Mountain Mondays

Mondays are mountain days. Days when we may fell like our head is on the chopping block. Perhaps days when we lose our head? It’s hard facing confinement when we were running free through wonderland not less than 48 hours ago.

Through some strange phenomenon, the work that was completely finished on Friday somehow gained momentum over the weekend and now sits in a massive mountain glaring at us.

If we try to ignore it, it gets bigger. If we try to deny it, it screams our name. Our head has to take the red eye flight from a weekend of frolicking to a week of work. Though work is a four letter word, it is one word, we can’t live without. The letters don’t work singularly, they work together.

I think I have figured out what happens in between the days/daze. When Monday rolls in, we have to snap back into our position as a worker. We compare the week with the weekend and therein lies the rub.

On Monday, we are narrating our glorious weekend tales in vivid detail to our friends/coworkers and by doing that reliving them. By mid week, we start replacing work images with weekend images which ironically allows us to get through the week, but this method doesn’t work on weekends.

During weekends, we expand our weekend images, but don’t dare replace them with week images. Okay, I confess that I am not a theorist, but the above theory works for me. My head is the home of potent stimuli and invention that rivals any Nobel Peace Prize winner and I in my infinite wisdom will one day prove it to you all. Maybe the Pulitzer Prize is more my speed? Or better yet, the Blogitzer? (Daydreams about all of the possibilities.)

In an effort to make your work day flow a little smoother, or just assist you in your daydreams, I will leave you with facts about the tallest mountain in the world; the one and only Mount Everest. Just knowing that my work isn’t piled as high as Everest, I can get through the week a lot easier; that is as soon as I stop daydreaming.

Mt. Everest was named for Sir George Everest in 1859, the British surveyor-general of India and it was once known as Peak 15.

The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in High Asia, is located on the border between Sagarmatha Zone, Nepal and China.

In Nepal, it is called, Sagarmatha (goddess of the sky.) Some Nepalis also say that Sagarmatha, literally means "head of the ocean" or "head of the sea."

Tibetans and Chinese call it Qomolangma, or Chomolungma, (mother goddess of the universe) after the goddess Jomo Miyolangsangma
Chomolungma.

Everest was formed about 60 million years ago and has an elevation of
29,028 feet, or 5 and a half miles above sea level. This is equivalent to the size of almost 20 Empire State Buildings.

The first ascent of the peak was by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

Mount Everest has two main climbing routes, the southeast ridge from Nepal and the northeast ridge from Tibet, as well as many other less frequently climbed routes. Of the two main routes, the southeast ridge is technically easier and is the more frequently used route. It was the route used by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and the first recognized of fifteen routes to the top by 1996. This was, however, a route decision dictated more by politics than by design as the Chinese border was closed to foreigners in 1950 after the Chinese invaded Tibet.

As of 2003, more than 1,200 people from 63 countries, including 75 women, had scaled the peak. Some 211, including six women, climbed the mountain more than once. As of 2003, 175 people had died on Mount Everest; 42 while descending after reaching the summit.

By the end of the 2007 climbing season, there had been 3,679 ascents to the summit by 2,436 individuals. There have been 210 deaths on the mountain, where conditions are so difficult that most corpses have been left where they fell; some are visible from standard climbing routes. About 150 bodies have never been recovered.

Climbers range from experienced mountaineers to relative novices who count on their paid guides to get them to the top. This means climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal, whose government also requires all prospective climbers to obtain an expensive permit, costing up to $25,000.

Most attempts are made during May before the summer monsoon season. As the monsoon season approaches, a change in the jet stream at this time pushes it northward, thereby reducing the average wind speeds high on the mountain. While attempts are sometimes made after the monsoons in September and October when the jet stream is again temporarily pushed northward, the additional snow deposited by the monsoons and the less stable weather patterns (tail end of the monsoon) makes climbing more difficult.

While conditions for any area classified as a death zone apply to Mount Everest, it is significantly more difficult for a climber to survive at the death zone on Mount Everest. Temperatures can dip to very low levels, resulting in frostbite of any body part exposed to the air. Because temperatures are so low, snow is well-frozen in certain areas and death by slipping and falling can also occur. High winds at these altitudes on Everest are also a potential threat to climbers. The atmospheric pressure at the top of Everest is about a third of sea level pressure, meaning there is about a third as much oxygen available to breathe as at sea level.

On May 8, 2008, the Olympic flame reached the top of Mount Everest, an emotional moment for China and the crowning of the Beijing Olympics torch relay.

See, work isn’t so bad is it? At least we don’t have to climb Mount Everest. We each have our own mountains to climb, so let us climb them with vigor and without hesitation. Let us climb them without looking back or looking down. If we climb them with strength and courage, we will get to the summit of life.

God grant me the serenity to accept the mountains I can not change, climb the mountains that I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

The Love Dance

Valentine’s Day - I love it - I hate it.

Why you ask? I love the sentiment of honoring love - that in itself is a beautiful expression of who we are - and that’s where my love ends.

Why would I, a person so full of love actually hate something that doesn’t perpetuate hate? Why do I frown upon something that makes many (superficially) happy and others despise themselves for not being included in all the hoopla? Glad you asked.

The reason for this love-hate relationship lies in the hands and the vapid Souls of those evil little marketers out to make a quick buck on sentiment? The marketers have drawn their arrows back and pierced the very heart of sentiment.

