Peace within

Sometimes we pray for peace,
as if peace is a gift that comes from far away.

We wish each other peace, sometimes without even thinking;
without even sending the thought of peace out.

Our Creator, and if you do not believe in a creator, the Universe,
has created our world around us in such a way
that peace is naturally present, most of the time for most of us.

If we walk in nature, if we sit in our room, If we do our work,
peace is all around us, it surrounds us in the air,
it even enters our lungs, flows through our veins.

Once we become aware that peace is not something far from us
but that most of the time we bathe in peace,
and once we manage to consciously experience peace,
we will value it sooo much that we will not let little things
make us so upset that we disturb the peace for ourselves and for others.

If during our prayers we become a little bit more aware of that,
our prayers will have brought us a little closer to our Creator,
to that creative Power in the Universe.

Our prayers will give us a bit more peace,
a bit more patience, if we manage to truly value that peace,
a bit more love, a bit more honesty, a bit more of all good things.

Peace is all around us;
let the peace enter our body,
let the peace enter our mind,
let the peace enter our heart and our soul.

May the Peace of our Creator be with you in the coming seconds,
the coming minutes, the coming day, the coming week, the coming month, ...

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Please visit also my poetry web-blog:  Aufie

Let us work on it

It is normal to get angry every now and then
even though deep inside we know that anger brings misery,
while kindness brings peace of mind and happiness

It is normal to get confused and depressed on and off
even though deep inside we know that there is beauty in the world
and that kindness brings peace of mind and happiness

It is normal to get upset and shout sometimes
even though deep inside we know that harshness brings sufferng,
while kindness brings peace of mind and happiness.

We are all human
We do lose our temper
we do get sad
But... Let us work on it.

Sincerely, I am believing in the supreme value of unconditional love.
I put as one of my greatest ambition to achieve this level of love
But up to now, I keep failing, falling.

I think it involves giving up all types of judgement
and perhaps I need to experience my own shortcomings
in many ways, for me to judge others much less.
Being aware of our own limitations, tends to create understanding.
I hope our Creator allows me to move into that direction,
that direction of less and less judging
less and less losing my temper
more and more understanding
more and more unconditional love

Debate

A drop

Drip drop, tic toc, another drop falls down
another drop of love is entering our heart
A drop of wisdom, a drop of kindness
coming from the clouds above

If we don't share it, if we don't use it,
we may be drowning soon...


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A small poem, i wrote under the pen name, Aufie Zophy
A selection of my other poems can be found at https://aufiezophypoems.blogspot.com/

Yeah!

I am working with children. It is among the amazing things in my life.
Every little baby, every infant, every toddler, every child carries so many miracles
that just simply working with them is a true joy.

When students come for training to my place, some of them are a bit scared, a bit reluctant to really approach the small kids. Simple friendly approaches, like giving the children praise, talking to them, using their name, making eye contact at the same level, offering toys and allowing the child to be held by one of the parents, may make the encounter with a child more pleasurable.

But the most important thing is still our mindset:

If we go to the children's ward (pediatrics) with a mindset of "yeah, I am going to the paediatric ward" and expect the very best, this will help anyone, to see the miracles, these children carry with them and to have a pleasant and enjoyable experience with the children and the parents. It will become easy to see opportunities to help and make a positive difference for these children and their family.

Compare this with someone entering the ward with a mindset of "Oh no, I have to enter the paediatric ward". Will they see the miracles? Will they see the opportunities to do good? Will they enjoy their time learning about children?

Our mindset is our self-talk. We have the perfect free choice to choose either a "Yeah,..." or an "Oh, no,..." in the morning.  Let us make this choice consciously and most importantly choose the right one for making our day, a good one. 😉

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Hans Van Rostenberghe writes poetry under the pen name Aufie Zophy 

Find his mind-tickling spiritual and inspirational poems by clicking here 

(link is perfectly safe - Google Blogspot page)

Rain and hail

Let the cloud of kindness
rain out its nourishing rain
over the shore

Let the clouds of greed
rain out their thunderous hail
far above the ocean

Let the drops of kindness
fertilize our soil
and let the seeds of love blossom

Let the rocks of greed
drown in the deep sea
never to be recovered

Let the kindness flow
Let the greed be buried

a forest of kindness
a graveyard for greed.

