Recently in the whole truth Category

It might seem odd to you to see this post here, but someone reached out to me via my linkedn.com account and mentioned this book: My Body Belongs to Me Written by Jill Starishevsky is a prosecutor of child abuse and sex crimes in New York City, Starishevshky penned this book to Me to teach children that if someone touches them inappropriately to tell a parent or teacher right away. This book is child-friendly and very accessible and speaks to them on their own ground and in their own terms. This highly acclaimed book sensitively establishes boundaries for youngsters in a non-threatening, engaging manner. Think of it as a guide that teaches kids that when it comes to their body, that there are some parts that are for "no one else to see" and empowers them to tell a parent or teacher if someone touches them inappropriately. Handled quite deftly, this narrative assures children of any age that sexual molestation is not their fault, and by speaking out, the child will continue to grow big and strong. Extremely important is the post-story discussion section entiteld "Suggestions for the Storyteller" to help parents, care-givers, and educators a path to encourage a comfortable discussion afterwards, thereby helping to prevent the unthinkable from happening to any child. Given the Oscar-nominated movie now out on DVD, Precious, and Mo'nique's Oscar win for "Precious". Mo'nique's eloquence concerning child sexual abuse, it's apparent we -- as a society-- not only need to have a grasp on this discussion, but on this burning issue. Considering that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually molested are not statistics that can be ignored. This is horrifying and would probably be higher if parents and educators made sure that kids knew that they could be safe in "telling" on someone who has touched them inappropriately. One might think that parents/family, educators and physicians are addressing this matter with our children to keep them tools and help prevent them from becoming victims in the first place. Unfortunately, many parents do not know how or when to begin when it comes to discussing child sexual abuse prevention and so they avoid the discussion entirely. This approach (or lack of approach) puts our children at risk. Finally, there is a tool to make the discussion as easy as.. well as easy as reading a book to a child. This book enables anyone-- from the clergy, physicians, parents/family and also educators to address this issue safely and honestly. The illustrations are well done and the message of what is right and wrong is compelling and encouraging. My Body Belongs to Me is highly recommended by parents, teachers, physicans and widely used by experts in conjunction with their child safety presentations Comments and endorsements from other organizations and notables.

"With an easy rhyme and attractive pictures, this book will help both adults and children enter into a conversation about a subject that is often extremely hard for anyone to speak about, privately or publicly." -Pamela Pine, PhD, MPH Founder and CEO Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse, Inc., www.stopcsa.org

"Prevention is key when it comes to children's personal safety. Kudos to Ms. Starishevsky for taking on this project." -Kimberley Clayton Blaine, MA, MFT Licensed family and child therapist, Founder, www.TheGoToMom.TV

"The author skillfully captures an extremely difficult subject using simple language any child can understand." -Christine Louise Hohlbaum Author, "Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff"

This is an important-- and necessary-- book given today's world. When you look at "PRECIOUS" and realize that this is happening all over the world-- not just the US -- and it's cruel beyond belief for the child because they are told never to tell -- and that it's their fault which destroys the child forever. Give children the power to tell and reinforce it. Why is this coming up here? Because as a child, I was sexually molested and it haunted me for a long time. I told my mother-- yet she did nothing because she didn't know what to do. I was told to never tell because no one would ever want me. Imagine what it was like to grow up thinking no one would ever want me-- and the decades of therapy I have gone through to get to the strength to say, yes I can stand up and fight for others. I have done my time volunteering at shelters and child abuse centers. Here is one more easily accessible tool that will make it easy for you to protect your children-- or the children of others. What's your "perfect world"? LPW

Shifting Tides

I am driven to the edge by feelings of anger and lust which consume me. Filled with shame and guilt, betrayed by a future that may only come to pass as a product of madness. Should such a price be paid that freedom of mind can only be gained by complete and utter denial of that which lies dormant within myself,--that which is innate and vital to the very core of my existence?

Am I to believe that all I have ever felt must be discarded and forgotten?
Where is the honor in that?
What is the truth?
By whose laws do I persist in the world and whose will is it that my unchosen path seems to resist?
If all that is real can only be manifest at the total dissolution of myself then am I insane not to long for some solemn gesture of retreat back into the dream? Should I not loathe my awakening?

Is that not the paradox which faces every man seeking answers in the waning hours of the night? Once awakened to the light, you can never again escape into the twilight like the shadows of the early morning occurring just before the sun is born into the day.

