Tag: loneliness

The Dear God Project

Jun. 28 Featured Posts 2 comments

It is said that there is power in numbers.  Why not use those numbers to help your prayer reach God?  That is the idea behind the Dear God Project, a global platform for sharing inner hopes, fears and aspirations through the medium of prayer. With just a simple click of a button, you can submit your prayer or request and have others pray on your behalf.   You can submit a prayer directly on the site, through Facebook or via Twitter.  Either way, just the simple act of voicing your prayer will bring it that much closer to being answered.

To help inspire you, here is a sampling of the top prayers.

Is the world ending? I don’t want the world to end.  I like my life and have things planned.  I know though when you have things planned they never go the way you imagine.  Its scary the stuff that goes on in the world.  I pray for Japan and all the people there, i pray all survivors will be found and saved, please rest on the land and with the people.  I know theres more to life than the mundane drill of 9-5.  i know i have to do that in order to survive but i know theres  more to tap in to, please show it to me.  Take fear away from my life and the lives of others and i pray we will all live in peace.  Please take away the fears in my heart.  I say thank you for my life, please help me to live it to the full. Please give me energy everyday and energy to others who need it. I pray love and beauty will grow in me, mylife, my relationships and in others. – 267 PRAYERS

I have been typing everything that I tried to put into words, but I end up getting tongue twisted and erased all. I miss You.. I miss talking to you in the morning right when I wake and I miss saying goodnight to you before I sleep. I miss the feeling of Your unconditional love that I consistently dwelled in. There are so many things holding me back to be the person You want me to be, and I’m here asking for help.. Life has been a wreck, full of bad decisions and built up anger and unforgiveness without You. I know that church cannot save us, but I want to be able to find people to open up to and fellowship with real believers. So here I am.. On bended knees, offering everything that is left of me. Mold me, guide me, walk beside me<3 - 114 PRAYERS

The words “I’m sorry” don’t seem to suffice the situation. I have walked away from our union. I turned my back on you and demanded a divorce. I asked that we remain friends if you can even call it that. I was abusive in the way that I expected you to fulfill my every fancy but ask for nothing from me in return. I had hoped to go on living my life without ever giving you another thought. It has been impossible. Every day revolves around you. I hear your name whispered from the lips of my friends and family. I see you in my dreams, you encase my every thought. I have known all along what I have been missing. I was afraid of what my life could become with you. I was afraid of just how high I could soar with you. I hope that you will take me back, that I can somehow reconcile our marriage. I will strive to be the kind of woman that you have created me to be. All I have to offer is myself, so that is what I will give. My heart is yours. I only hope that you find me worthy of your grace and forgiveness. I offer you my love, and hope to feel yours once again.- 126 PRAYERS

I want to be an instrument of Your love and mercy, but my heart is filled with such hate and anger. Please forgive me for everytime I refused to love because I felt wronged. Please lead me by Your example so I can live a life that is pleasing to you. Lead me to do things out of love simply because it is the right thing to do. Heal me, tame my heart. – 183 PRAYERS

When all else fails, and even before, you’re there. Thank you. You are my rock, and you are my redeemer. – 226 PRAYERS

Please open up my eyes, dear Lord that I might clearly see. Help me stand for what is right, bring out the best in me. Help me, Lord, to just say “no” when temptation comes my way, that I might keep my body clean. When my teenage years are over, I know that I will see that life is lived its very best with you walking next to me. – 246 PRAYERS

 

Dear God Project:  official website, Twitter, Facebook

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Turning Emotional Pain into Music

Jun. 22 Audio no comments

What if you were able to turn all that emotional pain that you are feeling into something beautiful?  That’s the idea that Ze Frank had when he created the Pain Pack: a compendium of voice messages describing people’s emotional pain which were remastered into music.

It all started when Ze  posted a notice on Twitter to have people who were experiencing emotional pain call him and describe what they felt.  Over the next two days he received 53 messages and 6 of those gave him permission to use the messages for his project.  Ze then sent these out to various DJ’s in MP3 format and asked them to make sounds from the recordings by manipulating them any way they chose.  The result was 138 samples which Ze calls the Pain Pack.  He then invited musicians to use these samples to create songs and the end result is 17 amazing works of art.

The end musical results are certainly impactful, but just as gripping are the initial recordings.  The messages are so raw and real that it makes you want to reach out and hug the caller, providing some of the comfort and empathy that they crave.

Here are some of the more telling quotes pulled from the recordings:

1)  Female: “I’m not alone and I am loved.  I’m really fortunate, but sometimes I fee lonely and when I feel that way even the smallest act of kindness make me cry.”

2) Female dealing with grief :  “I don’t think I appreciated him enough when he was alive…   If I could go back in time I would try so hard to change it.  I don’t care about paradoxes.  If I could go back and change it I would.  I would at least let him know that I care, that other people care.”

3) Male dealing with a breakup that happened 6 months prior (translated from Spanish):   “I suppose the worst has passed.  Deep down what hurts me most is not to realize how stupid it was. My heart aches for having given it [to her]. She was so fucking immature not to be honest with me and life. Six months have passed and I still fall asleep saying her name  and picturing her in my mind.”

