Diary of Spiritual Growing

India.Arie - Soulsister of us all

2011-11-06T00:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Christian sisters and brothers. There's been so much going in my life that I nearly have stopped writing this blog though I'm both in Bloggers and BlogFrog. I'm so greatful that more and more people find my blog though I haven't been active for really long time. I've been really busy with my baccalaureates and I have to start preparing for my English baccalaureate this month or on December. Six months ago I also became a mum so I feel that I truly have had time almost for everything or everyone except myself. I want to be honest and say that I'm really exhausted and that may be another reason why you haven't heard from me for so long time. In my previous posts I talked much about my struggles and I really feel like those struggles are taking over me and they're just getting bigger and bigger. I think I've been also before in the same situation but now once again I feel like losing my belief in myself and maybe even in our Lord Jesus Christ. I still pray for God to help us but I'm getting really hopeless and disappointed, because from my ankle things are just getting worse. I keep asking: What if I fail my baccalaureates? What if I can't get the education that I want to? What if I'll remain jobless? What if my dreams won't become true? How am I supposed to help people when I need this much help myself?

The thing is that for a couple of months I have felt like losing connection to myself and God. The past weeks I have felt like I don't even know myself anymore. I've been also asking: What happened to that strong-willed dreamer that I've been the last 10 years? Am I becoming a cynical loser? At secondary school (few years ago) I even wrote an entire speech on that how you mustn't listen to doubtful voices from anyone on the journey of realizing your dreams. I wrote that you must keep believing and fighting no matter what because your patience shall be rewarded when it's time. I presented it in the school radio, playing in the end "When You Believe" by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. I didn't mention God in my speech but my speech took place only shortly after my heart had accepted Christ. And I have to say that becoming a Christian has been the happiest moment in my life yet. This speech means to me very much because until now dreams have meant to me the most in my life. Dreams make life worth of living I think. Actually my very own motto has been Without a dream there's no life. I think it's true because I think none of us would even live if our parents wouldn't have first dreamt of finding the ideal partner and then dreamt of having children with him or her. So dreams give us life, they form it little by little :). The speech was also an important moment to me, because as a shy and vulnerable person I had for the first time in my life enough courage to speak from my heart on the subject that I find important.
So the question is: Why should I give up? Have I worked so hard for the last 10 years for nothing? The old good sister Mary somewhere deep inside of me says:" No, your effort shall be rewarded. Just stay positive and keep praying, wishing, dreaming and believing."

So after all I still seem to have connection to myself and faith in God though I'm going through hard times :). My secret is music ;). I realized that if I lose myself, the person that I have became thanks to God, I find my positive attitude, my values and beliefs once I open my mp3. It's trange how you can find yourself from music and relate to songs of some singer-songwriter who lives on the other side of the world and who you have never met. To me India.Arie is an artist like that but I do have many others too :). From her music I find belief in myself and God and I find my values, including anti-racism because you may know her new album Open Door made together with an Israeli singer-songwriter Idan Raichel will be published on spring 2012 and it will carry that message.

Acoustic Soul

Acoustic Soul was India.Arie's debut album published in 2001. Until 2007 she was signed to the legendary Motown but she's currently signed to SoulBird of Universal Republic. Unfortunately I don't own this great album yet but I've been listening to it on Youtube. The album opens with a psychedelic guitar solo and continues with the first actual song, Video, which was her first single declaring self-respect and accepting and loving yourself though you're not "an average girl from the video". She wants to say that inner beauty is the most important and we mustn't be turned down by media's narrow beauty perceptions. You can be beautiful without having model's measures and expensive clothes. This funny, care-free song is one of my favourites from the album. Promises is a jamming guitar r&b song and one of the absolute gems of the album. This song speaks to me, because my boyfriend promises good things to be happened so often but then he's never good as his word. I think the song tells about a similar incident. India.Arie's self-written lyrics are absolutely deep and spiritual. She talks much about God but I wouldn't call her work actual gospel. Her another single from the album, "Brown Skin", is another declaration of self-respect and also admiring your man for his colour. It's pride of your ethnicity and loving yourself with the features that God has given you. It's simply beauty and confidence inside a soulful ballad. The album continues with a soulful, powerful song "Strength, Courage and Wisdom" which has helped me a lot with self-confidence and faith.

India.Arie has a special, a little bit of flagrant voice which is still soft and feminine. I think "Nature" sounds maybe the most of all songs in the album a mainstream soul and r&b song. Its soft beats are rather usual but then the high piano notes bring something sensitive, a bit sad and vulnerable to the song. She uses nature's changing seasons as a metaphor of her relationship which seems to be uncertain if it continues or not. Also this song is touching me. "Back to the Middle" is once again a jamming guitar soul song telling about confidence and staying in focus. Especially this song has helped these days when it's been difficult to me to stay focused and being in connection with myself and remembering the heart of everything. "Ready for Love" is a dramatic, sensitive ballad with guitar, strings and piano telling about that how you're ready to be loved by a man of your dreams but he hasn't appeared yet. This song touches me deeply, because she talks about an artistic, spiritual man who follows his heart. I think the album is full of jamming, good beats, deep thoughts and sensitive ballads. India.Arie is absolutely a special artist who's under-rated in the mainstream radio, because of her spirituality and unusual vocals. To me this is pure art and HEART.

Grade: 10. I gave the highest grade because to me this is musically and artistically perfect.

Voyage to India

India.Arie's second album Voyage to India is even more psychedelic than its predecessor and she received her first of four Grammy Awards from it (The Best R&B Album). Album's few introductions "Growth", "Healing" and "Gratitude" tell about facing the life the way it is and following the guiding spirit of God. "Little Things" is a cute and sweet single from the album flavoured with children's laugh and soft r&b beats. It tells about appreciating the small joys in life. "Talk to Her" is a psychedelic song for a man asking him to speak respectfully for his woman. "Slow Down" is one of the gems of the album with tasty r&b beats telling about that how we shouldn't rush to the future but live in this moment. "The Truth" is a beautiful, soft ballad talking about finding your soul-mate. "Beautiful Surprise" is a wonderful guitar ballad telling also about finding the right man, the man of your dreams that you prayed for. I think a jamming song "Get It Together" touches me the most in the album because it tells about that how your friends and kin hurt you most easily and you've been hurt for many years because of those relationships. It tells about that how you should let their past lies be past and heal your body and soul. I've been through this what the song tells about. I think in this album India's voice and music all in all are much softer than in its predecessor and it sounds very mainstream r&b. I own this album and I listen to it always when I have stress or sleeping difficulties. It truly helps me to fall asleep and relax. "Headed in the right direction" is another gem of the album with groovy guitar and soft r&b beats. This song reminds of that when I have love and faith in God I'm headed in the right direction and I can't go wrong. "Can I Walk With You" is once again a soft, joyful, soulful single telling about finding the one for you and how you want to marry him. "The One" continues with the same theme and it's one of the gems with strong r&b beats. "Complicated Melody" is a playful description of boyfriend, played completely by guitar. "Good Man" is the saddest song from the album that makes my heart ache because it tells about that how parents of a child broke up. The album ends with a silent, peaceful declaration "God Is Real" giving reasons for its declaration.

Grade: 8,5. The album is good but artistically it's less brave than its predecessor. The album is so tame that it's almost boring but it's perfect for relaxation and meditation.

An Introduction to biblical food Part 2 of 3

2011-01-02T05:25:00.001-08:00

Food in the New Testament

Food of the rich and poor

Patina zomoteganon (fish fillets with leek and coriander):

You can use any fish you like. Put the fish fillets in the pan and add oil, liquamen fish sauce, young wine boiled into whole and a bunch of leek and coriander. Boil them slowly and meanwhile mince pepper and lovage. Mince a bunch of oregano and mix it into the fish soup. Break two eggs, separate the yolks, whisk them and thicken the soup into a sauce by mixing the yolks little by little into the soup. Strew the pepper on and serve.

(Apicius, De Re Coquinaria, known as The Roman Cookbook)

My husband is poor and I'm an old woman. We have a daughter and son, this boy over here, and yet this kind girl, so five altogether. If three of us gets dinner food, then two others will have to share together a small piece of barley bread. We cry and we bawl when there's nothing to eat and we're getting pale of the lack of food. We live with these: beans, lupine, vegetables, swedes, pieces, tares, beech tree's nuts, onions of iris, grasshoppers, chickpeas, wild pears, and then with those treasures of my heart, god given to our motherland, namely with dried figs.

(Taken from a lost comedy of Alexis, remained in the writing of Athenaios called Deipnosofistai.)

The extracts above tell about the extremities of Roman food culture, the upper one being an example of food of the rich and lower one being an example of food of the poor. I was fortunate to find this translation of the cookbook of Apicius from the library. The cookbook is from the late Antique and it contains recipes even of ostrich and flamingo. When I started exploring this extraordinary book I found more and more strange dishes, usually made of expensive and rare ingredients. I believe that most of those ingredients used in the book aren't even available in the modern world, so I'll publish in my blog those few recipes that we might could try in 2011 with ingredients available in the grocery stores, fish fillets with leek and coriander being one of the good examples above. The book contains various recipes for whole meat and for very expensive big, fresh fish. So anyone truly couldn't "use whatever fish they liked" as the recipes advices. Also extremely expensive import spices are used in the recipes of Apicius, like pepper in here. The extract from the comedy of Alexis is from 300 BC, but the situation it describes was as usual still in the Roman Emperor era. The poor had to struggle in the limits of hunger, especially in the lack times they picked up their bread with emergency nutrition collected from nature - here at least by beech trees nuts, onions of iris and grasshoppers - and by plants that were usually used to feed animals, like lupine and tare.

The nutrition was based in grain, olive oil and wine in the Mediterranean countries by the Roman era. In Egypt and partly in Middle East sesame oil replaced olive oil. The most important grain sorts were wheat and barley. They grew beside easily baked bread wheat also more primitive grain sorts such as spelt, durum, emmer and single corn wheat which were prepared porridge and unleavened bread. In addition they ate also a lot of millet. After grain, olive oil and wine legumes came as the good number four, especially horse bean, chickpea and other peas.

The diet of the poor was mostly based on grain products and simple, cheap side dishes. Stews were prepared of peas and beans, soups and pastes were among these very important sources of protein though they were mostly had as small amounts beside bread and porridge. Also fish was an important source of protein but in the warm climate they couldn't store fresh fish or transport it very far away. That's why elsewhere than exactly on the coast fish was eaten mostly as fermentated sauces and pastes (garum, liquamen and allex in Latin). THey were prepared by letting fish rot and ferment in big jars in the sunshine for months. They might add olive oil, salt and spices into the sauces during the process. They were used depending on the way of preparation either as food's spice or dip sauce for bread. Most of the fish in Roman empire was eaten in this form and the market was wide. One of the producers of fish sauces was the shore town of The Sea of Galilee called Magdala, the home of Mary Magdalene. Huge fresh fish was so expensive that only the elite could afford it. In the interior the fresh fish of the rich was raised in fish ponds. The rich used many fish species that are expensive even today such as sturgeon, flounder, moray, tuna fish and eel but also many fish of sweet water. In the coast there was better enough fish for everyone, but the poor ones could usually afford only assorted small fish.

