Practices Search Results
Typhoon Haiyan, which slammed into six central Philippine islands on Friday, November 8, 2013, is the strongest typhoon of the year and one of the strongest storms on record. It also appears to be the deadliest storm — and natural disaster — on record to hit the Philippines, with officials saying that as many as 10,000 people are believed dead. On Sunday, the storm appeared to be moving on to Vietnam threatening lives and property there as well.
O Hope through the Ages, look after those who are going to have to work longer than they had planned.
Survey: 37 percent of middle-income Americans earning between $25,000 and $100,000 say they expect to stay on the job until they die. 34 percent say they expect to work until they are at least 80, up from 25 % two years ago. (Wells Fargo)
O Our Sustainer, guide, direct, and comfort these people – and others like them in other countries around the world – as they struggle to change their expectations for their elder years due to economic pressures beyond their control.
Poet and Rumi translator Coleman Barks has observed that all the mystical traditions revere birds and their songs. They represent our yearnings for purity, freedom, play, and deliver "messages of ineffable joy." In addition, we can appreciate them as fellow pilgrims on earth, guides to the meaning of place, soul singers, and ambassadors from other worlds. As nature enthusiast Barry Lopez notes: "Birds tug at the mind and heart with a strange intensity." 
Perhaps because we share these sentiments, we were sad to hear the news on January 1, 2011, that more than 5,000 red-winged blackbirds had fallen from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas, covering roofs, streets, and lawns for more than a mile. Then a few days later, 500 more birds fell in Louisiana. What caused this bizarre happening? There are a few theories but nothing definitive.
The deaths of the red-winged blackbirds tugs at our souls, and we include them in our prayers. These birds are early spring migrants and often quite vociferous about their needs. We commend these 5,500 creatures to the God of all feathered beings.
February 1, 2011. After a week of street demonstrations against the regime of Hosni Mubarak regime, the people of Egypt are calling for a change of government and an end to the inequalities which have created a tremendous gap between the rich and the poor. Underlying all the chaos is the yearning of a repressed people for a taste of freedom.
O Healer, who watches over all living with the HIV virus around the world, we give thanks for the researchers and the scientists who have given us effective drugs that have decreased the number of AIDS-related deaths.
Statistic: The number of AIDS-related deaths worldwide has decreased by 30 percent since reaching its peak back in 2005, and this trend is only expected to continue. (Medical Daily)
We pray that AIDS education and prevention programs, as well as treatment programs, will be effective in combatting this dread disease, which has already taken too many lives.
January, 2011. Australia is experiencing the worst flooding in decades, affecting an area of the state of Queensland the size of Germany and France. Towns have been turned into islands amidst muddy lakes that were once farmlands. The state's coal industry has been shut down. On January 11, the flood waters reached Brisbane, the third largest city in the country, affecting thousands of homes and yards. In Toowoomba, rivers of water carried cars away, eventually depositing them in piles.
In an article in The New York Times, Huma Imtiaz and Charlotte Cuchen describe the heated-up war against Sufism, the mystical expression of Islam, in Pakistan. Sufism is popular in that country, attracting millions to festivals through the year and thousands for daily visits to shrines dedicated to Sufi saints. Hard-line Islamic militants are targeting the shrines, taking responsibility for five shrine attacks in 2010 that killed 64 worshippers.
Despite the dangers, the people continue to visit the shrines. In a video accompanying the article, a popular devotional singer joins the crowds of singing and dancing Sufis at a shrine in Lahore, and then learns later of a deadly attack on a shrine in Karachi.
It is that time of year as children leave behind their summer pleasures to return to school. The routines of getting up on time, putting things in order, doing homework, and keeping distractions to a minimum: these are the rhythms of fall for students of all ages. Parents have important roles to play at this time of year as lovers and cheerleaders of their children. Many of the feature stories in the news these days focus on children going back to school.
An article on TheWeek.com summarizes the worst food crisis in half a century now happening in the Horn of Africa: Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and parts of Uganda, Eritrea, and Djibouti. More than 11 million men, women, and children are suffering and dying in squalid refugee camps. Thousands more are already dead from starvation and malnutrition-related diseases. The situation is being caused by a prolonged drought in the area aggravated by political instability and war, particularly in southern Somalia. There is no end of the drought or the suffering in sight.
At the camps, international aid organizations are working hard to serve the suffering. Care staff members claim that 1,500 displaced refugees are arriving every day to live in terrible conditions often without medical aid, sanitation, or water. Among the new arrivals, 80 percent of them are children. International aid groups are calling this the worst food crisis since the Great Chinese Famine of the late 1950s. This slideshow is a small window into the crisis.
July 2011. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows that 29 percent of the country is in drought. Texas and other southern states in the U.S. are suffering from an exceptionally extreme drought, which has dried up farm fields, ponds, and small rivers and increased the threat of wildfires. The situation is similar to some of the world's driest deserts.