To fight what 'is' no longer presents itself as a choice. The rules that governed your progress have been destroyed. You fate is no longer written in the stars. You are free!
Lifting your head up and moving forward is all that remains. Yesterday is gone and you must realize that the keys to tomorrow can only be acquired before the setting of our most local star. Who is it that has lost his way?
Who is it that is crossing the threshold and now sees his path?

Is denying the self for the benefit of the many really all that different from denying the many for the benefit of the self? At the climax of all things, was there truly ever any difference at all?

Our minds foolishly stricken with duality, our perception is flawed. Consciousness could not perceive itself and so we are divided. So, here we are at last. Why?
There is nothing...
But I still don't understand. Don't worry, we weren't meant to understand.
Just be as you are and follow the shifting tides of you mind.

Jeheshua

What's your "perfect world"?
LPW

The Only Way

I guess that on some level I have always understood how impossible it is to save everyone, but only recently have I come to realize the utter futility of what is wrong, but I cannot fix it. We must all come to grips with our own fate. We must fend for ourselves in a world full of wolves.

Each one of us has a quest to fulfill, a setback to overcome and a decision to make. We are all born into a dream and you can only be awakened of your own accord. There is no help to be had by another, One is one and not other. Amongst a world of many ,we are alone on our journey.

The answers we seek can only be sought within, and any attempt to assist another will only cripple them in the long run. If I take your suffering upon myself, then I deprive you of a lesson you were meant to learn. Life does not make mistakes. Life is without remorse, and life's lessons will not be denied! We are always offered lessons in the lightest capacity. Our problem is we ignore them and in so doing force a stronger event to be set in motion.

Our eyes are sewn shut, our ears are plugged up and our hearts are encased in stone. We are pawns to the outside world, to our families , to our friends, to society and most all to our chosen God.

We refuse to accept what we have created, and always we blame others in the place of ourselves. We seek escape at every turn in the maze driven by panic, anger and fear. We are lost, but eventually we will find the way. Eventually we will realize the truth. Eventually we will learn to help ourselves.
It is not one way. It is the only way and all paths will lead to it.....................eventually.

Jeheshua

What's your "perfect world"?
LPW

Between the Lines

Over the years I have learned to express myself through my writing and I like to think of myself as good. However, this ability is not something which can be turned on at will. It is beyond me in a sense. When my pen touches paper, something happens which is not wholly of myself, but which is not all together different. What happens is a thing of beauty, a gift, and a total surprise. It is something that exists in absence of my control, and until now, I have never made an attempt to explain it.

You see, I, myself, understand what is going on in the subtext of this story. After all, who better to arrange a director's cut than the director? However, to make you understand will take some work. So please consider this to be an attempt to that end and have some level of understanding for I am new to this branch of writer's scope (introspection).
Words do not just form out of thin air, despite the use of my tools, pen and paper, I do not claim to have molded them in the same way that a sculptor molds a piece of clay into a statue.

What happens is something closer to that of a duet or a collaboration of sorts. To the majority of the world the only possible truth of story composition (or composition in general) is that I, the author, have created, out of my own mind, an original and totally self oriented piece of writing, but nothing could be further from the truth. True, I did not copy someone else's word in order to pass them off as my own. However, I wouldn't describe my writing as creating. A musician doesn't create music. In reality, the music already exists. All he does is rearrange the notes to exist in harmony with one another. My gift is the same. My pen and paper are instruments, the forum of language is the scale of notes and my finished essays, poems, et cetera are songs. They are songs of the mind.

Which brings us to another question. If I did not create these songs , then whose mind did?

My answer is very simple.........."You did" . Sounds crazy, right? Do you know why that sounds crazy? I sounds because your thought matrix cannot process it in the same context that I am explaining it. In your linear brain construct things are self-sustaining and separate. Time seems to move in a straight line, but in reality things are more complex.

Jeheshua

What's your "perfect world"?
LPW

IT'S FUNNY

Raining in the mind. Who or what gives us the idea that we are capable of controlling that which governs our lives? How do you use the mind to control the mind? It is impossible! One will reach certain madness before any perfection can be attained. In fact, I believe if perfection of wisdom were ever truly reached it would cause a breakdown in the system of existence itself. If anyone were to fully realize their infinite power of divinity it would cause all of existence to cease.

