Cancer fight can strengthen spirituality

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The battle against breast cancer can take a toll physically, mentally and emotionally on patients. But for some, cancer can strengthen their spirituality.

In the middle of Waimanalo, where the water is inviting and the beaches beautiful, Geraldine Galves talks about something very ugly: cancer.

"I hate it with a passion, I really do," said Galves.

That's because she began her own personal battle with breast cancer in 2010.

"I expected to keep my breast, but I didn't -- I lost it. But it was such a small loss to what I could have lost," said 65-year-old Galves.

Her fight was filled with medicines, chemotherapy and surgery. There were low points, both mentally and physically, and even thoughts of her own death. But before she even removed the cancer filling up her body, Galves made sure she was filled with the Holy Spirit.

"I waited. I waited one year on God. And when I heard his voice telling me to have the surgery, that's when I did it," said Galves.

Her unwavering faith helped her through that difficult time. The cancer was removed, and after undergoing chemotherapy and treatment, she has been in remission for the past three years. Her battle against breast cancer happened just a year after her sister died of the disease - so she knew what to expect. But she was still surprised how her diagnosis affected family and friends.

"Friends didn't know how to approach me, to ask me how I'm doing. We don't need sympathy, if you want to know something ask us -- straight up," exclaimed Galves.

She now shares the story of her cancer fight and her faith, in the hopes it will help others.

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Cancer fight can strengthen spirituality

New $2-million spirituality centre earmarked for Rustico

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Jim Day Published on September 30, 2014

Guardian photo by Brian McInnis

Construction is expected to begin next fall on a building that will replace this structure that currently houses a spirituality complex known as the Belcourt Centre.

A portion of a huge donation made to the Diocese of Charlottetown will be used to build a new $2-million spirituality centre in Rustico.

The late Owen Kelly family that operated a floral business in Summerside and invested successfully in real estate bestowed millions of dollars to the diocese.

Some of the funds were earmarked for a spirituality centre and religious education, says Gerry Gabriel, liaison with the Belcourt Centre Advisory Committee struck by Charlottetown Bishop Richard Grecco.

Gabriel says an engineering assessment determined extensive repairs are needed to the existing building.

The committee determined the best option would be to construct a new building that could comfortably accommodate 55 to 60, compared to 30 to 35 in the current structure.

Gabriel says construction could begin next spring. The current building will be used until the new structure is ready, then the old building will be torn down.

Arthur Buote is enraged at the prospect of the current building being demolished.

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New $2-million spirituality centre earmarked for Rustico

HANGRY! Day3:Juice Detox Fast for Nutrition,Weightloss,Creative Blocks,Spiritual Enlightenment – Video

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HANGRY! Day3:Juice Detox Fast for Nutrition,Weightloss,Creative Blocks,Spiritual Enlightenment
Today is day two of my juice detox fast and I am HANGRY - here #39;s the secret that will keep me - and you sane. I have been juice fasting for 9 years now and t...

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HANGRY! Day3:Juice Detox Fast for Nutrition,Weightloss,Creative Blocks,Spiritual Enlightenment - Video

Alan H. Johnson takes readers on journey of heart in new book

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (PRWEB) September 30, 2014

Author Alan H. Johnson, Ph.D., explores the philosophical relationship humans have with the world in which they find themselves in his book, Philosophy: A Path with Heart (published by AuthorHouse).

Johnsons book asks the question What are you thinking? Throughout the book, Johnson walks his readers through a philosophical and spiritual journey. Colored with personal stories of his own philosophical journey, Johnsons book strives to get readers questioning the relevant facts of their very personal lives.

The thrust of this book is to bring more people to consciously reflect on themselves, their immediate environment and the larger world of which they are a part, Johnson says. I would like to rescue philosophy from a kind of specialized, esoteric academic captivity. A spiritual life is not under the province of religion, nor is philosophical reflection under the province of formal education.