Grain, wine and oil was used by everyone but only the rich could afford fairly more expensive qualities. White, fine-grained wheat flour was most appreciated and most expensive and it got also baked and rised the best. But the poor used fairly dark and harshly grinded grain such as barley and the original sorts of wheat. There was olive oil of many qualities like nowadays. Virgin olive oil of the first crushing time was the best and most expensive. Olives were eaten in addition huge amounts cured in salt water and marinated. Likewise there was a wide quality range of wines from expensive volume wines to the worst wine watered for field slaves made of grape skins that were crushed empty and soaked in water. White wine was mostly appreciated by the Roman era and they kept sweet and short wines as the finest ones, maybe because of that sweetness and strength improved persistence. So in the Acts those who doubt speaking with tongues in Whitsun originating from being drunk, supposed the Disciples having been drunk precisely sweet wine - so not a little and ordinary wine with food but more delicious wine and much (Acts 2:13).

The most expensive spices were imported from India and they were luxury products. In the recipes of the rich they are used very much but the poor certainly never used them. They knew anyway a huge amount of herbs by the Roman era and they grew in the Mediterranean area so they were generally better available. The spectrum of spices was practically the same we know. Honey was mainly used as a sweetener. THey produced in Egypt and Middle East date paste and date syrup for the same purpose but using them became general also elsewhere in the empire. Cane sugar was imported from India and it was so expensive that it was used only as medicine.

Using meat was joined to wealth and social class. Even the poor ones could buy blood pudding, meatloaf and sausage from inns and street eateries. Sausages and minced meat were prepared from slaughter waste and meat of bad quality that without grinding would have been too tough for eating. Fowl's meat, especially dove, was the most cheap of whole meat and it was better food for ordinary people. Another fairly cheap whole meat sort was rabbit that could be farmed in small stead also in towns and nearby them. The red whole meat of bigger animals was in turn so expensive that practically only the upper class could have it. Also Roman army spent as an privileged group huge amounts of meat. For ordinary people red whole meat was a very rare treat of great sacrifice ceremonies. It was strongly connected to sacrifice cult and bigger feasts. Exactly because of this Paul had to ponder can a Christian participate in pagan sacrifice feast and eating the sacrifice meat when he knows that there really are no other gods. Obviously temptation to join was huge only because of rare meat eating.

Even though food is offered to idols, we know that none of the idols in this world are alive. After all, there is only one God. -- Not everyone knows these things. In fact many people have grown up with the belief that idols have life in them. So when they eat meat offered to idols, they are bothered by a weak conscience. -- You know all this, and so it doesn't bother you to eat in the temple of an idol. But suppose a person with a weak conscience sees you and decides to eat food that has been offered to idols. (1 Cor. 8:4, 7, 10.)

The outstandingly most important dairy product was cheese. Cows were kept especially as draught animals, so cow's milk was rare and not even very appreciated product. Sheep's and goat's milk were the most usual milk sorts. But using them for drinking was limited because the animals pastured in the summer time in high mountains, where transporting fresh milk home was impossible. That's why milk had to be cured cheese already in the mountains. By winter season there was less feed in the enclosures and milk production usually ran entirely dry. There were miscellaneous cheese from smoke cheese into fresh cheese which was usually spiced with herbs. Being caused by the small amount of cows they didn't use cream and butter at all as food ingredients in the Mediterranean circle. I suppose they still don't use in Middle East until this day, because I haven't seen the Kurds using them in any of those various meals that I've participated in.

Actual famines were rare by the Roman era if famine is defined as a destructive food crisis that highly increases mortality rate and reels society's social, politic and moral structure seriously. Usually this could be prevented by aid given by single benefactors. Instead smaller, regional food shortages were very general. THere were many reasons for that. Rains are unpredictable in the Mediterranean area and they cause lack years. In addition there were wars, slowness and difficulty of transport, speculation of producers and merchants and ineffective and corrupted government.

Having to face food shortage countryside's inhabitants tried to have more food by picking nutrition from nature. If this wasn't enough and if they had to they stepped to eat first animal's feed, then their domestic animals and finally anything. We can see this situation in the story about the prodigal son when the son tries to eat pig's legumes - possibly legumes of lupine and tare - and even they weren't given to him (Luke 15:13-16). Thus in the story about the prodigal son there reflects hard situation of a stranger and day worker who doesn't belong to a network of people and suffering during shortage. The jobless of towns and the poor with unjust jobs, day workers of countryside and of course women and children where in reality those risk groups of food shortage that already suffered from deficiency conditions the most.

What was the diet of Jesus?

According to all this information and the information I gave in the Part 1, Jesus followed Mediterranean diet but also Biblical dietary laws that forbid pork. Actually it is believed that he ate (red) meat very rarely, maybe once a month. He didn't even eat rabbits or fish without scales such as crabs and shrimps. So in those special occassions of eating meat Jesus most likely had lamb. I think some of my readers was interested in beginning a biblical diet so I'll tell in brief what I found from my sources: They say diet of Jesus most likely contained fish (with scales), whole wheat bread, olives, figs, dates. He drank water and red wine, but as it's alcohol drinking it in small amounts is recommended. Sugar and refined white flour should be avoided. The whole range of fresh fruit and vegetables is recommended. Replace butter in cooking with olive oil. Also those having Jesus Diet are recommended to do lots of walking as exercise because our Saviour did as well. He ate also especially beans and lentils, possibly nuts (unsalted!). Later this spring I'll continue with Biblical recipes and Bible Diet.

Here's an example of Jesus Diet plan:
Breakfast

4 oz fresh-squeezed fruit juice or a small piece of fruit
Oatmeal with walnuts and berries

Lunch

Tuna salad
Tomato, cucumber, romaine lettuce
Balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing

Dinner

Lentil soup
1 slice whole grain bread with hummus
4 ounces grilled salmon
Steamed broccoli with parmesan cheese and brown rice
Salad with lettuce, carrot, tomato and cucumber
Balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing
4 oz red wine

The Nativity Story (2006)

2010-12-27T00:55:00.000-08:00

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke and written by Mike Rich this is one of the most convincing Bible movies of Hollywood. They have managed to produce this movie the way that it's loyal to the original Scripture of the Bible. Of course they have made up most of the dialogue to make the movie go smoothly but it's understandable, because the dialogue doesn't twist the Bible. The movie opens with gregorian chant and the way it's filmed reminds me of The Lord of The Rings trilogy with its epic spirit. The symbolic darkness they use when evil (the soldiers of Herode) is around is the thing creating epic spirit. The used sets and backgrounds, costumes and make-up clearly show this to be a movie of high budget. The movie is visually beautiful and breathtaking: the white city of Jerusalem is producer's masterpiece. Nazareth is fruitful and green. The circumstances are depicted realistically the way they were by the time of Antique. Orchestra is bombastic and string based, choir is used a lot.

A dove is used as the symbol of Holy Spirit in this movie as we have learned in the Scripture. They have chosen the cast perfectly fitting their roles. The young Keisha Castle-Hughes does a brilliant performance as Mary: she's the way I'd imagine true Mary to be; modest, more beautiful from the inside than outside, wearing blue headscarf. I have to praise how realistically they depict the characters everybody having dark, strong features like Arabic people usually have. Some of the cast actually are from Middle East or more or less of Arabic origin like Oscar Isaac as Joseph having some Israeli blood in his veins. Hiam Abbass as Mary's mother Anna is Palestinian and Shaun Toub as her father was born in Iran but raised in the UK. Also Shohreh Aghdashloo as Elizabeth is Persian, born in Iran. The cast is generally British or of Middle Eastern origin. The actors and actresses do passionate, emotional performances.

Seen this movie it inevitably makes me want to compare it to the Bible, historical and scientific facts but also to the novels of Bodie & Brock Thoene. Their A.D. Chronicles series describe life of Jesus from his birth to death being loyal to the Bible's scripture and historical facts. This movie tells only about the period of Mary and Joseph's life until Jesus is born and the holy family escapes Herode's persecution to Egypt. Bodie & Brock Thoene have written about these events three A.D. Chronicles being in order: Fourth Dawn, Fifth Seal and Sixth Covenant. Watching this movie makes me ask, has the producer, writer or director possibly read these books? Like Thoene they have managed to create their work loyal to the Bible also adding historical and scientific facts and made-up dialogue which makes the story more vivid, natural and interesting. The Three Wise Men are Persian and called Melchior, Balthasar and Gaspar in both Thoene's books and the movie - it must be lore or a historical fact. In both books and the movie Mary and Joseph doubt how can they raise such a special child and Joseph cries for joy when Jesus is born. Other similarities between the books and the movie are that Mary's mother is called Anna, her father is called Joaquim and Mary has little sisters. The differences are that in the books Mary is described beautiful and also she's in love with Joseph; in the movie she seems unwilling to marry Joseph. In the movie angel Gabriel appears to Mary in the lawn, not inside a house like the Bible tells. There might be also other similarities and differences between the works but these paid my attention.

Final grade of the movie: a well-earned 10, could become a classic

An introduction to biblical food Part 1 of 3

2010-12-17T08:22:00.001-08:00

It's long time ago that I promised to start biblical food theme in my blog. Now that I'm on Christmas holiday for two weeks I have more time for updating blog. I'm planning to start at least with food and charity themes before returning to study books which I must do on January 9th. There's a lot of talk about food in the Bible: there are descriptions of meals, parables of Jesus and His food wonders... We even pray God to give us our daily bread which means more than food in the prayer. I'll start by sharing some food-related Bible verses and knowledge based on discoveries of the archeaologists. Later I'll begin with publishing Bible inspired recipes and tell about food in the New Testament. So we'll also take a look at secrets of ancient Roman cooking and recipes. We'll also ponder the personal diet of Jesus. After that I've thought about starting to publish Biblical Recipe of the Month. Part 3 of my introduction will be published on March or April.

Food in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament there's described a wide variety of plants that have been known in the area of Palestine. Regardless, it doesn't tell whole truth about diet which has been very one-sided in reality. The basis of nutrition were grain products, especially wheat and barley and legumes, wine and olive oil. It has been estimated that even 50% of daily energy was gotten from grains. Corns were eaten roasted and sometimes also fresh. Usually the corns were dried and after grinding porridges, gruels and leavened and unleavened bread were prepared. Wheat groats that were first grinded were cooked like modern couscous. The most usual food was like pita bread. The bread was used as cutlery by what different stews were eaten from common dishes. May I note that when I started researching people's life in the Bible's era from books and other resources, I also realized that customs have remained pretty same in modern Middle East since Antique (but of course they have developed much in time's cycle). My boyfriend is from Middle East and I've noticed that eating habits have remained pretty same. I was also surprised how dinar is still used beside modern currencies. But let's go on with the food:

In addition to grain products dairy such as yoghurt and curd-like cheese might have been eaten. Dairy was prepared especially from goat's milk but also cow's milk was used. Nutrition was backfilled with wild vegetables, but growing vegetables required so much water that they could be grown only in small amounts. Meat was above all celebration food but the well earning had it served otherwise too. Probably the typical daily nutrition is described in 1 Samuel 25:18 where food that was taken to journeys is described: bread, wine, roasted corns, raisin and fig cakes.

Having nutrition wasn't truism in ancient Middle East. There lack seasons turn up and enough nutrition wasn't provided even for the wealthy. Plant diseases and pests such as grasshoppers diminished the crop and they couldn't be efficiently prevented. Insects and rodents damaged also already picked crops. One-sided nutrition caused various deficiency diseases. Nutrition wasn't devided equally even between genders. Comprehensive bone researches can't have been done on this issue, but discoveries made in certain discovery spots would refer to that men were in average much taller than women. Height difference differs so much from modern height difference between men and women that they can draw a conclusion that boys and men got at least locally better nutrition than girls and women.