They do it with every holiday, except Groundhogs day? Why the discrimination? What have those furry little creatures ever done to marketers? Seriously, if they could find an emotion and attach it to Groundhogs day, they would do it in a heart beat.

Over the last two weeks, I have seen so many commercials for diamonds, chocolates, flowers, cards, restaurants, and ahem, K-Y jelly that it’s ridiculous.

Is it not fashionable or cool just to tell a person,“I love you?” What’s the matter with that? Oh yeah, because the marketers have decided that when you tell people that you love them, don’t tell them empty-handed or you won’t get any love in return.

For every person who feels good from love; love makes an equal amount of people feel bad. That loneliness doesn’t die easy; it multiplies if it can’t be embraced by love.

It’s all well and good to talk about higher love, but when we have been hurt so badly, we can’t help to think that such love doesn’t exist.

I am not talking about what some people refer to as the divide between romantic and spiritual love - I think all loves springs from higher love and we consign it to various areas of our lives.

There IS a higher love, there will always BE a higher LOVE, but when we are feeling low, we can’t think high.

There are varying opinions as to the origin of Valentine's Day. Some experts state that it originated from St. Valentine, a Roman who was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity. He died on February 14, 269 A.D., the same day that had been devoted to love lotteries.

Legend also says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it, "From Your Valentine." Other aspects of the story say that St. Valentine served as a priest at the temple during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Claudius then had Valentine jailed for defying him. In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius set aside February 14th to honor St. Valentine.

Gradually, February 14th became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. The date was marked by sending poems and simple gifts such as flowers. There was often a social gathering or a ball.

The holiday's roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15th. Pope Gelasius I recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring February 14th to be St. Valentine's Day.

It wasn't until 1537 that England's King Henry VIII declared February 14th an official holiday.

So do you think the marketers are doing us a disservice by perpetuating the myth that love comes wrapped in a pretty package? What about those people who don’t believe in the commercially of the day who feel themselves being drawn into the marketers lair?

Take my hand and let us get back to the dance of love, the celebration of being. Step into the rhythm of all that is love; the beauty, the colors, the nuances, the collaboration of emotion and everything that transpires between two Souls.

Valentine’s Day is not really not about the day, it’s about the sentiment in your heart. Love is a patient teacher, it rules with the steady hand of tenderness. Don’t let the marketers kill everything that is love. Believe in love for all and all for love?

INTERESTING LOVE STUFF

The heart is the most common symbol of romantic love. Ancient cultures believed the human soul lived in the heart. Others thought it to be the source of emotion and intelligence. Some believed the heart embodied a man's truth, strength and nobility. The heart may be associated with love because the ancient Greeks believed it was the target of Eros, known as Cupid to the Romans. Anyone shot in the heart by one of Cupid's arrows would fall hopelessly in love. Because the heart is so closely linked to love, it's red color is thought to be the most romantic.

According to psychologist Dr. Jane Barr Stump, one out of every four men believes he's in love on the first date. But only one out of 6 women believes she's in love even by the fourth date. Women take longer and tend to be more practical.

Psychologists contend that a man is less likely to love two women at the same time than is a woman to love 2 men at the same time. They theorize that this is so because rarely, if ever, does the active pursuer love more than one person. Despite gender equality, more men than women are the active pursuer. It's not unusual for a woman, pursued by 2 men, to claim that she loves both of them.

In Guam, there are men whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins. These men are paid by the virgin or by her family. Under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry.

In Columbia, is the city of Cali, the first time a woman has sex with her husband, her mother must be present in the room when it happens in order to witness the act.

Experts on missing persons claim that most husbands who report their wives missing cannot give an accurate description of them. They can usually recall their wives height and weight, but cannot recall their hair or eye color, and certainly not clothing. Interestingly, if a car is missing too, husbands more accurately describe the car.

According to historians, women and men did not kiss in ancient China. In fact, they considered the custom revolting.

Researchers report that men with high testosterone levels tend to lack verbal skills.

When Buster Mitchell's girlfriend walked out on him, he went back to his beloved and decided to make it legal with her. Mitchell, 28, went to the county courthouse in Knoxville, Tenn., and started filling out the marriage license application. He listed his fiancee's birthplace as Detroit, her father as "Henry Ford" and her blood type as "10-W-40." When the clerk questioned him, the clerk discovered that Mitchell was trying to get a license to marry his car - a 1966 Ford Mustang GT. He plans to try again elsewhere.

It's reported that more than 10,000 marriages a year now are directly traceable to romances which begin during coffee breaks.

The matrimonial pollsters contend their studies indicate the man who kisses his wife good-bye when he leaves for work every morning averages a higher income than does the fellow who doesn't do that thing. Husbands who exercise the rituals of affection tend to be more painstaking, more stable, more methodical, thus higher earners.

2 out of 5 have married their first love.
Only 4% asked the parents' approval for their bride's hand.
1 in 5 men proposed on his knees
6% propose over the phone.

In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation.

The primary ambition of a Zulu's wife is to help her husband acquire sufficient means to buy another wife - so they can split the chores.

In a study respondents mentioned three qualities which they considered essential for happy, long-lasting relationships. Affection was named most important by the majority, second only to communication. Sex, on the other hand, which they separated from affection, was relegated to eighth position.