CGI onto the neck of a gargantuan cobra looming menacingly over the landscape (we’re talking skyscraper high here, as this is a Gilliam film after all), you just can’t imagine anyone else in this role.
And then there’s Heath Ledger as Tony Shepherd, the smooth-talking con man with a mysterious past. How can this movie not be a heart breaker to watch in many ways, knowing we’re seeing the last screen performance of Heath Ledger, filmed during his last days here on Earth? It seems almost heartless to find any fault with the movie under such sad circumstances.
This being Heath, there’s nothing at all bad about his performance. He puts his usual charisma, conviction and authenticity into it (and manages to look and feel a bit Errol Flynn-like while doing so). But by definition (he had filmed only about a third of his scenes before his death), it is literally an incomplete performance. And therein lies the rub. At this early stage in the game, there simply hadn’t been enough time or scenes yet for him to shade in his character, Tony Shepherd.
We know Tony’s hiding something about his identity from Dr. Parnassus and crew, that there might be a little menace lurking beneath that charming smile. But that’s about all we know, until a chaotic reveal near the end of the movie that features not Ledger but Colin Farrell as Tony as he makes his final trip into the Imaginarium. Tony never has a chance to earn either our sympathy or our contempt, because we just don’t know much at all about his inner life, about what drives him.
Ledger has said of acting, “”I only do this because I’m having fun. The day I stop having fun, I’ll just walk away.” And he clearly was having fun here working with Gilliam, his dear friend and former partner in crime on The Brothers Grimm.
So what Heath Ledger fan wouldn’t cherish these last new moments of Heath “having fun” on film? We get to watch Tony charm and con the daylights out of a group of English housewives in a grocery store…all while wearing a clown suit accessorized with a tutu, no less! And we get to hear him deliver verbal flourishes like this with a slightly dodgy Cockney accent: “Do you dream? Or should I say, can you put a price on your dreams?”
It feels ungrateful and unnecessary to wish for anything more out of this performance. After the intensity and ferocity of the Joker, it’s likely Ledger reveled in the more light-hearted quality of this role. He probably saw it as a nice break from the stress of a mind that was always “turning, turning, turning,” as his former partner Michelle Williams put it, always milling over the countless possibilities for the intricate, haunting roles that had become his stock in trade.
No, Tony Shepherd won’t go down in history as one of Ledger’s more profound roles. But we still feel extremely grateful to have this delightful footage of Tony, which could’ve easily ended up filed away in storage if it weren’t for the fierce determination (and love) of a fine director helped along by an esteemed group of Ledger’s actor friends. It’s this team we have to thank for bringing Heath Ledger back for one final, characteristically gracious and charming curtain call.
Comment:
I don’t see the name of the writer of this review, but after reading the way understanding, heart, humankindness comes through the words on the page, I think this has to be a fascinating person. What a wonderfully put together read about The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus... Terry Gilliam, Heath, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Lily Cole, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law (missing the wonderful Andrew Garfield, may I add who was marvelous…just marvelous! And Verne Troyer who was Dr Parnassus’ faithful and gentle conscious)…but I loved the spirit that ran through this review. You can feel the heart, love, respect and someone who appreciates the whole story….the story in the movie and the story surrounding the movie. Great job, whoever wrote this.
I love my life. I love where I live. And I am passionate about my passions. I love to dance. Necessary to live: music, piano, singing, writing, acting, painting.
I have been fighting for and supporting the arts all my adult life. Since 2004, I have been working with other activists to end the Darfur genocide.
I have traveled to Europe many times since my early twenties. Places I have been: many USA states including Hawaii, Montreal, Canada, Barbados, France, Spain, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany - and have wonderful memories.
My last trip was in May - June 2013 to Spain.
I would like to travel to Europe and Kyoto, Japan.
I love the southwest where I have visited Hopi, Navajo, Zia and San Idlefonso potters.
Life is exciting and I intend to live it full-out to the end.
B.S. and M.M., both in music
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Khartoum, Sudan Stop Genocide Time
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Spain Time
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Melbourne Time
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Hawaii Time
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RAFA NADAL -BRING BACK LONG PANTS - SLEEVELESS TOPS
Double Click on Videos to Enlarge
Darfur - The Abandoned Genocide - a video by Sandra Hammel
Want to help? Call 1~800~GENOCIDE
"May I Suggest" by Susan Werner
Satchita - Playing for Change
Stand By Me ~ Playing for Change
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Genocide is not only a word,
it is crying of the whole human race.
There is nothing redeeming about being silent
when speaking up is the humane thing to do.
The honor and integrity of the human race is at stake.
