BlackSwan of Memphis

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Posts by BlackSwan of Memphis

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  23

  Have you made your Xmas cake yet?

  by highdose in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  and if so any tips?plus i have no idea how to decorate it....

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  I am so downright determined one of these years I'm making us a Yule Log cake :)
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  43

  Which coffee person are you?

  by Newborn in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  espresso (single or double)?capuccino?latte?latte macchiato?american coffee?coffee with flavour?black coffee with milk or sugar?i am definately a latte person!!

  gotta have one each morning.. i regret we don't have starbucks in sweden.

  /newby.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Double cream, double sugar, experimenting with organic coffee blends for the moment.
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  15

  Volunteering

  by BlackSwan of Memphis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when we were jw's we 'volunteered' our time to help others learn the 'truth'.. in what ways do you volunteer your time now that you are out and are free to help others as you see fit?.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Something that strikes me with some posts is that there is the idea that there is ".... well I can only do this, right now, but want to do more eventually."

  I'm wondering if that is a hangover from our past of not feeling like we're doing enough?

  I mean, think of it like this, whatever it is, when it comes from the heart, it rocks, it's a good thing.

  ILBDAYS: Volunteering at your son's preschool is a beautiful thing. Here in the Metro Detroit area I have a friend who has volunteered with a local organization that is basically like a latchkey, but it runs til 7 or 8 pm at night. They provide hot meals and activities and a place for students to do their homework. The parents of these kids are all over the board. Some of them are working 2 or more jobs, some seriously don't care either way. You care about your son and his class. Yah, I think that counts as volunteer. Hospice can be an amazing resource. I hope that you are able to do all that you really want to do

  zoiks: oy, yah, the escaping is half the battle. I totally hear ya. I remember when I was trying (badly, but trying) to fade, I couldn't wait to be able to move on with my life.

  Joshnaz: Wow, on the streets for 9 months and you bounced back. That's an amazing story. You help the elderly, that's really loving. :) I will check out the website tonight. It sounds like something that could always use support.

  A Guest: Good Grief lady!! (I'm assuming you're female cuz of your, er, symbol....) you sound like you never stop!

  Blondie: Yes doing WT comments counts :) Where would we go without it? United way too. I'm learning more about that organization and it seems super cool.

  I am a GS co leader, and am thinking of adding to that, being the director for my neighborhood. The other night at our leader mtg the current director tells us she can't find a replacement and I kid you not, every single head (other than mine) burrowed their heads very deeply into their paperwork. The director looked so stressed out, I thought she was gonna cry, and she looked at me with these pitiful eyes, and so now I think I'm probably gonna do it and i have NO clue what I'm doing. Oh, I also take care of cookies. ..... we have a new cookie coming out this year too :)
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  25

  Ms. Bohms first post

  by bohm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey, im bohms girlfriend.. i have been arguing alot with bohm himself about the huge amount of time he spends in here:-) now i've decidet to look it out my self.. about me: i have growen up in the socalled "truth".

  i was baptised when i was 18 - because of an earlier boyfriend, who wouldnt be with me when i was not.

  now i really hate him for it... it would have been so much easier if ive never got baptised.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Welcome!
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  19

  No windows

  by BlackSwan of Memphis in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a couple years back i read posts re the lack of windows in the kh.

  i think at the time i was still so close to the situation that i thought it was a bit extreme and surely it couldn't be anything like it was being made out to be: conspiracy on the part of the organization.. flash forward to recent days.

  i have been attending our local unitarian universalists church (or universalist unitarian?

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Wellllllll okay, it makes sense. And here in MI I can see how having fewer windows would make a difference with energy, especially in the wintertime.

  One of the things I remember about virtually every KH I've been in is how classroom like they are. When I started to visit different churches, I noticed how very different they all were from the average KH.

  Most of the time, despite the denomination, there is an aura of sacred space. A place to worship and pray and whatnot. The KH really has none of that.
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  21

  TRESPASSING

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  woman wins trespassing judgment against jehovah's witness.

  miscellaneous news.

  source: foxnews.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  I have a No Solicitation sign on my door and I still get people who solicit crap. The last time it happened, I tactfully pointed out the sign and the lady said I didn't see it.

  bs.

  People think, too often, they can completely ignore those things without penalty. Ridiculous.
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  15

  Volunteering

  by BlackSwan of Memphis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when we were jw's we 'volunteered' our time to help others learn the 'truth'.. in what ways do you volunteer your time now that you are out and are free to help others as you see fit?.

  .

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  I read it somewhere but I thought it appropiate for my life "All of the people I know that are perpetually unhappy are those that jump from one self-help program to the next. The problem is not with themselves, it is with their focus. Self-self-self. If they spent that time volunteering in their comunity or helping their friends and family, they would be much more content."

  I really like this statement. I think I may print it out and put it on my refrigerator. I know someone, who happens to live with me, and uhm, happens to be my mil, and well is perpetually unhappy and cannot for the life of her figure out why. And we know why.

  Her entire existence is solely about her own happiness. It's about her all the time. We have tried to encourage her to volunteer at various places like maybe a hospital or maybe the nursing home where she rehabbed from her broken hip, to no avail. Yes, she is physically able to.

  It sounds like you are so totally on teh right track Plummet!! Tell me more about the HS group. How did you get involved with this? It sounds really interesting.

  I'm so sorry that you've lost so much.
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  16

  Validation and defense mechanisms, or why it's ok for billions to die

  by zoiks in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  more and more i have been thinking about the mindset that considers the idea that billions are to be destroyed at armageddon as perfectly ok. farkel's articles on freeminds.org really helped to bring it home for me.

  as jws, we do (or did) think it was perfectly reasonable that billions will have earned a death sentence simply for not accepting religious literature from an uninvited person at their doorstep.

  how do otherwise good people (for the most part) come to accept genocide as an acceptible, even good, solution to the problems they see and experience?.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Some of these subjects are hard to put down in succinct, two line posts. Sometimes you just have to ramble to get it out...but those of us who went through it as well, we get it.

  Well thank you for understanding. These topics are so often very unique to people with the same experiences and one of the things that feels good about coming back is that 'knowing' that we've (mostly) all been there.

  When you think about it, this whole topic is creepy.
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  224

  Where Are You From?

  by finallysomepride in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  alot of members don't have a flag or country name beside their user name, and well frequently one doesn't know where that particular person is from, tell us your country, state, county or what ever you feel like giving out.

  if you are going to post please at least devulge your country.. me, i'm originally from taranaki, new zealand via auckland.

  for the most of this decade i have been living & working in brisbane, queensland, australia.. .

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Hockeytown USA

  otherwise known as Detroit, MI (or well in the general vicinity)
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  19

  No windows

  by BlackSwan of Memphis in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a couple years back i read posts re the lack of windows in the kh.

  i think at the time i was still so close to the situation that i thought it was a bit extreme and surely it couldn't be anything like it was being made out to be: conspiracy on the part of the organization.. flash forward to recent days.

  i have been attending our local unitarian universalists church (or universalist unitarian?

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  @ ada, this year for Rel. Ed at our church we're talking about world creation stories and this last month I have been volunteering with the Iroqouis story of The Woman Who Fell From The Sky, it's been so much fun. Then again I got the best job of making sea turtle cookies, which are more like big globs of sugar on sugar with a wafer cookie, but the point is there.....

  Somewhere along the way someone created the Universe and then there were turtles and COOKIES :)

  Our Reverend is actually a very Hindu inspired humanist

  Ah yes I am starting to really see that there are some big differences in our experiences with KH's. :)