Sunrise Ranch

Identity

lpearlman — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:23:17 +0000

The ways of society and the world knew me not

So I traded that me for one that would belong

And played in that world until I almost forgot

The virtuous me that knows right from wrong

Yet the purpose prevails for why I am on this earth

A mission I have chosen and a plan to fulfill

The path is further revealed as I increase my worth

And I feel drawn to surrender to a higher will

Shifting and changing with the pull of the tides

Releasing and embracing through giving and receiving

The temporal gives way as the eternal presides

To show that faith is the next step past believing

For long now, I’ve been the seeker who’s seeking

And having found, I’m now the aspirant who aspires

To listen and follow the path laid out by the king

And receive the keys to my most heartfelt desires

As a flower is blooming inside of my heart

And a bamboo chute shooting up my spine

A more permanent, eternal me does impart

To my conscious mind a spark of the divine

Submitted by Gary Goodhue

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Identity

My Work

lpearlman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:10:30 +0000

In my personal spiritual life I continue to move into greater insight and truth. I am compelled to depth of commitment; commitment to living fully into my purpose for being here in this human experience and truly living out the divine reality of my cosmic origin. This is much larger and finer than my mind can comprehend. But my guiding spirit of Light doesn’t ask for mental approval, just devotion and the willingness to do my work – or is it my fun?

I find great joy in my work. In the physical, literal definition of work I have been most delighted to pour out my passion and my gifts of experience to our three-acre garden which I have managed [here at Sunrise Ranch] along with an energetic young man named Patrick who also teaches Perma-culture Design courses. We have come through a devastating hail storm in June and an infestation of grasshoppers later this summer. Yes grasshoppers eat through large zucchini and through the rind of watermelon and cantaloupe too! They did leave me an extraordinary, large, perfect watermelon of the Crimson Sweet variety which I reckon will be ripe in a day or soJ But they ate every last leaf off of our massive potato plants which maybe ended up being a good pruning because our potato harvest last week was a thrilling success. I thought I’d never seen such absolutely gorgeously beautiful Norland Red and white Kennebec potatoes. Then there was the Purple Majesty potato, so deeply purple it looks almost black and its striking hues go all the way to its core. What a baked potato that made!

Every day is a celebration. Sometimes I find myself in the garden or on a walk among the lovely red rock cliffs, tears streaming down my face for all the gifts of Life. Last night my friend Karen brought over an incredibly large red tomato that she’d grown, so perfect, so lovely she said she doesn’t know how she can bring herself to eat it. And Jim, full of vision and life, who I met for the first time at our Sweat Lodge ceremony last night and who turned out to be the teacher of my good friend and acupuncturist back in my western New York home town. I can’t turn around without being consumed in wonder.

I look into the Spirit-lit faces of my friends and drink deeply of the sweet privilege of communion and the opportunity to magnify the glory of creation and Creator through our lives and our work together. Work that is far from only physical yet happens as we actively engage in creations of many types –of gardens and farm, of our conference business, of music festivals, of transcribing and archiving the classes being taught, creations great and small that include direct spiritual content or simply the energy of life well lived.

Susannah Light is the founder of Divine Nature Tours, a non-profit organization born of the inspiration to know ones innermost truths through the silent Teacher and exquisite beauty of Nature. She lived six exciting years in Costa Rica. Susannah is a Life Coach and practitioner of Sacred Healing Arts, presently living at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland Colorado. Click here for more on Divine Nature Tours

.

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My Work

Creating Tomorrow

lpearlman — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:04:39 +0000

We have within us an amazing and awesome creative potential. It is truth that we are at our core creative beings, making us the only force responsible for what we experience in our lives. We were created in the image and likeness of The Creator and therefore have the same creative abilities available to us that we often attribute only to a Supreme Divine Being, commonly called God. This makes us creators ourselves and performing this process with awareness and intention is an indicator of wisdom and enlightenment.