Johnson hopes to bring philosophy to the masses, educating them on how they too can travel on a journey of philosophical and spiritual enlightenment. Through taking this journey, readers will be able to appreciate a more balanced life which Johnson contends requires religiously attending to spiritual, physical and thoughtful practices.

Philosophy: A Path with Heart By Alan H. Johnson, Ph.D. Hardcover | 6 x 9 in | 308 pages | ISBN 9781491898024 Softcover | 6 x 9 in | 308 pages | ISBN 9781491898031 E-Book | 308 pages | ISBN 9781491898017 Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author Alan H. Johnson, Ph.D., holds a bachelors degree in electrical engineering, a masters degree in philosophy, a sixth degree black belt in tae kwon do and a doctorate in counseling psychology. He spent two years of studying at Union Theological Seminary and a year and half at the C.G. Jung institute in Zrich. He taught family medicine residents and worked in clinical practice for 33 years.

AuthorHouse, an Author Solutions, LLC self-publishing imprint, is a leading provider of book publishing, marketing, and bookselling services for authors around the globe and offers the industrys only suite of Hollywood book-to-film services. Committed to providing the highest level of customer service, AuthorHouse assigns each author personal publishing and marketing consultants who provide guidance throughout the process. For more information or to publish a book, visit authorhouse.com or call 1-888-519-5121. For the latest, follow @authorhouse on Twitter.

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Alan H. Johnson takes readers on journey of heart in new book

Follow Incognito A-listers Out to Litchfield County For a Trip to the Third Dimension

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Most retreats are about healing your body, while the meditation revolution is addressing our over-taxed minds. As the intensity on the notion of inner beauty continues among elite beauty-chasers, next on many a frazzled New Yorkers to-fix list is the third dimension, the spiritual aspect of the self.

At10 a.m.on a hazy AugustSunday, my friend Sophie and I joined the good people of Litchfield, Conn., for a yoga class at a new venue known simply as The Schoolhouse.

Not that this was like any yoga Ive practiced before.

With a soundtrack encompassing everything from Van MorrisonsInto The Mysticto the Black Eyed Peas, it was more of a vinyasa-Sufi-dance hybrid, designed, as our instructor Maureen Dodd breathed above the music, to clear the Chakras and really move the energy around the body.

And it was powerful stufffor Sophie and I it represented the culmination of a weekend-long immersion in Destination Spiritual, a bespoke retreat package created by Ms. Dodd and co-founder Rachel Paletsky Ash. Ms. Ash is married to Dr. Richard Ash of alternative Upper East Side health clinic The Ash Center, where Goldie Hawn is among clients who visit for allergy treatments and intravenous vitamin infusions.

Beyond a physical retreat to Litchfields sweeping fields of light, the literal translation, Destination Spiritual, can be defined as the desire to truly understand ourselves and our internal landscape, explained the founders at our candlelit initiation, setting the tone for a weekend of sustained and soulful self-examination.

Traditionally, retreats are about doing or striving for something. But we wanted to create a space to simply re-establish the relationship with our higher selves, explained Ms. Dodd. Mastery of our internal landscape is at the root of our success, as well as the mastery of our external, material world. Their mission is to assist clients to redefine the concept of spirituality itself. Rather than being confined to the arena of organized religion, the Destination Spiritual teams aim is to promote a basic ethos: just as we maintain our physical body, we lift ourselves by nurturing our spiritual and emotional body, Ms. Dodd said at the start.

The pampering element was thrown in too, thankfully. Enlightenment does not require any wearing of hair shirts and self-flagellation at Destination Spiritual. Our lodging for the weekend was the award-winning Relais & Chateaux property Winvian, an up-market hideaway where the elegant farm-to-table fare is byDaniel Boulud and Alain Ducasse-trained chef Chris Eddy. The Pitt-Jolies have been known to sneak up there for a getaway. It also happens to be five minutes up the road from The Schoolhouse, the old Victorian school building that Ms. Dodd and Ms. Paletsky Ash have spent the past year renovating for their spiritual retreat, in this quiet corner of Connecticut.

