Xanthippe

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Posts by Xanthippe

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  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

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  Xanthippe

  These Astrantias are similar to mine. They come in many colours from white, to pink to red and the butterflies love them.
  
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  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

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  Xanthippe

  Theses are teasels which the which the Red Admirals and, as you can see, the Goldfinches love. They have purple flowers before they go to seed as in the picture. They're architectural for the winter as well.
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  24

  What do you think of the phrase " You don't have all the facts, and I am not in a position to tell you what I know"?

  by KateWild in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what do you think of the phrase " you don't have all the facts, and i am not in a position to tell you what i know"?.

  has this phrase ever been used with you?

  i have my own opinions at present but i don't want to express them yet as they are subject to change.. kate xx.

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  Xanthippe

  It could be someone just protecting the boundaries of their friend, telling you there are private things here that they have promised not to divulge. It's difficult for me to comment Kate without knowing the circumstances xx
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  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

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  Xanthippe

  I love butterflies and I do get a lot of bees in my garden. I have a Buddleia davidii but they also seem to like aquilegia, not the fancy hybrids though. They also like astrantia, I have a white variety which is very beautiful.

  When my daughter and I went to Blarney Castle in Ireland a few years ago they had a walkway planted with teasels which were covered in red admirals. I grow it in my garden now and it also attracts goldfinches who like the seeds.

  We get a lot of peacocks, orange tips, tortoiseshells and some blues. We also get a species a bumblebee which makes burrows in the soil.
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  42

  No more pain sorrow or crying in new system!!!!!!!

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.

  for the old world and its evils are gone forever.

  " rev.

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  Xanthippe

  What if from God’s standpoint, the universe is actually just one large ‘something,’ and we are all so intertwined that in order for one person in existence to be reconciled to God, we all must be? What if to him we are really just all one creation with no real borders of separation between us? I mean, we are ‘real’ and sort of solid, but some atoms pass right through us. So that ‘border’ between our skin and the air ceases to exist on some level. What if that is true on the larger scale, that only from our perspective are we separate, but to God we are all the same, not just in equality, but in reality? Sort of each a thread in the tapestry, to make an analogy.

  Interesting, almost Eastern philosophy. It Hot does seem strange though that we have to reach for unusual explanations for why we have to follow God's rules. I would think the obvious answer would be because they make everyone happy and their lives successful. Sadly they don't, so many choose not to follow them because they don't bring happiness to everyone and even make some people very unhappy.

  So your explanation that there may be some physical law in the universe that we don't yet know about that means we all have to obey God or the universe won't work and our earth will never be 'right' seems just an excuse when you could more easily say we don't know why we must obey God. Then you would have to ask is the Bible requiring that we do things that God wants or what humans have invented?

  Also as people try to be happy you may think that their different needs are causing the problems in the world. Some people want to work for a living for example and others think it's ok to steal. That's what we have laws for. To protect communities from law- breakers we have the criminal justice system.

  Some people want peace but others want war. We are trying to frame international laws to deal with this and prevent human rights abuses. Also for the first time an arms treaty has been signed at the UN to try to prevent illegal arms sales.

  I also believe we will find a cure for cancer one day and that gene therapy will prevent congenital problems that cause infant deaths. Plus UNICEF continues its efforts in developing countries to vaccinate infants and young children and WATERAID aims to provide clean water globally by 2030 to reduce water born infections that kill babies.
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  55

  Some thoughts on the new midweek meeting

  by Saltheart Foamfollower in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the new midweek meeting has been running for a month now.

  here are my thoughts on how it is going so far:.

  1) elders are looking frazzled from being on virtually every meeting and having to prepare unfamiliar formats for items.

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  Xanthippe

  What does this weeks BR teach me about Jehovah?

  They're still trying to psychoanalyse their invisible friend. Time would be better spent sorting their own heads out.
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  42

  No more pain sorrow or crying in new system!!!!!!!

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.

  for the old world and its evils are gone forever.

  " rev.

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  Xanthippe

  I can unequivocally learn to cope with the potential deaths of family, colleagues, etc. (again, they are already dying) if it means no more sick babies, cancer, war, all the madness to end.

  By the way lanalonger I want to ask why will destroying unbelievers stop babies dying or cure cancer?
  
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  42

  No more pain sorrow or crying in new system!!!!!!!

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.

  for the old world and its evils are gone forever.

  " rev.

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  Xanthippe

  Will you go on record as stating that all the suffering and dying should continue, and that that is preferable to the death of the already-dying who reject God's rulership?

  Death will continue because that is the reality of human life, we all die. As for suffering will you go on record that you are contributing in any way at all to global efforts to prevent suffering? I am.

  I can unequivocally learn to cope with the potential deaths of family, colleagues, etc. (again, they are already dying) if it means no more sick babies, cancer, war, all the madness to end.

  So they made you give up friends and family in exchange for empty promises, and you fell for it?

  God doesn't need our worship or thanks, he asks us for it for our own benefit, not his.

  If God doesn't need anything from me then why does your religion insist I follow their rules or be destroyed? If everything is for my benefit why are people rejected for not following the rules to the letter? If God loves us why does he need us all together in a group? Is that the only way he can keep track of everyone?

  Xanthippe (dead woman walking)

  
  
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  14

  Is that a brother praying what do you think?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  at the risk of revealing how i waste my time on youtube, is that a brother praying after about 45 seconds into this video?

  what on earth is he doing?

  http://youtu.be/8xeh863xzmg.

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  Xanthippe

  Very revealing - how you spend your time SBF 😀

  Having said that I'm on this forum again when I'm supposed to be reading a modern classic my student daughter recommended to me, so I can hardly talk.
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  42

  No more pain sorrow or crying in new system!!!!!!!

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.

  for the old world and its evils are gone forever.

  " rev.

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  Xanthippe

  Hello lanalonger. When you say you will learn to cope with losing impermanent things when you're in paradise I just wondered if you include the people here on this forum and your nonJW relatives, neighbours, and colleagues in that?

  You can only suffer by continuing to tell yourself a ‘story’ about how a certain thing should not have happened, how terrible it is, how you’ll never get over it, etc.
  No negative mind chatter, no suffering.
  I think the saying that encompasses it goes like this, ‘pain is inevitable, misery is optional.'

  So we’ll experience the gamut of human feelings, but we’ll have learned to reframe them in emotionally healthy ways, to not ‘attach’ unhealthily and to be able to ‘let go’ when the situation calls for it.

  Also it surprises me that someone who's done so much reading on human psychology, albeit pop psychology and has been in the JWs since before '75 still wanted to get reinstated after a 'break' out of the religion. Why did you go back I wonder? And welcome to the forum.