Thank You For Being A Friend

by Stan Faryna

…

Andrew Gold, Thank You For Being A Friend

…

The Big Thank You

Thank you for coming here – to this blog. Thank you for subscribing. All of you. And there’s a lot of you – 10s and 10s and 10s of thousands of you that come here every month.

I thank you all. With all my heart.

Your attention, kindness and friendship means much to me. Beyond what these words can signify. And I bless you.

I bless you with all my heart just as I bless all those who have helped me (and will help me) to be the better me that I can be.

And, yes, this must include the world, the universe, and everything that our science, philosophies and theologies cannot imagine.

What is gratitude?

Wikipedia defines gratitude as a “feeling or attitude in acknowledgement of a benefit that one has received or will receive.”

Wikipedia, however, only goes a little way in helping us to understand what gratitude is or how we should live it out.

Obvious to me, gratitude as merely a feeling or attitude is profoundly incomplete. Because gratitude must be expressed in action. And, gratitude wants to express itself in a manner as large (or larger) than the benefit.

True gratitude also must include the contemplation of the benefits which we have received – all of the benefits. Not just recent benefits. Not just those benefits we recognize among our immediate interests and ambitions.

It goes beyond the feast. Beyond family and friends. Beyond a single day – gratitude goes from here to forever. It must be intimately ontological and well as existential, phenomenological and, last but not least, spiritual. True gratitude – it’s that big.

True gratitude takes us to a place of we – a place beyond the self-centered juxtaposition of me.

Love

Gratitude fuels love – a love that is greater than desire. True gratitude fuels a love that serves and gives. Without expectation of anything but love.

Thank you, my friends, for fueling this kind of love in me.

For in your service of friendship, you have encouraged my perfection, my beatification, my salvation, and, yes, my happiness.

Crazy, huh?

Crazy and beautiful and true!

I hope, this brief glimpse I give to you – of what you have done for me…

I hope this will help you to understand your own potential and Destiny.

…

Stan Faryna
22 November 2012
Bucharest, Romania

Et tu, Brute? You poor thing, you!

…

…

Bod Dylan, Positively 4th Street

…

The lyrics are below.

…

Jack wrote a blog post about Bob Dylan’s song, Positively 4th Street. That’s what he said on Audioboo. And I hadn’t heard that song in the longest time, so I’m glad that Jack reminded me of it.

Are you comfortable faking it? And other social media DOHs.

Are you comfortable faking it? Friendship, love, and life – for instance?
by Stan Faryna

I’m going to do this like Jack does it. I am also inspired (in a manner of speaking) by a Florida Film maker that recently got accolades from the blogging community. More about that another time.

Stream of consciousness: I started with a title. It came to me as I watched my twitter stream. It’s loaded with love, gratitude, and inspiration.

…

I have selected this music to heighten your reading pleasure: The Blue Danube.

Do you love strongly? And other social media DOHs. #whole-hearted

Do you love strongly? And Other Social Media DOHs.
by Stan Faryna

…

Play the soundcloud player to hear the podcast. Or download it here. The podcast sounds awesome with earphones or played on hi-fi speakers. Try it and tell me what you think.

Mobile users: you should be able to hear the podcast here.

…

Are you getting all the love you want? Are you connecting with people? Deeply? Often?

Am I? Am I getting all the love I want? Am I connecting with the people that lift me up?

Confessions of a freak-geek-misfit and time agent in exile. Faryna Podcast EP8.

Confessions of a freak-geek-misfit and time agent in exile.
by Stan Faryna

Warning:

This blog post and podcast includes adult language used in a sparing but strong manner. If you are offended by adult language, check out the other podcasts linked at the bottom of this blog post.

When we bring light to darkness, some things must be said. Otherwise, the light cannot penetrate.

…

Play the soundcloud player to hear the podcast. It sounds awesome with earphones or played on hi-fi speakers.

Mobile users: you should be able to hear the podcast here.

…

Stacey Herbert’s blog post on DIY Blogger NET inspired a dozen or more of heart-warming human stories from some of the most amazing bloggers out there. And it wasn’t just the blog posts that were awesome, the comments were often just as warming, just as inspiring, and – healing – as the blog posts.

Stacey writes about some of the #NA (NicheAmnesty) blog posts here. Her next step is to take this community building to the next level with NicheAmnesty.TV. You can also learn more here.

The First Duty of Love is to Listen! 5 Minute Therapy. Faryna Podcast EP4. #nicheamnesty

The First Duty of Love is to Listen!
by Stan Faryna

…

Play the soundcloud player to hear the podcast. Or download it here. The podcast sounds awesome with earphones or played on hi-fi speakers. Try it and tell me what you think.

Mobile users: you should be able to hear the podcast here.

Who said that money can’t buy your happiness?! [laughing]

Money can’t buy you happiness

Money, they say, can’t buy you happiness.

Because happiness is not something a thing can give to you. Nor can you take happiness from a thing. It cannot be extracted like gold from the earth. Because happiness is not in things. For it is not material. It is feeling, it is knowing, and it is love.