In good seasons upper class could effort more diverse nutrition than the poor. Upper class had at its best abundant and diverse diet and for example ancient Egyptian story of Sinuhe from 1900 to 1800 BC tells about this. Text describes experiences of noble Sinuhe in Asia in the area of Syria-Palestine. He lived for some time in the area that he named as Upper Retenu which lied in the country of Yaa. According to Sinuhe there grew figs and grapes and there was more wine than water. There was much honey and olives and various fruit trees. There was much barley and wheat growing in the area and stock unlimitedly. Sinuhe describes:" They prepared bread for my daily food and strong drinks, wine for daily need, cooked meat and fried fowl, in addition to which they hunted and prepared game for me in addition to the catch of my own hounds. Many sweet dishes were prepared for me and in every cooked food there was milk." In other than lack years there was always enough food, though it was quite one-sided.

Here's a biblical grocery list which should contain all food ingredients mentioned in the Bible. Do correct me if there's something to add in the list:

Seasonings, spices and herbs

Anise (Matthew 23:23)
Coriander (Exodus 16:31; Numbers 11:7)
Cinnamon (Exodus 30:23; Revelation 18:13)
Cumin (Isaiah 28:25; Matthew 23:23)
Dill (Matthew 23:23)
Garlic (Numbers 11:5)
Mint (Matthew 23:23; Luke 11:42)
Mustard (Matthew 13:31)
Rue (Luke 11:42)
Salt (Ezra 6:9; Job 6:6)

Fruits and nuts

Apples (Song of Solomon 2:5)
Almonds (Genesis 43:11; Numbers 17:8)
Dates (2 Samuel 6:19; 1 Chronicles 16:3)
Figs (Nehemiah 13:15; Jeremiah 24:1-3)
Grapes (Leviticus 19:10; Deuteronomy 23:24)
Melons (Numbers 11:5; Isaiah 1:8)
Olives (Isaiah 17:6; Micah 6:15)
Pistachio Nuts (Genesis 43:11)
Pomegranates (Numbers 20:5; Deuteronomy 8:8)
Raisins (Numbers 6:3; 2 Samuel 6:19)
Sycamore Fruit (Psalm 78:47; Amos 7:14)

Vegetables and Legumes

Beans (2 Samuel 17:28; Ezekiel 4:9)
Cucumbers (Numbers 11:5)
Lentils (Genesis 25:34; 2 Samuel 17:28; Ezekiel 4:9)
Onions (Numbers 11:5)
Gourds (2 Kings 4:39)
Leeks (Numbers 11:5)

Grains

Barley (Deuteronomy 8:8; Ezekiel 4:9)
Bread (Genesis 25:34; 2 Samuel 6:19; 16:1; Mark 8:14)
Corn (Matthew 12:1; refers to "grain" such as wheat or barley)
Flour (2 Samuel 17:28; 1 Kings 17:12)
Millet (Ezekiel 4:9)
Spelt (Ezekiel 4:9)
Unleavened Bread (Genesis 19:3; Exodus 12:20)
Wheat (Ezra 6:9; Deuteronomy 8:8)

Fish

Matthew 15:36
John 21:11-13

Fowl

Partridge (1 Samuel 26:20; Jeremiah 17:11)
Pigeon (Genesis 15:9; Leviticus 12:8)
Quail (Psalm 105:40)
Dove (Leviticus 12:8)

Animal Meats

Calf (Proverbs 15:17; Luke 15:23)
Goat (Genesis 27:9)
Lamb (2 Samuel 12:4)
Oxen (1 Kings 19:21)
Sheep (Deuteronomy 14:4)
Venison (Genesis 27:7)

Dairy

Butter (Proverbs 30:33)
Cheese (2 Samuel 17:29; Job 10:10)
Curds (Isaiah 7:15)
Milk (Exodus 33:3; Job 10:10; Judges 5:25)

Miscellaneus

Eggs (Job 6:6; Luke 11:12)
Grape Juice (Numbers 6:3)
Honey (Exodus 33:3; Deuteronomy 8:8; Judges 14:8-9)
Locust (Mark 1:6)
Olive Oil (Ezra 6:9; Deuteronomy 8:8)
Vinegar (Ruth 2:14; John 19:29)
Wine (Ezra 6:9; John 2:1-10)

Stronger in faith and hope

2010-11-23T23:39:00.000-08:00

Dear readers. I'm sorry for being away for so long but I've been really busy with my studies and I still am. Despite that I've still visited my blog continuously and I truly haven't forgotten my readers. Opposite I've been thinking of you and felt guilty about not being able to update my blog as also new readers and followers have joined along. There's been so much to think about and I'll share those thoughts with you today. And just like in my previous blog posts I hope writing about my growing as a Christian inspires you or you find encouragement in it. In the past weeks there's happened little by little something in my spirit that has grown my faith and self-esteem in my life and my today's blog post is dealing with that. Also on this blog post I'll start dealing with a subject which I believe I know much about or at least it's very close to my heart - the subject is dreams and making them true.

I told in one of my previous blog posts that I'm struggling with a learning difficulty which I can admit to be Maths - I do well in the rest of the subjects. My learning difficulty is so demanding that it might endanger my possibility to graduate but until now I've made the courses with help of my boyfriend's friends. To realize my dream of becoming a translator or an English teacher I must be really hard-working on this adult grade of high school so I can apply to university. To graduate from high school doing 4 baccalaureates would be enough but if I truly want to keep even the hope alive for achieving one of those degrees in university I must do 6. If I couldn't make my way to university my second considerable choice would be sign language interpreter studies in college. Because my baby is due on May my parents are worried about that I should quit my studying, but because adult grade of high school is studied at home there shouldn't be concern of that: I can do my courses while baby is sleeping by my side and as I'm anyway mostly at home I don't see a need for maternity leave or parental leave. So luckily I heard from The Social Insurance Institution that I can study during those leaves and still get the allowances. I've also admitted that we have some financial problems but now that my boyfriend has a better job we have seen a sparkle of hope. And as I'll be busy with doing my baccalaureates until 2012 or even 2013 that barely gives me time for publishing a book but I'm trying to realize this dream with realistic one year's delay.

Yes, this all sounds very demanding but there's something that keeps me going: Shakira has inspired me with her song Waka Waka, because every time I hear that song it's like she's talking about my struggles. Her joy and strength also gives me joy and strength. She's also convinced that quality education is the key out of poverty and for making young people's dreams true. She has said:" Education is a birthright and a quality education is the only tool that a child has to turn dreams into reality." So she's truly my inspiration in this life situation! I'm also ready to study hard for the sake of my baby because after university our financial worries are over. I have to say that these weeks Shakira has been the push for giving me faith to survive but I've seen the Sun Comes Out (Sale el Sol) also behind other clouds: my boyfriend's better job, my study advisor showed my bigger chance for passing the Math courses, TSII showed green light for both money and studying... My prayers are being answered but no-one else can after all lead me to success and happiness than myself. I have to keep on my positive, ambitious attitude no matter what. Though my parents would have rather liked our child not to be born yet I have also faith that God protects life and won't turn our hopes down. I have to believe that in these challenging circumstances God is with me. I believe that the faith that I've had towards my dreams at a very young age has also formed into belief in God during these years. After all God is the Dream Giver but that's all another blog post to come...

Before my spirit was a soft lamb and easy to slaughter in its weakness and humility. Now my spirit is still soft but it's strong and confident in its beauty like a lion that sunbathes in the heat of safari. The lion knows its purpose is to hunt the gazelle, to eat it and beat it - the same way we will beat our struggles and challenges. We will become superior to them just like lion rules the jungle, because Jesus Christ rules the world. Jesus Christ is superior to our struggles and challenges, because He suffered and died for us. That hope won't let us down.

Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) lyrics by Shakira

You're a good soldier/ choosing your battles/Pick yourself up/And dust yourself off/And back in the saddle

You're on the frontline/Everyone's watching/You know it's serious/We're getting closer/This isn't over

The pressure's on/You feel it/But you've got it all/Believe it

When you fall get up/Oh oh.../And if you fall get up/Eh eh...

Tsamina mina/Zangalewa/Cuz this is Africa/Tsamina mina eh eh/Waka Waka eh eh/Tsamina mina zangalewa/Anawa aa/This time for Africa

Listen to your god/this our motto/your time to shine/Don't wait in line/Y vamos por todo

People are raising/their expectations/Go on and feed them/this is your moment/no hesitations

Today's your day/I feel it/You paved the way/Believe it

If you get down/Get up oh oh.../when you get down/Get up eh eh...

Tsamina mina zangalewa/Anawa aa/This time for Africa/Tsamina mina eh eh/Waka Waka eh eh/Tsamina mina zangalewa/Anawa aa/Tsamina mina eh eh/Waka waka eh eh/Tsamina mina zangalewa/This time for Africa

God gave freedom to Mandisa

2010-11-13T03:47:00.000-08:00

Mandisa is just like Jennifer Hudson and Anthony Evans in the same person - musically. But when you compare Mandisa to Jennifer Hudson you'll find even more similarities. Here in Finland they do show at least some seasons of American Idol but also Idols the Finnish version of the programme has been popular over the years. But I still bet if I tried to make a street gallup here asking:" What do you think of Mandisa?" people would ask me back:" Who is she?" because gospel is the least selling music genre in Finland and there's no doubt of it as youth listens here mostly rock and heavy/metal and it's more like a rule than exception that their attitude is atheism rocks, religiousness mocks. But even Jennifer Hudson is more famous in this distant Northern part of the globe: at least all youth should know her name and I guess her genre r&b is quite popular here too. She's famous here about her collaboration with Alicia Keys and Beyoncé. So what's in common with Jennifer and Mandisa anyway? They both have struggled with overweight and made it (both have smaller bodies by now). They both are Americal Idol dropouts but have managed to sign record deals anyway. They both record more or less r&b oriented music with a message of self-respect for young girls. And they both have more or less strong vocals. But what's the difference? Jennifer has won a Grammy and Mandisa hasn't.

But let's forget about Jennifer and let's move on with Mandisa. It's unbelievable that Mandisa hasn't won a Grammy Award though she has been a nominee twice. I think she has lots of potential and she stands out from the crowd of other gospel/Christian singers anyway. Her sound is outstanding! Or that's how I experienced it when I started searching for as great gospel/soul singers as Aretha Franklin to backfill my MP3. Gospel music is of course available in Finland but according to my experience it's difficult to find if you don't know what you're looking for - because of small demand. So last summer I headed to Jango.com and customized my own gospel radio Blessed Bliss FM (my nickname being MissHeart) - and there was Mandisa! Despite those similarities to Jennifer Hudson I think she does her job a lot better: Mandisa's music is more vary than Jennifer's as it's a mixture of r&b and Contemporary Christian Music. That makes her more interesting as an artist. Mandisa's message for self-respect and appreciating inner beauty is much stronger than Jennifer's or of any other Christian artist's: Trin-I-Tee 5:7 refer to self-respect in a couple of their songs and Mary Mary doesn't sing about it but they speak for inner beauty.

Mandisa Lynn Hundley was born on October 2nd 1976 and she grew up in Citrus Heights area of California. She was brought up by her mum as her parents divorced when she was only 2-years-old. Every other weekend she went to church with her step-mum and her father. She was molested as 8-years-old and raped as 16-years-old. She started to link being beautiful with being in danger and that's how her food addiction started: She started eating in front of TV because it made her feel comfortable and she realized the heavier she got the less men looked at her. She felt protected because a shield of flesh surrounded her. She told in an interview that she became a Christian as 16-years-old. Also on this day she says that God has helped her to overcome her overweight and her sophomore album Freedom was inspired by that: the first single from the album was called My Deliverer and it's her testimony. Of March 2009 she had reportedly lost 75 pounds and hoped to lose a total of 100 or more.

