Success

Yоu сannоt hаve success if yоu do not know whаt іt means for уou. Evеryоne views success differently. Set clear goals аnd bе realistic. How wіll you know when you've achieved уour goals? Your standards shоuld bе quantifiable, оr еlse yоu сould spend your entire life chasing after а vague goal. For examрlе, lеt's sау уou wаnt tо be good at уour job. Yоu get a promotion, уou get а raise, but you ѕtіll haven't reached уour goal bесauѕе уou сould аlwayѕ dо better, rіght? Yоu cоuld alwауѕ get promoted еven furthеr, оr make evеn more money. Whаtеver уоu hаve will nevеr be enough. Instеad, create benchmarks: "Mу goal іѕ tо increase my productivity bу 30% and оnly be late fоr work fіvе times рer year, at the moѕt." Thеѕe are quantifiable goals that whеn achieved, give уou a sense of satisfaction аnd completion, making уоu feel successful and confident.

What is success to you?

Compassion Gives Strength

Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. --Thomas Merton

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Compassion is the ultimate and most meaningful embodiment of emotional maturity. It is through compassion that a person achieves the highest peak and deepest reach in his or her search for self-fulfillment. --Arthur Jersild

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Compassion is not sentiment but is making justice and doing works of mercy. Compassion is not a moral commandment but a flow and overflow of the fullest human and divine energies. --Matthew Fox

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The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, forgiveness. --H.H. the Dalai Lama

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Always treat others as you'd like to be treated youreself ... Don't do to others what you would not like them to do to you. --Karen Armstrong

Mirrors

A mirror, like  a picture itself, reflects "reality". Due to its respective qualities, it either depicts, magnifies an object or makes it smaller, sometimes it even evokes infinity. Just like the objective of a camera, a mirror delimits excerpts from a variety of pictures either through its outline or with its frame and cuts them. Depending on its position, it either tilts them or puts them at an angle. From the early days, there was a certain preference to use reflecting water surfaces and reflecting surfaces of other suitable materials in still lives due to their intensified expression and the transmission of material qualities and refraction. With the help of reflections several messages could be sent at the same time. A reflection informs us about the source and the intensity of light, the surroundings of an object and about visual impressions that are situated farther away.

The photo is a courtesy of my friend and blog contributor Anastasia

By depicting reality the artist takes stock of what he considers worth communicating. In the mirror, too, a depiction varies due to the "setting", for even a selection of excerpts provides an interpretation of the overall picture. You can see yourself in the mirror, but you can also steer for parts of the environment or for other people. Depending on how you hold the mirror, you can even see yourself upside down, with your feet on the ceiling. Because of this, you realize familiar things more intensely or even as completely new. Surfaces curved by mirror tiles take a picture apart (also by shifting the edges), broken pieces of mirror tiles make it undone.

The mirror belongs to man as the most important attribute of his surroundings, because it is used as a mean of self-control and to check on everyday life. Man likes depicting himself in pictures and when he is looking at himself. This enhances his status as a person and is a proof of his "handsome appearance" and that he accepts himself. It also shows that he wants to come to terms with his personality or that he has already completed his development. Visions and mirror images may prompt new ways of looking at things.

28 October 1940

At 2:50 am on Sunday, 28 October 1940, General Ioannis Metaxas, Prime Minister of Greece , was awoken in his Athens home. At the door was the Italian Ambassador, Count Emmanuelle Grazzi, with a written ultimatum to the Greek government demanding that Italian forces be given free passage into Greece from Albania and that they be allowed to garrison certain unspecified "strategic points of Greek territory". Italy claimed that its request for this "temporary" occupation was the result of British attempts to involve more and more countries in the war. If Greece refused to comply then resistance would be "broken by force of arms". A reply was demanded by 6.00 am, but Metaxas gave it at once — "Alors c'est la guerre" (well, this means War, in French). At 5.30 am Italian troops crossed the Greek–Albanian border and Greece was at war with Fascist Italy.