A smile

This is a literal quote of the ending lines of a chapter on smiling written by Dale Carnegie:


"It costs nothing, but creates much. 
It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. 
It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. 
None are so rich they can get along without it and none so poor but are richer for its benefits.

It creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in a business, and is the countersign of friends.
It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and nature's best antidote for trouble.Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is no earthly good to anyone 'til it is given away. And if in the hurly-burly bustle of today's business world, some of the people you meet should be too tired to give you a smile, may we ask you to leave one of yours?

For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have none left to give."

I have not ever found any better piece of text on smiling than the above one.
I hope you enjoyed it too and that in the next hour each of us manages to smile to 3 people
the next day to ten and ever thereafter more than ten per day :)

And then listen to this fantastic song: 
Jermaine Jackson -smile

Relax and grow

Oh, my God,
tonight I was free.
I had nothing on my to do list
I wanted to use tonight for some growth;
some growth in character;
some growth in wisdom;
some growth in personality,

But somehow along the way, I got lost
I got stuck in a video and then a webpage,
clicked on the next link and then on the next,
getting further and further away from my initial intention.

On and off we have to get off the internet,
make it quiet and reflect
or read a book
I love to read a book,
but do not manage to read as much as I would imagine is good.

Spontaneous grace

If I want to be grateful,
I say thanks and it feels good.

But if I think about the greatness of our God
and manage to feel that huge Love and Mercy,
gratefulness emerges from deep inside
without even saying thanks,
and it feels great.

The sun

The sun is always there.
All of us know it, it truly is.

But when dark clouds are hiding it,
we tend to forget that the sun is always there
When the earth is casting its shadow,
we tend to forget that the sun is always there.

It is.
When the fog is getting thinner
when clouds do part,
When dawn peeps over the horizon,
we become aware
The sun was always there. Even when I did not see it.

If bullies cast their shadow
and your world experiences the night of ignorance
That knowledge that the sun, the love, the kindness, the wisdom
is always there, strong, shining forever, will help you not to vibrate
at the frequencies of the ignorance, the bullies, the hatred, the blinded

Even though it seems dark because a wave of ignorance has come,
keep your vibration of your mind and heart at the level of wisdom;
Let it oscillate at the higher frequencies, let the waves of kindness flow.

Haters will be around for some time to come
Let them not bring us down to their level,
Let us bless them, wish them relief
of the irrational fear that caused their hatred

Ignorance, racism, oppression, nonsense will be around for some time
extremists in religion, in nationalism, in false beliefs; they will be here.
Let them not bring us down to their level
Let us bless these people and wish them relief
of the immense pain that must have caused such lack of love
lack of wisdom, lack of kindness, lack of peace of mind.
They deserve our pity, our unconditional love: send them love and blessings.

The sun is always there,
the light of love and kindness is never far away
and ignorance will turn around.
the clouds will part and we can all together live as one
in the light of wisdom and love
Love and kindness
Always there, even if do not see or hear it.

Our God is always present.
Sometimes our thoughts, our emotions, do lock him out.
We tune out of that superb vibration, giving us power,
the power to love unconditionally, to be kind selflessly
to smile at a stranger, to say a lovely word to anyone you meet,
This power, this divine power is always with us, all we need to do
is tune in

Even when the un-free world seems to send a lot of noise,
Even if we lost the signal and hear that awful noise between two radio stations,
Let us be aware, that God is always there.
Let us just tune in to his Wisdom, Love, Kindness and Mercy.

