Beryl cook’s wisdom to all you lovely ladies…had to share this one

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When I was in my younger days,
I weighed a few pounds less,
I needn’t hold my tummy in
to wear a belted dress.
But now that I am older,
I’ve set my body free;
There’s comfort of elastic
Where once my waist would be.
Inventor of high-heeled shoes
My feet have not forgiven;
I used to wear a six,
Now I wear a seven.
And how about those blasted tights —
They’re sized by weight, you see,
So how come when I put them on
The crotch is at my knee?
I need to wear these glasses
As the print’s been getting smaller;
And it wasn’t very long ago
I know that I was taller.
Though my hair has turned to grey
and my skin no longer fits,
On the inside, I’m the same old me,
the outside’s changed a bit.


But, on a positive note…
I’ve learned that no matter what happens,
or how bad it seems today, life does go on,
and it will be better tomorrow.

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle these three things:
a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.


I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same as making a ‘life.’
I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.
I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life just being a doormat.
You need to throw something back.
I’ve learned that to decide something with an open heart, you usually make the right decision.
I’ve learned that when I have pain, I don’t have to be one.


I’ve learned that you should reach out and touch someone.
People love a hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

THE (SCIENTIFIC) DEATH OF JESUS

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THE (SCIENTIFIC) DEATH OF JESUS

At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to the death penalty.

At the time crucifixion was the “worst” death. Only the worst criminals condemned to be crucified. Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus, unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion, Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet.

Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long.

The nails were driven into His wrist.
Not into His palms as is commonly portrayed.
There’s a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder.
The Roman guards knew that when the nails
were being hammered into the wrist,
that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus
to use His back muscles to support himself
so that He could breathe. 

Both of His feet were nailed together.
Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail
that impaled His feet to the cross.
Jesus could not support himself with His legs
because of the pain, so He was forced to alternate
between arching His back then using his legs
just to continue to breathe.
Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage. 

Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours.

Yes, over 3 hours!
Can you imagine this kind of suffering?
A few minutes before He died,
Jesus stopped bleeding.
He was simply pouring water from his wounds.
From common images, we see wounds to His hands
and feet and even the spear wound to His side…
But do we realize His wounds were actually made in his body.
A hammer driving large nails through the wrist,
the feet overlapped and an even large nail
hammered through the arches,
then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear.
But before the nails and the spear,
Jesus was whipped and beaten.
The whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body.
The beating so horrific that His face was torn
and his beard ripped from His face.
The crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp.
Most men would not have survived this torture. 

He had no more blood to bleed out,
only water poured from His wounds.
The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters

(just less than a gallon) of blood.

Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of his blood;
He had three nails hammered into His members;
a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond that,
a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His chest.

All these without mentioning the humiliation
He passed after carrying His own cross for almost 2 kilometers,
while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones
(the cross was almost 30 kg of weight, only for its higher part,
where His hands were nailed).

Jesus had to endure this experience,
so that you can have free access to God.

So that your sins could be “washed” away.
All of them, with no exception!
Don’t ignore this situation.

JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR YOU!

Do not believe that He only died for others
(those who go to church or for pastors, bishops, etc).

Accept the reality, the truth that
JESUS IS THE ONLY SALVATION FOR THE WORLD.

God has plans for you, show all your friends what
He experienced to save you.
Now think about this!
May God bless your life!

60 seconds with God…  

For the next 60 seconds, set aside what you’re doing
and take this opportunity!
Let’s see if Satan can stop this.

Take a moment to appreciate the power of God
in your life, for doing what pleases Him.

(Matthew 10:32 & 33):
“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others,
I also will acknowledge before My Father in heaven;
but whosoever denies Me before others,
I also will deny before My Father in heaven.”
Yes, I love God.
He is my source of life and my Savior.
He keeps me alive day and night.

Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him
“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13.  
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

The world is saying goodbye this month to one of the most fascinating conservationists of this generation. Elephant Whisperer

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The world is saying goodbye this month to one of the most fascinating conservationists of this generation. Elephant Whisperer – so-called because of his ability to understand and calm otherwise violent and terrified elephants – Lawrence Anthony passed away from a heart attack on March 2, 2012, during a business trip to Johannesburg, South Africa.

Most famous for his bold rescue of several animals from the shattered and shelled Baghdad Zoo in 2003, Anthony was on a tour to promote his new book, coauthored with compatriot and brother-in-law Graham Spence, titled The Last Rhinos, an in-depth look at Anthony’s time in the Congo trying to save the white rhinoceros.

Courtesy of Lawrence Anthony

 

“The [Lord’s Resistance Army] was encamped in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which at the time was the last refuge of the northern white rhino,” Anthony said in an interview last year. “Essentially, I went and found them in the jungle to try and persuade them not kill the game guards or the last few rhinos. I ended up living with leaders in their secret jungle camps. My discussions and attempts to persuade the LRA to save the rhino expanded into child soldiers, peace talks and other matters.”

As much a diplomat as a conservationist, Anthony negotiated peace and cooperative agreements among African rebels and their governments, scientists and land developers, and various belligerent African tribes, all to help protect some of the continent’s rarest species of charismatic megafauna. It is because of his dedication and enthusiasm that most militant and warring groups understand that parks and other protected areas are off limits as war zones.

Courtesy of Lawrence Anthony

 

During his time in Iraq, he helped rescue scores of animals, including Hussein family’s exotic pets, that were otherwise forgotten by both the invading United States and the local Iraqis. This included tracking down thieves and smugglers, buying food for the carnivores, and cleaning and repairing cages.

“American soldiers who were fighting all day would come back and put down their M-16s and help us in the zoo, and I had the Iraqi Republican Guard[…] coming, as well,” Anthony told Izilwane. “Outside of the zoo, they’re shooting the hell out of each other, inside the zoo they were helping each other, and that is the effect of people wanting to be with and help the animals.”

He wrote about these experiences in the 2007 account Babylon’s Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo.

Anthony is survived not only by his loving family, but also by the countless animals whose lives he touched in so many ways.

Courtesy of Lawrence Anthony

Some reports indicate that even the very elephants he helped rescue on the Thula Thula Reserve in South Africa came to pay respects to their fallen comrade. After being absent from the lodge for more than a year, the herd ambled for twelve hours to say goodbye.

Jacob Zuma will be opening a dinner is to be held in remeberance of Anthony, and to launch his latest book ,The Last Rhinos at the end of March

To support any one of Anthony’s causes or attend this dinner please contact me on jbayvel@yahoo.com. To make a donation to Earth Org visit http://www.earthorganization.org/

 

How We Judge People by Their Facebook Cover Photos

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facebook cover page

In just a few weeks, Facebook users who’ve yet to switch over to the new profile design will be forced to do so. Among other changes, it also means adding another, larger photo to your profile. Some may choose to showcase themselves, while others will choose photos of their cats, children, or favorite character, but you’ll still have a regular profile picture as well. You know the old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover?” Well according to a new study, it seems that’s exactly what social media users tend to do with Facebook pictures.

“Photos seem to be the primary way we make impressions of people on social networking sites,” said Brandon Van Der Heide, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University. “If your profile photo fits what they expect, observers may be unlikely to look very closely at the rest of your profile – they have already decided how they feel about you.”

But most of the time, snap judgements are made without reading any of the words on the profile. Van Der Heide, along with graduate students Jonathan D’Angelo and Erin Schumaker, asked students to look at profiles with a photo and an “about me” section and then rate from one to seven how extroverted they thought the user was. The students judged that those who had pictures of themselves with friends were extroverted even if the “about me” portion suggested otherwise. They found exceptions to the findings when users had pictures that were particularly different.

“People will accept a positive photo of you as showing how you really are, but if the photo is odd or negative in any way, people want to find out more before forming an impression,” said Van Der Heide. “If your photo is not quite normal – either positively or negatively – people are going to pay a lot more attention to what you wrote.”