Her name Mandisa is of African origin and it means sweet. I think the name describes her. There's not even a bit of diva in her - her three current albums have sold only few hundreds of thousands altogether and it doesn't make her a millionaire. I think she's genuine in all of her interviews and as she talks from her heart about faith and struggle it makes her a truly warm person. She's also amusing, her big smile is attractive - and she smiles a lot! She's beautiful from both inside and outside. So she's definitely worth her name. After graduating from El Camino Fundamental High School she attended American River College in Sacramento where she studied Vocal Jazz. Then she studied at Fisk University in Tennessee and graduated with a bachelor's of music degree with a concentration in vocal performance. She currently lives in the suburban Nashville community of Antioch, Tennessee. For those who want a more thorough biography of her should read her book IdolEyes which was published on May 9th 2007.

Album reviews

I think this is Mandisa's more r&b oriented album. It begins with a joyful r&b jam called Only the World which tells us not to be turned down by our problems and worries, because God is there for us: the worldly problems are nothing compared to that joy that we'll reach in heaven. This song helps me when I'm sad or having a bad day. The next also joyful r&b song is the title song of the album saying that True Beauty comes from the inside not from outside and it praises how God made us beautiful - it also jokes about media's surreal beauty perceptions. The next two songs are stunning Contemporary Christian music and they both flatter Mandisa's strong vocals: God Speaking is a touching piano-oriented song telling how God is present in our lives whatever happens. Voice of a Savior is a song that's having a conversation with its listeners as it tells how people are searching for truth and fulfillment from various places (including drugs, money and ambition) but how the one and only truth lies in the arms of Jesus. Song's lyrics are fabulous and all Mandisa's songs are shining with lyrical talent and every song has a deep meaning.

Another contemporary Christian artist, Matthew West , has helped Mandisa to kick off her impressive career as he participates in writing the lyrics and composing the songs for her with other professionals including Cindy Morgan. Regardless, Mandisa's albums are convincing of their frankness - Mandisa's voice is heard throughout the production as the songs bring out her own spiritual experience and the values she wants to represent. Mandisa namely participates more or less on songwriting and has had a small influence on composing Only You. Love Somebody is a joyful r&b beat which actually could be played on mainstream stations. It also contains a part of rapping. Unrestrained is a praise song in style of Contemporary Christian Music. It's a beautiful slow jam. Mandisa's Shackles (Praise You) is a jazzy r&b cover from its original singers Mary Mary. (Never Gonna) Steal My Joy is CCM and a pretty typical pop song. Oh, My Lord is a testimonial r&b song with an influence straight from Africa's continent and it's one of my favourites in this album. Only You is a praise song on how God makes us happier than anything we have on Earth. He Will Come is a pretty piano piece on God's love upon us and strings accompany the piano in the end of the song. Mandisa's singing is perfect through all album.

My final grade: 9 -

Mandisa's sophomore album Freedom is clearly her stronger effort. My Deliverer is Mandisa's testimony on how God set her free from her food addiction and the lyrics are written the way that I can identify to them. I believe that others can too. This album is strongly CCM and How Much is a beautiful pop song on how God doesn't abandon us whatever we do and how He loves us endlessly. It's my favourite of this album. He Is With You has pretty similar message and this song has a spirit of Adult Contemporary music because of its down-to-earth and quite melancholic bass guitar sounds. Mandisa continues spreading her word on inner beauty with her strong, confident song The Definition of Me that's written to bring confidence for young girls. Not Guilty is once again a song with strings and piano on how we expect we'll end up in Hell but by God's forgiveness we'll end up in heaven. Leave It in the Valley is a joyful song to cheer you up on bad days, convincing you of God's care. Victorious is a country-like guitar song telling how we're stronger and more confident when God is with us. Broken Hallelujah is a song about broken heart and feelings of losing hope and faith but at the same time looking up to God. Freedom Song starts with gospel choir, then it changes into catchy r&b beat and it's one of the pearls of this album. Dance, Dance, Dance is Mandisa's second Mary Mary r&b cover. The last track of the album is a heart-breaking You Wouldn't Cry (Andrew's Song) with bright piano. Mandisa participated composing Freedom Song and Not Guilty.

Final grade: 8,5 because this album keeps repeating the same themes and messages she had in True Beauty. Also her creative control in her work is pretty small but still this album keeps being believably Mandisa and her voice is strong and impressive like before. She also collaborated with the same people like in the debut. Unfortunately the sound of the album wasn't as good anyway. Mandisa still has lots of potential for winning a Grammy one day. Working with the same people and talking about the same issues might be a strength that can turn into weakness. People get fed up with it. This is my opinion but I think that if they gave her more creative control or let her do the whole lot herself she could give her full potential and doors for the Grammy would be open. She also must give up the same themes and issues - even changing her collaborators would make miracles. I suppose these changes would turn her into a Grammy winner. Mandisa's next album What If We Were Real will be released on April 2011 and I put those hopes in it. And now that Christmas is coming it's the best time for checking out her Christmas album It's Christmas which was published in 2007.

Without joy heart weighs a 100 kilos

2010-10-31T07:54:00.000-07:00

May I share my "mini essay" on joy that I wrote for school today. I thought it suits perfectly for my blog. Now that winter is coming and we're between October and November at least here in the Northern side of the globe darkness arrives sooner and nature is less beautiful. For me personally winter is the most melancholic time of the year (but Christmas makes a difference) so it's time to look back for summer's memories. Anyway, let's have a look at my essay:

Joy. Where to find it? Does it come to our hearts like an unpredictable, playful cherub? Or does it grow little by little inside us like a balloon? But a balloon is easy to pierce and when the cold spike of sorrow and worries strikes, it strikes very hard. I know this myself, because I've had lately stress about money and success. About money and success...

That sounds very... businesswoman-like. As if our modern life was the exchange of Wall Street and our luck and joy were the market value varying at each time. Our life is a share. When our share shows plus our life is the Eden itself. In that case we have Joy in our hands: mammon. And why do we have it? Because we have success. How about when we have a long minus in front of our share? Then we don't have Joy and our hearts weigh 100 kilos. Yay, recession took our lives! Misfortune took our homes, our things, everything.

A little devil won the cherub: joy is now sorrow.

My first thought was:" Oh man, this is ridiculous! So funny." So joy exists anyway. Joy is goodness, joy is the cherub. It's not worldly but heavenly. It's not superficial but deep. The cherub lives in music, in good deeds... and in baby's giggle.

Have you found your cherub yet? Where does he/she lives? :)

God bless you!

2010-10-30T04:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I went to sleep after watching a blissful movie "The Book of Ruth: Journey of Faith", I felt peace and bliss... I felt so good at my heart and soul. Yesterday I also prayed and as my readers might know my life has been so much worries and struggles and it still is on this day. But suddenly... yesterday when I prayed I felt at my heart similar answers from God as 4 years ago when I chose Christ. The answer was:" You'll find peace soon, I'll lighten your burden." And then I cast another prayer, a grateful, happy one. But then in the morning that I woke up I felt like I just want to sleep and run away my worries in my dreams. I anyway got up and started my chores and I ended up doing a small good deed that put a smile on my face. And it wasn't long after that when I heard from radio Each Tear by one of my favourite r&b singers, Mary J. Blige. It's long time I haven't heard that song but when I heard it, peace that I reached yesterday evening returned to my heart and I started feeling bliss. I've been smiling from the inside since. I decided to upload Mary's newest music video for Each Tear sung with Jay Sean this year and it's available for watching below this post. I'm sure it's more than suitable to my today's subject and to my all Diary of Spiritual Growing, because the lyrics are about spiritual growing but also about self-esteem which is one of my blog labels. So enjoy and let this soft music bring you strength and belief through struggles if also you're facing them :).

Anyway, after realizing my bliss I thought what picture would describe my experience the best and I ended up chosing this oil originally painted by Paula Vaughan. I even thought what of my own writings from my upcoming poem and song book "The Rainbow of Tones" would describe my feelings the best. I chose "Blessed" from gospel/spiritual writings and I'll now present it for you:

Blessed

Bliss

is my feeling

in prayer's powerful healing

I felt it in depths of my heart

How Holy Ghost took all my body

It made me cry for joy

because God truly hears my voice

I'm one of Father's sheep, His choice

I'm blessed by forgiving love

that God sent me from heaven above

I feel myself so pure

Mercy made wounds of my heart cure

and I may rejoice as a child of light

My being is reborn in harmony and delight

'Cause my life has turned into bliss

My dreams are sealed by angel's kiss

God made my life

a sunshine

I'll be a mother and a wife

and all my being is smiling for feeling so fine

Christ, I met you in bread and wine

After all the struggle I've been through

I realize they were a blessing that led me closer to You

Oh, God I crossed my hands for everything true

And I found the greatest love of all

that will never let me break and fall

The Book of Ruth: Journey of Faith (2009)

2010-10-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

I'll continue my "surprise series" once again by reviewing the newest Bible movie made in Hollywood. This movie is one of those adaptations wonderfully loyal to the original story told in the Bible. Directed by Stephen Patrick Walker he has managed to capture this story about tolerance, acceptance and being a refugee in a realistic way, being loyal to the circumstances of Antique. Themes of Ruth's story are always current today, because immigrants and refugees from Asia, Africa, Middle East and even Latin America have travelled to our countries with hope of having a new, better life... just like Ruth and Naomi wander from Moab's land back to Betlehem. They follow God's call to return home. There's a lot we can learn from Ruth's story and as I said many times before I've found anti-racism message from the Bible and the whole Book of Ruth is one of the best examples. The way Boas lets Ruth pick grain longer than his own workers, even to exceed her own need is maybe the most beautiful example of showing love and care for an immigrant.

The narrator of this movie of one and half hour is an old man (son of Ruth and Boas) who wants to tell a story of faith to a young boy and it makes the plot go easily. The movie is visually beautiful and like usually in the Bible movies the main characters are shown devoted and deep. The movie is emotional... there's time of tears, exorbitant sorrow and despair... even time of dishonesty and piety. But there's also time of encouragement, righteousness and bliss (and joking) and just like we've learned from the Bible: there's nothing stronger than love and it's deep and strong in this movie. I couldn't have chosen the actors and actresses better, because they're all brilliant and suit perfectly to their roles. They're depicted believably and they're modest and down-to-earth. The movie is so touching... I have experienced the same stages of faith in my journey of becoming Christian: first I had so much unbelief in my despair but after all my tears and losses God has promised to give me it all back as tenfold; the more we must suffer and have sorrow the more God has reserved bliss to our lives and it's one of the most important teachings of this movie. The way God answered to Naomi's devoted prayers after hard times, I've experienced the same hope in my life and realized that God is the best healer of broken heart. Touching piano composition of this movie has managed to capture the emotions of this movie in its soul. Orchestra is peaceful and restrained, not bombastic.

My final grade: A well-earned 10. One of my favourite Bible movies: this could become a classic.

Musical peacemaker of religions

2010-10-26T04:45:00.000-07:00

According to my perception Felix Maria Woschek was born to German, Christian family. His spiritual music is one of the most touching ones I've ever heard. Why did I name him as a musical peacemaker of religions? Because he's famous for "unusually placing his music in the service of religious spirituality, but without favouring any one religion in the process". His musical genre is New Age but I absolutely love how religious his albums are: He sings Indian bhajanas and mantra songs of Jews and Sufi muslims. He has also made Gregorian chants in the pentatonic scale and as I said, Jewish songs and Islamic hymns. Because of his music's religious variety it could be soundtrack of my blog when opening the page, because I want to use God's word for increasing tolerance just like he does by his music. I love how he has sang also Old Testament psalms as Psalms are one of my favourite books of the Bible. He has been said to succeed in creating understanding between religions and in opening people's hearts towards other cultures.