(Inspired by Michael Bernard Beckwith)

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Note:
I have a sister blog with inspirational quotes
If you have time, please pay this little sis a short visit:
http://quotesfromhans.blogspot.my/
I have also a brother blog with small prayers for the big world
If you have time, please pay this little bro a short visit:
http://smallprayersforabigworld.blogspot.my/

Miracles

There are two ways to live:
You live as if nothing is a miracle or
You live as if everything is a miracle
(Albert Einstein)

The bright blue bird that just now was flying thru and fro in my garden
a miracle

The grass turning a bit greener just after a few minutes of sprinkling
a miracle

The deep blue sea below the high blue skies
a miracle

Me, sitting here thinking about and jotting down miracles
a miracle



Today I chose to live as if everything was a miracle
How about you?
---------------
Note:
I have a sister blog with inspirational quotes
If you have time, please pay this little sis a short visit:
http://quotesfromhans.blogspot.my/
I have also a brother blog with small prayers for the big world
If you have time, please pay this little bro a short visit:
http://smallprayersforabigworld.blogspot.my/

Peace of mind

Have you been in such a beautiful place
that it gave you, as by magic, a giant peace of mind
making you think: what else can I wish for?

Have you been doing such a beautiful job
that gave you, as by magic, a giant peace of mind
making you think: what else can I wish for?

I think if every day we consciously search for some beauty in our life,
if everyday we try to do a wonderful, beautiful deed, no matter how small,
that we will get a lot more peace of mind in our life, a lot more happiness.

Let us start now, in the next one hour, to search for a thing of beauty (in real life or even a photo from the internet);  to say a few nice words to a stranger or make a call to your mom.

---------------
Note:
I have a sister blog with inspirational quotes
If you have time, please pay this little sis a short visit:
http://quotesfromhans.blogspot.my/
I have also a brother blog with small prayers for the big world
If you have time, please pay this little bro a short visit:
http://smallprayersforabigworld.blogspot.my/

Never hurt

"We all face death in the end, 
but on the way, be careful never to hurt a human heart"
Rumi

One of the gems of Rumi.
Perhaps none of us has truly never hurt anyone's heart.
At least a few times we did hurt others.
But the less we do hurt other people's heart
the more peace of mind is ours
The more we support and try to heal other hearts,
the more peace of mind is ours,
the more true happiness is ours.

Let us all try never to hurt a human heart.
Even though none of us may succeed in this almost impossible aspiration,
trying, consciously trying will make a huge difference in the number of people whose heart gets hurt :)

Ripples of love

Tonight I was praying, making it really silent within.
My mind was open, my heart was open and it seemed like
the Universe was filling it with thoughts of Goodness

The love of the universe, the love of God.
That love, I felt, was effectively flowing
through my body and my being

Every flow causes a ripple, a wave
a wave of love that may keep rippling all over the world.
I hope my love and my prayerful thoughts touch many others.
I wrote it up in a small poem
(no worries about copyright :) )

It was silent, in my heart and mind;

All emotions, all thoughts put on hold;

Trying some wisdom, some ease to find.

A flow of love came in, unheard of, untold.

I felt it flow, I felt it in every vein

A love, a positive force, an energy

Taking hold of my heart, of my brain

Changing for a few moments, my reality

It all came in silence while I wanted to pray

A ripple it made in the ether, the air

And I hope that ripple of love in a way

Will touch the hearts of many out there.

---------------
Note:
I have a sister blog with inspirational quotes
If you have time, please pay this little sis a short visit:
http://quotesfromhans.blogspot.my/
I have also a brother blog with small prayers for the big world
If you have time, please pay this little bro a short visit:
http://smallprayersforabigworld.blogspot.my/

Enjoy a bit of beauty

This morning I took some time to look for a bit of beauty in my garden.
I found a few flowers that satisfied my thirst.
I inhaled the beauty and took a picture.
I share that bit of beauty here with you.
If every day we take some time to consciously look at a flower
we inevitably increase the amount of beauty in our life :)

Please share something about the most beautiful flower you encountered today in the comments section of this post.

 🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅
Hans Van Rostenberghe
Bachok, written on March 22, 2019
✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔ 
Dedicated to all my readers. 
Feel free to share/use this text without worries about copyright
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 If you have time, please pay also a visit to Skies seen by Hans

Every day

Every day changes at least a bit who we are.
My right hand looks a bit different from yesterday.
Does yours too?