We are, in fact, in each and every moment creating and setting up the reality that we will experience for our tomorrows. What you experience today is the result of the creations of your yesterdays. We are always engaged in a process of sending out messages to the universe of who we are. These messages depend on what you believe about yourself and the world around you, what you hold as possible and available to you, and where you are holding your attention and consciousness. With every thought, word and deed, you are communicating who you are to your world, and your world cannot help but reflect that perception back to you in your lived experience. This is natural law and an inescapable truth. Who among us has not had the experience of acquiring a new thing or attracting a certain desired circumstance or situation into our lives? Is it not true that you then congratulate yourself and own the responsibility of being the one who brought that into being, into your experience? How funny it is then that when we lose the things we have or attract an undesirable situation to us that we will place the responsibility for that outside of ourselves. After all, why would I have created that… I don’t even like what just happened to me. This only means that you were unintentionally creating experiences without your awareness.

There is actually quite a simple formula for how we create our experiences. It starts with our beliefs and our thoughts, is followed by our words or exclamations of our thoughts and beliefs and is then brought fully into the physical through our deeds and physical actions. All of these are the product of our choices. If we are not making new choices for what we want to experience, then we will automatically default back into earlier choices that have already found a home within our consciousness. If their foothold is strong and we have previously been quite committed to a certain way of thinking or acting, then we find ourselves re-creating our experiences of the past, usually unintentionally and without awareness. You are a creator, and you cannot help but create. If this statement is true, and it is, then the question simply becomes: What will you create in each moment?

So we are the only ones responsible for the things and circumstances in our lives. There is a great thrill available in the choice to change the script and create more desirable objects and events in your experience. Far beyond that thrill, however, is the one available when you choose and commit to change the qualities that you create, such as peace, unlimitedness, forgiveness, compassion, grace, and wisdom. These too are creations, and are also the responsibility of no one except yourself. They are always available and within the sphere of possibility in each moment. However, they do not truly exist, for you personally, until you choose to create it within yourself.

These qualities, and many more, must be consciously and intentionally created in each moment or else it is very easy to fall back into the default creation of qualities that have already been developed and entertained within the self. When there is a choice of commitment to the fostering of new and inspiring qualities, then you will be placing your attention in each new moment to experience these within and express them without to the world around you. With practice and diligence, there is a shifting that begins to take place where these qualities become the new default and take a strong foothold within your consciousness. Soon it becomes easier to consciously choose and create yourself to be a certain way. It is simply who you are.

You are always engaged in the process of creating. Therefore be very aware of your thoughts, your words, and your actions. Do not create unconsciously but ceaselessly learn from your present creations and move toward creating a better tomorrow than your yesterday. And remember, each and every moment holds unlimited possibility and is eternally waiting for you to choose and decree Who You Are.

Submitted by Gary Goodhue

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Creating Tomorrow

When the World is White and Crystal Glistening

Oren — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:01:34 +0000

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When the World is White and Crystal Glistening