Litchfield County is New Yorks other weekend destination, the one where uber A-listers Daniel Day Lewis, Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman go in order not to mingle with each other or anyone else. Hillary Clinton is a regular at neighborhood hot spot, the West Street Grill, in Litchfield, where the Mumfords and Carey Mulligan have also been spotted. Heading south from Litchfield itself, George Malkemus and Anthony Yurgaitis of Manolo Blahnik own the Arethusa Farm and Dairy, selling the most delicious products almost directly from the udders of prize-winning Jersey cows. Diane von Furstenbergs Cloudwalk Farm floats above the lakes and mountains nearby. Fortunately for all, the paparazzi have deemined the area to be too spread-out geographically to bother with. The area provides the ideal backdrop for a sophisticated break, beckoning urbanites to come and ease their troubled minds at a number of different holistic retreats and spas.

Ms. Dodd and Ms. Paletsky Ash have infused their chic-yet-nurturing environment with good vibesthere are crystals from Brazilian faith healer John of God embedded in the broad, oak floorboards where the majority of the weekends spiritual teachings take place. The sessions mainly manifested as a series of guided meditations, during which we were festooned with crystals, and anointed with medicinal oils.

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Follow Incognito A-listers Out to Litchfield County For a Trip to the Third Dimension

"Modi is the man for this moment"

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Leaders in the Indian community of Philadelphia were among those in attendance at India prime minister Narendra Modi's events in New York on his first visit to the U.S. last night."My wife and I attended the dinner last night at the Pierre Hotel," Kris Singh PhD., founder and chief executive at Holtec, the Marlton power plant parts maker, told me. "The Prime Minister gave a short speech -- more like a homily -- and then graciously stood for hours greeting every guest with an Indian 'namaste'' or a Western handshake.

"I found him to be a gifted and charismatic speaker. His line on making India better understood by the rest of the world through increased tourism -- 'Terrorism divides peoples, tourism unites them' -- drew rapturous applause. He spoke in Hindi. I was impressed with his command of Hindi which is not his native language. I, like many others present, believe that Mr. Modi will be transformative force for making India into a more perfect liberal democracy and the countrys economy will be re-energized by his no-nonsense approach to governance.

"It was really quite an event -- a frenzied, chaotic, but happy occasion. 20,000 people were screaming in the stands for a rock star, you would have thought," adds Dr. Aseem Shukla, associate professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and cofounder of the the Hindu American Foundation (www.hafsite.org) (corrected). (More about Dr. Shukla and his history with Modi before he was elected Prime Minister earlier this year, here.)

Before the visit, Shukla wrote this piece at FirstPost on the significance of the New York event. Highlights:

"If the Modi moment is prone to hyperbole and tired metaphors, it is because the moment is ripe with emotions not ascribed to a political leader in over sixty years...

"More than forty-thousand Indian Americans went through a ponderous online process clamoring for twenty-thousand tickets to hear the prime minister speak... What explains the rock star welcome?... No one expects the dapper Modi to don a Karzai-esque cape when he swoops into Gotham City, but if Modi actually delivers on many of the promises of his campaign, be prepared for more mythmaking...

"Modinomics: Indian Americans wrestle with the guilt that they left India in search of a prosperity that eluded them at home. The India they left was clear in its socialist messaging: individual prosperity necessarily deprives another of limited resources. Resources were to be allocated, not created; economic structures militated against wealth creation. To that narrative, another already existed--renunciation. Capitalism was the converse not of socialism, but of the real aim in life of shedding the bonds of materialism and maya.

"The diaspora finds many ways to deal with the duality--continue earning while giving more to building temples, seeking spiritual solace and learning at sundry ashrams, churches and mosques. But the Modi archetype resolves the conflict. Modi is the renunciate who does not repudiate prosperity. Modi may be a sadhu in his personal life--no kanchan or kamini, though accepting some kirti--but he is a sadhu who preaches that wealth creation is good, as long as one is not enslaved by it and is able to lift all boats with it.

