Give It Up!!!! by Emily Rabbit

To my neighbors: You may not know Emily Rabbit. She writes on my blog once a week and is too feisty for her own good. But this week she is handling our very own Wishes and Dreams Foundation. This post appears on my own blog too. Love kj

Hello Everyone, it's me, Emily, finally. I had to wait for kj to show off her pictures of Santa Fe but here I am now. For one more time only I am going to be very polite and sweet and keep my promise to do something nice for this Wishes & Dreams Foundation that kj likes. After this I will be my whiny and complaining self again, ready to remind you how to cry deep from your stomach and kick your feet in the air when you want your own way.

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When I mentioned that I am doing a good deed a few weeks ago, I got some nice responses so now I am here to collect the money and see who else wants to be nice with me this one time.
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1. kj knows a very smart 13 year old girl who is in foster care and has had a hard time and wants acting lessons. If you like this idea, the best thing to do is to send kj a check. If you email her, she will send you her address.
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Or if you have this thing called Paypal, you can send money to kj's email from there.
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Or you can order a copy of kj's book right here on her blog at the sidebar and she will donate $10 to where ever you want. If you don't want the book you can order it anyway and instead of sending it to you kj will donate all the money except the tax.
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Or it gets even better. But you have to wait a minute until I finish with this list and you will see.
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2. The other thing you can do instead is to help this doctor named Maithri who works in Swaziland Africa and helps children who don't have mothers or fathers and need everything, even clean water. If you want to donate here, you should go to http://possibledreamsinternational.org/ and you can give whatever you want right there.

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.3. And third, you don't need money for this one. Just do something nice for someone and don't get caught. But you have to tell me or kj what you did because it will give someone else an idea of how to do something nice, maybe even me..

And don't forget: for everyone who makes even a dollar contribution I will have a drawing to see who wins and the prize will be that I, Emily V. V. Rabbit, will be a guest writer on your blog AND I will write about whatever subject you want me to write about ..

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Now wait until you hear this!!!!!

Do you know my best friend Marianne? Well she and kj's friend Caroline have both offered one of their original paintings to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.We are talking about very good art here--see for yourself:

This is Marianne's mandala. It is a big one 10,6 x 13,8” (27 x 35 cm) Watercolor, ink micron pen glitter and pearls. kj already has a bid of $ 50 for this so you have to pay more than that. But I can tell you with my own eyes that this mandala that my best friend Marianne painted is worth a year's supply of jellybeans at least, plus they bring you good luck. So if you want it you can have it plus you will be doing something nice. kj says to tell you that the highest bidder decides where the money should go, to kj's client or to Dr. Maithri.

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TA DA! And now for Caroline's painting!!!!

It will be a surprise painting but here are some examples of how fantastic she is..If you get Caroline's painting you can talk to her about what you might like and what she will paint something for you. I bid my $15 on this already and can you believe it that kj bid $ 25, which I thought was very selfish of her so I really don't want her to win so I hope someone else will bid more than $ 25.

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I will leave the bidding open for 48 hours, which around here means until Sunday night. I know there are alot of good causes to give money too but I am the only RABBIT doing this and I think that is a good reason all by itself for you to help out, besides it isn't every day that I stop whining and complaining and do this instead, so maybe if this works out you will end up being a good influence on me, which maybe will be good but then again, maybe I'm better off kicking my feet and crying from my stomach.....
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Some of you asked if you could send presents along with contributing money. kj says that is fine. In addition to her 13 year old, there is 4 year old Angelina, 5 year old Xavier, and 10 year old Daria. And there is 48 year old Alice who only has one pair of clothes. kj says she looks like she is a size 16.
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And don't forget, it doesn't have to be money, it can just be a good deed. I hope some new people and maybe even a few rabbits will join in. My Uncle Bunny might be able to--he has money from selling rabbit pellets, remember?

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So that's all I have to say today. Oh, one more thing. kj said if I get 25 comments on her blog she will pay me my $ 10 this week. And if I do and she pays, I am going to buy jellybeans. I am. I don't care if you think I should contribute that $ 10 too. I've done enough. I am only a little bunny and here I am raising money and hoping for the best. I think that's enough, don't you agree?
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Next week I might teach Margaret how to play.
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Sincerely yours,
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Emily Rabbit

invisible woman

Does anyone know why my picture doesn't appear when I comment on someone else's post?

Contrition

Poetry from 53A

Motes of dust on specks of sand
joined as shoreline of land
waiting at the water’s edge of God's mercy,
our gathering place.

Alone, I am, in this gathering place.
My sin my own, an offense not to be compared to any other's.
All insult of sin so great, a rejection of God's friendship,
infinite goodness and grace.

Feeling love for Him, how could I not love myself?
Neither is possible alone.
Loving patience, forgiving and infinite -
His only demand? Embrace good, reject evil.

White room, adorned in nothingness, becomes my slate,
my learning place, of recognition.
Sins un-recounted, forgiveness a plea. Accepting God's mercy,
we unwrap His gift of our uniqueness.

Mote on dust -
Dust on sand grain -
Grain in a sea of sand grains -
Alone but known
and, heard.

Joke

Very seldom I read something to laugh about in the morningpaper. But this morning I had to laugh about a joke. A joke that is made by a Dutch boy. He sent this joke to Readers Digest and the readers gave him the eights (how do you write that?) place in the list of 'the best not dirty jokes of the world'.