He started singing as a child in Aachen's minister choir and that's how he found Western spiritual music. Singing the works of great masters and and the entire Gregorian liturgy made him a deep impression and he has described them as "mystical experiences". As a young boy he tried various genres of music from rock and blues to jazz. He even learned to play e-guitar that he still uses today with his music. But as 22-years-old he got so frustrated about "professional" music that he quit guitar playing, because he didn't find satisfying contents. After that he experienced a phase of serious illness and for a few years he struggled with life and death. In his quest for healing and recognition he went to India where he met Sathya Sai Baba. That was his first time of listening to Indian bhajanas and they touched him deeply. He bought an Indian reed organ and started singing these songs himself. This music healed him and that's how he found music again and since then he his only desire has been to make music of the heart. He's very talented as he does the graphic design of the albums himself and he composes and records all his pieces himself.

Album reviews

Shalom Salam Vol. 2 is inspired by violence and destruction between Jewish and Arabic people to create peace and understanding between the parties. His wife Elke and Persian Sufi and ney master Mohammad Eghbal together with a Jewish singer Rebecca Vilensky and drummer Raimund Engelhardt have joined him in the creative process of turning this precious piece of work into reality. Though finding peace between muslims and Jews is the main point of this album it begins with two traditional meditative mantras from Hinduism sung in Sanskrit ("Gurubandana" and "Shri Krishna"). Woschek has absolutely beautiful, peaceful, low and expressive singing voice. The sounds he creates with his instruments are simply heavenly. I have to say I love the sound of ney (sufi flute). He also uses acoustic and electric guitar, e-sitar, synthesizer, violin, setar and drums (daf, dirbuka and tabla). Also the vocals play an important role. Third song "Shalom Aleichem" contains a spoken part in Persian and then it continues with traditional Hebrew words and music from Israel. The next song "Allah huma salle Allah Mohammad" has traditional Arabic words and music from Sufi tradition. The fifth and sixth song "Hinneih Matov" with traditional Hebrew words and music is divided into parts I and II part I being the longer one. Woschek has highlighted quite much Judaism in this album as also track number 7 "Nigun" is Israeli with Chassidim words and music. The last song is once again from Sufi tradition sung in Arabic and it's called "Bismillah allhamdulillah La Illaha Illalla".

My final grade: A deserved 10, because at least to my own ears he sounds perfect and smooth together with his collaborating artists. Also the most important reason to give him this grade is his remarkable creative control on his work.

The both albums I've heard from him that I now review are inspiring. But I have to say that as a Christian the musical image that he has created of Christ in this Gospodi - the light of Christ album wakes up more conversation with the inner me. That's because this album isn't traditional Christian music. The first song is called "Gospodi - I am in the light" and it has taken its influences from Russian Orthodox Christian music and Gregorian singing. The piece starts with calm, floating Indian singing and sarangi-playing, the so-called Alap of the Indian Raga. He also uses the choir in this song to create an atmosphere of a cathedral and then there is this mystical-monotonous sound of the Sufi drum. The song is a Russian prayer "Gospodi pomilui - Lord, have mercy". For the compositions of this cd he has chosen the central mantras of Christian liturgy; the focal prayer "Lord, have mercy upon me - Christ have mercy upon me" is also "Kyrie eleyson - Christe eleyson" in Greek and he has used it in the third and last track of the album. In "Kyrie" he has taken influences from Catholic Gregorian liturgy. The second track of this album is a Hebrew mantra "Hallelujah". BUT despite that also this song has Orthodox influences but also the lightness of flute and dulcimer brings in the joy of Celtic bards. He writes that the pieces are deliberately long in order to create the space of necessary for achieving depth through the repetition of the mantras and for building up the godly energy.
All in all the instruments he used in this album are vocals, flute, acoustic and electric guitar, keyboards, tambura, sarangi, pacavaj - drum, hammer-dulcimer, soprano-saxophon and acoustic and electric bass. Once again all music is composed and arranged by Felix Maria Woschek himself.

My final grade: 10 -

Ofra Haza: Angel voice of Israel

2010-10-22T01:04:00.000-07:00

Her biography

Famous for her beauty Ofra Haza is actually one of those few singers whose voice really deserve to be called as stunningly beautiful. Born on November 19 in 1957 and died on February 23 in 2000 for AIDS (in the age of 42) she was one of the most popular and appreciated Israeli female singers. Her voice has been described as mezzo-soprano, of near-flawless tonal quality, capable of lending itself to a variety of musical styles with apparent ease. Her genres are listed as World music, Pop, Ethnic electronica and Middle Eastern. The music fused elements of Eastern and Western instrumentation, orchestration and dance-beat. She became famous also in Europe and USA, earning many platinum and gold discs during her career. Her music was inspired by her Jewish culture and it somehow managed to bridge the divide between Israel and the Arab countries. She sang mainly in Hebrew and English but as she made a voice role in a children's Bible movie The Prince Of Egypt (1998) as the mother of Moses, she practised singing in various languages so she could sing the role in all international versions of the movie - even in the Finnish one! She was a great pride of many Israelis and during her career she wrote some of her songs herself.

She was the youngest child in the family of nine children born in the poor Tel Aviv neighbourhood of Hatikvah in 39 Boaz Street. Her parents were Yemenite Jews and she told herself that her childhood was filled with music and singing and a passion for traditional Yemenite songs, picked from her mother. At the age of twelve and one-half years Ofra joined a local theatre troupe, and manager Bezalel Aloni spotted her exceptional singing talent. He staged many of his productions around her as the centrepiece and later on became her longtime manager and mentor. At the age of 19, she was Israel's first pop princess. By the time she had completed her military service in 1979, she had matured as a singer and was ready to launch a solo carrer. On 15 July 1997 she married a businessman Doron Ashkenazi and they never had children together though she was claimed to love children (in 1982 she even published a collection of children's songs L'Yeladim).

Career tops

1982, L'Yeladim album collection of children's songs

1983, Eurovision Song Contest with a song Chai (Alive) she reached enormous popularity in Israel. Her album named the same Chai that year became her biggest-selling album to date.

1984, Yemenite songs album also known as Fifty Gates of wisdom in the USA and it quickly became one of her platinum albums.

1986, Yamin Nishbarim album became her most interesting work as she wrote deep and personal lyrics at first herself and it had edgy rock sound. The album became one of her various gold discs.

1988, her greatest international recognition came with the single Im Nin'Alu, taken from the album Shaday published the same year. The album won the New Music Award for Best International Album of the Year.

1989, album Desert Wind

1992, a Grammy nominated album Kirya

1997, her English language album Ofra Haza

1998, her voice role in children's Bible movie Prince of Egypt as Yochabed, mother of Moses in the song Deliver Us recorded in 17 languages.

Album review: Yemenite songs

Now I started one of my "surprise series" to make my blog more interesting. I'm going to review music that is either Christian or might be of interest for Christian listeners. I'll give grades to albums I listen from 4 to 10, which means 4 is the worst and 10 is the best. I chose to begin with Ofra Haza as she was from Holy Land, very remarkable and popular and I find listening to some of her songs like "Gabriel" (which isn't from this album though) recommendable, because Jews and Christians have common spiritual heritage. So for me listening to some of Ofra Haza's songs is almost like listening to gospel, because in some of her songs there's inspiration from the Bible (like in "Gabriel" and in her duet "Forgiveness" with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). So before I'll move to actual Christian/gospel music, I'll present Ofra and one another Israeli artist...

Yemenite songs or Fifty Gates of Wisdom begins with her famous breakthrough song "Im Nin'Alu". When I heard two years ago only this song I found her music wonderful and brilliant. This album is sung in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic and the lyrics of the songs are as beautiful and ethereal as books of the Bible. The songs tell about God and love between man and woman. The songs are mainly created together with Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, but "Yachilvi Veyachali"
is a traditional song. Even handmark of Yemenite poet and singer Aharon Amram shows in some of the songs. Instruments used on this album are drums, congas, wooden and metal percussion, timbales, genuine Yemenite tin and tambala, double bass, strings, flute and piccolo, oboe and English horn, bassoon, clarinet and bass clarinet and French horn. This album has a strong, soft pop sound mixed together with ethnic sounds. I think the sound is very modern though mixed with traditions. Ofra's voice is beautiful and perfect. These songs are like stories... the composings wake up my imagination. The songs are joyful and uplifting. I highly recommend Ofra Haza for other believers as well, because she sings about the same God we believe in.

The final grade: 9 (because the album is otherwise great, but it has lack of artist's creative control)

OFRA HAZA's RECOMMENDABLE MUSIC VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE:

1. Im Nin'Alu Ofra Haza

2. Ofra Haza feat. Iggy Pop - Daw Da Hiya

3. Ofra Haza - Chai

4. Ofra Haza - The Prince of Egypt film clip - Deliver us

5. Ofra Haza - Forgiveness

6. Ofra Haza - Gabriel

7. Ofra Haza - Yad Anuga

8. Fighter - Ofra Haza

Where life begins

2010-10-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

Dear readers. There's something I find myself often thinking. It has become my dream, something that I'm really longing for. It's also my passionate prayer when I'm really going through hard times. Even today I feel myself so tired... My heart is tired and it makes the power of my body drip vain as well. I want to go to sleep and see dreams of heaven. In my dream the spirit of Jesus embraces my spirit just like He embraces this young man at heaven's door in this picture.

I read in the summer a book called "Paradise Hyms" by Efraim Syrian and I found it too ethereal to describe. It was a description of heaven. I would write here all his main points but only one of them stood especially at my heart: He wrote in his book that what we lack on Earth we'll reach in heaven. The word of this prophet brought hope to my heart as I interpret his message like this: Here on Earth I'm carrying a burden of worries but in heaven I'll feel peace and happiness. Some days I'm really hungry but in heaven Jesus is the bread of life. Here on Earth I might feel loneliness but in heaven I'll be surrounded by other rescued spirits... and there are billions of them, more than human sense is capable to imagine. And here on Earth I'm struggling with a learning difficulty that might ruin my chances in this life; but in heaven I'll reach the state of heavenly wisdom. My physical body is stiff - I can't move it the way I want; but my spirit will be free to dance and do somersaults in heaven. And if I'm poor in this life I'll carry spiritual treasures with me in the next. And there life really begins. Our physical bodies will stay in earth but our spirits will rise up in heaven.

What does the New Testament say about heaven's kingdom? I gathered here what Jesus said in his parables and other quotes about heaven's kingdom but I also chose some parts of the Revelation:

The sower (Matt. 13:1-9)

The same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat there; and the crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables saying:" A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away. Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear."

Wheat and the weeds (Matt. 13: 24-30)

Another parable he put before them saying:" The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said to him:" Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?" He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' Then servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he said; 'No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn."

The grain of mustard seed and leaven (Matt. 13:31-35)

Another parable he put before them, saying:" The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field, it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make make nests in its branches." He told them another parable:" The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened." All this Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:" I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world."

The treasure, the pearl and the net

"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind, when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age. THe angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth."

Who is the greatest? (Matt. 18: 1-6)

At the time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."

What weighs on God's scale?