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"Modi is the man for this moment"

Russian Space Station Extension? Dont Count On It Yet, NASA Head Says

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he International Space Station as seen by the departing STS-134 crew aboard space shuttle Endeavour in May 2011. Credit: NASA

TORONTO, CANADA NASA isnt reading too much into a report that the Russians will spend $8 billion on the International Space Station through 2025, the head of the agency says. That date is five years past the international agreements to operate the space station.

The Russian announcement comes at a pivotal time for NASA, which is looking to extend operations on the station to at least 2024. Other space agency heads have not yet signed on. Russia is the major partner for NASA on the station, given it operates several modules and sends astronauts to and from Earth on Soyuz spacecraft.

When deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin made the funding announcement, said NASA administrator Charles Bolden, Rogozin was speaking of a budget request that is before the State Duma. The Duma is Russias lower house of government.

I am told thats why he said that, Bolden said at a press conference yesterday (Sept. 29) for the International Astronomical Congress, citing a conversation he had with Bill Gerstenmaier, NASAs human exploration associate administrator. You shouldnt read too much into that.

Canadarm2, the huge robotic arm on the International Space Station, holds astronaut Stephen Robinson during the STS-114 mission. Credit: NASA

Other member agencies of the space station gave noncommittal responses when asked if they would sign on to an extension.

The [European] member states will be invited to give their views on what [to do] after 2020, said Jean-Jacques Dordain, who heads the European Space Agency. He added that any extension would require a financial commitment, as an agreement without money is only principles.

Similarly, Canadian Space Agency chiefWalter Natynczyk said the money allocated to his agency will bring them through to 2020, but we will have a look at the entire value proposition when we put a case before the government of Canada.

The Russian agreement with NASA came under scrutiny earlier this year as tensions erupted in Ukraine while Russian soldiers were in the country. This year, Ukrainian Crimea was annexed to Russia to the condemnation of several countries, including the United States.

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Russian Space Station Extension? Dont Count On It Yet, NASA Head Says

Model Shows Extreme Solar Eruption Hitting Earth | Space Video – Video

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Model Shows Extreme Solar Eruption Hitting Earth | Space Video
More space news and info at: http://www.coconutsciencelab.com - the Community-Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) at NASA #39;s Goddard Space Flight Center, routinely runs computer models of many...

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Model Shows Extreme Solar Eruption Hitting Earth | Space Video - Video

Space Exploration, Robin Thicke: Intellectual Property

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Elon Musks Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is challenging a patent on which Amazon.com Inc.s Jeffrey P. Bezos is the lead inventor.

At issue is patent 8,678,321, which was issued March 25. It covers the sea landing of space launch vehicles and is aimed at re-using rocket elements, instead of discarding them during flight as is usually done.

According to the patent, a structure would be positioned in a body of water and the space launch vehicle would return to earth, landing tail-first on the structure. Re-using launch vehicles would make space travel cheaper.

The patent was issued to Blue Origin LLC of Kent, Washington, a company established by Bezos.

Space Exploration, of Hawthorne, California, said in its filing with the patent office that the technology in the patent is obvious and not new, making it ineligible for patent protection. The California company asked the office to take a second look at specific claims of the patent that it says are invalid.

Startups in Australia Seek Adoption of Patent Box Tax Scheme

Startup companies in Australia are advocating the adoption of a policy similar to the U.K.s patent box incentive, which lowers the tax rate on profit derived from patented products, Australias Financial Review reported.

Australias Treasurer Joe Hockey has criticized the proposal, saying it could tear apart the collective tax base for individual advantage, according to the Financial Review.

For more patent news, click here.

Gonzaga University, a small liberal arts college in Spokane, Washington, prevailed in a trademark suit against the operators of a radio station and the operators of a bar, the Downtown Spokane Daiquiri Factory.

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Space Exploration, Robin Thicke: Intellectual Property