2012 New Year Blog by Gary Goodhue

lpearlman — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:57:44 +0000

We are welcomed with blessings and grace into this golden year of the upcoming new age of humanity. There has been much attention, predictions and prophesies concerning this year; especially near the end of it, in December. There are fearful stories of catastrophes and destruction, turmoil and chaos, and then there are enlightening stories of massive shifts in consciousness, awakenings and ascension. Is it possible that either one has the potential of becoming your reality? There is a tremendous amount of creative potential available to us in this next year. The reality we experience will be in direct relation to the level of consciousness we are holding within ourselves.
We are naturally creative being, or Creators, with a divine presence that is always there awaiting your awareness for it to be known and allowing for it to move through you. When we are in any number of states of love and oneness, we are causing this awareness and allowance through alignment. The most powerful of these love states are forgiveness and gratitude or appreciation. Whenever I personally invoke these states, I can literally feel the energy in my body, down to the cells themselves, opening up and tingling as they fill with light. Forgive yourself generously for any and every time you have ever held a state of judgment. This brings you back into harmony with states of oneness and love. Passionately find things in your direct experience to be grateful for and exponentially appreciate the value you hold for all things in your world. Through this, you generate love within yourself and extend that love into all that is around you, and all that you are connected to.
When we are in states of selfishness or separation, we become disconnected and fall back into the darker expressions of human behavior. There is a very wide range of these experiences. When expanded upon, they always lead toward conflict, either expressed outwardly in physical experience or as an inner conflict with an increased sense of disconnectedness accompanied with unpleasant emotional states. The majority of these states stem from judgment and duality. These then become the experiences of right and wrong, good and evil, love and fear.
When I find myself in judgment and fighting the wrong, evil and fearful within my own consciousness, I know that I can forgive myself first and then generate appreciation and gratitude for whatever it is that I’m dealing with. This can be done only if I also realize that I created this situation and attracted this particular experience to me for my learning. This is powerful because there is the shifting of perspective from victimhood to being accountable and responsible as a creator.
We are always in a state of service. We are either in service to the self, and only invested in fulfilling personal interests, or in service to others and the sacred self, and invested in developing one’s self to greater potential so as to be of greater service to others, and the whole of existence. One form of service exists in an experience of separation, the other, in an experience of unity. The most pleasurable and inwardly fulfilling path is in service to the sacred self, which is also in service to all of creation, and essentially in service to Love.
When this service is the ruling choice in our lives, we remember to naturally act from a place of love and oneness because there is the recognition that we are connected to everything we perceive outside of ourselves. This is governing the self from the inside out with inner direction and thy will rather than from the selfish ‘my will’ or from an outside force imposing its will and direction. It is our destiny to move toward this state of governance individually and eventually collectively. We take action with acts of kindness and in loving service to others not because we feel we should but because that is the desire moving through us. I believe that through this movement, we can collectively create peace on earth, beginning within ourselves.
In this potent time of creation, we can more clearly see our experiences as an outer reflection of our inner choices and consciousness, either existing in selfishness and separation or in love and oneness. Be, then, very intentional with how you direct your thoughts and create the state in which you exist so that your reality will be one of awakenings and ascension rather than turmoil and chaos. Intentionally embrace and develop that divine connection within during this year and may you find many joyous and expansive manifestations ahead of you. This is my New Year’s wish for all of humanity.

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2012 New Year Blog by Gary Goodhue

Interviewing The Swami

lpearlman — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:00:07 +0000

I have long been a fan of Swami Beyondananda. I love his clever wordsmithing, puns, and tongue-in-cheek approach to spirituality and the very serious message that is the foundation of his humor. “Hmmmmm,” I wondered, “would it be possible for me to interview the Swami on the Sunrise Ranch radio show, “Evolution in Consciousness” which airs on the “What We Need to Know” segment of Contact Talk Radio at www.ctrhotspot.com/profile/LarryPearlmanHOST (shameless plug!)?
A simple email inquiry to Steve Bhaerman, the Swami’s alter ego (or maybe the Swami is Steve’s altar ego) brought a positive reply and the date was set. Of course it was made easy by the fact that Steve was familiar with Sunrise Ranch and Emissaries of Divine Light and felt that our work was certainly in alignment with his.
The first question I asked was “Who am I interviewing today, Steve or the Swami?” I was delighted to find out that both were present. And just when I thought I could handle this simple split personality, Steve brought in the Swami channeling Bullwinkle the Moose channeling Elvis and Bob Dylan! My consciousness was swimming with the Swami’s suave soliloquy!!
But this interview was not ALL puns, parodies, and plays on words. We discussed some serious topics and uncovered the path that took Steve Bhaerman into the wacky, wonderful world of Swami Beyondananda. Steve was “struck by en-lightening during a brain storm” in 1980 and discovered that he could use humor to come in under the radar to approach serious topics and effect changes in people’s lives. In the 90’s, Steve further discovered the incredible healing power of humor and in 2004, he turned the Swami loose to heal the “electile dysfunction” of our political system through his book, “Swami for Precedent – a Seven Step Plan to Heal the Body Politic”. He has relaunched his “precedential” campaign for 2012 to encourage we, the people, to establish a new precedent of an “up-wising” to bring about a new paradigm where we move from being children of God to being adults of God. Working with Joseph McCormick’s “Reuniting America”, Steve shows us how we can integrate the functional values of both conservative and progressive elements to move out of our current emergency into a state of “emerge-and-see”. He told our listeners that the media today is all about the destruction of the existing caterpillar state but what is mostly unreported is the emerging butterfly aspect of humanity that is working on “mass construction”. He urges us all to work on the three most underused resources in the world: Love (with its 3 components of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness), Imagination, and Cooperation and to lighten up our hearts so that we get the “Aha!” in the midst of Ha Ha’s.
Steve has written a wonderful book, along with Bruce Lipton, called “Spontaneous Evolution – Our Positive Future (And a Way to Get There From Here)”. I have read it and recommend it highly. Though it is a serious book, the mark of the Swami is unmistakable!
I found both Steve and the Swami to be both deLIGHTful and enLIGHTening. To listen to the whole interview, go to www.ctrhotspot.com/profile/LarryPearlmanHOST and click on “More” under Evolution in Consciousness Archived Shows in the left hand column.