2010-10-10T03:53:00.001-07:00

Here on Earth people are setting lots of expectations on you. They're trying to tell you who you're supposed to be. Media does it well but I have to say how stunned I am when I get such criticizing from friends who I thought were my friends. But it's sad though, because I have to admit those friends were from another culture. One of those friends would have appreciated me more if I was a muslim and another if I was a boy. And the same friend in question actually judged the worth of my unborn child...! I AM NOT TELLING THEIR NATIONALITIES, BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO WAKE UP ANY PREJUDICE TOWARDS THEIR ETHNICITY. Besides I'm engaged with a man from different culture. Really, he hasn't met him or her and neither have I. What right he has to be my judge? I'm even more stunned about this friend's judgement because he's a Christian as well and he even gave reason to judging my child's gender on God's wish! But I'm still friends with his sister and I'm a member of the Red Cross so there's no use of calling me a racist. Besides I have noted before and I'll show even in this post how I found anti-racism message in the Bible. God made Adam before Eve BUT I'm sure both men and women are equal images of God. I could take also another example which is Africa's black theology: they say regardless our colour and ethnic background we're all equal images of God; so black Adam isn't worse than the white one.

The only King and the only Righteous Judge in my life is Jesus Christ. So when I hear such hard judgements from the mortal I must proportion them in the right ankle and ask instead: What truly weighs in the God's scale? Does God truly care about my body's shape and my outer appearance, my outer glamour I would say? In the Bible it says 'God created human as his image' so God doesn't love woman any less. I would actually ask my ex-friend a reasonable question:" Then why God created woman too if He hates her? Why he didn't create only Adam?" Really, it doesn't make any sense. If he had created only Adam, me and you dear reader - we wouldn't even exist, because he would have been the only human to ever live. But I'm sure if our Creator had hated woman He wouldn't have even made her.

And I know someone would argue to me:" But Eve picked and ate the Forbidden Fruit after listening to Satan." But I would argue back:" Yeah but you must think deeper about three book religions Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The traditional belief of Original Sin doesn't favour man any more than woman: in all these traditions Adam eats the Fruit as well. In Judao-Christian tradition Adam bites the Fruit given by Eve BUT in Islamic tradition the picker of the fruit is Adam and he inflicts Eve to sin. In my mind the ultimate truth must be the equality of man and woman because leaning on these traditions we can't prove the superiority of man. I think it would make the situation all different if Adam would have declined eating the Fruit and let Eve eat it by herself. That would have turned the order of the Universe upside down."

I have found also more proof on God's love for woman: Virgin Mary is the key, because God chose her to be the mother of Jesus Christ. Lore tells that she was a young modest girl from the less important family branch of David. Jesus Christ showed much love for women in his action: He healed Peter's mother-in-law, He turned a dead girl alive, He healed a bleeding woman... And He even showed love for a foreign woman from Canaan (or from Phoenicia or from both?) as he healed her daughter by thought's power. As I said in my past post "Solomon and the Queen of Sheba" there's also anti-racism message in the action of Jesus and this deed was an example. There are even more examples how He showed love and respect for woman in His action: One Pharisee invited Jesus to dine at his home and a sinner woman arrived there too as she knew Jesus was there. She had a alabaster bottle with her filled with scent oil and she settled behind Jesus to his feet and cried and His feet got wet from her tears. She wiped them with her hair, kissed them and anointed them with scent oil. Pharisee despised acceptance of Jesus but Jesus knew what was on his mind and He told a parable for the good of sinner woman. Pharisee hadn't given water for Jesus to wash His feet, or kissed Him or anointed His head with oil but this sinner woman did it all all tenfoldly and got forgiveness of sin. (Luke 7:36-50) Besides chapter 8 of Luke begins with a description about women following and helping Jesus.

In this same context I also want to note Christ's love for children: he said that the childish are the greatest in heaven's kingdom. He didn't say boys are the greatest but he said that children are equally greatest in there. He blessed children, girls and boys. And I'm sure there's something that my ex-friend doesn't know: The fact is that after the crucifixion of Jesus there happened a change of mind in Rome for the good of unwanted children; People started to take care of those children abandoned on the street AND they started killing and abandoning less girl babies. And according to what I know about Antique's Rome the girls and children born disable were unwanted. So for my ex-friend: If God favours only certain people, why this change of mind occured after death of Jesus? Because God doesn't care are we men or women, because He created both and Christianity is about respecting life and loving people around you. Christianity is about equality and because Western countries are based on Christianity men and women are equal - we women are free to be and do whatever we want and we have all the same possibilities like men. So is it right following of Christ when you put yourself higher and despise the others? Christ has said himself:" Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matt. 23:12) My one last argument speaking for this subject is that Jesus also taught to not to judge people as "the way you judge, you shall be judged and the way you measure, you shall be measured as well."

So now I shall finish my argumentation on answering in brief to my headline question: What weighs on God's scale? The key word is LOVE. Loving everybody around you, doing good for those you hate. Jesus is especially close for the groups that are most vulnerable, the most weak. God cares about the HEART, He doesn't care about such earthly things as gender (body's shape) or money. Success doesn't mean for Him a thing. He cares about your spirit and your good thoughts, beautiful words and deeds. But still all you need to do is believe.

Declaration of self-respect

2010-08-16T02:08:00.000-07:00

Dear readers. Today I will talk about a subject which is on the media all the time (especially in womens magazines) but I think that there can never be enough encouragement for self-respect for women in this world as everybody knows how poor and inequal status our sisters are in developing countries in and how media drags womens healthy self-esteem with surreal demands on beauty and pressure for sexiness. I am not saying that it is turning down everyone but unfortunately it still has effect - But also thank God for those strong women who already know who they are and will not be turned down so easily and so can stop reading this post right now if willing. But for those insecure, fragile sisters over there who are still searching for themselves, I dedicate this post and I hope this will help you to love yourself the way you are and will encourage you to not to give in. I am with you, because in the name of honesty I have to admit that I am one of those sisters myself and this post is as much for you as this is for myself. The next that I will write I would teach also for my own daughter and God bless one day soon I really will.

1. YOUR BODY - TEMPLE OF GOD.

Look back to my post Wisdom behind beauty and creation where I remind how you are precious piece of art made by God to His image. No matter about your genes - if you have red hair, black hair, blonde hair, brunette, curly or straight, long or short or bold, blue or even green - or blue, brown, gray, black or even green eyes with or without glasses - God loves you the same and I think that from celebrities Anastacia is a great example of how you can be cool and beautiful even with glasses. Or whether your skin was white, red, yellow, chocolate or black or even if you had piercings or tattoos or freckles - God loves you. Child, youngster, adult or senior, healthy, sick or disable. Tall or short, slim or chubby, trendy or not - for God you are always unique and beautiful the way you are, you are sheep of the Good Shepherd and child of Heavenly Father. God lives deep inside your soul and heart as His Spirit. Your body is His temple and He has known every bit of your heart, soul and body even when you still were inside your mothers womb. He even knew your name before He let your parents realize it. You are a beautiful girl but God wants you to use your beauty right, to respect your body. I am not actually forbidding you but I am just asking you to think twice before having sex before marriage or admiring modelling. Why should you envy models or want to be like them. Showing your body and surface for the world can be one kind of self-respect but it depends how you do it. Even modelling can be good if you do not take nude or porn photoshoots - even underwear and swimming-suit models are a bit cheap. God likes it the best when you justly keep your clothes on. And no matter if you follow fashion or not, because God cares only about fashion of your heart. For more encouragement about this subject I recommend listening to soul sisters Mary J Blige and Mandisas soul and rnb.

2. KEEP YOUR COOL - KEEP STRONG WILL

Kindness is beautiful and Jesus appreciates it, but I am sure that he does not want you to suffer from it, to be kind until martyrdom despite he did it himself. Once again if you are a strong woman reading this post you probably fulfill this characteristic already. So with keeping up strong will it is easy to begin with saying no, no, NO. I mean if you are too kind you easily forget your own will and because you do not want to hurt your fellowmans feelings you say yes to almost everything he or she asks you. So you please your friend rather than yourself and I am telling you that will not do for long! It can get humiliating you know. So if your conscience says that something is wrong or just does not feel good say it. You do not have to do anything that does not feel like yourself whether it is wearing certain clothes, smoking, drinking, overdone generosity, beginning sexual intercourse etc. You know the best who you want to be, you know your worldview, moral and values so just keep on the good spirit! No one is higher than you nor below you so you have right to say and represent whatever you want. Remember, whoever tries to influence you or control you on Earth, is powerless. Firstly, your true boss is your heart and also your sense, secondly your only true Master and Commander is God. I believe that when you follow these two you are walking on a safe path and you cannot do wrong. And I also want to add to strong will fighting for your dreams - when you really, really want something but you fail first time achieving that goal do not give in but try again until you reach it.

3. ALLOW YOUR FEELINGS

You're human not an angel. Only angels are in state of perfect bliss feeling only joy. So don't feel ashamed or sorry about your tears and anger, they purify your heart and lighten your burden. Besides, by every tear you're closer to God and closer to Jesus Christ as he can heal the broken heart. If you're sometimes angry let it out, because God is forgiving and He created you to be like this. When we ate the Forbidden Fruit we weren't in angelic state anymore but the moment we ate the first bite God gave us this various range of human feelings. Even though anger hurts for a while, in anger there lies your sense of justice. You get angry if someone mistreats you and the others. Jesus accepts your anger, because He followed the paths of justice: Just remember how he became angry when Lord's temple was full of merchants and bankers. "You make a cave of robbers of Lord's temple!" and he overturned the booths and drove off the merchants. That was righteous anger and your anger can be righteous as well if you use it right. I mean God of course doesn't accept such extreme manifestations of anger such as violence in all its forms.

Individual and cultural fasting

2010-08-12T01:08:00.000-07:00

Now that we're having the second day of muslims annual fasting month Ramadan, I decided to dedicate one post for the subject as fasting is touching Christians as well. And because my fiancé comes from Islamic culture I'd like to highlight Ramadan especially today to respect him and his friends. Anyway, fasting was set to Christianity for 40 days before Easter in 300 AC and before that we used to do it also on Wednesdays and Fridays. We Protestants do it seldom anyway, but Roman Catholics and Orthodox still practice it. In Orthodox Church fasting means avoiding certain food ingredients and avoiding to hurt others by words and deeds. It also means separating from those ways and manners that separate human from God. They do it for spiritual growing and achieving similarity to God. They fast also when preparing themselves for a great churchy celebration. In Catholic Church fasting means days when according to church they must decrease their daily eating for one full meal and to two small ones as a separation from abstinence which means refusal from eating meat especially on Fridays before Easter. Because the reformation of Luther criticized fasting as an outer action that can't cause salvation we Protestants don't do it often, at least not for religious reasons. In Judaism they fast in seven days of Jewish calendar and five of them are so called "smaller fasting days". The holiest day of Judaism is jom kippur and it's the second of those most important fasting days. In Buddhism there's no actual fasting but in the monasteries of some schools they eat only one meal a day and after noon they don't eat anything. In the greatest days of celebration laymen following these trends don't eat after noon. They want to set the all afternoon free for practising religion. In Hinduism they practice religious fasting in ekadasi which is the 11th day of every Moon's half section. In strictly followed fasting time they don't eat or drink and it begins from the sunset of previous day until the sunrise of the next day.