The dream we now live in is a self sustaining one and we are all key players in its ongoing cycle. Not only that, but I believe, without a doubt , that we are its' creator. Our concepts of reality are not only side effects of its occurrence, they are the cause of reality itself. One could not perceive itself within itself as a result, one created division. Once division was created relation between two or more objects rendered very much information, but the one (or "none" as would have it) lost consciousness of itself and was blinded by the dream it had created.

Now here trapped in this cell, this illusion of emptiness, we are all called home. Though most of us don't hear nor understand the true meaning of the screams for attainment that well up from within. We attempt to fill this bottomless pit with material possessions and worldly pleasures. We do not see beyond this veil of negative existence. Some hear the screams and form them into an idol of worship. I am not that type at all. I do not see an answer. I don't even understand the question. All I know is nothing at all. There is not enlightenment in this world because the very nature of dwelling in this world negates such a possibility. You can't light a match under water!

The realization of that fact is all we could ever hope to reach but only a fool would ever hope for more . Only a fool would fail to see the humor in it all.

Jeheshua

What's your "perfect world"?
LPW

Manipulation -- part 2

Many people steal, rob, and manipulate to get by. That is just the nature of prison. We are just victims of our environment. To most people who live outside, we deserve everything we get because " let's face it, we are criminals". . I mean we are different aren't we? Then again, maybe we are all the same.

Aren't our prisons just a reflection of our society's biggest flaws ? In reality, a chin is only as strong as its' weakest link . The problem isn't truly crime and criminals. The real problem is the necessities and traits that create crime and criminals. The real problem is poverty. We can't just lock everyone up and hope they are rehabilitating themselves. We have to help them. We have to realize that prisoners are no different than citizens. We all lie, manipulate and steal to a certain degree. If your survival depended on how well you could manipulate another human being, you would become very good at it.

People sell drugs to feed their families. In return, addicts lie, cheat and steal to feed their addiction. These problems no longer belong to criminals alone. They belong to us all as one nation as one world. Our culture is falling apart because we have become so selfish and insecure that we would build our lives on the failures of others. . We take advantage of each other. I am a criminal, but the guy on Wall Street who just embezzled 2 billion dollars is a hero. We hurt each other everyday and our children see us do it. What do you think they will do when given the chance.

As a nation, we can fix this, but we need to stop looking at what everyone else is doing wrong and start looking in the mirror. I have accepted responsibility for my actions and I am doing my best to steer my ever-changing life in a better direction.

What about you?

Jeheshua.

What's your "perfect world"?
LPW

Manipulation

When I was housed at a major institution, I thought that I had seen it all, I thought that I had encountered every dirty, underhanded trick, ever crooked angle and heard every possible lie in existence, but I was wrong, Now, here at a road-camp for low security level prisoners, I must endure more. So very different in appearance, this place is still so very much the same.

Everything about this place differs but only on the surface. When it comes right down to it ,most people that I have met are all right , but there are those who play games. They will try to befriend you--not because they think you are funny or because you have things in common, but because they are in need of your help (so to speak). They are either broke, scared or they believe that they can manipulate you into making their situation better.

There are a few different approaches. Let's start at the top. One way is to lend you something when you first arrive so that when they ask for your assistance later on, you will feel obligated. Another way is the old "poor me" scam. (This is the one that is the hardest to spot if done correctly). They have soup, but if they only had crackers or if they have soup and crackers, but if only they had some cheese. Then they have soup, crackers and cheese but if only they had a soda. The good ones never actually ask for anything. They just subtly imply and because of your pity, you give what you can.

There are many different ways to use another human being but in the end, the result is always the same. The people who do these things are actors (very good ones at that)They are your friends and associates up until the moment that you find out the truth and for many it is too late. After all, this is a prison and there is not much room for mistakes.

Jeheshua

What's your "perfect world"?
LPW

Enlightenment

"What is real? What is dreamt? And what, my friends, is the difference? "

When I was growing up, the passing moments of my life seemed so trivial. They seemed to be so unimportant and as a result I never paid much attention to the changes that I imposed upon the world around me-- the world that sustained me. The world that I would one day help destroy.

Now with my world so utterly reased from existence by my own hand, I am force to live in someone else's world. I am force to live someone else's lies. I am force to follow someone else's rules and there is no one to blame for this current state of affairs except myself.