The Italian Ultimatum:
"The Italian Government has repeatedly noted how, in the course of the present conflict, the Greek Government assumed & maintained an attidute which was contrary not only with that of formal, peaceful, good neighborly relations between two nations, but also with the precise duties which were incumbent on the Greek Government in view of its status as a neutral country. On various occasions the Italian Government has found it necessary to urge the Greek Government to observe these duties and to protest against their systematic violation, particularly serious since the Greek Government permitted its territorial water, its coasts and its ports to be used by the British fleet in the course of its war operations, aided in supplying the British air forces and permitted organization of a military information service in the Greek archipelago to Italy's damage.
The Greek Government was perfectly aware of these facts which several times formed the basis of diplomatic representations on the part of Italy to which the Greek Government, which should have taken consideration of the grave consequences of its attitude, failed to respond with any measure for the protection of its own neutrality, but, instead, intensified its activities favoring the British armed forces and its cooperaticn with Italy's enemies.
The Italian Government has proof that this co-operation was foreseen by the Greek Government and was regulated by understandings of a mllitary, naval and aeronautical character.
The Italian Government does not refer only to the British guarantee accepted by Greece as a part of the program of action against Italy's security but also to explicit, precise nengagements undertaken by the Greek Government to put at the disposal of powers at war with Italy important strategic positions on Greek territory, including air bases in Thessaly and Macedonia, designed for attack on Albanian territory.
In this connection the Italian Government must remind the Greek Government of the provocative activities carried out against the Albanian nation, together with the terroristic policy it has adopted toward the people of Ciamuria and the persistent efforts to create disorders beyond its frontiers.
For these reasons, also, the Italian Government has acceptedthe necessity, even though futilely, of calling the attention of the Greek Government to the inevitable consequences of its policy toward Italy. This no longer can be tolerated by Italy.
Greek neutrality has been tending continuously toward a mere shadow. Responsibility for this situation lies primarily on the shoulders of Great Britain and its aim to involve ever more countries in war.
But now it is obvious that the policy of the Greek Government has been and is directed toward transforming Greek territory, or, at least permitting Greek territory to be transformed, into a base for war operations against Italy.
This could only lead to armed conflict between Italy and Greece, which the Italian Government has every intention of avoiding.
The Italian Government, therefore, has reached the decision to ask the Greek Government, as a guaranty of Greek neutrality and as a guaranty of Italian security, for permission to occupy with its own armed forces several strategic points in Greek territory for the duration of the presert conflict with Great Britain.
The Italian Government asks the Greek Government not to oppose this occupation and not to obstruct the free passage of the troops carrying it out.
These troops do not come as enemies of the Greek people and the Italian Government does rot in any way intend that the temporary occupation of several strategic points, dictated by special necessities of a purely defensive character, should compromise Greek sovereignty and independence.
The Italian Government asks that the Greek Government give immediate orders to military authoritles that this occupation may take place in a peaceful manner. Wherever the Italian troops may meet resistance this resistance will be broken by armed force, and the Greek Government would have the responsibility for the resulting consequences"

Privacy on Facebook

Friends and family have often asked me if I have a Facebook account so that they could add me to their friends. The answer is that I don't have a Facebook account now. I used to have one, though, just to keep in touch with my daughter when she moved to London for her university studies.  She had talked me into creating an account then claiming that it's the most inexpensive way to keep in touch. But very soon, I realised that she'd rather exchange news , photos and videos with her FB friends than talk to daddy! As for my brother, he soon became addicted to playing games although he'd occasionally say hi.

Very soon, I got tired of FB and deleted my account. I prefer to email my friends and family or text message them.  My son  recently told me that FB is now allowed to children from the age of nine! I guess it's yet another elecronic game for them which keeps them away from real socialising such as go out and play with other kids or take up a sport while, at the same time, young children and teens are exposed to serioius dangers.  It's a bad idea to post dicey photos or racy prose on social networking sites, no matter how private teens may think they are. According to a 2008 Kaplan study, one in 10 college admissions officers routinely check out college applicants’ Facebook and Twitter pages. And some 38% of them found posts and pictures that reflected poorly on those prospective students.

Unfortunate Facebook postings can have serious legal repercussions too. One of the first things attorneys do with a new case is search online for information about plaintiffs, defendants and witnesses alike. In one Rhode Island case, a 20-year-old’s drunk driving accident, which severely injured another youth, could have resulted in a relatively light stint at county jail or the considerably more severe state prison. But, as the prosecutor in the case quickly discovered, two weeks after the accident, while his victim was still in the hospital, the youth posted photos on Facebook of himself at a Halloween party, prancing around in a prisoner costume. He was sentenced to two years in state prison. A woman in Germany took leave of absence from work upon presentation of a fake medical certificate saying she was suffering from cancer and had to stay away from work for three months. The woman posted some photos on FB showing her and friends partying at a club in Berlin.  A caption on one of these photos said: ".... and let the boss worry about my good health".  When she went back to work, she was quite ...shocked to find out that she was fired!