On most days each part of our body changes only a little bit.
But the more interesting change is happening not so much in the physical arena, but in our emotional being, in our character, in our personality. Each encounter, each small thing happening in our life, has the potential to really change our view, change our perception our emotional status.

Actually it is the sum all these small, minute daily changes that adds up to who we really are. Every small and big thing in the news, affects and molds a bit our way of thinking, of feeling.  Every unexpected reaction from a friend, any new person we meet; it is all having an effect.

The good thing is, that we can modulate these effects through sincere reflection. Negative happenings do not necessary have to influence our thinking and feelings, our character, our personality in a negative way. We can search for meaning, we can accept that we cannot understand everything, we can appreciate persons and things, we can look for the good in everyone and every situation, we meet. We do not have to let every message from the news or from all the publicity we encounter into our minds and souls unaltered. We can modulate, we can modify and we can even block the toxic info.

Makes me think of a former reflection in this blog, about mushrooms (Mushrooms for the heart)
Not all mushrooms are good for us to eat.
Not all information coming our way is good for us to swallow, to internalize.
Not all experiences are equally useful.
Still we try to learn from all that comes our way, we need to weigh it and filter the nasty parts away. Keeping an open mind but still guarding the gates with a good dose of wisdom and critical thinking.

Let us think for awhile what today has brought to us, how it has changed us and what are the things that we want to store in our heart, in our memory to let us grow, in terms of personality, of spirit, of heart and soul. I am sure we can find quite something on most days. Makes me think now about another piece I wrote before in poem format (by the way, today is poetry day anyhow). A small experience at night, made me realize that I had not really paid attention to all the beauty that I had encountered during the day: unblind

! a translation of this essay in Dutch is available in juweeltjes voor de ziel !

 🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅
Hans Van Rostenberghe
Bachok 
(written, March 21, 2019)

✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔

Dedicated to all my readers.

Feel free to share/use this text

without worries about copyright

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  If you have time, please pay also a visit to Skies seen by Hans

Simple beauty

skies seen by Hans

"If you get simple beauty and naught else,
you get about the best thing, God invents."
Robert Browning

I loved so much the above quote from Robert Browning, that I wanted to write this post about it.

It is so true and so wise !

When I find striking verses or quotes like this one, I often look it up on the internet and I tend to find a wealth of other beautiful verses and writings as well. I really encourage all of my readers to go and find a good quote, read around it a bit further (perhaps about the author or about similar quotes) and enjoy the wealth of thoughts and great ideas that come your way.

Today, for myself, while reading about the profile of Robert Browning (1812-1889) there was a referral to the poet PB Shelley and his famous poem, 'the masque of anarchy'. It is said to be one of the great inspiring poems to Mahatma Gandhi and his belief in non-violence.  I went on to read it and it truly amazed me. Here is a small piece of it:

And if then the tyrants dare   
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,--
What they like, that let them do.


  85
`With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.

  86
`Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak  
In hot blushes on their cheek.

  87
 `Every woman in the land
Will point at them as they stand--
They will hardly dare to greet
Their acquaintance in the street.

Special learning

Last week we were in a dialog with a variety of stakeholders in the care of disabled children in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. One parent, Mr. Chi Poh Yung who founded a daycare center for children with cerebral palsy, named Wishesland, taught us the following valuable lessons. As doctors perhaps the most special and valuable learning comes to us by listening to our patients or their closest relatives.

1. In his daycare center, Mr. Chi said, no one is allowed to use the word cannot. Instead of saying that a child cannot walk or talk which provokes in our mind, the image of bedridden children not able to talk, the staff is very much encouraged to talk about these children as still learning to walk and to talk. This provokes in the mind of everyone who hears it, an image of a walking and talking child. I think personally that this change in approach is a very valuable thing. Positive expectations, positive imagery in our minds (and the patient's minds), leads to more positive beliefs in the potential of each child and eventually to better outcomes.