Larry Pearlman

Larry Pearlman is a personification of the evolution in consciousness that recognizes that spirituality and the material world are not mutually exclusive. While working 32 years in corporate America, Larry also offered spiritual perspective in study courses. In addition, he has taught courses in “The Art of Creative Living” and serves as a faculty member for “The Opening” – an 8 day experiential class in discovering your full potential. Larry hosted a radio show, “Opportunities”, in Phoenix emphasizing participation in the business world from a higher state of consciousness. He recently served in the Peace Corps in Ghana for 27 months and currently resides at Sunrise Ranch.

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Interviewing The Swami

Winter Holiday Blog / Dec. 18, 2011

lpearlman — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:49:27 +0000

As I look out into the world around me, Sunrise Ranch, and look further out into the world at large, I am reminded of the upcoming holiday season. I see three major holidays occurring during the last two weeks of December. Of course there is Christmas on the 25th, and then also the Winter Solstice on the 21st and New Year’s Eve on the 31st. I believe that each of these hold significant value even beyond a reason to simply celebrate, exchange gifts, and be merry.
The Winter Solstice and the transition into a New Year both represent the ending of one cycle and the beginning of a new one, the cycle of nature and the cycle of our calendar system. The Solstice is the longest period of dark or night and nature uses this time period to gather its forces and energies to set up a pattern for creation as it moves forward toward increasing days of light and life. Life and creation abounds as the light increases. The New Year is a symbolic fresh slate with which we can create ourselves anew.
This is a wonderful time to reflect and plant the seeds of new creations that we desire to experience within our own consciousness. This might come in the form of new beliefs, attitudes, thought patterns, emotional expressions of self and ways of being. We increase the light of awareness within ourselves by giving directed, focused attention to this new desire, practicing this new way within our daily environment, and expressing love and gratitude to ourselves and our world. As we do this, these metaphoric seeds planted in the rich, creative soil of darkness grow and will produce fruit or the changes we desire within ourselves. Nature gives us an outer example of this internal process. The darkness can be a powerful time for exploring and nurturing the many possibilities of creation and development that can be manifested with an increase of light.
The New Year transition is commonly celebrated with a night of excess and then resolutions of change starting the next day, or New Year. What if we treated every day like a New Year, skipping past the night of excess and straight into the new day with resolutions for change? Every day would be focused with a strengthening of the current resolution or the creation of a new one. We could do this anytime and can start today with a new slate available to transform ourselves into whatever form of expression we can imagine. We do this naturally, sometimes even without awareness, simply by having the intention and desire. I give thanks for this one day a year that impeccably reminds us of that divine inherent ability.
During the joyous season of Christmas, I am reminded of the essence of Christ, which we celebrate. This is personified through the birth of Jesus as he was the living example of a life lived as Christ. Living life this way is something he taught that is available as a potential possibility for every human that exists. He often spoke of sourcing himself from the Father, and that the Father works and speaks through him, and finally that He and the Father are one. This Father was not only his but all of ours, realizing that Father was a patriarchal descriptive term used for public understanding during the society of that time period. It is the Source from which we emanate from, the radiance that expresses through us, and the divine being which we are.
When a person increases their light of awareness on this fact, and chooses to make realizing that in the life their most important work, then the Christ begins to develop and emerge from within. This Christ essence is Love. I believe that this was Jesus’s true desire in the life example that he provided and the teachings that he gave. I propose that on this holiday, we honor this great master soul by making it our life’s purpose to emulate that example and bring the Christ essence through each of us and out into the world. A mass of people existing in oneness with the Father and expressing as Christ, or Love, unto all that is. This concept is also known as Christ en masse, or Christ-mass, or Christmas.
May your holiday season be filled with great transformations, ever expanding love and light, and new creations for a blessed and enlightening new year!

