Where's the prayer?

Nearly 12,000 dead in an earthquake in China, thousands more are still buried under debris, and thousands are left homeless.

There are 1.5 million victims, according to UN estimates of the cyclone that hit Myanmar in the last week, and tens of thousands were killed by the storm.

Meanwhile, we're concerned with rising gas prices among other things.

When the tragedy of 9/11 hit us, the world stopped and kept vigil with us.

When tragedy hits Asia, twice in a week, we mind our own business.

We is me. I'm as guilty as the next person. Stop and pray. Remember those who are suffering in Asia and around the world today.

Declaration of Self-Esteem

I am me

In all the wold there is no one exactly like me.

Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine because I alone choose it...

I own everything about me, my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, and all my actions whether they be to others or to myself...I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears...I own all my triumphs and successes, all of my failures and mistakes...because I own all of me. I can become intimately acquainted with me...by so doing, I can love me and be friendly with me in all my parts....

I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me and other aspects I do not know...but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and for ways to find out more about me...

However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me...if later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which is I discard...

I can see, hear, feel, think, say and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me...

I am radically loved by God.

I am me and I am okay.

--Virginia Satir