2. No one can touch a child in any way without asking his or her permission. How many times doctors show our students the brisk reflexes of the children who are badly affected without asking first explicitly permission of the children? They may not be able to answer in words, but they will feel respected and valued as a human being. No matter how bad the mental status of our patients, we will do no harm by asking permission for anything we do in the process of the medical consultation or during a teaching session. It can only benefit the person we examine, the patient.

Small things at first sight, but actually quite big things, at least big in the difference they can make for children who suffer from a severe disability and their parents.

Angel baby

Oh angel baby, what have you done to my life?
A number on your monitor could make me smile
A blood result of yours could make me sad
Oh angel baby, when you left, I felt so bad.

Your eyes, yellow and oh, so small
shone the beauty of your soul
when we saw you breathe with a bit of ease
Oh angel baby, we were so pleased

Oh, angel baby, you lived not long
but your parents endlessly sweet and strong
were by your side and prayed so much
I remember how you liked your mother's touch

When you cried and on your face some strain,
a bit of oral sugar to forget your bodily pain
I loved the relief on your face
How I remember those days.

It is hard to understand why without a cure
babies like you had to suffer day by day
But one thing I know for sure:
They change our life in a magical way

Drive

Am in the middle of reading the book, "Drive", from author, Daniel Pink.
The book seems to strengthen my belief that we are due for a wisdom revolution,
for a kindness revolution, for a slow departure of the world of greed.

He started talking about wikipedia, a huge online encyclopedia,
completely composed and written by amateurs and experts, all for free.

Can you imagine?
An encyclopedia, if we would pay writers for all pages inside,
how much it would cost?

Then he talked about a range of experiments done by psychologists.
Each of them showed that financial incentive tended to interfere with a good output
rather than to enhance it.

In one of the studies they looked at the effect of payment on people solving a puzzle.
Without payment it took on average 5 minutes to solve the puzzle.
When people were promised to get $20 if they solved the puzzle within 5 minutes,
the average time went up from 5 to more than 8 minutes.

In another study, they recruited people who expressed an interest in blood donation.
One third was promised nothing and about 50% went to donate within 4 weeks.
One third was promised $50 and about 30% went to donate within 4 weeks
One third was promised $50 but it would be all donated to a charity of their choice, and about 50% went to donate within 4 weeks.

There are so many more experiments showing that we are slowly becoming more caring about a life filled with purpose, a life that makes a positive difference for others, than being society filled with greed and egotism.

Science now seem to back up the dream of a kindness revolution coming. Let's jump on the wagon and start practicing kindness to strangers as much as we can :)

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Please visit also Skies seen by Hans

Calm

The silence of the night
gives slowly way
to the silence of the sunrise
From a river of beautiful dreams
to a fountain of inspiration.

The stillness of the dawn
gives slowly way
to the stillness of the day
From a sea of sacred contemplation
to an ocean of energetic verve

The tranquility of noon
gives slowly way
to the calm of the evening
If we keep our calm with us all day
Peace and love will be ours
Forever!

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Please visit also: Skies seen by Hans

Fragile

I like to think about greed
as one of the most fragile things on earth:
as snow covering a field, facing the sun of an eternal spring,
as a porcelain vase standing in the middle of a football field,
as a piece of paper, once strong, but now getting awfully wet,
as a once strong leaf, now brown and rusty, ready to release its branch
as a race car going too fast on a winding mountain road
as a house made of cards in the middle of a busy playground
as a nettle standing along the road side, soon to mowed
I like to think about wisdom
as the replacement of greed:
as the field blooming and blossoming in the sun of wisdom
as a strong football bouncing back whenever kicked
as a box of stainless steel overflowing with kindness
as a stem of a 300 year old tree ready to live another 500
as a bullet train getting filled with passengers lovely and kind
as a magnificent house where everyone is always welcome
as a field of evergreen grass surviving no matter how often it is cut

The ice age of greed is about to leave us for the eternal spring of wisdom
Kindness, peace, love, wisdom, caring, helping, inspiring, are the new money :)

A helping hand

Whenever we help someone
we cannot but feel good.