It is feeling that reflects our presence in the world. It is feeling that reflects oneness, harmony and beauty. It is feeling that resounds with what is true and good. And the promises of a thousand kisses, falling stars that you speak wishes to, rainbows…

And the hope that glimmers in a thousand tears. That cries out from a sigh. The ache in the aching. Because what is missed and missing is what is true.

…

Des’Ree, Kissing You

…

WTF?! Stop lieing to you. And other social media DOHs! 5 Minute Therapy

Do you have true feelings about anything?

I am waiting. I am ever waiting to bring the world to the perfection that is longed for in hope, joy, and possibility.

Do you feel the same as I do?

…

Enigma, Return to Innocence

…

I await for greater forces (men, women or otherwise) of greater prudence, courage, self-control, justice and faith. I await their direction, their demonstrations, and crowd-roaring triumphs over impossibilities, danger, and humiliation.

I am waiting to do amazing things – more amazing than I can begin to understand or imagine. Because within me are beautiful, true, and good things. They move with such precision, certainty, and counterpoint. Like the heavens. Like celestial perfection. Like a clockwork of stars and galaxies.

I am not alone

I am not alone in these anticipations and aspirations.

And you are not alone in yours.

There is untested strength, courage, and beauty in our common will. So much unrevealed awesome in our common destiny.

Wait for no one

We need begin for the hour is late. We have lost ourselves in useless distractions. We have uselessly agonized over our unfulfillment.

We do not need more things. You. Me. We need less emptiness in our hearts. We need less dishonesty. With ourselves. With others.

We need to sanctify ourselves in love. Because we are nothing – if we, ourselves, are not love. Because love is, has always been, and will always be – what we are. Wait for no one!

Do I deceive myself when I allow myself to feel my deep hunger for love? Do you?

Has not love been everything for me- when I allowed myself to feel truly the things that I feel? You?

And yet, nothing I could do would purchase it and my happiness. With one single exception- love.

Consequences

Do you feel the same?

Or, maybe, my words fail to sue for peace against the armed gates of your heart. Maybe, the walls of your heart are proud and tall like the walls of Troy.

I am of no consequence to you. I do not pretend to have wisdom for you. But who are you?

You, yourself, are of consequence to you. This is indisputable. And your emptiness longs to be filled with joy. With you. With love.

Just as my emptiness must be filled with love.

And, quite possibly, we shall find joy together. In love. With love. Through love. In the unity of our common will and destiny to be ourselves truly and completely.

Together, we can be the change that we want to see in our world.

If you can do one thing just for you today… allow yourself to feel everything as you watch this short, uplifting video:

…

Stan Faryna
25 June, 2011
Valley of the Roses (Kazanlak), Bulgaria

If you’d like to connect with me, follow @Faryna and tweet me up on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/faryna

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

About Stan Faryna

Mr. Faryna is the founder and co-founder of several technology, design and communication companies in the United States and Europe including Faryna & Associates, Inc., Halo Interactive, and others.

Stan Faryna served as a Global Voices author and translator. Global Voices is a non-profit global citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research think-tank focused on the Internet’s impact on society.

His political, scholarly, social and technical opinions have appeared in The Chicago Defender, Jurnalul National, The Washington Times, Sagar, Saptamana Financiara, Social Justice Review, and other publications.

Mr. Faryna also served as editor-in-chief of Black and Right (Praeger Press, 1996), a landmark collection of socio-political essays by important American thinkers including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Copyright

Copyright 1996 to 2012 by Stan Faryna.

Here’s my fair use policy for my content: If you want to share my content with your own audience, you may quote a brief excerpt, if and only if, you provide proper attribution (Source: The unofficial blog of Stan Faryna) with a direct link to the source. Generally speaking, as long as you are not acting as an agent or on behalf of a corporation or institution, I am not interested in any payment for the quotation or use of a complete article. Nevertheless, you may not republish or translate the entire article without my written permission. Send your request for permission via Facebook. Or tweet me up me on Twitter.

A Morning Litany For A Fair Damsel In Distress

Guten Morgen dear heart,

I have a very important song for you this morning. I’m guessing that you’ve never heard it before.

…

Richard Smallwood & Vision – Be Open

…

Be open to the Spirit

Be open to the Word

Be open to His power, let it move all through your life

God is moving by His Spirit

Be open and receive it

Be open to His Spirit and you shall blessed

DOH! I can’t believe I’m putting this out there! What’s wrong with me?!

For my friend, K. May God be with him.

Where is the Love, The Black Eyed Peas
………………………………………………..

………………………………………………..

Sucking in Syria

Syrian protesters are dying. Everyday, it seems. Maybe, eight were killed yesterday. Four, the day before. More Syrians will die, tomorrow. Through links on Twitter, I’m getting to see some videos of the dead and dying. There’s blood. Tears. Crying. There’s the crack of AK47s.

The protesters are demanding Freedom. Change. Opportunity. Reform. They want to make a better world.

Syrians are not just dying. They are being murdered. The killing is intentional.

Protesters are being murdered by soldiers or police who have been ordered to do so by their government. They might not look like you or me. They may not even speak the same language. But, unless, you are hopelessly all wrapped up in you, you know that other people are losing the people that they love and care about. In an instant.

In a gruesome, grim, split-second instant, love seems to be cancelled.