what other active brother can go 'round wearin' four inch heels
I now have this vision in my head of brothers who are Prince fans turning up for meetings wearing suits and high heels which just cracks me up
and what a wholesome history he celebrates.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jge5hala--s#t=3m50s.
use this link to skip to the important part (copy into browser):.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jge5hala--s#t=3m50s.
what other active brother can go 'round wearin' four inch heels
I now have this vision in my head of brothers who are Prince fans turning up for meetings wearing suits and high heels which just cracks me up
just wanted to write a tribute to my best friend whom i lost last week, it was one of the most painful experiences i have ever been through.
i have no children, my puppy was my child.
i got him from a golden retriever rescue organization when he was 2. he was recovering from a car accident, still a bit skiddish, but he chose me to take him home (the foster mom said that he never responded to anyone like he did me).. he was always happy to see me, greet me with a toy in his mouth, he never judged me, never cared whether i was "bad association", he was always there when i needed to smile and remembe that i was not alone in the world.
Dear Coffee House Girl, my eyes filled with tears reading your post. I know exactly how you feel, I was with our Golden when he had to be put to sleep and it broke my heart in two. The pain was unbearable. He was nearly 14 years old but we still affectionately called him our 'puppy' . As you say, they love us unconditionally and never judge us like humans. The whole family was inconsolable for a long time and my son couldn't work for a week he was so devastated, he just lay on his bed surrounded by puppy's toys and photos.The sight of my son grieving so badly made my pain even worse to bear.
It will take time to heal, and your lovely dog will always have a very special place in your heart, but you obviously have a lot of love to give to another lucky dog when you feel ready.
My heartfelt love and commiserations to all fellow doggy people on this board who know the pain of losing their best friend, or indeed the pain of losing any beloved pet whatever the species, they are all special.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bf0gnpcjps.
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cedars.
I am completely and utterly confused by the steel ball analogy. It makes no sense at all to me! For one thing, the sun is NOT a steel ball, it is a fiery globe shaped furnace of molten gases that is burning at a colossal rate and will eventually (in a few billion years I think) burn itself out, with or without the help of a fly, which will mean curtains to any life living on planet earth. What happens then, Anthony?
i just thought you should know that mrs cedars has finally taken the plunge and joined the forum.
she was able to log on for the first time yesterday.. though we both "awakened" at different stages, mrs cedars was very supportive and non-judgmental when i first began exploring my beliefs from a critical standpoint.
she is currently in the process of reading crisis of conscience and aquainting herself with some of the facts of witness history that were hitherto unknown.
Lovely to meet you Mrs Cedars.
i was a regular taxi for alot of people.. we (wife & family) pick up one sister and her 2 children for many years ...he husband had walked out on her and we did'nt mind.. however when we were asked by the cobe wife to pick up and elderly and infermed bro a 3 day assembly (we had 3 young children) i said no.. we pased her and her daughter traviling alone to the assembly.. .
My dad was the unofficial congregation free taxi service back in the 60s. We had the group study in our house and there were several elderly sisters without transport who came to our group, and often to our family Watchtower study evening. They all lived miles apart from each other. Dad would have to do the rounds picking them all up (nobody else ever offered) then taking them all home again. It was all taken for granted that it was their right to be taxied about to and from the meetings without having to pay, after all it was 'Jehovah' who was providing for them.
There was never any divine intervention when Dad went to refill the car's empty tank though, or heavenly help in maintaining his poor overworked car. No, it was 'Jehovah' who was providing, even though it was always Dad's wallet that suffered.
just what is it that the watchtower thinks is so much more modest and respectful to jehovah about wearing a skirt instead of trousers?
that is, unless you live in a culture that has trousers as the norm for women, as in india.. something today brought this to my mind.
i can't even remember what it was, but it led to thinking again about this.
The advice for skirt wearing females to limit the time they are exposed to the cold is a laugh, how can you do that when you are a full time pioneer with 100 hours to get in? I can remember one particular freezing winter in the UK back in the 1960s when I ended up with a kidney infection and pneumonia through pioneering in sub zero temperatures wearing the obligatory skirts and thin tights when every non JW female would not dream of appearing out of doors for long periods without wearing warm woolly trousers/pants. Back in those days, you couldn't even buy the thick 60 denier tights that are available today.
it took almost 3 years after we quietly left our last meeting (memorial 2008) before anyone came looking for us.
after nearly 25 years raising our family in the same hall and it was as if we didn't exist anymore.. that happened about a year ago but yesterday the boys and our daughter in law were here and were all having a late breakfast and lounging around in our robes an p.j's having a nice morning.
we were sitting at the kitchen table looking out the sliding glass door at one of those summer rains where it just buckets down all of a sudden.