A man and a woman sit next to each other in a plane. They don't know each other. The man asks the woman if she is willing to play a game with him, because the trip is so long and boring. No, says the lady, I want to go to sleep. The man is persisting and says: Let us ask each other difficult questions. If the other does not know the answer, then he or she must pay the other one five euro. No, says the lady, I want to take a nap. But the man does not give up. Well, okay, he says, I have another proposal. If you ask me something and I don't know the answer I will give you 50 euro. And if you don't know the answer to my question, you pay me 5 euro. How about that?

The lady sighs and says: Well, alright. You can start.
The man says: What is the distance between the earth and the moon? The lady grabs her wallet and gives the man 5 euro. Fine, he says, now it is your turn. The lady says: What is going up the mountain with three legs and is going down again with four legs? The man is flabbergasted and says he needs time to think about it. Okay, says the lady, and she is going to sleep. While she is softly snoring the man is taking his laptop and googles for the answer, but no result whatsoever. After half an hour thinking he awakes his neighbor and gives her 50 euro.
She takes the note and puts it in her wallet and goes back to her sleeping position. Wait a minute, madam, he says, what is the right answer? She takes her wallet and gives him a note of five euro.

The Bushman's Tale

A journal was lying on the table next to the teapot and biscotti that are always on the porch overlooking the harbor.  Renee had not yet returned so I sat down to wait, poured a cup of tea and opened the book's soft leather bindings.  I turned the pages and saw a luminous watercolor sketch of a baobab tree at sunset as little golden grains of sand dropped onto my lap.  A note written across the bottom of the page read, ...."evening on the savannah near the tree of the above world".

Turning the page, I found myself smiling at a family of Kalahari bushmen and felt the hot savannah breeze on my skin as I was pulled forward and offered a place by the fire.  Soft laughter and village voices chatter in a language that includes pops and clicks and fills the space with happy sounds.  The smells of animal fat sizzlling on hot stones and smoke from acacia wood embers envelop us.  In the distant reaches of the grassland, sounds of waking nocturnal predators chase the sun loving animals to safe places for the night. 

Khoi, the family head, has just finished a rock drawing that he will place in front of his hut so that his spirit guides, the elephants, will always feel welcome among those who respect and care for the land and all living things.  Time ceases to have meaning.  This is so real, yet has such a dreamlike quality.  I sense that I will see this same piece of rock art that I touch here now, in a museum tomorrow and know that it was done 60,000 years ago.  The village elder places himself near the fire and everyone gathers to hear their beginning story.  This quiet little man still speaks to the animals and is the most powerful among the people, still in touch with creation to the depths of his spiritual being.

He tells the story of people and animals living together in the before time.  This was a place of light and happiness and perfect understanding.  Food and water were always abundant.  This had always been true.  One day, the great master, Kaang, told them he was preparing the above world for them and filling it with all the things they would ever need.  Then the people and animals climbed up to the above ground, under the tree of the world and saw all that was theirs.  Kaang told them the one thing they could never do was start a fire and they bound themselves to this promise.  But later, it became dark and cold and the people could not see in the dark.  They were afraid and built a fire so that they could see, but it frightened the animals and they ran away.  Fear came to live in them and they could no longer understand the animals.  But, the spirits of men and women could fly into the animals and share their spirits.  The elder reminded them that this would always be part of their memory.

Not far behind us, a family of elephants padded closer.  Little dust clouds blossomed around each huge foot.  The ground gently trembled as the weight of so many tremendous animals circled the camp.  Behind me, I could fee the presence of a huge shape and smell the musky odor of sun baked hide.  I looked down to see two huge ivory tusks glide by on either side of me and felt a massive head rest against my back.  With the lightest touch imaginable, a trunk curled around my shoulder holding a thick bunch of white baobob flowers.  I leaned my cheek against the trunk in greeting and turned to look into Indlovu's eyes, a patriarch of immense age and true understanding. I think there is a message I am to deliver, but I can't remember what it is.

Renee is smiling at me from across the table.  Near her teacup stands a multifaceted crystal vase whose prisms shoot rainbow colors in all directions.  Into this she is happily arranging a thick bunch of huge white flowers that I have never seen before.  The scent is like honey and ginger and sunshine.  I will have to remember to ask where she got them.  It may be that I once knew the answer,  but everything is a little hazy.  But, I am absolutely sure of one thing.

 She is the Pathfinder.

Has anyone got a hammock, swinging gently in a warm breeze, in soft moonlight . . . so I can fall asleep under the stars. I'm so tired.

Sint Maarten (Saint Martin)

Tonight it is Sint Maarten here in the northern part of the Netherlands. The eleventh of the eleventh. It is absolutely not the same as Halloween, therefore I will explain what is happening. It is the nameday of Saint Martin.
Children till the age of 10 years come to all houses front and sing a song. They carry a selfmade lantern with them and try not to set each other on fire with the candles in it.
We, the people who are at home, open the frontdoor with a very surprised smile on our face and listen with much enthousiasm to the simple and very short songs about Sint Maarten. Then we present the children a tray with candy. They take their pick and leave to go to the next house.
In our small village there are quite a lot of small children. And they all come along. The youngest are accompanied by their parents.
And there are children from other villages in the neighborhood who come along too. Their parents bring them by car. I don´t think that is normal, but what can you do? Greed is everywhere in modern times.

Here you can see what the children get this evening at our frontdoor. Smoeltjes are small very sweet cookies they absolutely die for and in the golden coins there is chocolat hidden. Bad for their teeth? Oh yeah! You bet.