I never could understand why celebrating wedding anniversaries was OK, but celebrating birthdays was taboo. You only have one birthday, the rest are "anniversaries".
Reopened Mind
Reopened Mind
JoinedPosts by Reopened Mind
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21
When You Were A Witness Did You Ever Celebrate A Birthday or Holidays?
by minimus ini knew some families that celebrated "family day" on christmas eve or some time around the holiday.. i don't know of too many witnesses that actually celebrated but kinda came close....haha.
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14
I got sick message from my brother :/
by Kaiser inat first i must apologize my english, im not native speaker.. .
during the last two years i ve been studying without watchtower publications and it really opened my eyes.. i think i made a mistake to tell my findings about the "truth" to my brother.. here s the translation of email i got from him.... .
"howdyhau you gay*****, i have confessed all my sins and im trying to get rid of them.
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Reopened Mind
Kaiser,
First of all your English is just fine. I think everyone understands exactly what you are saying.
Secondly, WELCOME!! You will find support here.
Thirdly, your brother is TOXIC. Run, don't walk, away from that relationship as fast as you can.
And lastly, we would like to hear your story.
Reopened Mind
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7
Demos at convention
by lostinthought inso i have made it through two days of the district convention, i half heartily payed attention during it (whoever evented smart phones is a genius!
) anyway i noticed the parts were pretty dummed down this year, especially the demos...and there were a lot of them they all were very unrealistic and over dramatized.
even the speakers parts were pretty dumb and scripted.
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Reopened Mind
I have given an experience or 2 at conventions and assemblies. There is a core of truth to the experience, that's why I was asked in the first place. However at rehearsal I was always asked to empahsize a phrase or add certain comments to bring my experience in line with the theme of the assembly or the brother's talk. Everyone's experiences were punched up to portray what the speaker wanted. And I assume what the Society's instructions were.
Reopened Mind
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46
Lost my best friend (man's best friend)
by Coffee House Girl injust 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.
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Reopened Mind
Coffee House Girl,
So sorry for your loss. A dog can be a girl's best friend as well.
I have a black lab I got from a rescue organization and another dog and 4 cats that I "rescued" from my kids. Rescue animals seem to have more of a sense of loyalty than non-rescue.
I like the following quote.
"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."
-- UnknownReopened Mind
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101
New girl in town here for support
by joyfulfader inhi everyone here on jwn.
i admit to being a lurker for quite some time before joining and now i am ready to post and i want to introduce myself.
i am/was 3rd generation and daughter of the po (as it was termed at the time) for most of my life.
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Reopened Mind
joyfulfader,
Hello and welcome to the board! You are so lucky (yes, we can say that now, lol) to have escaped at 40. My husband and I (he posts as TotallyADD) left in our mid fifties and moved from the South to northern PA to start our lives over. He was the PO when he woke up.
Trying to figure out what you believe will take some time and research. TotallyADD was a born-in like yourself. Two years later he is still reformulating his beliefs. Since I was a convert it was easier for me as I returned to what I had formerly believed. BE PATIENT. It will be a lifetime journey. My advice for what it's worth is: Don't do anything illegal or anything that violates your inner moral sense.
Do you have anyone whom you can trust to talk things out with?
Heaven suggested Crisis of Conscience and jwfacts.com. These are good places to start. If you want to understand what the cult has done to you I further suggest Combatting Cult Mind Control and Releasing the Bonds by Steve Hassan.
Best wishes to you on the rest of your life's journey.
Reopened Mind
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26
2012 ICSA Conference The Ethics of Evangelism
by Lady Lee inwell the title of this caught me attention especially since so many ex-jehovah's witnesses think any kind of evangelism or preaching is bad.
so the idea that some evangelism might actually be good intrigued me.
i have refrained from adding comments how jws measure up to each of these.
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Reopened Mind
WOW Lady Lee! Thanks for sharing. As JWs we violated every one of them.
Reopened Mind
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Hello from Totally ADD I can't get to my computer
by Reopened Mind ini am using reopened mind site because we have company for the week and i can't get to my computer because it is connected to our tv.
we get two mag.
in the mail.
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Reopened Mind
I am using Reopened Mind site because we have company for the week and I can't get to my computer because it is connected to our TV. We get two mag. in the mail. One is countryside and the other is mother earth news. This Aug / Sept. issue had a very interesting article in it. "The wisdom and beauty of living frugally" When I first saw it I said great a good subject to read about. To my surprise it started with the words "60 year old 300 pound Jehovah's Winess in dark glasses. It goes on to talk about how he is very self-reliiant and is very inventive in being self-reliant. But here is the kicker. When ask why he is like this he tells the writer "The Jehovah's Witnesses encourage their members to raise and preserve their own food, and to protect the planet by using organic growing methods." The writer goes on to say "I didn't know homestead frugal self-reliance was inspired by a religion." Being in this cult for most of my life when and I do mean when were we ever taught to raise our own food and preserve it and protect the planet by using organic growing methods??? I must of missed that service meeting. I have been in 6 congregations in my life and I was usually the only one who would even have a garden let alone be self-reliant and save the world by organic growing methods. I even had one P.O. tell me it did not matter to do any of those things because Jehovah is going to take care of it so we don't have to worry about it. Has anyone else seen the article I am talking about. Talk about alot of Bull ----. Totally ADD
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I Got My Invitation to the DC This Week
by Reopened Mind ini found it stuck in my door when i got home from work.
since totallyadd and i moved 1000 miles away to fade we had no idea when or where this summer's dc would be held.
the convention is next weekend in a city that is over 2 hours away.
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Reopened Mind
I found it stuck in my door when I got home from work. Since TotallyADD and I moved 1000 miles away to fade we had no idea when or where this summer's DC would be held. The convention is next weekend in a city that is over 2 hours away. We live about 20 miles from the nearest Kingdom Hall so our territory doesn't get worked very often. This is the first we've been aware of any witnessing since we moved here over a year ago. So anyway this leaflet made us wonder why would we want to take off 2 days work, travel 2 hours to a city where we've never been to, stay over night in a hotel, spend money to eat out, just to sit and listen to 3 days of lectures from an invitation from someone we've never met? Kind of silly when you think about it. O, and while we would be gone we would have to find someone to look after our 2 dogs and 4 cats. Yeah, we're going to drop everything just to go to a convention.
Yet we did the same busy work for years, TotallyADD for 50 years and me for 38 years. What did we accomplish? The only thing I can think of is we kept ourselves too busy to learn the truth about the truth.
Reopened Mind
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Reopened Mind
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NUGGET!!
Looks like it was a great party. If you don't mind, I would like to know which ones in the pictures are you and cantleave.
Reopened Mind
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update on my boy
by Aussie Oz inmy son came to visit today, he and i are getting a lot closer since he left his jw home and thanks largely to his mother and step father alienating him big time.
he needs one of his parents to help him out at times and he can't turn to his mother.
thats sad but its her loss, and his i guess.. anyway, he recently got himself a girlfriend, a worldly girl at that.
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Reopened Mind
So happy for you and your kids, Aussie. You have your son, you have your daughter, and maybe a daughter-in-law down the road. Sounds like a family to me.
The internet is a giant thorn in the WT's side, especially factual sites like jwfacts. It's hard to argue with the facts! Although we all know it is a closed emotional mind which imprisons those in the cult.
Reopened Mind