So with all of this established, I guess the only remaining question would be , "what now?" Do I rebel or do I make the best of what I have? I struggle to ask myself that question everyday. I struggle to ask it so that I will never forget what is at stake. Things like my sanity, my freedom, and my true place in this jigsaw puzzle called life.

I have realized that I can no longer live in the wake of my past mistakesThat life that has passed is no longer viable. It is no more tangeable than the dreamscape plot of a Sunday afternoon nap. In opposition, I have recognized I can no longer feed upon daydreams of a future that has yet to be written.

What has happened is gone and what will be will be . the only truth left is now. Here in this moment, I can find freedom, Here in this moment, I can let go of the prejudice that keeps me frozen still in a world of constant change. Here and now life's imperfect beauty is pure. Here is where we realize that perfection lies in our ability to understand that it doesn't exist. Now is when we finally see that our flaws are our greatest source of hope, and to see and realize those two truths is the very basis of a spiritual life. In fact, I would call it enlightenment.

Jeheshua

Lost Dreams

As the waxing hours of the morning turn into sunlight upon a distant horizon, I am here-- alone-- in my bed area. It is silent and yet around me, they are breathing solftly and as they sleep , they are dreaming. They are dreaming of freedom, a better place to exiast, a place so many long for, a place that not a one of us are that close to. They are dreaming of home.

I once experienced such dreams, . Now when I close my eyes there is nothing. This other world-- created by the mind-- has all but vanished without hope of return. I somtimes wonder if this lack of mental escape is a sign, a prelude to the realization ofmadness that I am inevitably inching towards.

My questions are many and my answers are so very few. I watch, awaiting harmony up the path which I believe I freely willed from the beginning. Yet at every turn on this road , I find only chaos. I cannot say that life is all a mystery for there are many lessons that I have learned along the way. I have had a great number of teachers but none more prevalent than death.

I have taken life and as a result, I will never be the same. I was forever changed by the event of that night and for my actions I am indelibly carry this weight with me always-- but you wouldn't know it. for a man's burden in life is not always displayed upon his face like paint on a canvas.

some of us have refined the spectacle of our personal torment so that what was once thunderous roar is now little more than a whisper which trembles aloft a summer night's breeze. It shames us in silence and leaving us with tears of solitude streaming down our faces.

Our pain is our own and though it appears to be gone to the naked eye it lingers on-- haunting us from teh grave. Such is fate but I accept that fate and would not change a single day as it ocurred if given the chance. If I did, I would lose the wisdom that those events produced and I have a strange feeling that I will need such knowledge for the future that lies ahead.

Jeheshua

What's your "perfect world"?
LPW

A Species of Survival

With the thunderous clap of silence so abundantly about my station, my sollitude is clearly certain, I dwell alone here in this moment, my pencil pressed softly against this paper, quietly and single-handedly composing this essay. yet eventhough I abide without a soul's company, this moment does not pass in absence of your presence.

A connection exists between us. Past, present, and future have all united as one. For I am engaged in writing now and in your mind now is when you are reading. Through this connected flux of conscious input and output our minds have stretched across time and space to become one. We are by no means a single living breathing organism but we are not all together unrelated.. One would not exist without the other.

Had I not written such a paper, you would not be reading it and without your eyes to read it and your mind to understand it , it might as well have not been written. Perhaps I have gone mad as well as a result of being locked within this cell for so many days. Or perhaps I undersand a fact which so often illudes humanity. We are a collective.

A relationship is composed of two sides normally, but the greater relationship of which I speak is that of the collective species. Each of us in our own way contributes to the collective. We exist today because of the contributions of the generations that came before us and as such we are a product of their conjoined ideals.

Our actions of body and speech will dictate the future direction of our species as a whole . OUr children, grandchildren and great grandchildrent will be a sum total of the complete levity of our actions and ideology. A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link .

Our lives "today" do not belong to us. They belong to our children "tomorrow". They belong to the future. for that reason, we must prepare our children for that future. What we write, what we say, and how we live will all be remembered and built upon in the same way we look to our elders as examples for guidance. We are connected as aspecies. Not as different variations of such, discriminated by race, culture or geographic origin . There is only one race, the human race; one culture, human culture; one geographic origin, earth. We are one collective-- with one goal, survival.

Jeheshua