No matter how private your privacy settings are on FB, there is no real privacy. 
In 2009, Mashable‘s CEO and founder Pete Cashmore argued on CNN that privacy was dead, and social media was holding the smoking gun:

“We’re living at a time when attention is the new currency: With hundreds of TV channels, billions of Web sites, podcasts, radio shows, music downloads and social networking, our attention is more fragmented than ever before.
“Those who insert themselves into as many channels as possible look set to capture the most value. They’ll be the richest, the most successful, the most connected, capable and influential among us. We’re all publishers now, and the more we publish, the more valuable connections we’ll make.”

While I agree with his assertion that in an age where attention is king, privacy is simply an illusion, I disagree about the murderer. Sure, Twitter, Flickr, Google and others played a part in privacy’s death, but Facebook made the killing blow.

Facebook’s passive sharing will change how we live our lives. More and more, the things we do in real life will end up as Facebook posts. And while we may be consoled by the fact that most of this stuff is being posted just to our friends, it only takes one friend to share that information with his or her friends to start a viral chain.

Sharing with just your friends doesn’t protect your privacy. I know the people at Facebook will disagree and argue that users can control what is shared with whom. But this is simply an illusion that makes us feel better about all the sharing we have done and are about to do.
We may not notice the impact on our lives immediately. But it won’t be long until your life is on display for all of your friends to see, and then we’ll all know what Facebook has wrought.

Sunday Breakfast

I am the kind of person who can't start the day or..... function without a hearty breakfast. On weekdays, I always have 2 cups of green tea (I love it!!) and toast with butter and jam, a small piece of cheese and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Twice a week, I may also have for a change a bowl of wholemeal cereals with fruit and nuts and a fruit yoghurt. Only then can I start my day. My only snack in-between meals is a carrot and lots of water.

But, on Sundays breakfast is a special treat!It's eggs and crispy bacon or sausages, often with baked beans, tea or coffee, orange juice or a cocktail juice (orange, pink grapefruit and tangerine), hot croissants, butter and jam and, occasionally, pancakes or waffles. According to Kathleen M. Zelman MPH, RD, LD, the right breakfast foods can help us concentrate, give us strength and even maintain  a healthy weight. To be honest, I don't always have a healthy breakfast, but I never skip it! As a result, I am not hungry in-between meals and don't feel like bingeing on fatty snacks.

How about you? What's for breakfast?

How about you? What's for breakfast?

The Great and the Beautiful

We live in a world that seems to worship its own kind of greatness and produce its own kind of heroes. Popular tv shows  like Greek or American Idol X-Factor or Master Chef and reality television shows that are anything but reality, capitalize on this exact thing. Oprah Winfrey needs only mention a product on her "Favourite Things" list and the sales skyrocket. Athletes' are paid exorbitant amounts of money while teachers struggle on fixed income schedules. We have video games like Guitar Hero and Worlds of War Craft, where one becomes a "hero" by beating the game. It makes one wonder at our standard of measuremen when it comes to greatness.

Howard W. Hunter writes:

It's true that most of the world's heroes don't last very long in the public mind; but, nevertheless, there is never a lack of champions and great achievers. We hear almost daily of athletes breaking records; scientists inventing marvelous new devices, machines, and processes; and doctors saving lives in new ways. We are constantly being exposed to exceptionally gifted musicians and entertainers and to unusually talented artists, architects, and builders. Magazines, billboards, and television commercials bombard us with pictures of individuals with perfect teeth and flawless features, wearing stylish clothes, and doing whatever it is that "successful" people do.
Because we are being constantly exposed to the world's definition of greatness, it is understandable that we might make comparisons between what we are and what others are-or seem to be-and also between what we have and what others have. Although it is true that making comparisons can be beneficial and may motivate us to accomplish much good and to improve our lives, yet we often allow unfair and improper comparisons to destroy our happiness when they cause us to feel unfulfilled or inadequate or unsuccessful. Sometimes, because of these feelings, we are led into error and dwell on our failures while ignoring aspects of our lives that may contain elements of true greatness.

To me the elements of true greatness lie in little deeds of kindness in our daily lives like a loving parent, a true friend, a faithful companion, sharing your sandwich with a homeless person, loving yourself as you really are so that you can love others. This is the essence of the great and the beautiful.

Back from Sifnos

When you are on holiday, time flies. Ten days flew by in Sifnos without realising it. I went there alone but this did not prevent me from having a great time. I enjoy being my own company in the first place, doing whatever I want like swimming, fishing, sailing or  basking in the sun reading my favourite books. Secondly, I've made a few good friends there - all islanders - who won my heart from the very first day I set foot on Sifnos, 5 summers ago. Sifnos then was a very quiet island unlike most of the Cyclades. Only a few Athenians visited the island due to its proximity to Athens. Nowadays, Sifnos has become a very touristy island. Of course this is good for the islanders whose livelihood only depends on fishing and on tourism.
 



