Significance @ MindSay 
Well ... I knew this day would come, and frankly, I thought it would come faster than it has, but that doesn't make it any easier. You know how some possessions take on special meaning because of the circumstances one might attach to them? It's true. Silly, maybe, but true.
I know lots of people have gone through the emotional and psychological process of divorce both online here and in my circle of friends. Each of us deals in our own way, of course. Perhaps the hardest thing for me through that time was the feeling that such a big part of my life had been "wasted." Fortunately, I have 3 incredible kids to prove that is not an accurate assessment! :) Nevertheless, those thoughts swarmed me for about a year after our separation. It was during this time, after losing my teaching position, my marriage, and our family van within a few months, that God blessed me with the Mustang convertible! I received it as a "love gift" from Him. I have thoroughly enjoyed it, but ... it now has 140+ thousand miles on it (63k when I got it 4 yrs ago), and ... well ... it's time. Time to move on ...
My son is laughing at me, but ... I'm saying goodbye to a "friend." Some of you will understand ... maybe! :)
Thanks for your indulgence ...
~ B
"... You make me feel like a natural woman ... "
What's in a name, anyway? At various times in different cultures, the naming of a child had great significance. The parents almost decided the future of their child by the name they selected and bestowed. There have been trends in names. Biblical names have always been popular, but different ones more so than others. John, Paul, Matthew, Mark, Peter, Thomas, David, generally more popular than Isaiah, Moses, Hezekiah, or Zebulen. As for girls' names, Deborah and Mary are the most popular with Biblical history.
What is the significance of YOUR name? My first name is Barbara. I remember first learning its meaning when in elementary school and, frankly, it isolated me.
The name Barbara is a baby girl name. The name Barbara comes from the English origin. In English The meaning of the name Barbara is: From the Greek barbaros meaning foreign or strange, traveler from a foreign land. In Catholic custom St. Barbara is a protectress against fire and lightning.
As a young girl, being called "strange" or "alien" actually made me FEEL that way. I was often alone, even at recess time. I chose to play by myself often, rather than join the other kids in kickball or tag. Now, whether I felt more so than other children, who knows! It has certainly been something I had to grow into. As an adult, I have a better understanding of the Greek word "barbaros," and its more familiar derivative, barbarian. As a child, being a "strange" individual felt like isolation and loneliness, but as an adult, it has spawned a delightful sense of self-identification, a uniqueness that continues to motivate me in ever-increasing self-discovery. And since I believe in a loving Father God, maker of heaven and earth, I also believe that the most honest and direct path toward self-discovery is to walk toward Him.
So many of us wear masks of expectations put on us either by others or by our own imaginings, that we cover up and hide, or generally disregard who we really are. It's easy to pick up an image of who the world, the culture, the ethnic group, the family (etc) says we should be. After all, TV shows tell us, movies tell us, magazines, tell us, friends tell us, parents tell us ... teachers tell us ... and so forth. But who is right? Whose image is correct?
As I see it, since God made me (see Ps 139), He has the best notion of who I am, of who He created me to be. If it is my goal to become all I can be, it behooves me (great old word, hmmm?) to seek Him first and allow Him to define me more clearly each and every day. In this way, I become supernaturally natural ... a natural only obtainable via the supernatural assistance and direction of the loving God who designed me.
A "Barbarian"? In many ways, absolutely! A "stranger" ... always, but there is nothing lonely about it. What is the significance of YOUR name? Does it fit you? I had to grow into mine ... how about you?
Find the meaning of YOUR name ... HERE!
~ B
My mother as always, would like to share the joy with the relatives. So she packed some of the food for our relatives in my hometown and asked them to pick up from my house. One of the relative is her sister who has 2 young boys. The youngest one, 9-year old, happened to come to my house to pick the package from my mother. As a child who is full of curiosity, asking my mother why we all have to eat noodle on our birthday. My mother answered him that if we eat noodle during our birthday, we will be blessed with long life. This answer seems satisfy my young cousin, but he didn't say anything for some time. For the next few minutes, he seemed thinking about something, and finally when it was about time for him to go, he asked my mother one more time. "Aunt, is it really true if we eat the noodles we will be blessed with long life?" My mother said "yes" and thought that he wanted to get more noodle for him. Yes, it's true... my cousin asked my mother whether he can get extra package of noodle. However, what he told my mother really touched us. He said "if it is really true, can I get extra package so that my mother can eat more noodles, so she will be blessed with long life".
Wow, that's really sweet and touching. A 9 year old boy can think of getting extra noodle for the sake of his mother. He wants his mother to be blessed with long life. We may find it funny that he asked for such "illogical" request. Like my brother commented, "I thought the one who will be blessed long life is the birthday person? Not other people". However, the logic is registered very well in the mind of this boy. This action really show how he cares and loves his mother, and regardless whether the noodle will make the mother have the blessing is no longer important. I'm sure when his mother knows about this, she will be happily eating extra noodles because what she receives is not the conception that she will get the blessing, but what she receives is the love and care from his son, symbolised by the extra package of noodle.
In life, quite often we interact through symbols to express the intention in our mind. By symbolising certain acts, somehow the actions themselves will become more "real" to us, we can have better "feel" of it. For example, Valentine's day. To me personally, Valentine's day is just a normal day, no different from any other days, and in fact everyday is equally important to us. However, by focusing on the meaning behind this symbol, I could feel that hey this day is a good day to remind me that I love my girlfriend, that I am fortunate to have someone to love, and being loved by someone. By spending a special quality time with her, I realise that not all time we could spend time like this. And this is really important for our relationship. So, not the Valentine's day itself that is important, it is the same as any other day, but the meaning behind it gives the difference, and in fact not everybody feels the same way. It's all up to us how we're going to reflect on this meaning and translate it to make the quality of our relationship become better and better.
However, ironically that many people tend to focus on the symbols themselves, rather than knowing that the symbols are only symbols, nothing more than that :) borrowing terms from Ajahn Brahm, this is what is called focusing on the "container" rather than the "content". At the end of the day, container will remain container. What we drink and benefit from a water is the water element itself, not the bottle that carries it. The bottle will remain the bottle, nothing more than that. It is a fact that sometimes we force people to practice a certain tradition, even having fight with family members over whether or not the tradition should be practiced, but we don't know the significance of the tradition itself :) what it is that symbolises the form in the tradition. Or sometimes we could judge people that they practice "wrong" things, like for example I have a friend who criticises Buddhist practice of "worshiping" Buddha statue. To my friend, it is wrong to worship something that is not alive. However, I told my friend, what we do is not a worshiping. Again, statue will always be a statue, one day it will turn into ashes as well. Nothing is permanent. But that statue is a symbol for us to better visualise and remember the quality of Buddha as our teacher. We have better feel when we see the statue. Even Buddha himself has passed away and there is no way for him to literally teach us, but the quality is still there for us to be remembered and to inspire us to develop such qualities so that we can be better human beings.
So, often we need symbols to help us communicate to each other, but we have to be mindful that symbols are basically tools, nothing more than that. By using these symbols, we can see more 'real' and communicate our intentions better. Like my sweet 9 year old cousin, with noodles he could communicate his great love and care to his mother :) can his love and care be measured? Of course no, but it will be hard for us to understand how deep they are, if there's no that noodle as a symbol :) cheers!