Ramadan

Ramadan is the 9th month of Islamic hijra calendar. Its most important event is religious fasting, saum , during which healthy adult muslims eat only in the dark daytime. Even drinking, smoking and sexual interaction is forbidden at light time. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the 5 pillars of Islam so it's one of the most important ways of practicing religion. When fasting muslims gets closer to God by giving up things they enjoy. This brings out their stable devotion to God. Believers know that God loves them when they're ready to give in earthly pleasures for God. Fasting is also more than refusal of food and drink: it also means giving up falsic words and deeds, inappropriate talk, arguing and fighting. So fasting helps to improve good behavior. Fasting teaches also feelings of brotherhood and solidarity when muslim experience how does it feels like being in lack and hunger as his brother. During Ramadan muslims usually work only in forenoon. After the end of fasting they'll celebrate Id al-Fitr feast which takes place in the next sawwal month's 3 first days. During the celebration they may hand gifts for friends and relatives, visit friends, buy a new dress and eat good food. Because Islamic calendar isn't a clear moon calendar Ramadan doesn't take place every time in the same season but in 30 years it will circle around all the seasons. This year Ramadan started in the August 11th and will end at September 9th.

Health causes of fast

The medical pros and cons of fasting aren't well-known but it's said to have beneficial influence on intestines' action. For example in Europe and USA we fast for health reasons more than spiritual ones as we want to stay in good fit and control overweight. But for remaining results you should have permanently healthier and lighter diet. Even before important medical operation you have to fast, because it effects crucially in the results. So what happens in our bodies during fasting? The body uses first as its sources of energy glycogen storage of muscles and liver and fat. If fast is a longer-term one body begins first to produce ketone compounds from fat for nervous system and begins to disperse muscles' protein for a source of energy. Fasts held for healthy reasons are usually water, juice or soup fasts. Water fast is the worst possible option from health's point of view, because body bears it healthy just few days. Otherwise from juice and soup fasts body gets anyway some sugars and other nutrients too to survive. Fast isn't recommended for old people, expecting mothers and small children.

Wisdom behind beauty and creation

2010-08-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

Today I got inspired about a subject concerning both religion and philosophy: creativity. My beloved ones know that I'm a creative and thoughtful person so that is no surprise I found aesthetics, a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, taste, creation and appreciation of beauty of interest. Creativity is usually linked with artistic gifts such as painting, writing, doing handicrafts or composing music. So I attached to this post one of the world's most famous paintings, Sixtus chapel or Adam's Creation, by one of the world's most famous artists, Michelangelo, who has commemorated in his work God, the first artist of the world's history doing His work. And behold! He created us, the people, as the first piece of art in the world's history. And He created man and woman as his picture - and we truly are, because He gave us this wonderful power of creativity that He has as well. My readers, you truly are pieces of art and beautiful in your own unique ways!

Plato's ideas of beauty and inspiration

Plato thought that cuteness is a criteria of good poetry - whatever it means, because we everybody have our personal ideas of beauty. He also said that "all creation whether it's mental or physical cheating or giving birth happens only in touch with beauty; in connection with ugly there can't happen creation." By 'mental cheating' he means ideas that are pre-stages of deeds (of course). And everybody who has read Plato's philosophy know that his worldview is based on idea doctrine which means that ideas are the most real and sure in the world and sense notices are unreliable. So according to his ideaology he explained sources of pleasure are beautiful colours and shapes and most scents and tones and usually that whose absence doesn't bring suffering but whose presence makes pleasant feelings. He doesn't mean beauty of those shapes that people usually see in animals and paintings but something linear and circular and according to this surfaces and pieces made by turning on a lathe or with help of a ruler or a corner ruler are beautiful, because they're beautiful by themselves - not in relation to something else. He said that they make peculiar pleasure to themselves and it's far from tickling and he compared it to white colour. So the idea of beauty is abstract, undefined and colourless. He also thought that idea of beauty by itself can't be a target to be achieved by poets and artists. His another definition of beauty is that it's something that causes pleasure or benefit or both whether it was human body, colour, shape, voice or action. I love his ideas of beauty because according to them anything or anyone can be beautiful and he's right, because beauty is a question of taste. His another qualification of beauty is more concise:" Arts are mixture and if they lack right measure and relations it destroys the mixed ingredients and itself and then that's a mess. Because right measures and relations are always also beauty and goodness. So art is good with beauty, right relations and truth." This explanation brings to my mind the classic sculptures of Antique: the perfect shapes and details of human body; they wanted them to look realistic but they were more like dreams of ideal human body. This ideal human was later pictured also in Renaissance art such as my example Creation. And what sculptors of Antique pictured to their work has become ideal beauty of today: we want firm bodies, men want to be muscley etc. And I think the modern Miss competitions and modelling are based on similar criteria.

And what especially interests me is Plato's thought of true source of inspiration: He said that poets are interpreters of gods; Each poet has been made ecstatic by the god in whose possession they are. For example I worship Jesus and according to this theory He speaks by my mouth in my writings and by them we shall hear His voice. So all my inspiration is from God. So according to Plato writers, artists and musicians aren't intelligent or talented but God takes our sense away. Even though I believe in God I'm not convinced about this theory, because musicians need much mathematic intelligence when composing their songs. So he said there can't happen creation with sense but I'm sure he was wrong. I agree with him though that our creativity is a divine gift. He justified his theory by that poets can do only one kind of literature, the one that God has given them inspiration for and nothing else. Because if they had talent talking about one subject they could talk about everything else as well. Once again he's wrong: even though I've been now writing lyrics for pretty long time I've got lots of inspiration for prose as well.

Kahlil Gibran: Christian poet, artist and philosopher

I've been reading lately some production of Kahlil Gibran and now I'd like to share you some of his quotes about creative people and just in the name of comparison to Plato also his idea of beauty:

"Beauty is what attracts your soul and for beauty it's more important to give than take. When you face Beauty you feel how hands deep inside you stretch to receive and convoy it to the throne of your heart. Beauty is glory that sorrow and joy create together. It's Invisible that you see, Incomprehensible that you understand and Silent that you hear - it's The Holiest that begins in yourself and ends there where your earthly imagination can't reach."

"The most sensual creatures on Earth are creative people, poets, sculptors, artists, musicians... and it has been so from the beginning. Making love is for them a beautiful and noble gift; it's always beautiful and always tender."

"Isn't it true that always when we're portraying the Beauty we get a step closer to it? And every time when we write the Truth, we become one with it? Or are you going to silence poets and artists? Isn't realizing oneself a deep need in human soul?"

"Are you a writer that keeps oneself more noble than great audience though her/his sense is deep in the hole full of past's everlasting useless waste? In that case you're like a standing pool. Or are you an intense thinker who explores one's soul and prunes what's useless, overworked and bad but saves useful and good? In that case you're semolina for hungry and cool, bright water for thirsty."

"God created music for common language of people. It inspires poets, composers and architects. It tempts us to look for meaning for our souls from mysterious writings of ancient books."

"Are you a poet full of noise and meaningless words? In that case you're a swindler who makes us laugh when crying and when laughing makes us cry. Or are you a talented soul for whose hands God has set a violin to calm spirit with heavenly music and accompany others close to Life and Life's Beauty? In that case you're a torch enlightening us on our road, the sweet longing of our hearts and the divine revelation of our dreams."

"Poetry, my dear friends, is a holy incarnation of smile. Poetry is a sigh that dries tears; it's a spirit living in soul that gets its nourishment from heart and its love from wine. Poetry that doesn't appear in this form is a wrong Messiah."

"Art must be direct talk between artist's imagination and audience's imagination. Therefore I'm trying to avoid too many details so the viewer could extend one's imagination widely and far away. Art has been made to create material forms: they got to be beautiful; Unless art doesn't serve its purpose."

"I'd be a deceiver of my art if I had to borrow my model's eyes. Face is an unbelievable mirror that reflects most faithfully the inside of soul; Artist's job is to see it and paint it; unless he couldn't be called an artist."

Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

2010-07-31T02:53:00.000-07:00

"Now when the queen of Sheba had heard of the fame of Solomon she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions, having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from Solomon which he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his cupbearers, and their clothing, and his burnt offerings which he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, "The report was true which I heard in my own land of your affairs and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it; and behold, half the greatness of your wisdom was not told me; you surpass the report which I heard. Happy are your wives! Happy are these your servants, who continually stand before you and your wisdom! Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the LORD your God! Because your God loved Israel and would establish them for ever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness." Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices, and precious stones: there were no spices such as those which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. ... And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what she had brought to the king. So she turned and went back to her own land, with her servants." (2 Chronicles 9)

"(the supposed queen of Sheba:)Oh, that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth! For your love is better than wine, your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is oil poured out; therefore the maidens love you. Draw me after you, let us make haste. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you. I am very dark, but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. Do not gaze at me because I am swarthy, because the sun has scorched me. My mother's sons were angry with me, they made me keeper of the vineyards; but, my own vineyard I have not kept! Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who wanders beside the flocks of your companions?

"(the supposed Solomon:)If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your kids beside the shepherds' tents. I compare you, my love, to a mare of Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are comely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. We will make you ornaments of gold, studded with silver.

"(the supposed Queen of Sheba): While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh, that lies between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Enge'di"

"(the supposed Solomon): Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves. Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green, the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are pine." (Song of Solomon 1)

Today I'll still continue with the same theme I wrote last time about: love. Yes, the deepest and most important message of Christianity is love. And I've said the Bible is full of great examples of love, especially the New Testament, but to my mind the most wonderful example from the Old Testament is the story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Everybody knows the story. So why do I want to share it in my diary once again? Because it's especially touching me on this day and I believe it can also teach our modern hearts. This story is also one of my favourites from the Bible. The Bible doesn't tell clearly that Solomon and Queen of Sheba had been married or even lovers, but I bet Song of Solomon 1 proves they really were. Today we're living in multicultural Europe immigration and refugees being the key words. We can't avoid contact between different races and cultures and I absolutely recommend it for forgetting the prejudice and opening our hearts for tolerance. There are more and more mixed couples in Europe and this has been usual in the USA already for decades: one child may have various genes from different backgrounds; Latin, African, American, Irish, Scottish etc. Even Solomon and Queen of Sheba were a multicultural couple one being Ethiopian and another being Arabic. They probably had a child together, named David after Solomon's father. Because of the pressure of Solomon's government and counsellors the Queen had to return to Ethiopia with their baby and Solomon's best priests, soldiers, gold and everything she desired. The government couldn't accept the Queen's religion but after they were made to divorce she brought Judaism with her to Ethiopia and was believed to be converted herself as well. The way they divorced proves their huge amount of love and the unfortunate fact that has become more like a rule than exception in modern Europe: however much the parties of different races and cultures may love each other, they're probably separated by religion or by pressure of their families; in modern Europe this happens to Christians and Muslims. Solomon had 100 wives with at least 100 religions and the government and Solomon's priests couldn't accept any of them. Solomon loved the Queen more than any of these wives and he was willing to make her the Queen of Israel. Their love was amazingly wonderful and beautiful, because they loved so passionately and truly and they were 100 % equal even though they were of different colour: the Queen had as much wealth and authority as Solomon had and the Queen wanted to have something from Solomon's culture: their equality and tolerance were the things that my readers could learn from on this day. Jesus loves the immigrants too, I'm absolutely convinced about that. I find a lot of anti-racism message in the teachings of Jesus and in Paul's interpretation of them.