It made me smile to think of JWs feeling the need to explain to former congregation members of 25 years standing that conventions are open to the general public, as though you had never known that before. Surely as former friends they would realise that you must obviously have spent years going door to door telling the general public about the conventions, exactly as they were doing yesterday.
It never ceases to amaze me how often JWs treat us former dubs as if we are either suffering from amnesia or completely lost our marbles. After all, in their brainwashed minds what other reason could we possibly have for leaving "The Truth?" It must be really confusing to them when they see us all so happy and contented in our new WT free lives when they are all trained to believe we are all living miserable empty existences.
Even though I was a regular pioneer for years and the daughter of an elder, I still have to endure kind hearted JWs feeling the need to explain even the most basic teachings to me as if I had either forgotten or maybe spent my JW years in a total daze. I just smile sweetly and remind them that I actually already know all that they are carefully trying to explain to me, but I am not interested thank you, and perfectly happy to be free of it all. Very bewildering for the poor souls.
Looking at that picture I wondered where all the screaming, terrified people were and the little children, puppies and kittens especially that cute little girl with plaits then I realised she is probably still locked in her bedroom fending off that 6 foot middle aged pervert as per WT instructions. Or am I being just a bit too cinical here?
i was about 8-10 years old and twice i had people tell me that i should not pioneer but to go to bethel because i "was governing body material".. one was a co and another a do.. i didn't even believe in god, never have so that makes it weird!.
what wierd things were told?.
Ooh where to start, I have so many!
I think one of the best examples is the time when I went to visit my Mom and one of her friends came round who immediately launched into a full scale verbal attack, yelling and screaming at me for leaving "The Truth" and did I realise what I had done to my poor mother.
I calmly told her the last thing I wanted to do was hurt my Mom which is why I had stayed in "The Truth" as long as I had done, but as I didn't believe it was "The Truth" I couldn't keep up the pretence any longer.
Her reply was that it didn't matter what I believed, I should belong to the religion my mother had chosen for me . She then went on to emphasize her point by saying how heartbroken her own mother had been when she left the catholic faith.
Hmmmm, so following along that line of reasoning, shouldn't she revert back to catholicism? She stuttered for a few seconds before agreeing with me and saying "Yes"
with all the tools and information at the disposal of newly awakened ones, it's still no easy task coming to terms with the magnitude of it all.
it still takes a lot of gut-wrenching time and effort to get to the point where you are sure you made the right decision to leave.. .
how did you long-timers (old-timers, respectfully) manage it without crisis of conscience, christian freedom, jwn, jwfacts, freeminds, access to thousands of fellow survivors with stories just like yours?.
Alarm bells started ringing for me when it was announced from the platform that we were to hand in any books written by Russell or Rutherford to be destroyed on a bonfire as the teachings were out of date and therefore misleading and could lead to stumble people . This was back in the early 1970s I think. I had never seen any of these books and was curious as to why they were considered to be so dangerous.
One day I was sent to help care for a very elderly brother of the Remnant and he had a bookshelf full of literature by Russell and Rutherford that had escaped the destruction. I spent several hours reading through them and was absolutely SHOCKED by the changes that had taken place in the basic Society teachings since the days of Russell. This was supposed to be the religion chosen by Jesus to be nearest to the truth, that he wanted to represent him on earth, yet almost every basic doctrine had been changed!!! It was also a huge shock to learn that Russell was a Pyramidologist.
I had to keep all this to myself for fear of getting into trouble for reading it, but the seeds of doubt were well and truly set. Without the internet I had no idea other witnesses also had doubts so I lived with them for years making excuses not to go to meetings whenever possible and starting to fade, having to put up with being called 'weak' by the congregation. Eventually I plucked up the courage to tell my practically born-in husband that I couldn't stand it any longer as it was all lies. To my absolute relief he also started to fade soon after that and moving to a new location helped us to complete our fade. I still had no idea there were others out there going through the same trauma as us as there was no way of knowing without the internet, and certainly no help or counselling available.