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Hey dear readers [is there anyone reading this, though?]
I sadly have to inform you that this week there will be no posts. :( I have some tasks to work on, and I ran out of time to prepare anything at all for the blog.
I may post something on Sunday, but don't hold your breath.
Have a great week!
Everyone makes mistakes, even me with my blog, and the things I post here. You can read about one such mistake here, if you're curious.
It's not my place to judge people, but I think that if we want G-D to give us something, we must pray the right way, and to try avoid making some mistakes.
Several years ago I decided I should be more spiritual, to pray more, be kinder, less negative. I took a notebook and wrote in it some guidelines for "how to pray." Surely I found this guide somewhere on the internet, but for the love of what's good, I can't remember.
This entry is an adaptation of that info - simply because I didn't agree with everything in there, and I also think some other stuff should be added.
Matthew 6:7-8 New International Version (NIV)7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Prayer is a highly personal experience
For me this is true, as you could probably tell from this blog entry. Everyone whose prayers have been answered will probably tell you the same thing. This is not something that can be explained.
What I can say is that the prayer is a tool helping us to attune and communicate with G-D - or whatever other Higher Being or Creator you believe in.
not my picture
Don't pray just in time of need
I find this to be wrong, though it can be effective if you pour all your soul into it. I think that if you want to live a more peaceful and fulfilling life, trying to pray on a more regular basis is [or works] better.
You can compare this to a person whose teeth look perfect - surely they visit their dentist quite often, brushes and flosses their teeth twice each day.
Be thankful while praying
Forgetting to thank G-D for everything positive in our lives is something many are guilty of. Including those that pray on a regular basis.
What can you be thankful for? The clothes on your body, the house you live in, the neighborhood you live in [if you like it there and feel safe], the food on your table, your job [especially if the income is acceptable], for having people that care about you in your life, for being able to have pets [if you have them], and so on.
These were just examples and are the things I'm generally thankful for while praying. Every little thing does matter and you should be thankful for, including your health, looks [if you consider yourself pretty, or you particularly like something about yourself like your eyes or hair], talents [like cooking, baking, drawing, fashion style, applying make-up].
Some of these attributes sound vain to be thankful for, but I can guarantee there is at least one person out there that wishes they had what you have - material or not. You can walk, talk, see, read, sing? Be thankful for all of those since there are folks that can't perform these actions.
What to pray for
You can pray for everything or anything, including for world peace. For better and higher chances of the prayer to be answered, just ask for small things and one thing at a time.
For instance, you lost your job [or were forced to quit?] when praying, thank your Divinity for all the jobs you had in the past and ask Them to help you find another suitable one quickly.
We can even ask for help in becoming mentally stronger, better people [less negative, less critical of others], in finding a new hobby, a new partner, in overcoming problems that seem very complicated, or even forgiveness.
We can pray for forgiveness for ourselves or for others. Maybe you lied to someone and now you feel bad, but still don't have the courage to confess to them? Ask G-D for forgiveness, but try not to lie anymore in the future. If someone did something hurtful towards you, you probably can't let go of those negative emotions so easily. Ask the Divine to help you with that, and ask the Divine to forgive that person's mistakes. [I did this and it felt liberating.]
not my quote not my picture
Acknowledge you're wrong or sinful
This segment goes against Christian teachings of confessing and stuff. We all do things we're very ashamed of later on [what? it's just me? hmmm]. Sometimes those actions feel too heavy, and we're too embarrassed to confess them to a priest [if that's part of your belief system].
Telling G-D during a prayer about those things can be liberating. Not many people know what you did, but G-D DOES know. The Divinity knows everything about you. Admitting that doing this or that was wrong and asking for forgiveness can help. [It did help me, I felt less tormented].
When and where to pray
You can pray at any time, in any place. It is however better to find a quiet time and place to do so. For instance, you could pray while showering or taking a bath, right before falling asleep, when everyone else is asleep or away.
The most important thing to try and remember is that you should not be disturbed. You should silent your phone too, if you receive too many texts, calls and notifications. You don't have to be in a church [or similar type of building] to pray. You don't even need a picture of your Deity around you.