4)  Female dealing with a breakup:  “I would describe it as being like a well of sadness, like something that the sun won’t dry up.  Something that you just have to pull buckets of water out of one at a time and dump on the ground until they’re all gone.  And it takes a long time.”

5)  Female  who’s confused about whether she should dump her boyfriend of four years who won’t commit.  “I’m really confused about what to do right now because the conflict we have makes it seem like it’s impossible sometimes and sometimes we have hope.  I’m just not sure how to handle it.  Life just seems too big right now.”

6) Female dealing with breakup.  “He’s five hundred miles away and he can escape and has people he can talk to and new friends to make and I have no access to that.  It hurts that I can’t do anything and that when he broke up with me we were happy together so I barely understand even why it happened.”

 

To listen to the original recordings, the 138 samples derived from them, and the resulting songs, visit Ze Frank’s website.

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How to Deal with Ornery Family Members

May. 26 Everyday Life no comments

Can I divorce a family member? They’re just so mean!

If you have ever encountered an ornery person you know they can be difficult to deal with and it’s hard to maintain your cool.  Most of the time you can either ignore them or walk away.  But what happens when that person is a member of your family?  Chances are they will be ornery for the rest of their life.  Will you go through the same bad experience every time you encounter them?  What if it’s a daily occurrence?  How will you be able to survive the next family gathering?

Family members can push our buttons, sometimes unknowingly.  They can bring up some of our old childhood patterns which we carry throughout our lives.  While it might be tempting to respond in kind, consider that family relationships will endure beyond the offending behavior.  Also consider how your response will affect other family members.

First let’s figure out what ornery actually means.  The dictionary defines ornery as someone who is ugly and unpleasant in disposition or temper; stubborn; mean-spirited, disagreeable, and contrary in disposition; or cantankerous.  If your family member fits any of these descriptions, you probably have a difficult time being pleasant to them or even being in the same room as them.  If they are a parent or grandparent and need care, it may be difficult for you to offer it willingly.  Before you tear your hair out, take a look at the following pieces of advice that might help you handle a tough situation.

  1. Don’t let that person get to you.  Chances are high that they are the same way with everyone.
  2. Try to find out a little more about them.  Where they treated cruelly when they were young? Are they in an abusive relationship now?  Do they have health problems?  Are they lonely?  What were their parents like?  Finding out more about them may help you understand them more.  Who knows?  Maybe getting them someone to hang out with will change their disposition.
  3. View them as a stimulus for growth.  They will give you an excellent opportunity to rise above the situation and for you to love them in spite of their offensive behavior.
  4. Don’t plan on changing them.  Instead, try to change your attitude about them.
  5. Focus on their redeeming qualities.  Everyone has them, some just might be harder to perceive than others.
  6. Consider whether there is any truth in what the person is saying to you.  Did they get to you because internally you think that they are right?  Work on yourself to improve those things which need some improvement.  The next time your ornery family member tries to push a button, they’ll find that the button is long gone.
  7. Redirect the conversation to a more neutral topic.  If that conversation always turns sour on a given area of your life, refocus the conversation on something that you know they will enjoy talking about.
  8. Meet the person in a neutral setting.  If they say things to you in private that they would never say in front of strangers, consider bringing someone along to act as a buffer.
  9. If your family member managed to get to you and you feel like you are about to lose your cool, excuse yourself and go somewhere where you can be alone for a few minutes.  Bathrooms are great areas for a few minutes of relative alone time. (See One Minute Meditation) Once there, consider the things that you like about yourself and focus on that.  Once you’ve taken a few deep breaths and have calmed down, rejoin the conversation.
  10. Don’t let them have power over you.  The only person that can lower your self-esteem is you.
  11. If the situation is extreme, consider the drastic move of severing your ties to them.  However, consider that at some point down the road you might actually miss that person.  After all, they are the only family you have.  We can trade friends out, we can leave spouses, but family members are with us through the end.

Figuring out how to deal with an ornery family member can be taxing and time consuming.  However, if you manage to implement at least one of these pieces of advice, you will be ahead of the game for the next encounter.

 

Photo courtesy of Bumblebee at Sharenator.com.

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Rent-A-Person

May. 24 Videos 2 comments

Lonely, flushing away time, with no cash and no date.  That’s the story of a bathroom attendant who’s life is passing by as he spends his days earning little money and catering to men’s restroom needs.

But all things change one day when he’s approached by a desperate man who asks him to get in his car so that he can take the carpool lane and be on time for his busy life.  This leads the bathroom attendant to leave the smelly bathroom in which he’s spent his life and instead lead the life of a successful entrepreneur.  He begins a business in which people can rent a person to save time by being able to drive in the carpool lane.

Things go smoothly until his workers demand more than he’s able to give.  Ultimately, he decides that he can’t meet their needs and that even with all his money, he hasn’t been able to get a date.  He goes back to being a bathroom attendant and finally achieves his goal of getting a date when he meets his counterpart in the ladies bathroom.

In the 13 minutes that this short film lasts, it manages to remind us of a valuable lesson: money doesn’t buy love and happiness.  If we can stop pitying ourselves for a moment, we might be able to find love in our surroundings.  We just have to look with our heart rather than our fears.

To watch the short o Youtube click here.

 

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