Submitted by Gary Goodhue

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Winter Holiday Blog / Dec. 18, 2011

Sunrise Ranch Permaculture Design Graduation Slideshow

Oren — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:57:51 +0000

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Sunrise Ranch Permaculture Design Graduation Slideshow

The Giving of Who You Are

Oren — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:27:41 +0000

As we rejoice in connecting with family and friends, may love be expressed abundantly in your lives. In times of intensity, we wish you compassion, forgiveness, and strength in Spirit.

The presence of each one of you has been a gift to us. We are delighted with all the friends and family who have come to be with us during this past year. We wish everyone an abundant, happy and healthy holiday season filled with joy.

Thank you for your ongoing support of Sunrise Ranch. We are grateful for your loving presence in creating the atmosphere of peace, and heaven on earth.

We are always glad to welcome you to Sunrise Ranch—Welcome Home!

Internationally Recognized Permaculture Design Program Graduates Eight

The Permaculture Design Certification Course at Sunrise Ranch, under the enthusiastic tutelage of Patrick Padden, concluded with the graduation of eight students on November 30th. We are most thankful and extend our congratulations to all the participants!

The class made substantial contributions to our farm and community over the past eight months, rebounding from hailstorms and grasshoppers! Each student made a difference as they cared for the Earth; they grew and transformed as much as their crops! Through the abundance of what was lovingly grown, harvested, prepared and shared in our dining room, guests and community alike were indeed blessed.

Our best wishes to our students as they continue their journey with our blessings.

For more information on the 2012 Permaculture Design Certification Course, visit our website at http://sunriseranch.org/farm/permaculture-design-certification-course/

Kirtan with Vamadeva and Joni

Kirtan was one of the programs that we welcomed to Sunrise Ranch last month. Kirtan is singing to the divine. As hearts are opened to sing in devotion, the experience of sweetness of the divine in us is known. “It”’ becomes real—our beloved is present, right inside and around us, plain as day, listening, dancing, and celebrating!

In Kirtan we are vibrated to the core of our being. The mantras and sounds of Kirtan chants stir and awaken spiritual qualities in us. The energy lifts us above the mind, where thoughts can’t seem to reach us. We touch the divine within us and sit with it. The divine takes us. We feel her hold us in her arms for a while.

The appreciation for Vamadeva and joni, who performed the Divine Heart of Kirtan in the Dome on November 18th, was incredible. Keep an eye on our calendar for announcements of future Kirtan events, and share the song in your heart for the beloved at Sunrise Ranch.

If you would like to learn more about our events, please contact Daphne Bramlett at 970-679-4200.

Subscribe to the Sunrise Ranch Calendar
If you would like to subscribe to our calendar, and your calendar program supports the iCalendar format, use the following link to create the subscription.

https://sunriseranch.org/db/events_ics.php?calendar=sr

iCalendar file format is verified to work with many popular calendar programs such as Google Calendar, Yahoo Calendar, Google Apps, Outlook, Sunbird, and many more.

The Birth of Light

This image, from the Herschel telescope, shows the birth of up to 700 stars and

clouds of “stardust,” which all life is made from, in the Aquila constellation

We look forward to welcoming you (back) to Sunrise Ranch. Hope you have a wonderful month!

