Lightning Bolts Colliding

My girl, I looked over the edge of the earth,
and I saw lightning bolts colliding,
and tears falling like rain,
and the women of Jerusalem, bent down,
picking up the shards of the promised land,
and I said to myself --

"We are headed there."
And, I suppose you saw that same vision,
and your heart secretly broke,
and then you tried to close your eyes,
and look back at me for some reassurance.

My eyes, however, were gazing at you,
and beyond you,
and I loved you too much to lie.

Getting Out Of A Bad Relationship? Don't Get In

"Look before you leap."

"He who sups with the devil needs a long spoon." But wouldn't it be better not to sup with the devil at all.

People don't understand why you can't just end it. Everyone tells you: This person is bad -- but it is hard for you to see it. Hard, to believe it. You are so close, still dazzled by their the sunny-ness. This sunny-ness blinds you.

The time to get out of a bad relationship is before getting into a bad relationship. Once inside, the world looks different. You take it for granted that this person means you good. Before accepting a job, committing to a friendship, starting a relationship -- before, this is where the work of deciding is most need. Once you are "in" it becomes increasingly difficult to get out. Look at women in abusive relationships: it is hard to get out.

Excerpted Article Below is Helpful:

the University College London found that “feelings of love lead to a suppression of activity in the areas of the brain controlling critical thought. It seems that once we get close to a person, the brain decides the need to assess their character and personality is reduced.”

Not only does romantic love suppress our critical thinking, but feel-good chemicals and hormones like oxytocin and dopamine cloud our judgment even more. Love truly gives us a drug-like “high,” and it feels so good that we simply ignore the red flags waving right before us. If by chance you do take notice of a gal’s negative behavior or attitude, you’re likely to minimize it, writing it off as a cute quirk, or telling yourself, “Oh, it’s not that bad. Besides, maybe I can be the guy to help her improve.”

Don’t fool yourself.  You can’t force your partner to change; the change has to come from within. Also, problems that you notice at the beginning of a relationship tend to amplify themselves as the relationship deepens. Or as marriage expert Dr. John Van Epp says in his book, How to Avoid Falling in Love With a Jerk, “The good doesn’t always last, and the bad usually gets worse.”

“Well,” you say, “I’m a manly man, dammit. I don’t let my emotions get the best of me in a relationship. I always think rationally.”

Hold on there, chief. Some research actually indicates that men, particularly men in their mid-twenties, “typically fall in love faster than women and are the first to take the lead in saying words of love in the initial stages of the relationship.” Women, on the other hand, are generally more apprehensive in the beginning stages of a relationship. In other words, just because you’re a dude, doesn’t mean you’re not susceptible to love blindness.

Knowing that your judgment is clouded, it’s important to enter any serious relationship with both your head and your heart. You need be able to distance yourself from the powerful emotions you’re likely feeling in a new relationship so that you can notice any red flags that might indicate that you’re destined for a relationship from hell. This is doubly important if you’re considering marriage.

But what sort of red flags should you be on the lookout for? While every man has his own personal relationship red flags or deal breakers, psychologists and marriage experts have found there are a few general red flags you should be aware of. Most of these are patterns of behavior in your partner that will likely (not definitely) result in a troubled relationship down the road.

Because people are usually on their best behavior at the beginning of a relationship, some of these red flags won’t appear for awhile. According to Dr. Van Epp, it’s usually around the three-month mark that deep-seated patterns start to manifest themselves. This delay is why he and other relationship experts recommend that you take romantic relationships nice and slow.

Best Quotes From Great Gatsby

He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“I was within and without. Simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams -- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“They’re a rotten crowd’, I shouted across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed like a flower and the incarnation was complete.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promise of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the 'creative temperament'--it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No--Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“Then came the war, old sport. It was a great relief, and I tried very hard to die, but I seemed to bear an enchanted life.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty−one that everything afterward savors of anti−climax.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

When An Atheist Said, "There's No Proof God exists."

I answered:

You keep saying there is no "proof" that God exists. There are many problems with this statement. The first obvious problem is that there is, indeed, abundant proof that god/gods exist. The proof? Worshipers. 

Most people in human history have believed, naturally, that their was a creator of some kind, and they have worshiped as a result. Now, you can say that the God these people worshiped was not really "there," or not really able to help them, or not actually in existence. However, the CONCEPT of a God, and the reality of this concept is beyond denial. So, you have to agree that God, at least as an abstract concept, does indeed exist.

Also, some of the things that people worship are material. Sometimes men even worship each other. Thus, the Romans worshiped their emperors as gods. Now, you can say that the roman emperors were not TRULY gods, or true to the real concept of God. However, these were men that really existed and walked around on earth. So, you can't deny that they existed. God/gods do EXIST. 

So, the "concept" of God does exist. When you say, "There is no God," -- this is not true. The most you can say is that there is no God that you personally acknowledge. 

Remember, the term "God" can refer to more than the existence of an eternal being who created all things. "God," as a term, can refer to the one to whom we give allegiance; the one we follow; the one we obey; the center of our universe. Some, for example, worship money. Money is truly their God. Others worship power. Others worship rocks. Thus, it is not accurate for you to say "There is no God." Clearly, many people worship things: even material things.

So, you can't say, "There is no proof that God exists." There is abundant proof that people worship something/someone. There are many, many, many gods, and they set themselves before our eyes daily.

The question is NOT, therefore, "is there a God?" The question is, "Which is the TRUE God?"