Some fool STOLE MY JOY!!!!

Y'all, somebody stole my JOY!!!

I don't know if it was the Scotia Bank lady when she told me I couldn't open a Canadian Credit Card unless I had $1,000 cash to secure it (cuz I'm not a Canuck).

Maybe it was the insurance company, who probably won't reimburse the $115 expense for holistic treatment because it's well...holistic.

Maybe it's the Solomobile crew that won't replace my irritable cell phone that keeps shutting itself off (now they want to verify the date of purchase before they give me a ticket number to get it replaced.  They screw up the paperwork and now I can't have a 100% continuous phone call?!!?!?!?)

Maybe it was my beloved Polar Bear who snuck my joy in his back pocket when he moved to Toronto a month ago. 

At this point, I don't care who stole my joy, but girlfirend is on a mission to get my *ish BACK! 

1. First, I'm going to thank God for my blessings.
2. Next, I'm gonna acknowledge the good spirit of my friends Karo in Italy and Jami in Atlanta, who were somehow moved by the universe to reach out at this exact point in timeand send me some snail mail (filled with warm, loving energy) which I adore!!!!!
3. Next, I'm going to belly-dance.  Fo FREE at a place in Byward Market tonight.  I can't wait!
4. Also, I'm planning the Polar Bear's B-day gift....that's keeping me really busy!!!!
5. I'm gonna re-program my goals.  I've gotten off track a bit - professionally, I'm not as focused as I was say, a year ago.  I need to get that lined up again.
6. I'll also focus on drinking water.  It seems to wash away all the funky energy on the inside.  I'll get a soothing colonic, too......that will HOPEFULLY be reimbursed by the insurance company:)
7. I think I'll hit up some nicely minded bloggers and send supportive comments their way.  It's a lonely universe out here!
8. I'll also think creatively about what I can do for my Mom when I see her in a few weeks during a much-too-quick visit home.

Would love to add to my list, especially after the week I've had. How do you commit yourself to joy?

Mosque at Ground Zero?

The news and those that own it are back at it again.  Skewing reality and emphasizing the irrelevant is what they do best, but this is a polarizing debate that we just don't need - and the media is feeding it to us like crazy!

Whether or not the 15-storey building should be constructed - I really don't have the background to answer.  I do think that New York's Lower Manhattan is not the place, and this is not the time.  Maybe it should be in a different part of the city. Maybe it should be considered at another time.  Not when we're still steeped in war; not when financial uncertainties halted the re-construction of the gaping hole on the site, and not when some soldiers are coming home from the war against terrorism and others, unfortunately, will not. 

I get that's not a mosque....it will be an Islamic Community Center.  I get that it's not on the hallowed site of Ground Zero.  It's a few blocks away.  I get that it's private property.  I understand - logically - why it would make sense for a group to construct a building for the community that it serves, and I also understand the legal right for them to do so....but it just doesn't feel right, and the argument around it is causing much more damage to the American psyche than the building itself. 

9/11 changed everything - not only for the US, but for the world.  Airline policies, security measures to enter a country, even attire that Muslim women wear  - perspectives in the way we live have ALL all changed since that dreadful day.  It's certainly altered life for those living in New York City, and especially families of the 3,000 victims who died. 

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the cleric leading the project, is causing more damage than good.  For someone to have spent a lifetime promoting interfaith understanding, peace and tolerance, I'm quite surprised that he's leading the plans of such a highly opposed project.  This isn't the way healing happens.