Van Der Heide said that although his study was based solely on Facebook, the findings can translate to other social media sites where profile pictures are used. He also made it a point to mention that this type of judgement can occur when potential employers are looking at your profiles.

Are you guilty of judging a person by their profile photo? Of course, not everyone uses pictures of themselves, and that wasn’t something specifically covered in the study, but it’s definitely something to think about. Especially with the impending cover photos about to take over the website.

Getting stopped at a road block by a metro that should probably be our president… South Africa is a wonderful and interesting country!

JoJo BayvelLeave a comment

 

It’s always THAT time of the morning when you are tired, irritable, being pushed off the road by a taxi, who seems to think that waving circles with his hand, outside his window is suffice to say “ I’m taking your lane move over”, that you spot those orange beacons……. dum dum dum (cue jaws music)

Needless to say I am blonde and the roadblock is in the same place EVERY morning yet I still quickly put my mobile down, make sure my safety belt is tightly in place and even though I know I have no outstanding fines, my licence disc is up to date and I have a valid driver’s licence (yes my family and friends are still under the impression I paid a fortune or wore a short skirt to the test. It pleases me to no end that it was a tracksuit, no make-up and an old Afrikaans guy who recognized my surname from my dad’s Bok days that I think did the trick… let’s just say I didn’t get into the parallel parking nor the alley docking and when we got on the road my instructor said “are yous gaaning to jol on celebrations tonight? That was K53 out the window and me and my drivers in hand…when I asked my folks if I could do an advanced driving course recently the response was “Why don’t you so a beginners course instead”!)

Well back to the story, went off the beaten track there,. So I still always feel like a nervous schoolgirl being pulled over and today was no exception. Out came the licence and the next thing I knew my car was searched for weapons et al!

Well… the thoroughness of this cop was amazing. When I jokingly said no guns “ but I should have one for Totsi’s” he launched into an educational insert on the different words for “thief” in each African language. Next was a lesson in the basic greeting’s and I  have to admit at this point he had me captivated and I wanted to drive him to the closest school and say this man will make sure your next class passes ANYTHING!

Next we were onto the topic of politics. Now as someone who keeps my nose out of this area I was hesitant to listen or comment and now I am writing about it. One man’s words made such an impact yet a thousand presidents speeches bore me to death!

He started of by telling me he knew God wanted him to teach poor white children African languages… GULP… working in a BEE environment I did choke a bit, here was this black man explaining to me that out government did not want to acknowledge the growing number of poor white families in South Africa and he wants to help. He does so at the police station already.

He then went on and asked me why I thought COSATU had held a strike? Well … i don’t know they don’t want the toll system in place i guess… but not his analogy was amazing it started like this “How can a man and woman who are married and sleep in the same bed, strike against one another?” this struck a chord COSATU and the ANC are definitely very cosy and spooned up in bed! He believed that again it was a play to prey on the uneducated, get the masses involved as they believed they truly were striking against the implementation of tolls, when in fact the little minions at the top were saying to their allies “If you don’t give us a piece of the action i.e. the money we will strike, give us a portion of the tolls and Hey who cares about the masses who will struggle further when everything from petrol to bread, milk and transport costs increase.”

Just before we ended our conversation, I was quite sad to move on; I asked him if crime had dropped in our country. His response was yes BUT more “violent crimes” were on the rise… why? Because of hatred bred in a society where apartheid is no longer a factor and crimes committed out of racism are carried out by those who were not affected by this cruel and awful era.

Another thing to remember when you get pulled over and you feel anger or irritation that the “STUPID and uneducated” metro has pulled you over AGAIN think about this…. my cop, as he will now be known, after all I will see him every morning as I hurriedly put mascara on in my rear view mirror, before he catches me, went and trained with Scotland Yard and the FBI …. he says they have the same problem as we do illegal immigrants committing crimes and they cannot be caught because they are not registered in the country…. he travelled with a large number of our police and metro force so let’s just say that we shouldn’t be muttering stupid metro’s any longer… their intelligence might just surprise you.