True love

2010-07-30T00:17:00.000-07:00

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part.But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away." (1 Cor 13:1-10)

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:" For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35-39)

I told you in my first post that I found from the Bible a promise of new life. But I didn't tell you what I actually asked every time from God in my prayers: true love, a husband and children, because in fact that time I was so lonely and felt myself so deceived that I craved something true to my life that would also remain in it. I have to tell you that I prayed for this for 3 years and every time I felt at my heart the same answer: the right man would come to my life. I'm currently engaged with a handsome man who believes in God. But he isn't perfect and I'm not perfect. I believe he truly loves me and his strenghts fill my weaknesses. He's my blessing from God that I prayed for and I learn joy from him. I can see Father in his big brown eyes and his being sighs peace. But despite his faith he uses sometimes pretty bad tongue and he's into violence. He even likes alcohol and tobacco.That's why I wonder why God led him to me? I mean it was he who was first interested in me. I'm asking this because he has a fiery nature and I'm opposite, like water. Anyway, he came here from elsewhere looking for happiness and I believe peace of mind as well. Behind his strong being he's a fragile person. Could I heal his wounds that linger at his heart? I've found Christ and I've been healed myself. Maybe God wants we're together for He wants to show my fiancé that he always has a chance for repentance. But he believes in God in his own way and that's enough for me.

Today I'm asking you, what is true love?

I think there is no greater example of true love than death of Jesus Christ on the cross, there's no greater love than his deeds and wisdom. No human can love as strongly, purely, passionately and certainly as Him. The whole New Testament is full of great examples of true love. I even think that Paul has expressed true love the best in his letters, especially in the 1st Corinthians.

Now I've answered to question who is true love but next I'd like to list some qualities that I personally see should be fulfilled in it, and excuse me if some of them are clichés: Your companion loves you the way you are in your natural God given shape - he/she wouldn't change anything in you. True love accepts every ethnicity and colour. So the second quality is that he/she loves you forgiving your mistakes and imperfection. True love is also honesty, loyalty and respect towards each other. It's also first caring about your companion, then about yourself. It's giving exactly what we need or in the best cases even more than we desired. True love is also fulfillment, passion, happiness, BLISS. True love is also family: there's no stronger bond between mortal than mother's devotion to her child. True love allows you to feel all kind of feelings from joy to sorrow and anger. It gives you a shelter from madness of the world: in true love we've found peace and harmony. And always remember this: even if your companion's love would forsake you, Christ's love never will; If I'll one day divorce with my fiancé I'll be forever married with Jesus Christ.

The surprising wisdom of Shakira

2010-07-28T11:16:00.001-07:00

Who wouldn't know Shakira? She's the fourth richest female singer in the world after Celine Dion. She has won 2 Grammy Awards and 7 Latin Grammy Awards. She has been in music business 20 years of her life: almost all of it because now she's a 30-something and this summer she convinced the world with her amazing hit single "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" which was chosen to be the official World Cup anthem of 2010. It was also a charity song with anti-racism message and Shakira started even a campaign together with Mango and Unicef selling Waka Waka T-shirts with Africa-oriented prints. And by buying this T-shirt you could support Shakira's very own Barefoot Foundation (Fundacion Pies Descalzos) that works with the same idea as Plan but offering education and nutrition for the poor and displaced children and employing their parents. First the foundation concentrated only on helping the children in Shakira's country Colombia but this summer they widened the horizon to Africa where Barefoot Foundation is building a school in devastated Haiti and by buying this T-shirt you could support children's education in South Africa.

After her Arabic father was bankrupt they lost even all their furniture and that was of course a shock for 7-years-old Shakira. Then her father took her to the park where he showed her children of her age living in extreme poverty. That was so moving in the little girl's mind that she promised to herself that one day she'd become a well-known artist and she'd help those children, to try to make a difference even if that was to be a little one. So after her first international success with her album Pies Descalzos she fulfilled her promise and established Fundacion Pies Descalzos only as 18-years-old. I appreciate her opinions on social issues: She supports Barack Obama, she works against racism and I find her charity work inspiring as she's also a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador and she's one of the co-founders of another organization ALAS.

Shakira was a young genius: she recorded her first album Magia only as 13-years-old and since then she has co-written her own lyrics and co-composed her own songs. And today she's even a co-producer of her own albums and she plans her own exciting choreographies, Waka Waka dance being the latest. I can't help but admire her creativity and independence as she also chooses her own clothes for photoshoots and performances and she does her own make-up. In the upcoming September she'll be back with a new album Sale El Sol which will deal with deeper issues than she has written ever before about: heartbreak, recovering, surviving, going through struggles and getting out of them and getting stronger. The album will have a strong rock side and it's also flavoured with Latin songs and romantic songs and according to Shakira it reminds her of different stages of her career from Pies Descalzos to Oral Fixation. It's also about celebrating her own culture as she travelled to Dominican Republic in search for inspiration...

She has even launched her first fragrance S by Shakira which contains scents of vanilla, amber, Benzoin, woodsy notes and jasmine. "Just like a song, the perfume is composed of various, individual notes which make harmony", Shakira said to the press. She has said that it's a fragrance for a strong woman with big heart. She launched it in Madrid on June and it will be available worldwide on September. In 2009 there was a rumour about her very first fragrance Amuleto which she launched in France but for some reason it was left as a legend for the most of us as it never reached wider sale.

Behind Shakira's gorgeous looks, dyed blonde hair and amazingly flexible body with hips that don't lie, we can find her surprisingly thoughtful, deep and intelligent person. Despite her huge success she's also modest and positive person with a lot of joy. And no wonder, because she's blessed with so many ways: Unlike other pop singers she hasn't fallen into drugs and immoral sex life as she has been engaged with the same man, Antonio de la Rua, for 9 years. They have a common farm in Uruguay where they together take care of animals, including dogs. Shakira has also 7 siblings and according to my perception she doesn't smoke or even take alcohol to keep herself in good fit. And could you have guessed that her favourite book is "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran? She has even studied history of Western Civilizations in UCLA and she studies languages of the countries she visits. In this post I'll introduce you some Shakira's surprising philosophy from her quotes:

"The cobra is deadly but mongoose can overcome it. We all have possibility to defeat prejudiced and resentment in our lives. Fear is the thing that makes us attack, that makes us strike. We must overcome it. We must."

"I'm lucky to have family around me. Otherwise, I'll be taking the risk of falling in love with myself. But there are always people close to me who I trust, who will scold me and pull my ears if I need it. Fame isolates people from reality. That happens to many artists, and I don't want it to happen to me."

"I'm a believer. I try to be near God, because when I feel that there's a certain distance, everything begins to look like a blur. It makes the road somewhat smoother. When I feel that I'm without God, I have to make an effort to drag my feet to keep on going."

"I admire a person who, for the love of art, is able to take off their clothes in front of a camera. But I'm not capable, I'm too cowardly for that."

"On death: I always tried not to touch that subject, because it would really give me existential anxiety. Death is not only related to the physical death of the body, it's also related to the death of relationships or feelings. Every day, I feel a little bit older, a little less alive, more alive with the possibility of being less alive, closer to death."

"The leaders are lacking love, and love is lacking leaders."

"I always believed that women have rights and that there are some women that are intelligent enough to claim those rights. There are some others that are stupid enough not to. It's as cut-and-dried as that. It doesn't matter if you're a woman or not; in this life, to earn your place you have to fight for it."

"In any woman's life there's a moment when we stand in front of a mirror and we're not happy. It might be when we're 32 and we think about what it will be like being 36, or when we're 36 we might think of being younger. We're never content with the way we are and the way we look. But, if you start loving yourself the way you are, and accepting yourself the way you are, your outlook totally changes."

"My brain, I believe, is the most beautiful part of my body."

"I guess there's many ways to become an enlightened human being, but I guess the shortest path is always through love. And the shortest path to becoming a better person is always through loving someone. If you don't know how to treat the ones that you love then how are you going to treat those that you don't know, or those who are your enemies?"

"A bed is still the first thing I look for when I have 20 free minutes. I still read a book if I have a free hour, and go to a movie if I have four."

"In some moment, I came to fall into the claws of moralism. Something very typical for a Latin-American woman, who has lived in a culture of repression. I thought I had all the answers, I was full of hasty judgments. Today I feel more liberated and open. I'm more tolerant. I respect ideas different to mine. Moralism is a disease. It shouldn't be exactly related to religion - but it is true that my view of religion has also changed lately."

On wanting 2 children:" Sometimes at night, I think of myself with a big belly. That's my happy place. I want to have a huge belly - I crave that!"

"I prefer an ugly truth to a pretty lie. If someone is telling me the truth that is when I will give my heart."

"Writing songs has a therapeutic effect, and it either kills off love or wins the heart of the lover."

"I want to learn how to live in the present eyes open. Because, you know, we always go through the present blindfolded with our hearts in the past and our minds in the future. And that way we never enjoy the here and now."

The meaning of life

2010-07-28T09:48:00.001-07:00

I was born during summer's hottest time when white roses bloomed under the window of my first room. My christening took place at my home but I was to be Christian only in name for several years - almost my entire childhood. But in the priest's blessing there was to be my safe haven... But "when I was a child, I talked like a child, I had child's mind and child's thoughts (1 Cor 13:11)". In my case that meant that I didn't give much thoughts for God - I don't even remember asking my mum where did I came from, why do I live? My parents aren't believers. My dearest passed-away grandparents were though, but I couldn't have any of their ideaology until I turned 15. Nevertheless, I cast my first prayers when I was 12-years-old but I stopped before secondary school (even though I was answered). Maybe I got a tiny spiritual awakening when I was in a deathly dangerous storm by motorboat with my parents and our dog on my 10-years birthday... which was just about to become our dying day. God protected us for some reason that night. Today I believe that He didn't let us die, because He had (and has) a plan for my life. And that and another incident made me ponder meaning of life and write about it today.

To continue telling about my childhood I have to say that my parents pampered me a lot. They still do but by God's will I now enjoy my freedom and independence living together with my darling. My parents gave me nearly everything that I wanted: my room was full of every kind of vain stuff that I had collected through my childhood (you can imagine!). So yes, I was a really selfish child and I hated sharing my toys and videos and anything I had for the other kids. That's why I wonder why I had quite many friends anyway... I was so materialistic you know and I remember myself being jealous to one believer girl from my class. I was jealous because she was beautiful and she had seen more world than I that time, she became girlfriend of my first crush in history and she was sporty and musical and until this day I'm neither of them. But now years and years later I realize that now we could be maybe good friends.

Anyway, secondary school was to be the turning point of my life. That time I got depressed after one troublesome incident and I was in the shadows for 6 months. I even wanted to die, because I didn't know what to believe in anymore. The psychology couldn't help me. But then one day I got so tired, hopeless and miserable that I couldn't help but open the Bible - and when I did I couldn't stop reading it because I found in there a promise of new life. I even started my real prayer life that time: I read the Bible just every day and bowed my head for series of intensive prayers. Little by little God healed me and He gave me a new heart and new personality: I realized that I must give up vain owning and replace it with the gift of giving which is love. So I ended up donating 90% of my collection of vain stuff to charity - stuff that I didn't really need myself but that could cheer day of someone else. My parents couldn't understand it but despite their anger I followed my heart and I found joy and meaning of my life: love. Now I know that even if I lost everything God would take care of me with His eternal love. Now I live for loving others before myself, putting their needs before my own: a selfish girl became a generous woman. And I feel blessed: even if I don't own much of anything I'm still richer than any rich; instead of collecting material stuff I collect treasures for heaven.

What's the meaning of your life? Or what's your right way of life and what makes it good and worthy? In this blog I'll mainly deal with spiritual issues but I guess there will be some talk of wellness and creativity too. You won't find any superficial writings from this blog: even if I'd write about celebrities I'd concentrate on writing about their philosophy and spiritual experience or about their possible charity work. I want to talk about making the world a better place to live. I'd like to offer issues that make you think or that help you to accept and love yourself and people around you. I guess the target group of my issues are more women than men but read or not: the choice is yours :).