Faith is crucial
No mater who you pray to or what for, you must be certain 100% that They hear you and that They will answer. It's not enough to say "Oh, my god's name is this, and they DO exist... blahblahblah." No! You must feel with every cell of your body that that Creator exists and that They love you and will send you what you ask for.
When you start communicating with Them, you have to be aware of Their presence in and around you: you wouldn't be here without Them, and you wouldn't have everything you own without Them.
May God look over From His Holy Dwelling and may he strike all those who hate His People with a wink of an eye
Behold here is the Lord rising and standing on a plumb-line Giving them a cup of poison but not wine
Pronunciation:
Yash'kef Elohim mima'on kod'sho veyach kol sonei amo keheref ayin
Hineh Hashem kam venitzav al anach yash'kem lechos ra'al aval lo yayin
I have no words to express how much I like this song, and how well it helps me get into a praying state of mind. It also helps me be more aware of G-D and His presence in my life.
©Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved. The song and lyrics belong to Sagiv Cohen.
I have to come clean guys.
Recently I watched a video in which the author [sorry, can't remember who it was] was talking about people that get paid to write or film FAKE reviews for items, services, and so on.
This video hit home, quite hard, because I'm a freelance writer and I did get paid for that as well. However, once I was shameless enough to post that review on my blog, and have you [who reads this] believe that I actually know what I'm doing or talking about.
This blog was started as means for me to explore my creativity, share my life lessons, try and spread some more common sense to some who lack it [now that I matured a bit since I started I realize this is a near impossible task].
Back to my topic. Back when I posted that entry, I did feel guilty about it - I don't think I even mentioned I got paid for that entry. I remember I was rather happy I have something to post, since at that time I wasn't posting as much as now.
Today I'm coming 'clean,' I deleted that post, and will also have to further brush through my past entries to see what else doesn't fit in my blog anymore.
WordPress admin view. my previous blogging platform.
I deleted this entry a while back, but I wanted to show you guys proof that I did delete it, and that this post did exist at some point. I currently have another entry removed. Once I figure out which entries still need removing, I will probably take another screen capture of my trash folder and update this entry. Maybe, I don't know for sure for now.
Do know this is a slow process simply because I move slow. From now on I will only post things that happen to my partner and me, or just me. I may have my partner or other people write entries for me in the future, but until then, it will only be me posting. As stated earlier, I will only write about stuff that happens to me, that interest me, or my thoughts.
Wanted to clear things out, and assure you guys that the missing posts were intentional and not some sort of Mandela Effect.
If you read to here, WOW! you deserve a cookie! Have a good day!
© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.
Today's entry was supposed to be something different, but it's not done, and it can't be done today. Plus I have some other stuff I need to take care of, and there are just too many things to do and too little time.
So, instead, I'm going back on memory lane. I actually have a dream journal I wrote in since 2009, and I want to share some thoughts I had back then, as well as some events that took place before this particular entry dating back to December 16th, 2009. As you can tell, I didn't have a blog back then, and I wasn't even thinking about getting one. On, with the entry!
Whenever I dreamt I'll get something, found a treasure [containing money, jewelry], I'd pick it up, hoping I'll have it when I woke up [current thoughts: was I aware I was dreaming?] But this never happened; instead the general situation became worse. A said it was quite the opposite for her: she does get the item. I wonder if she ever dreamt of a treasure...
I have to mention the dreams I used to have like 10 years ago after granny died. I remember I asked her [soul] to come in my dreams because I couldn't cope with her death. And... she did. Man, was she scary at times! Other times she was angry or mad at me [current thoughts: of course she was: she wanted to move on, not be stuck between here and there, DUH!].
Most of the times she didn't say a word. I would just see her and at times she was with grandpa [who died 7 years before her]. He was calm and he also gave me the impression he didn't know who I was. The strange[r] part here is that when he died, granny said she wanted to still live for 7 years, so she could be buried in the same grave as him. Just as she finished saying that, I felt a wave of something running through me and I knew it would come true. Over the 7 years, I forgot about that.
my handwriting from my dream diary
There was this one time when granny was so scary and she almost asked me to let her go. However I didn't want that in the beginning. Because I would wake up crying like crazy each time, [in the end] I did beg her to go find her peace. Soon after she didn't appear in my dreams anymore.