I was a bit upset when during an expensive breakfast in a hotel,
only one of the three coffee machines was working.
When I headed for some orange juice, that seemed to be finished too.
Then a waiter came with a tray full of glasses,
The almost empty tray was still there and I saw him struggling.
I took the empty tray away and it was easy for him  to put the new one in place.
Then I gave the other one to him.

This simple act of kindness made me feel good.
We cannot feel good and upset at the same time.
The lack of orange juice and the faulty coffee machines
did matter suddenly a lot less.
It was the smile of the waiter, his sigh of relief and his warm thank you
that made up how I felt for the next ten minutes at least.

I think there is so much wisdom in loving your neighbors as yourself,
in offering a helping hand whenever we can

Capitalism, Marxism, or wisdom?

The great lie of capitalism lies in the sordid obsession about and inane worship of wealth. Work extremely hard until you die and then leave it all behind, often agonizing in the last years of our lives over the fact that we have just accumulated, accumulated, accumulated, without making a meaningful contribution to the world.

Look deep in your heart and you will find that the most worthy events in our own life, were those moments where we made a true sacrifice to help another human being.

The world was not ready for Marx's ideas two hundred or even a hundred years ago. There will be no new Marxist revolution. Sharing cannot be enforced.

The next revolution is a wisdom revolution, not longer forcing anything on a society, but somehow we will become wise enough to find true happiness which lies in altruism. All of us reach times in our lives when we need help. If we get help, it feels good, but if we can help, it feels so much better.

Using our talents to provide help is giving us peace of mind, a truly enjoyable life. A search for pleasure and luxury gives us short kicks of excitement but almost never peace of mind and lasting happiness. Instead of looking for what brings true happiness and peace of mind, still to many of us keep living at an animal level, looking for a bigger and more kicks of short excitement.

Times are changing, true humanity is growing exponentially, wisdom is growing exponentially. Once the sharp inflection point will be reached, it will go fast and become completely unstoppable. And the discussion will not be any longer capitalism or Marxism; we will all be wise enough to truly enjoy the peace, joy and happiness that lies in wisdom and simple altruism

So let us all look inside for awhile, find our soul, our heart and that sincere source of wisdom. It feels good to be among the pioneers of the upcoming wisdom revolution :)

New physics

When physics moves in this new era of quantum physics, quite a number of physicists start making theories and hypotheses that make no sense. Just yesterday I watched a video about a respected physicist talking about extra dimensions. While the observations discovered in quantum science are exciting and extremely hard to explain, too often, I think, our big internal urge to find quickly explanations for anything, make some of these scientists take really the road of pseudoscience. Perhaps they were looking too much at TV-shows such as the power rangers.

While entertaining all possibilities is a reasonable thing to do, we are extremely far from understanding the universe as it is. The sad thing is that the super-advanced physicists seem not interested in genetics or brain science and vice versa. I could have included in the above sentence so many other branches of science as well. Each is going further and further in their little island and expect to understand how the universe works by becoming experts in one narrow field only.

How many of the visual observations through advanced telescopes are artifacts like the rainbows in our sky are an artifact? Scientists (some of them becoming slowly pseudo-scientists) come up with theories that are sometimes bordering the comical and that are for any sense loving person, much more difficult to accept than the existence of intelligent creative force (called God). An oscillating universe and an intelligent creative force make so much more sense than for example the big bang theory, which is at this moment purely hypothetical (and very non-sensical) but portrayed by many scientists as something proven beyond doubt, which it is ABSOLUTELY NOT! Some scientists believe in trillions of big bangs. I suspect they have banged their own heads a few times too much against the walls of their laboratories :)

A saunter

Taking a slow walk, a stroll, a saunter
(did you know a saunter is a leisurely walk?).
Relax for awhile and make our mind free.
Just sniffing the fresh air and feel the wind
Just relaxing

The above can be so enjoyable
We need it.
We need it sometimes more than we think
If we skip these refreshing moments
it feels like missing a stop to fill up the tank of our car

If there is nowhere to walk or stroll,
we can just relax in our chair, close our eyes
put our thoughts on zero.

Let us plan this for today at least a few times
Our day may get another dimension