Warmly,

Jacqueline, Oren, Susan, & Shareen

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The Giving of Who You Are

Only Good Spirits Reign Here (excerpted from a personal journal entry)

lpearlman — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:55:59 +0000

I’m in Costa Rica … where my heart feels the pulse and my body knows the truth … it’s my home. In the last seven years I’ve had a singular focus and that is to know the truth of Creation and Creator … of my own self and of others. The difference I’m sensing now, between this seven-year quest for truth and right vision and that of my earlier life, is that truth can no longer be known to me “as told by” someone else. The only truth that registers in me with any meaning is recognized, known and experienced throughout the cells of my whole body.
Here in the misty greenery of tropical Costa Rica and in this momentous October week leading up to the completion of the Mayan calendar, I’ve come to understand my true place in the context of Heaven and Earth in a way unlike before. I laugh to myself over the countless high points of understanding that this remarkable life journey has lead me over, each time bringing me a sense of ultimate knowing – and then still not. No doubt the same is true now and I am eager as always to take in the breathtaking views of this high place of truth, and then to take another step and another until the next peak is discovered. There could be no greater thrill, no greater joy for me than this.
My place in the context of Heaven and Earth
It’s time to return my loving affection to this One beloved Body of Earth and Humankind of which I am an integral aspect by the very fact of my incarnation as a human being. Heaven and all the Hosts thereof, indeed hold within It the ultimate Force of Life. Each moment I pay tribute to this Source of all Being, remembering too my place within this Whole. But in this new day of consciousness I see the love that has been deficient here within my very own body. Ancient wounds have shrouded this body’s joy. Shame has bent her low and caused her to hide. Fear has risen to such height that love was diminished, faintly known. Not that love can ever truly be lessened. But its presentation can. The way in which it is expressed through my body – and the One beloved body of Earth and Humankind – can and has been severely suppressed and distorted, like so many layers of crud and messed up skin tissue.
We forgot that when we chose, all those times ago, to incarnate as human beings and come to Earth, it was to bring the Love that we are to Her, to care for our family here and the beloved place called Earth that is a home beyond compare for us all. We made that choice; we came … only to forget the almighty Wonder from whence we came, but equally important, the sacred nature of the Earth Body which we have come to — and for a delightful cause indeed.
I can’t change what has happened nor necessarily what those around me still do, but there is one magnificent thing, or rather many untold numbers of things, which represent and distinguish this New Day in the history of Earth and Man for me. I can do my work. What is the “work”? I can open up, and heal my wounds, my shame, my doubts and fears and return to my original state of Love. I can love myself, my own beautiful body, deeply and truly because it is one with Earth and Humankind, which I have already chosen to be with intimately back when I incarnated.

Loving yourself
We have been taught by wise teachers for millennia to love ourselves. To your own self be true. If loving yourself is not easy for you, check out your wounds. Lay them open, let them burn. Sometimes it helps to know where they come from and follow that thread with healing. In every case they need to be bathed in warm, aromatic love. And there is one rule that can not ever be skipped over – honor where you are in the healing process. It matters only that you are interested in healing, loving and becoming more keenly aware of the nature of Truth. There is no one set method, no person or program and certainly no one religion that will help you unlock the truth within you. In my experience it has been wonderful to tap into a great many, and widely varied, expressions. Find the ones that assist you in doing “your work” the most effectively and the most joyfully.
If loving yourself seems complete and easy for you, cross check the quality and strength of your love by noting whether the same level of love is true towards all others … whether beast, man or earth. You are the mountains … and the cities too; the grass beneath your feet, the song your neighbor sings. All that you touch is a sacred gift of opportunity to spread your golden Angel dust. Receive each gift of Love that is given to you for if it is pure it will enrich and build still greater wonders of Heaven and Earth.
This is where only Good Spirits reign. Let it be … a New Day!

Susannah Light is the founder of Divine Nature Tours, a non-profit organization born of the inspiration to know ones innermost truths through the silent Teacher and exquisite beauty of Nature. She lived six exciting years in Costa Rica. Susannah is a Life Coach and practitioner of Sacred Healing Arts, presently living at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland Colorado. Click here for more on Divine Nature Tours

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Only Good Spirits Reign Here (excerpted from a personal journal entry)