The dreams in which granny was calm were surreal and I wasn't aware I was dreaming. Usually later on I would realize it's a dream, and things would change. In one of them I remember both [grandparents] had a new big [Romanian] country[side] house with a big yard with lots of livestock. They also seemed happy and healthy.
A. saw the ghost of a dead singer from Japan. He was scary, much like granny was. I'm sure we both saw real ghosts, even though mine was in a dream.
No important dreams lately, and that makes me sad. Granny still visited me at times. I also dreamt about my dead uncle, but I don't recall anything important. I barely remember anything about these dead relatives, from the time they were alive.
Ok, so this was the entry. I had to edit it a bit to make the ideas flow more naturally. This written record has no ending, making it a bit surreal in my opinion.
Do you have such strange dreams? Have you even seen a ghost? Or dreamt about dead people?
©Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.
I believe in this post I mentioned something about posting an entry on how many Chinese characters -hanzi- I know. This post is it.
I don't really have much to say about this, but there are a few clarifications I must make.
This list below shows translations for single-character words, but I do know a few that are formed of 2 characters. I will create a list for those words sometime in the future as well [ahem, whenever I remember I guess, ahem].
screen capture :)
I included only the translation I'm more familiar with, though I do know some of them have many other meanings. But that is ok, because other meanings can be learned at a later time. I didn't translate the numbers. The meaning of some of these characters was easier to remember because several years back I wanted to study Japanese. I still have some materials for that, but it basically collects dust.
I may not know the reading of all of them -seriously, there are a handful with which I still struggle to remember how to read, but I know what they mean, or how to translate them.
The list is a little over 100 characters long, but I'm pretty sure I didn't include all the Hanzi I know. This simply means I must have skipped or forgotten to add some. I think that if you want to learn and keep track of your progress in a foreign language, then a spreadsheet can be useful.
A small notebook is a good alternative for languages that use a different script than what you're used to is also helpful because by writing the words by hand, you'll memorize them faster. Just make sure to write on each page the same amount of words if you want to keep a good track of your vocabulary. Using several notebooks might also be a good idea: one for grammar, one for new words, another one to pair words up.
Please remember that even though I started this Mandarin learning journey last year, I didn't have time to do it every single day. For crying out loud, I had some 3 or 4 months when I had a full time job when I had no more energy to study. And even this year, with all the free time I ha, I didn't dedicate it all to Chinese - you could say I'm not that serious about it. Mostly because I still want to like it, rather than stress about it.
I should probably tell you what tools do I use to learn Mandarin. There are several websites:
[I'm not affiliated with any, not getting paid by them - just the tools I used and helped me the most].
See you on Tuesday with an esoteric entry, on Thursday with a review, and again on Sunday with another blog entry related to my [boring] life. Bye~~
©Charly Cross 2013-present. All rights reserved.
You can buy merch inspired by this post from over here.
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This is my life: sewing, cooking, and various other adventures!
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Life is a journey. Or so I have been told. ObscureJourney is a blog about My life, the things I experience and learn. I hope I can learn from my mistakes. The blog used to known as "TheOwnerTravelsTo" and i had a separate blog called "CookingMyExperience".
The purpose of obscurejourney blog is to share positive ideas and experiences -hopefully- while showing you that you don't need a lot to be happy.
Not all failures mean the end of the world. They mean that whatever you were trying out wasn't meant to happen:
it wasn't your life's journey. We all have a particular life journey, even if we don't discover it from the start. But remember:
You will discover your path! Do you think I discovered mine? Perhaps I did, but I have yet to fully walk it. I know writing is part of it.
Credits?
All content is created by me, with my silly mobile phone and its camera. Unless otherwise stated, the following applies:
What I DO NOT OWN nor do I claim as mine:
