The answer was interesting and had deep meanings, but still left questions in my mind. The creatures were told: a new species will be created and arrive soon, and each member of this species will be equivalent and worthy of a whole species.

Those who asked the question were silent, suggesting they were satisfied with the answer. But I wondered how a single member of a species can be worth an entire species – and whether destroying a whole species for a new one can really be just.

Here, it was obvious to me that the new species that would be created is humans, and those condemned were the species who went extinct in ancient times, before humanity appeared on earth. This dream vaguely reminded me something that I read in the “Risale-i Nur Collection” by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi.

Bediuzzaman remarkably states that, “A human being is equivalent to a species of other creatures” (Zuhra – 4th point, Isharat al-I’jaz, and Mathnawi al-Nuriya). This line hadn’t really struck me until I had the dream about older creatures questioning this wisdom.

In this dream, those creatures were dinosaurs. I was not scared; they weren’t threatening with their question. They were fighting for their rights and trying to understand the glorious plan, and beyond.

It seemed to me a lovely coincidence that I had a visit to Washington coming up soon and had a chance to visit the National Museum of Natural History, where you can see well preserved remnants of various dinosaurs.

All of the dinosaurs went extinct long before the first human showed up. Dinos first walked on earth over 200 million years ago and dominated the earth until 66 million years ago. Their dominion on earth ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction. According to fossil records, there were more than 1000 dinosaur species. Dinosaurs had different habits of eating, as some were herbivorous (plant-eating) and others were carnivorous (meat-eating), including fish-eaters and insectivores, and omnivores (including both animals and plants in their diets). We should be thankful that we never knew many of the carnivores like T-Rex, which measured up to 12m (40ft)! It’s obvious that we could not live on earth if T-Rex were still running around. For our arrival, their departure was necessary.

There is no doubt that the human species is very valuable from various aspects, but what puts each person on the same level with another species?

One of humanity’s great merits is our collective understanding. This collective consciousness can be more fully realized through the glasses of faith in God. With the window of faith, humans not only comprehend His speech, but are better attuned to their fellow living beings – and maybe even non-living creatures. Humans are like one who is that all-inclusive and hears all other things. Hence, we can grasp proofs of the most beautiful names of the Creator from the speeches of all creatures.

The light of such understanding in humans leads to an expansion and improvement in our soul. This makes our value high, our sight universal, and our ability to achieve to perfection limitless. On the other hand, many other species are limited in many aspects by their nature, sights, and capacity of perfection. According to religious texts, though humans and other species are valued differently on earth, the divide grows larger in the hereafter. While every human being is re-created with their names, features, matter, and manner, other species return back to the soil.

When you visit nature museum next time, try to listen what the fossils of extinct species tell you about their complaint. They were created for a purpose; they have finished their job and gone. They have done a fantastic job and flourished, while leaving us many petrol reservoirs. Though countless species have gone extinct, more than 1.6 million other species are still living on earth. Death is not an end; nowadays, they are trying to reach out to us and tell us their secrets. We’re expected to become the best fruit of this universe.

This dream made me think about how the ways that Allah could teach us is not limited to what we do when we are awake. Would you ever think that ancient extinct species would also need the lights of the everlasting speech of the All-Wise and All-Powerful, as explained by why a man could be equivalent and worthy of a species of another creature by Bediuzzaman?

Another lesson is that as we live in an oil dependent-century, we are counting on reservoirs that formed millions years ago by the remnants of ancient living beings; but just as we depend on them, ancient extinct species are also counting on us and expecting us to contemplate our purpose for being here, and to show that we’re worthy of being the most glorious fruit in the universe. As the All-wise make things with infinite wisdom, he sends oil to people of this century to help in technology and he also sends further mercy in the form of knowledgeable scholars to answer our questions.

The purpose of this article is to shed light on such questions from an academic perspective by focusing especially on religious identity. It is especially crucial to understand identity as it is a widely used concept in social scientific academic disciplines in explaining the causes of many prominent social and cultural phenomena that take place in the world.

Identity is derived from group membership. In this respect, Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov (2010) equate identity to one’s belonging to a group. Further, Hofstede et al. (2010) state that identity is visible, it is commonly rooted in language (such as Latin American identity deriving from Spanish) or religious affiliation (such as Muslim identity deriving from Islam), and can be differentiated by shared symbols, heroes, and rituals that are part of observable practices but not necessarily the values of a nation. Identity is not a core part of national cultures; it is explicit, and it can change.

An individual can have multiple identities. For example, one can identify herself as a woman, Jewish, and American. Multiple identities are dependent on culture, especially on the individualist – collectivist cultural dimension. Individualistic environments allow multiple identities and permit identity shifts. On the other hand, in collectivistic cultures, one’s group identity is mainly based on one group, which may be ethnic, religious, community-based, or national (Hofstede et al. 2010).

People who share similar ethnic and cultural backgrounds may have different group identities and fight with each other, such as Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland (Hofstede et al. 2010). In this respect, Pruitt and Kim (2004) posit that groups with strong group identity are the ones whose members are highly identified with the group and they are more likely to be involved in conflict. Accordingly, members of such groups feel the suffering of the fellow group members deeply. Group identity is especially strong among people who have historical ethnic or religious ties and perceive that they are being illegitimately deprived of their basic needs (Pruitt and Kim 2004). For example, Muslims in different areas of the world, including places as distant as the United States and Indonesia, can protest at the same time when they perceive injustice against Egyptian Muslims.

From another perspective, in explaining the changes taking place in the world after the Cold War, Huntington (2007) states that social, cultural, and economic modernization processes have disrupted people’s identity sources in the second half of the twentieth century as people moved from countryside to the city. Religion has provided the meaning and purpose as the new source of identity that people seek, hence a new revival of religion and de-secularization began. For example, Orthodoxy in Slavic republics and Islam in Turkic republics of the former Soviet Union resurged, filling the gap of the communist ideology as people identified themselves more and more with their authentic religions that were suppressed by Communism (which was the main source of identity in the Soviet Union).

Similarly, in Turkey, in the 1990s, the ultra-secularist state-driven Kemalist identity was challenged with the revival of the Muslim identity. In this respect, Huntington (2007) argues that psychological, emotional and social needs of people caught in the traumas of modernization are best satisfied by a global religious revival. In the case of Muslim communities, Islam provided the answer to these needs, causing the Islamic Resurgence. According to Huntington (2007), the recent Islamic Resurgence is “the latest phase in the adjustment of Islamic civilization to the West, an effort to find the ‘solution’ not in Western ideologies but in Islam. It embodies acceptance of modernity, rejection of Western culture, and recommitment to Islam as the guide to life in the modern world.” Similarly, Hunt and Aslandogan (2007, 96) posit that by the early twentieth century, Muslims perceived themselves as “part of intellectual, political, and social movements that sought either a restoration and renewal of the Islamic civilization of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a return to the purity of the period of Muhammad and his immediate successors, or even a thoroughgoing ‘modernization’ of Islam.”

The resurgence was not limited to the Islamic world. In South Korea, a traditionally Buddhist nation, where only one to three percent of the population was Christian in 1950, Christianity spread. Presbyterians and Catholics were at least 30 percent of South Korea’s population in the 1980s (Huntington 2007). In the case of Latin America, “The number of Protestants in Latin America increased from roughly 7 million in 1960 to about 50 million in 1990” (Huntington 2007, 1779) which according to Huntington (2007, 1783) is “a major net increase in religious commitment and participation” rather than a replacement of one religion with another. According to Huntington, such changes in South Korea and Latin America reflect the ability of Protestantism in meeting the psychological, emotional, and social needs of people caught in the traumas of modernization more than Catholicism and Buddhism. Hence, worldwide identities became more aligned with religion due to psychological and spiritual needs satisfaction in the midst of the complexities of modernization and change, which can create confusion.

From the theories of conflict perspective, identity can be used to explain many of the conflicts in the world. According to Deutsch, Coleman and Marcus (2006), basic needs such as security, identity, recognition of identity, freedom, distributive justice, and participation are seen as the essential elements for human development. Social identity theory asserts that the group that one belongs to is part of his identity, and one tends to view the group favorably to reinforce his self-respect. Thus, one perceives an attack on his in-group as an assault on his self-worth (Pruitt and Kim 2004). Since identity groups serve as the primary vehicle through which these needs are expressed and satisfied, intergroup conflict takes place when one group’s basic needs are frustrated or denied (Deutsch et al. 2006). Accordingly, intergroup conflict increases cohesiveness within the competing groups, primarily through the effects of threat. A perception of threat plays a key role by heightening in-group solidarity in addition to increasing hostility toward the threatening out-group, especially if there is a history of antagonism between the groups (Deutsch et al. 2006).

Furthermore, identity groups exist in organizations and communities. Wherever groups gather around a common social identity, if needs for recognition of that identity or for dignity, safety, or control are obstructed, conflict is highly likely. In this respect, professional groups, scientific disciplines, political parties, government departments, lobby groups, businesses, sports teams, street gangs – all carry a sense of group identity that shapes their dealings with other groups (Deutsch et al. 2006).

Based on social identity theory, since an individual’s self-esteem is linked to group membership, a positive self-concept requires favorable evaluations of one’s group and discriminatory comparisons with other groups (Deutsch et al. 2006). For example, ethnic groups exhibit ethnocentrism and national groups exhibit nationalism-pride and loyalty to their own nation, while defaming other nations.

According to Huntington (2007), in fault line wars, casual and multiple identities often transform and become more focused and hardened. With increased violence, communal conflicts become identity wars and the initial issues at stake tend to get redefined more exclusively as “us” against “them” as group cohesion and commitment are enhanced. With political leaders’ narratives emphasizing and capitalizing on ethnic and religious loyalties, civilization consciousness strengthens with respect to other identities. An example is the war in Bosnia where the common Slavic or Yugoslav ethnic identity diminished, and Muslim, Catholic, and Orthodox identities came to the front among the three fighting groups as nationalist political leaders built their agendas on ethnocentrism and religious differences.

Nevertheless, religious identity can take a constructive form and play an important role in peace building (Deutsch et al. 2006). Accordingly, when faithfulness is a source of extending compassion, justice, tolerance, and respect to other people regardless of their faith, it can prevent violence and help build peace. In places where religious diversity is celebrated, religious identity can become the mediating factor for understanding and cooperation. Faith based diplomacy is an example where religious identity is the opening point for building trust and starting dialogue (Deutsch et al. 2006). Parties involved in interfaith – intercultural dialogue can attain a better understanding of their own religious or cultural identity and how it acts to form their perspective of the world and others. Therefore, interfaith dialogue is not only about learning about others’ faith traditions, but it is also exploration of one’s own identity. It also helps develop respect and understanding of various traditions as parties break down barriers of misunderstanding and build trusting relationships (Deutsch et al. 2006).

Another area where religious identities can foster bonds with others is humanitarian relief work. One can capitalize on her religious beliefs in protecting or enhancing human life regardless of ethnic or religious identity of the needy. The Kimse Yok Mu foundation in Turkey is based on such concepts that transcend identity based boundaries. Furthermore, Hunt and Aslandogan (2007) point out that education can become the vehicle through which a higher sense of identity can be developed to end divisions and frictions over artificial differences. Hence, the role of education for promoting a universal view of humanity and for the development of understanding and tolerance to secure respect for the rights of others is tremendous. One such educational endeavor is brought to life through the implementation of the annual Turkish Olympiads in Turkey, where identity based differences are minimized and universal values are emphasized around speaking a common language among students from more than 140 countries.

In conclusion, understanding the concept of identity can be especially important for international development, disaster relief, interfaith – intercultural dialogue, and education work in differentiating why and how various groups of people around the world identify themselves with various factors such as religion, ethnicity, language, and race. In the international development domain, it is vital to work with identity-based sensitivities in mind, as identity underlies many conflicts around the world. In the interfaith – intercultural dialogue domain, on the other hand, different identities provide the basis for much needed cooperation for a brighter future for all.

References

• Deutsch Morton, Peter T. Coleman, and Eric C. Marcus. 2006. The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice. Kindle Edition.
• Hofstede, Geert, Gert J. Hofstede and Michael Minkov. 2010. Cultures And Organizations: Software of The Mind. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw Hill.
• Hunt, Robert, and Yuksel Aslandogan. 2007. Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World. Kindle Edition.
• Huntington, Samuel P. 2007. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.
• Pruitt, Dean G. and Sung Hee Kim. 2004. Social Conflict: Escalation, Stalemate, and Settlement. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw Hill.

Sleep, baby, sleep
Your father tends the sheep
Your mother shakes the dreamland tree
And from it fall sweet dreams for thee
Sleep, baby, sleep
Sleep, baby, sleep.^[1]

Babies are such cute bundles of joy. They are simply adorable and very innocent. The birth of a baby is a miraculous event, and all babies deserve to be loved, no matter where they are born.

Lullabies are love songs written for them. Parents sing lullabies to their precious loved ones to send them sweetly into their dreams. In almost every culture, lullabies are inspirations and prayers for precious little children. Such songs hand down the hopes and dreams of parents, from generation to generation.

“Hush-a-bye” is a lullaby with a story behind it. It was collected by Alan Lomax, who learned it from his mother, who took it from North Carolina to Texas after the Civil War^[2]. It was originally sung by an African American slave. The “lambie” symbolizes the slave-mother’s child, for whom she is unable to care because she is too busy taking care of her owner’s child, to whom the song is being sung. The lullaby’s sourness is cleverly hidden in the comparison between the two children: one is a protected white child growing up privileged and the other is a black baby, left defenseless in nature^[3].

Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby.
When you wake, you’ll have cake,
And all the pretty little horses.

Black and bay, dapple and grey,
Coach and six little horses,
Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby.
Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby,
When you wake, you’ll have cake,
And all the pretty little horses.

Way down yonder, down in the meadow,
There’s a poor wee little lamby.
The bees and the butterflies pickin’ at its eyes,
The poor wee thing cried for her mammy.

Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby.
When you wake, you’ll have cake,
And all the pretty little horses.

Other than being musical stories, lullabies are also beautiful gifts from a parent’s heart to a baby’s ear. Every parent around the world sings a delightful lullaby in her native tongue to relax their child. Lullabies are great examples of how we show love in similar ways all around the world. There is no difference between us and the people on the other end of the world when it comes to our affection for our babies. We all love our babies and open our hearts to them with these songs. There are different lyrics or different rhythms, but they express the same love, support, and concern for the little human beings.

For example, in an Armenian lullaby, a mother says:

The south wind rocks you back and forth
Let the stars converse with you
And the sun and moon calm you
The wild deer will offer its milk
Sleep, sleep.^[5]

And an Azerbaijani lullaby goes as follows:

Every passing bird, every river
Says lay-lay to you my baby
In our most joyful and beautiful motherland
You are my pride and joy
You are my soul that is within my own soul
Your breath is so clean and innocent
Like the light wind in the field.^[6]

Although there is a long history of conflict between the two south Caucasus countries, there is no difference in a parent’s compassion and warm wishes for their children. They both pick nature up as their babies’ playmates and want them to grow up within that nature. Both of the lullabies can comfort a baby with a familiar voice.

Below are two lullabies from Israel and an Arabic country, Morocco. Would you be able to tell which one is from which country?

The first one is:

Sleep, my little girl, sleep
Sleep, my darling one, sleep
Daddy has gone off to work.
To work, to work he’s gone.
He’ll be back when the moon rises
With a gift for his little one.^[7]

And the other one is:

Sleep my baby
Until the meal’s ready.
And if it isn’t,
The neighbor’s will be.

Sleep my baby
Until your mommy’s arrived
The bread is on the table
The sweets are on the tray.^[8]

The former is from Israel and the latter from Morocco, but universal love is embedded into the message of both lullabies. They both touch our hearts. They are both very special in every way. No stereotypes, no wars, no hatred is passed on to babies; only love, and peace, are fostered in lullabies. Thus, lullabies provide an excellent tool to teach children to love all creatures. They allow the sharing of emotions that are filtered and softened by mothers’ heart. When people comfort their babies or make them feel more secure by singing them a lullaby, they also teach them the biggest life lessons. Lullabies smoothly whisper the essentials of life, the common needs of all human beings to babies’ ears.

Talking about the essentials of life, the adversities in life are a fact that the children must also be prepared for. But even when talking about the negative aspects of life, lullabies introduce them gently. An intelligent lullaby from Turkey passes along good wishes to a child, but also teaches a valuable lesson.

Dandini dandini dastana
Into the garden the calves did stray.
Gardener quickly chases them away.
Don’t let them eat the cabbages,
Huuu huuu huuu

Dandini dandini danadan
A moon is born from a mother’s womb,
God has not withheld anything from him
May God protect him from the Evil Eye
Huuu huuu huu hu

Dandini dandini danayli
May our pots be coated with tin
May my daughter be a bride in a mansion
And my son dwell in a palace
Huuu huuu huu hu.^[4]

In this lullaby, a mother’s desire for her son not to get married to a girl she does not approve is hidden beneath the lyrics in an amazingly clever way. The calf symbolizes the son and the garden represents life, while the gardener is the father, and cabbage is the girl that is not approved of by the boy’s mother. So the mother wants the father to keep that girl away.

There are lullabies like the one above that are very personal and private, in which the narrator expresses how she really feels and thinks about certain issues while telling her stories. Such songs can help a parent express their own emotions more clearly, too, especially when they are unable to share them with others. Thus, lullabies soothe and help not only the babies but also the adults.

Lullabies are helpful to put babies to sleep and are useful for adults to enjoy the time that is spent with their children. A lullaby’s magic comes to life in a parent’s voice. These gentle melodies allow parents, who are a child’s first teachers, to impart valuable lessons in a soothing way. A personal message or story is planted elegantly into the lyrics. A loving parent embraces their precious baby with a beautiful lullaby. Plenty of joy, peace and love fill up the room at night when a loving voice smoothly sings:

Goodnight moon, goodnight stars and goodnight my little angel,
Close your eyes and open them to sweet dreams my sweetheart…

References

¹ http://www.romantic-lyrics.com/lullabylyrics/sleepbabysleep.shtml

² http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/prettyhorses.htm

³ http://www.robertbohm.com/publications/3.html

⁴ http://lullabiesofeurope.wetpaint.com/page/Lullabies+(Turkish)

⁵ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lullabies_of_Armenia

⁶ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lullaby

⁷ http://www.hebrewsongs.com/song-numinumi.htm

⁸ http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=1249&c=168

Culture as we know it is generated from thoughts, emotions, attitudes and behaviors, networks of symbols, values, beliefs, and sensory perceptions. Culture itself also changes, differs and is transferred among generations. Memetics is a new field of science that tries to understand questions such as How does the mind work? How do humans learn and develop? How does culture form and transfer to future generations?

One of the major tenets of memetics is the meme, or meme concept. The meme concept is assumed as a mental unit to understand the structure and function of culture. Symbols (imaginations), cognates, archetypes, images, concepts, values, beliefs, emotions, attitudes, and behaviors that are produced inside the human mind are either memes or a meme set. Memes are described as mysterious codes of behavior, and the main production unit of reality and function of the human mind. Concepts like mind, cognition, and memory as well as the functioning of the genes and viruses have been instrumental in the development of the meme.

If we consider the human brain as a computer, genes can be regarded as units that make up the hardware, and memes as units for software. Speech and language skills enable the formation and transfer of memes that build mind and culture. Forms of literature and different sciences are also memes that help define a specific culture and civilization. It is accepted that memes are units that code, reproduce, and store ideas, emotions, and behaviors.

Since memes can only be reproduced in the mind and transferred via the brain’s activities, they are also described as the viruses of the cultural world. The common feature of biological and computer viruses is that they leak into the system by concealing themselves, and thus infect other structures in the medium by replicating there. Through memes, acting as agents (viruses) that reproduce and diversify ideas, culture is transferred via media, speech, and mass communication devices. One such example of this would be commercials. Commercials and other forms of advertisements are produced by utilizing powerful memes.

Genes and the laws of genetics help us to understand memes. Genes and memes are very similar to each other in terms of working principles. Just like genes, memes are also multidimensional and multifunctional. The roles that genes play in the biological world are similarly carried out by memes in the mind. There are regulatory memes, just like regulatory genes. There are immunoglobulin genes in charge of protecting against diseases, just as there are memes that guard against bad, harmful, and unwanted cultural practices. Ethical teachings, decency, the concept of right and wrong, lawful and unlawful are examples of memes that conserve a culture’s spiritual and ideological world.

Genes have helped the brain to develop in such a way that they store and reproduce memes. The synapses and neural networks of the brain are drawn towards certain memes. Neural genes and their products (neurotransmitters, neural networks and synapses) work in conjunction with these memes, spreading their content.

Knowledge is spread in this way. Like unlocking a door is dependent on a complete match and fit of the key and lock, the production, storage, reproduction, and transfer of memes relies on fitting with the proper genes. In other words, there is a high level of adaptation and association in between memes and memetic structures that are encoded into the structure of the brain. Therefore, not every meme can find its place in each mind; likewise, not every brain can accommodate and propagate all meme forms. This relation explains both why humans have different interests and respond differently to the same stimulant. In the meantime, it sheds light on the role of memes in the development of different mentalities, perceptions, and opinions.

Just as genes affect memes, memes also affect genes. Memes that form in the mind play a role in the expression, regulation, and control of genes. Memes such as emotions and ideas lead to alterations in the electrical activities of the brain. Furthermore, this triggers the excretion of neurotransmitter materials and the synthesis of transcription factors that switch gene activity on and off. Some of these memes can be pleasant, or they may be unwanted and disturbing. Thus, there is also a need for anti-memes, in order to neutralize unwanted and disturbing ones.

Belief systems, and conversely non-belief, produce different memes and this difference causes variations in a person’s neural gene activity. The mental processes of a person possessing right or wrong memes shaped by religious faith will not be the same compared to a person who does not have these memes. This is similar to the way a person with positive and joyful memes sees life in a different light than someone who has negative and harmful memes.

The task that antivirus programs have in the computer world is similar to the tasks of anti-memes in our mind. Of course, a person can influence this process through willpower. Good things represent nice and pleasant memes and wrong ones symbolize unwanted and harmful memes. Of course, each country or culture has different definitions of what is good and what is wrong. From this perspective, so-called “culture wars” are actually wars of memes and memetics. It is only possible to understand civilizations through analyzing the algorithms and memetic maps which were used to erect them.

Memes are investigated under three main groups according to the anatomical and functional structure of the brain. The first is memes that are stored and populated in the neocortex, which is associated with advanced mental functions such as willpower, consciousness, and intangible thinking. These memes are also defined as a cognate (a unit that represents the information generated and stored in the cortex) in cognitive sciences.

The second one is memes that surface, stay, and diversify in the mezolymbic region, which houses the centers for reward and pleasure, fight or flight, and which generates simple and complex emotions.

The third type is memes that are associated with the back region of the brain that is in charge of activities pertaining to physical necessities, such as eating and drinking. Due to the make-up of our brains, personal memes for desire, fear, and other habits are significantly different from each other. But these three different types of memes play a role in shaping brain chemistry and culture. The way we think originates from these different memetic maps via different memes of subconscious content. Due to the differing makeup in personalities, because of memes and genes, people have different degrees of willpower. In summary, if there is not a problem regarding the foundation of genetic and memetic interaction, we develop and mature with the capacity to separate the good, right, and decent memes from the wrong, harmful, and disturbing ones. In this process, emotions and behaviors that are inside and outside of our will are subject to regulation and the control of psychological and spiritual states, and genetic-memetic systems. We should not forget that our ideas, emotions and behaviors are determined under the control of our intelligence, conscience, and willpower, which are the dynamics of our soul.

Fear and hope or expectation are deliberate attitudes, and are a first station for a traveler on the way to God. Contraction and openness are mysterious “bargains” that have been made without the will or intention of the traveler. The first one blocks his or her way; the second one gives him or her wings to fly to the heights. If fear and hope represent anxiety about and the joy of expectations for the future, as well as liked and disliked things, contraction and openness can be regarded as the heart’s contracting with gloom and depression and expanding with joy.

Contraction and openness have the same meaning for travelers on the slopes of knowledge of God as do fear and hope or expectation for the newly initiated. Both are in the hands of God, even if we cannot exclude from them part of one’s free will: God contracts and expands (2:245). As the whole of existence is in His grasp and at His free disposal, it is He Who directs and disposes of all things, from the heavens to the human heart. The Prophetic saying: The heart is between the two ‘Fingers’ of the All-Merciful; He turns it from state to state and gives it whatever form He wills reminds us of this fact. When God wills, He contracts a heart so tightly that only He can provide what will satisfy it. By contrast, He expands and exhilarates it to such an extent that it needs nothing. Contraction is caused by God’s Majesty; openness is caused by His Grace. While the Grandeur and Magnificence relating to the manifestation by God of His Names on the whole of existence are displayed in the former, Mercy and Condescension are manifested in the latter. In the former, there is the frightening, awesome, and majestic nature of the Power that turns all existence from huge systems into particles, while in the latter there are affectionate breezes for those spirits trembling in awe at this infinitely vast, overwhelming Power, this overpowering Majesty.

Not everyone can feel such manifestations of Majesty and Grace at the same level, for the extent of contraction and openness is proportionate to one’s emotional and spiritual capacity. What an ordinary person feels as distress and relief or rejoicing differs markedly from the spiritual joy and anxiety experienced by one awakened to the Divine truths, one who is ever-alert for what will come through the half-opened door from the realms beyond, and who is conscious of God’s continuous and direct supervision.

Like every element of existence, contraction and openness are at the disposal of the Creator, Who alternates them continuously, like night and day. Even if this alternation appears to originate in the deeds performed in accordance with one’s free will, the Divine Will extends or shortens the periods of contraction and openness, and causes one to be consumed with tension or to overflow with delight. Sometimes a lover experiences openness for a long time, feeling as if flying like a bird, without being touched by any form of contraction; other times, contraction is a constant companion that stays so long that the lover feels that he or she is going from one hardship to another (and greater) hardship.

As neglecting the requirements of one’s spiritual position bestowed by God causes contraction, sins usually come together with contraction. For this reason, a believer must always be alert against committing new sins and deviations while suffering contraction, must not be overpowered by heedlessness, and must strive for self-purification through sincere repentance and the performance of good deeds. Then, the believer must wait for what will come from the realms beyond. While contraction is accompanied by fear, perplexity, and feelings of spiritual emptiness, openness manifests itself as joy, rapture, and feelings or utterances of pride. For this reason, openness may be risky for those spiritually less-developed people who have not yet attuned themselves to journeying in “celestial” realms.

Although there are risks associated with contraction, those associated with openness are greater and more numerous. One caught in contraction usually feels in his or her conscience an absolute need of the Almighty, and so turns to Him in sincere acknowledgment of this neediness with the words: Hold me! Hold me, lest I should fall! and, escaping the spiritual waste he or she feels, is favored with the Almighty’s help and reaches those heights that are beyond reach during times of openness.

This is why some people are exposed to heedlessness and loss of spiritual energy during times of openness, and why contraction leads almost every believer to new levels of alertness. In addition, the contraction originating from our sins or neglect usually signals the beginning of a new wave of openness; similarly, an expansion that causes pride and loss of spiritual energy may give rise to a new contraction.

A true believer is one who can judge each state experienced or achieved as it really is, with all of its aspects, and make it fruitful.

Contraction and openness are manifestations from Him for one who knows.
He causes openness so that the servant will thank Him,
and causes contraction so that the servant may become more alert.

O God! Open our breasts for Islam and establish our hearts
on belief. And bestow blessing and peace on our master
Muhammad, and on his Family and Companions, great and illustrious.

With so many expectations and obligations in our lives, it is a surprise we are not all insane. Dr. Brené Brown of the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work program is a shame resilience researcher, learning how people deal with issues like those above that can trigger feelings of shame, negatively impacting our relationships and ability to function. She has published three books covering the topic of shame and shame resilience. Dr. Brown has been gaining attention in recent years as she has appeared on CNN, NPR, PBS, and the internet video site TED. The topic may seem unusual, but the research has far-reaching implications, widely applicable beyond the social work field. Everyone experiences shame, and overcoming shame is necessary to function, instead of being held back and isolated by shame. Responding in a constructive, shame-minimizing way by working through shame issues is what Dr. Brown calls living in a more “whole-hearted” and “authentic” way.

Researching people

Social sciences have different methods of researching, and Dr. Brown used the grounded theory, a method which allows qualitative data, and inductive and deductive reasoning to gather data without having a hypothesis to start with. Using the grounded theory method, consensus from individual interviews was taken based on the language and terms they used to describe their experiences, “and maybe stories are just data with a soul,” posits Dr. Brown in her TED talk. Dr. Brown decided she wanted to study shame, and so she did so without any of her own theories to start. She just had the questions: What is shame and how does it work? According to Robert Hilliker, a licensed counselor, former student, and collaborator of Dr. Brown’s, she has gathered over 11,000 interviews with people, investigating their shame experiences and where applicable, their shame resilience.

Owning our own story can be hard, but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it.

Dr. Brown found that some of the people she interviewed showed impressive resilience to shaming experiences. She focused in on these people and studied what made them resilient to the effects of shame. The people were dubbed, “the whole-hearted.”

How shame works

The positive side of shame research is that there are tools to combat the feeling and the experience of shame, and to make our everyday lives less like shame minefields and more like a day at the office, picking up the kids, going to the grocery store, and making friends along the way. Simple exchanges with fellow parents or children, with bosses or teachers, spouses, friends, and acquaintances can easily turn into huge triggers for shameful feelings. When a weak spot is hit, a mistake is made, an accident happens, or someone runs late, short exchanges can become terse and tense, full of hidden meaning and innuendo, implied or imagined incompetence and inadequacy.

Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky, but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy–the experiences that make us most vulnerable Whether a situation goes smoothly or blows up in someone’s face has a lot to do with his or her shame triggers, something everyone has. Detailed in I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t): Telling the Truth About Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power, social and family situations can become nightmares when our lives are ruled by shame. For people that cannot deal with their shame (everyone to some extent, according to Dr. Brown) the options are limited: numbing the feelings of shame and fear through addictions, attempting to become “invulnerable” through perfectionism, making the uncertain certain by becoming dogmatic, and pretending that our actions do not hurt others. But these negative actions do harm others, and they break down our connections to others.

How whole-heartedness works

Even more exciting than learning that shame is universal and awful was that there are strengths that can be cultivated to overcome shame. The title of Dr. Brown’s second book says it all: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are. The main components of whole-hearted living were courage, compassion, and connection. Being authentic requires accepting ourselves for who we are and living that truthfully. “Owning our own story can be hard but not nearly as difficult spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy–the experiences that make us most vulnerable,” says Dr. Brown in her book.

There are so many ways to apply such a broadly useful set of concepts, especially for a person of faith. The “guideposts” in The Gifts of Imperfection evoke many concepts from holy books. “Cultivating Authenticity: Letting Go of What People Think” calls to mind the story of Prophet Noah, who everyone thought was crazy as he built an ark. The chapter on cultivating gratitude and joy clearly connects to faith. Dr. Brown’s perspective on gratitude is especially relevant to modern life: “For me and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is ‘I didn’t get enough sleep.’ … Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it …”

As I read this passage, it makes total sense to me why we’re a nation hungry for more joy: Because we’re starving from a lack of gratitude.

Opportunities for growth

Dr. Brown and counselor-protégé Robert Hilliker have developed a curriculum called Connections which covers many of the concepts from her books and research. They are also developing a certification program for counseling professionals such as social workers and clergy who would like training.

“Spiritual leadership has a responsibility to make faith communities safe and supportive … We actually train spiritual leaders in the curriculum,” says Hilliker. “[Shame resilience] would be a wonderful thing for faith book clubs to sort of rally around … Her work has really reached a tipping point where people are talking about shame, this very pervasive feeling that everybody has and few people deal with well,” he says. Such a common feeling that can be very debilitating may not be the most cheerful topic of conversation, but learning to deal with shame may be one of the most liberating acts in a person’s life. To learn more, please visit: http://www.connectionscertification.com/.

Dr. Brené Brown, from her website.

Defining Some Broad Terms

Shame is simply defined as the fear of disconnection, that a person will be rejected when he or she becomes vulnerable.

Courage from the Latin cor, originally (and by Brené Brown) meant to speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.

Compassion, defined as deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it, starts with self-compassion according to the shame-resilience research.

Connection is defined as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.

Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.

I contend that Money has acquired a character, a personality, if you like. So there you are, you have Mr. and Mrs. Average on the street, and then there is Money. It is best to keep Money otherwise anonymous, for it has become uppity enough. In the old days, people would say that “money talks” and that inference has been made fact. Nowadays, Money makes a dialogue to fit its own ends and Money knows where it is going, with whom it is having dinner tonight, whom it is going to embarrass due to its immediate absence, and the person or company it is going to ruin in the morning.

Money, you might say, has got Greece on the skids. It is not really the fault of Greece or Grecians in general, because, you see, Money has become sly, altogether its own boss.

Nevertheless, despite the awful Cloud of Unknowing hovering over Athens, the Greeks of our acquaintance have been generous to a fault. We have been offered many a meze (a small plate of olives, feta, sausage, etc.), coffee or glass of ouzo free of charge. There has been a bon vivant air to our relationships, but we are convinced that due to the rather cavalier handling of their monetary means, these jolly persons do not wish to have a mainland psyche.

Who was it who said that “only a millionaire can afford to be a communist”? Never mind, the notion is perfectly applicable to Greece and its very nice people. It could mean that either they are all transcended souls and have seen something that we have not, or simply don’t give two figs for the idea of poverty. This is true on the islands, that is! Athens is another matter altogether.

In much the same way that there are countries in which poverty means a less strenuous existence than in some others. (Being poor in Austria, for example, is bearable. Poverty in some other countries, which we do not name, would be quite horrid.) Life for the Greek islanders is obviously less affected than life for those living in Athens. In the islands in other words, Money has none of the packed dependents that a metropolis offers to exert its lack of presence. Athens may well be the seat of government, but the islands seem to require little governing. One can’t shake off the feeling that Money has made itself essential to the running of a financial capital and nowhere else, because that is what financial capitals are for. See? The capital cities of this world are all a home-from-home for Money. We shudder at the thought of Brussels, which obviously needs paying for, going the same way.

My wife and I have decided to have no truck with money (we have de-capitalised it for a start). Should money stray our way, we will toss it into a corner and let it sulk for a bit; we may send it to a Third World country, which is where it belongs, but we will NOT go out and spend it. Moreover, we will excommunicate it from our feelings; we will not thrill at the thought of it; we will not indulge in sprees, thereby refusing to have a good time on the strength of money. Above all, we will resist the attraction of what money can buy. (There is a lovely little chrome-vanadium ratchet-spanner set that keeps beckoning to me when I pass its shop window.) We have pierced this monetary fog of collusion with the searchlight of our mind. We may want something but we rarely need it. That may sound like a pretty ordinary thought process, but one does require a certain resolve to carry the cross. Thus, down with glitter, down with sell, and back to the village life that serves us well.

The lady (one’s financially bemused wife) is a bit unsure of all this, despite the fact that she can circulate through a supermarket (“they always give me a headache”) and emerge with a full trolley in ten minutes flat, while one is still wrestling with the urge to buy a needless gadget.

The answer is obvious! We must drop out! We may be in the world but we will not be of it! We will say “get thee behind me – thou shalt follow and not lead.”

But can one avoid money? The machine one writes on was purchased with money. We may feel smug and contend that it is paid for and that’s that! But money has induced some manufacturers to produce goods that are set to implode within three years. Thus, money needs to circulate to feel OK, to do the rounds, check out the joints and the venues, get fluttered every so often, muscle in on things and throw its weight about, get turned into cheques and then get cashed, get wired somewhere, get bought and sold. My goodness, can one really buy and sell money? If so, what does one use in the process of buying and selling? A popular brand of beer sold in Greece is called Mythos. Go figure!

Lawrence Brazier is a writer living with his wife in rural Austria. His main interest is mystical experience.

Where am I?

There are 46 chromosomes in your body, carrying 20-25 thousand genes. Chromosomes and the genes they contain shape the genetic memory of a human being. Genes can contain hundreds of features, and these are revealed over time. For instance, you do not have any teeth when you are a newborn, but the time when you will get your teeth is encoded into your genetic memory. Once genes receive the action command, teeth start to emerge.

There are hundreds of genes located on chromosomes, all the way from the chromosome number 1 and 2, to chromosome number 46. For example, there are around three thousand genes found on chromosome number 1. The Y chromosome, in charge of male development, only contains 125 genes. A distinct address (locus) for each gene on the chromosomes is recorded. If you ask about the address of the fibrillin gene that synthesizes me, it is 15q 21.1, i.e., 15th Avenue, Long arm street, 21st pl, Number 1.

In other words my residing address is the 1st subband of the 1st band of the 2nd region located at the long arm of chromosome number 15. We are three siblings, known as fibrillin1, fibrillin2 and fibrillin3.

We stretch and relax like an arch. We can expand and tighten like an inflated balloon and then return to our previous state. If by an error, we happen to fail to restore ourselves after inflation, the tissue’s architecture gets deformed and expanded fibers cannot regain their original shape anymore. When observed in veins, this situation is called an aneurysm. The frequency of this disease is approximately one in ten thousand, which is also called ballooning. That said, my flexing is necessary. Veins flex so that the blood pumping through them doesn’t cause any turbulence, as it would otherwise be during a vacuum occurring inside metal water pipes. Flexible sportsmen who do acrobatic moves do not compare with me. I can bend, curve, flex, relax and constrict, inflate, deflate and transform like elastic, from one shape to another, for your health and overall convenience – all because of the wondrous features granted to my nature.

What kind of a fiber am I?

I provide structural support for the fabrication of elastic fibers in the connective tissue as a protein synthesized according to the code of the fibrillin gene. In case of my failure or absence, weaknesses occur, especially in the connective tissues of organs that are rich in elastic fibers, such as the aorta, lungs, and eye balls. The iris (the colored part of the eye), pupil, and eye lens display changes in accordance with levels of light or distance of objects observed. These changes are controlled perfectly according to my work, and humans often don’t even notice this. We also help the eye lens constrict and relax. It can be understood that we are such a great blessing granted for your service. Of course, if we tried to count all the blessings we’ve been given, and never even consider, it would be impossible!

My weight is 350 kilo daltons. A Dalton is an atomic mass unit approximately equal to one hydrogen atoms’ mass, which is 1.66×10-24. I consist of 2.871 amino acids. I am formed by the sequential arrangement of 20 amino acids that exist in your body as the smallest unit of proteins. We bind each other to become 10-12 nanometers wide microfibers as the result of a process called polymerization that brings loops of a protein chain together. These microfibers are brought together with the elastin protein that provides elasticity in our body. The system that we form with elastic fibrils constantly serves the body’s blood vessels, primarily the vessels located in your eyes, heart, and many of your tissues, such as your skin and nerves.

What do I do? We fulfill commands that are requested from us in many tissues and organs, without any flaws. Scientists call us the wonderful building blocks of the body’s architecture. We can extend twice as much of our length. We are always on task: while you are breathing, when your heart is pumping blood and your stomach is digesting food, or the moment you are gazing at nature with your eyes. We are given the duty to prevent many organs from tearing, including the heart, lungs, stomach, and blood vessels. One of the places I work most frequently is the aorta, the body’s major artery. Your heart beats approximately a hundred thousand times a day. A high level of pressure develops in the arteries during the pumping process. You would suffer greatly without the help of our elastic fibers. Blood vessels would rupture, ending your life. This high pressure is tolerated only through the expansion of the vessel’s diameter without any decrease in length of the artery. This diameter regulation is designed so wondrously that blood flow remains the same; no shaking or waves are observed. This diameter control happens via the fibrillin protein located inside the vessel.

I also play a role in the vitality and tension of your skin. Skin is essentially a dense fibrous connective tissue composed of a protein called collagen. I am also one of the main elements of this connective tissue. As you age, this layer starts to dry and has lesser fibrous proteins; therefore, as fibers decrease, so does my tension, and I start to wrinkle. Elderly people do not like getting wrinkly, but this is your fate. Whatever you do, I will also age and die.

I cannot go without pressing this important issue: Staying under the sun for a long time degrades me. If done properly, sun light is useful for skin. But solar radiation damages the live tissues and organs. This radiation is an effective factor both in degradation of protein structures, and the formation of varicose veins and skin damage. It is reported in various sources that exposure to sun rays leads to alterations in the genetic material of skin. Ultraviolet rays speed up the degradation of skin. In medical language, this is called oxidation via free radicals. Please do not burn us and yourself while sunbathing. Even if you do not care for yourselves, you should still be considerate of us. If you say that sunbathing both helps, with vitamin D synthesis and reducing the risk of osteoporosis, I would like to remind you that for the vitamin D synthesis of skin, it is sufficient to expose your hands, feet and face to the sun.

How is life without me?

Though we were wisely designed, sometimes, you are tested by certain diseases in which we are not present. Absence, as they say, makes the heart grow fonder!

Life without me is unbearable. I could give a couple of examples, should you like. If I was not created, your skin would not be flexible. You wouldn’t be able to control your eye lenses. Your aorta would not be flexible and your heart, which beats thousands of times a day, would be torn under the high pressure in a short amount of time. Major problems would occur with the development of your stomach, lungs, and other organs.

I also have a significant job keeping TGF-Beta (which helps cells grow) function under control. To give you an idea of how important this is, imagine your communication system turned upside down. Now imagine how complicated are the communication systems connecting billions of people around the world, how a mess it would be when they are out of service. These are nothing when compared to the human body. There are 100 trillion cells in the human body, communicating with each other instantaneously. A cellular community that is fifteen thousand times more crowded than the earth’s population communicates via small molecules, like us. Cellular proliferation and tissue differentiation would fail if cells failed to communicate. The full spoon of food in your hand would not end in your mouth but maybe in your ear or your eyes.

If a mutation happens with the Fibrillin-1 gene, Marfan syndrome can occur. This disease, which was defined in the 1800s, is named after its discoverer. The frequency of this disease is one in five thousand. One of the major lethal consequences of Marfan syndrome is an aorta tear. This is in addition to many problems with the eyes, skeleton, and cardio-vascular systems. Many of the patients die in their 30s or 40s because of the flaws in the cardio-vascular system. Of course, death may occur at any age because of an aorta rupture. 14% of the patients with Marfan syndrome display chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is associated with breathing problems, because the integrity of lung tissue is compromised. Another disease I help prevent is called Ektopia lentis, in which the eye lens is displaced from its original position. Normally, I help eye functioning. When my fibers relax or constrict, depending on light, I help the eye to relax, enabling both near and far sightedness. With Ektopia lentis, anomalies on the front vestibule of the eye, a high degree of myopia, and retina damage occur.

If overproduced, I can cause another problem with the eye, called exfoliation syndrome. This is when fibrous connective tissue, like me, accumulates in the eye – it’s commonly called glaucoma, or ocular hypertension. In some people, as they age, a fibrous material like hair dandruff collects on the eye lens. This material, dislocated by movements of the iris, blocks the drainage channels that discharge the intraocular fluid. Eye pressure increases as the result of failed drainage. As you see, I am not a problem when I am synthesized normally, but can be trouble if over produced! My final request from you!

You have seen our amazing works and complicated functions. Therefore, please remember me and my friends. Please do not ignore our efforts and activities. Be grateful for the blessings provided through us, even if you can’t see them. And take care of us, please – don’t get carried away with too much tanning!

Dream, Believe, Fly. These three words have a ring, a truth, a purity. As an author of books for teen readers, I gave these three words to one of my characters, and these three words became her mantra. She was sixteen; I am more. The motto works for both of us. My character had those words tattooed onto her skin; I have them tattooed into my soul. Dream. Believe. Fly.

The first step to achieving is to dream. You need to see, you need to dream, you need to believe. Faith and fervor result in the necessary work, and the work gives you wings. The wind beneath those wings is the dream, the belief, the need to achieve.

We are given one life. Some of us live soft; some live hard. Some laugh a lot; some cry. Some are brave; some are not. Some live many years; some live few. At the age of fifty-five, I’ve seen many friends leave this earth, and I’ve learned that we need to seize not only the moment, but our dreams. We need to seize our dreams, grab onto them, and never forget what we hope to accomplish in this world. We need to seize first, then to believe. We need to believe with all of our hearts, with all of our minds, with all of our very beings. We are each instilled with the magic to make things happen. We are resilient and we are strong and we have the power inside, if only we dream and we believe that we can indeed fly.

I’ve wanted to write ever since I can remember. My first memory of elementary school is that of the library, and of a pink Mary Poppins book that I reached up to pull from the shelf. Mary Poppins could fly, and this much I believed: So could I.

It would be many years, though, before I got my wings. There would be hardships and hurt, suffering and struggles. There would be days of hard work, and nights of worry. There would be dark nights when I could not see the stars; days when I tried to believe that life might get easier with time.

“When a man can observe himself suffering and is able, later, to describe what he’s gone through, it means he was born for literature.” A writer named Edouard Bourdet said that in 1927. Many years later, those words still speak to this writer’s soul.

1989 was a rough year. I was 31 years old, and my motto at that time might have been “Hang in there.” I was hit by a drunk driver in July. He left me by the roadside with injuries, a demolished car, and a shattered faith in mankind. He went to jail; I went home to heal.

Two months later, my stepson’s biological mother deposited him on our doorstep. He was six years old, and all he had in the world was a trash bag stuffed with his earthly possessions. He awakened sobbing every night. With my own six-year-old son from a previous marriage, I couldn’t comprehend how a mother’s heart could be so cold.

Two months after my stepson came to us, I unexpectedly became pregnant. I still had no car, and was undergoing treatment for persistent neck and back injuries incurred by the accident. We were poor. My stepson was aching and confused. So was I. Hang in there. Hang in there hang in there hang in there.

In the middle of the pregnancy, I contracted Fifth Disease, a form of the measles. There was an outbreak in the elementary schools of our area, and the medical community was unsure as to the effects of the illness in pregnant women. I was sent for a level two ultrasound, and told by the doctors that I could be “cautiously optimistic” for a healthy baby. However, I’d need a weekly ultrasound. If the fetus contracted the disease or showed signs of anemia, it would be necessary to undergo a blood transfusion in utero. The risks, I was told, were stillbirth and miscarriage. Oh, please, please. Hang in there.

On the day before our baby was due, my husband John came home from work, weeping. It was August of 1990, and the Gulf War and recession had resulted in a permanent lay-off from his longtime construction job. It was the first (and only) time I saw him cry. His heart was broken.

Our son was born: a perfectly healthy and beautiful baby boy. We were ecstatic, despite the fact that John didn’t have a job and we were living in a cramped mobile home with three children: his, mine, and ours.

“Maybe I should get a real job,” I said. “Give up this crazy dream of writing books.” I was an established newspaper and magazine writer, but had been attempting futilely to break into the competitive world of children’s books.

“Keep at it,” John said. “Don’t give up.” Don’t give up. Another three words to grasp onto. So I didn’t. I didn’t give up. I stayed home and wrote, raising our children and grasping tight to my hopes. I prayed for the strength to continue writing despite the obstacles and staggering odds. Don’t give up. Hang in there. Don’t give up.

Several weeks after our son Zach was born, John saw an ad in a local paper: “Old Barn: Free For The Taking-Down.”

John took the barn apart, piece-by-piece, and found that there was a market for the materials. The boards and beams, windows and doors and weather vanes were all sold. The barn would live on for another hundred years, in a hundred different places. It was

the beginning of John’s own business, but we still didn’t have much money. One writer and one self-employed Barn Saver plus three children is an equation that doesn’t always equal promptly-paid bills. Don’t give up. Hang in there.

When Zach was two months old, I began writing a novel for pre-teen children. Working on an ancient and clattering typewriter, I used the kitchen table for my desk. I plugged away on the typewriter as Zach dozed contentedly in his swing. Through the window of our mobile home, I could see the green Welsh Mountain of Pennsylvania. This mountain would be the setting of the book. The main character, Maizie, was a girl who’d been abandoned by her mother. She was hurting. Maizie had lots of wishes, but life was rough. I knew: I’d used bits and pieces of my own. But still, Maizie had hope. Someday, somehow, everything would be okay. Don’t give up. Hang in there.

The book Maizie would be published five years later, in 1995. In the meanwhile, I wrote a picture book based on John’s work of dismantling and recycling old barns. The book – Barn Savers – was published in 1999 and was honored by the American Library Association’s Booklist Journal by being named Top Of The List, Best Picture Book of 1999. It was also lauded as a Notable Book in the Language Arts by the National Council of Teachers of English, as well as short-listed for the Bill Martin Jr. Picture Book Award in Kansas and the Keystone State Reading award. A mention of the book appeared in the pages of People Magazine.

Since then, I’ve written about twenty more books. I went back to college at the age of fifty, and earned an MFA in Writing. I got to travel to Italy, because of my writing. I taught on cruise ships, and I taught in a medieval castle on a hilltop in Tuscany. I was honored in England in 2012 with a short story prize, and I got to travel to the U.K. for the first time, staying in the dorms of Oxford University. Dream, Believe, Fly.

Somewhere around the time that I changed from forty-nine to fifty, somewhere around the time that I applied to Vermont College and was accepted, that was the time that I changed my motto for life. I still believe in “Hang In There” and “Don’t Give Up.” But those words never held the power, the faith, the magic that my new motto does.

I had to get a student loan in order to go to school, and that was scary. I kept repeating my motto, though, as I waded through the mounds of paperwork and forms and red tape. “Dream. Believe. Fly. You are Linda Oatman High and you love to write. Dream, believe, fly. You only get one life. Now is the time. Dreambelievefly.”

Our youngest son went through some struggles in his teenage years. We got through them. He’s still finding his path in life, at the age of 23. As long as he dreams, as long as he believes … he will indeed fly.

The kids are now grown, and I’m on my way to growing old. I’m fifty-five. I love my life. It’s hard at times; it’s fun at others. But it’s always mine, and we only get one life.

I’m now a grandmother, and I hope to instill the things that I’ve learned in my grandchildren. I hope that they find the strength and the courage and the faith to dream. I pray that they believe.

And I know, I know, I know in my soul … they will fly.

Linda Oatman High is an author/playwright/poet/journalist (www.lindaoatmanhigh.com) who lives in Lancaster County, PA and teaches everywhere.

Some insight for leaves

Leaves are in charge of respiration in plants. They consist of the main mechanism producing food for plants, using sunlight via photosynthesis through which food for many more organisms, animals, and humans are provided. Having been assigned to convert solar energy to food, which they’ve been doing for millions, perhaps billions, of years, plants have been a significant instrument for sustaining life on or planet. It is as if plants turn their leaves upward in prayer to ask for food on behalf of all living things.

Morphology of a leaf

Leaves are composed of three sections: the base, blade, and petiole. The blade is the most important part of the leaf; it is wide and flat. The exact shape of leaves vary according to climate, geographical conditions, life span and risk of consumption by other organisms. In tropical climates, the blade is often very wide. In drier climates, it is usually smaller, in order to reduce water loss.

Leaves of some plants undergo a transformation called “metamorphosis” to fulfill different tasks. For example, some leaves have a thorny shape and protect the plant form herbivorous animals. Some leaves are designed to store water, and some are converted into a trap in order to capture insects to nourish the plant.

On the cross section of a leaf, one can observe that four layers constitute the inner part. The first one is the epidermis, which covers the leaf from top to bottom. This layer protects the leaf against external elements and is lined with a waterproof, waxy substance.

The palisade parenchyma is located on the upper side of the inner tissue and it houses chloroplast rich cells, which are lined up densely and carry out photosynthesis. The spongy layer under the palisade tissue forms the intercellular air spaces and this layer is responsible for the respiration of the plant.

For photosynthesis to occur, the leaf needs to receive the maximum amount of sunlight. The sun must hit the leaf at a perpendicular angle; thus, the leaf must be amply wide and must sit level. Because the sun hits different latitudes at different angles, plants have branches of different lengths facing different directions, and leaves have different curvatures. Furthermore, leaves are also lined up in a way so as not to block the sun’s rays. For this to happen, it is required for the leaf base to be thin and the leaves to be lined up in a spiral fashion that enables both lower and higher ones to harvest sunlight in the most efficient way. This type of arrangement exemplifies the golden ratio, which is observed among many structures in nature.

Each leaf sprouts at an angle of either 222.5 or 137.5, derived from division of 360 degrees, from the previous leaf under. This spiral leaf growth provides them with the most suitable place to harvest sunlight maximally. This way the gaps around branches are minimized and a maximum number of leaves is positioned without reducing the light capture capacity of the plant.

Seasons and leaves

Plants work like factories during spring and summer, producing a great deal of food through photosynthesis. Some of these foods help the plant grow and some are stored as starch for winter. With the onset of autumn, a majority of plants outside tropical zones go through hibernation, like many organisms do, and enter a dormant period. In order for plants, like trees and bushes, to survive the cold, their leaves are shed to minimize their surface area and conserve energy. Perennial green plants lose their aerial parts, too, including stems and leaves, and hibernate underground as roots, bulbs, and tubers. They sprout back from their roots once spring brings warmer weather.

Many leaves begin to fade and fall once autumn arrives. The leaves of some hardy plants – like cypress, pine, and spruce trees – continue to function through winter. In some of these trees, like the bay tree and the Indian sandalwood, there are protective layers covering the leaves against the cold. Other leaves, like pine needles, are created in a spiny shape to resist the cold.

Colors of autumn

Leaves seem green during the spring and summer months because the chlorophyll found in them absorbs all wavelengths other than green. The other major pigments found in leaves are carotene (orange) and xanthophylls (yellow). These two pigments are the most common pigments in nature.

As autumn approaches, and photosynthesis begins to end, chlorophyll starts to degrade and the other pigments begin to show. Thus, leaves turn yellow and bright red.

As the weather gets colder, the chloroplasts that are near the leaf’s bottom are broken apart, and sugar levels begin to elevate. The sugars produced during this season accumulate in the leaves day by day due to lower photosynthetic speed and reduced transportation to other parts of the plant. These sugars are converted into anthocyanins. At first, leaves appear yellow. A couple weeks before they fall, most leaves shift from yellow to red. Under abundant sunlight, due to concentrated anthocyanins, leaves seem brighter and more colorful – and thus red. Once the live tissues die completely, all leaves turn brown. This is due to the high concentration of tannin.

Leaf color varies not only because of plant genetics and external factors, but also because of climate. Temperature, humidity, soil composition, and levels of sun exposure all affect color. There is a higher degree of color change in the leaves of trees that grow in lower temperatures.

The composition of soil plays a major role in the color of leaves. Leaves that turn yellow early indicate a nitrogen shortage; on the other hand, the presence of a strong red color indicates very acidic soil. A high alkaline ratio is present in places where leaves are purple.

Walking among fallen leaves and the colorful scenery in a forest in autumn can trigger unique emotions. Depending on the psychological state of a person, the colors of autumn sometimes remind us about the briefness of this world, but they can also hint at the infinite life to come.

The motifs and patterns of leaves

Receiving sufficient sunlight is a significant matter for leaves. Therefore, they are created differently. No two plant leaves are the same.

Some of the leaves are simple and some are compounds. According to their arrangements, opposite, alternate, whorled, and rowed forms exist. Leaf blades can be ovals, kidneys, triangles, or even hearts. Edges can be smooth, serrated, toothed, or lobed. Leaf veins can also have many different motifs.

Each plant species has its own leaf motif. The alfalfa leaf has a triple pattern of specific angles; walnut leaves have an opposite arrangement of eight to ten. A hand-like motif, like the fingers of a praying hand, formed of seven leaves, can be observed on chestnut trees.