I spent most of the days fishing - I had a good catch! - then sailing to Sifnos' unspoilt beaches, meeting friends and, naturally, tasting for yet another summer the unique Sifnos traditional cooking.It is not accidental that Sifnos is the homeland of many great Greek chefs as for instance Nikos Tselemendes and Marcos. The traditional Sifnos cuisine cuisine is delicious and it includes dishes such as: chickpea croquettes, string beans with garlic paste, Sunday traditional chickpea soup, which is put in the oven on Saturday night and is cooked during the whole night with wood, caper-salad, meat cooked in the mastelo (traditional utensil made of potter’s clay). And fish, of course! Likecalamari, for instance.

Apart from giving birth to Dionysus, patron god of wine, Greece is the birthplace of the first VSOP wines in history. They were the wines of the islands of Chios and Thassos, renowned in the entire ancient world. Due to various historic and social reasons, as well as natural disasters, the art of wine-making was neglected from the middle of the nineteenth century until the early sixties. It was then that the ancient traditions of wine-making started being rediscovered and today, one can find many excellent Greek wines produced all over the country. When tasting Greek wine, bear in mind that it is a product of a distinctive environment and of grape varieties unknown to western wine lovers. Sifnos is no exception and produces some great wines,


My friend Manolis' reastaurant in Vathi is my favourite. The best clay oven food on the island. If you are lucky he may be roasting a lamb. Manolis has been the heart and soul of Vathi for decades. Though his son Stelios has taken over the runing of the restaurant, Manolis is always there acting as host and ambassador of kefi. A truly wonderful restaurant that should not be missed, particularly for a late and lingering lunch. Excellent wine from the barrel, baked foods from the oven, fried kalamari, whatever fish has been brought in, and the best Greek salads in all the Cyclades topped with arugula and mizithra, a Sifniot cheese less sharp then feta and the consistency of cottage cheese. When you are finished just jump right in the clean water of Vathi bay and then come back for a Greek coffee and baklava. If you decide that this is the life for you, then you can rent rooms right behind the restaurant, just like I did. (Manolis passed away in 2009 but his spirit lives on.)

So, how about you? Did you have a nice summer holiday? Where did you go? 

Summer Holidays

With the new recession in Greece  and a depression in Asian and European  markets yesterday (almost a black Tuesday), I shouldn't be taking a holiday at all! June and July were busier than ever before - hence all work and no play. It's not easy these days to be an economist and run your own business. Since June, people have been protesting all over Greece against the government's new austerity measures which are to me not only unreasonable but completely insane. The bottom line is that the average citizen will pay off our debt to Europe. No, this is not a joke!

Well, I was so tired and so exhausted that I promised myself to take a break. August 15, called Dekapentavgoustos in Greece, is like a second Easter to us. I can't imagine spending this important Greek holiday in any other place than Sifnos. This is an island I fell in love with many years ago, long before it started developping tourism.

Sifnos, lies in the middle of the Cyclades islands between Serifos, Kimolos and Antiparos and is about 80 nautical miles from Piraeus. It has an area of 74 sq. km. and a shoreline of 70 km, with a population of 2000. The island is reached on the ferries which run on the Piraeus- Kythnos- Serifos- Sifnos- Sifnos- Kimolos line, and there are also sailings to other islands in the Cyclades.

Sifnos was very wealthy in ancient times, thanks to its gold and silver mines. Proof of this, is the treasury which the Siphnians built at Delphi in the 6th century BC to house their offerings. However, it appears that something went wrong with the mines; either they were worked out or flooded by the sea -we do not know which- and their production ceased. In ancient times, Siphnos's wealth was measured by the gold and silver it produced, in the last two centuries it can be measured by its cultural output.

The Good of God

 Throughout your lifetime, you are going to be faced with many different kinds of decisions and temptations. Most of these will be small and hard to see coming towards us. Allow me to elaborate on what I mean by that. For example, it’s a Sunday night, and I know I have an important meeting at work early on Monday morning.. I need to spend time preparing that meeting.. My friends call me to go to the movies with them. I choose to go to the movies, instead of preparing the meeting.. Therefore, I am faced with a small everyday temptation. Instances similar to this approach us every day. These types of temptations are extremely hard to see coming, and occur many times in a single day. Some of them can affect you for the rest of your life.

It seems to me that life is a series of decisions we make and temptations we are faced with. We are put in a position to deny something we believe in. For example, take that prepare-the-meeting -or-go-tothe- movies situation. Depending on what you decide, you might find yourself opposing your own work ethic beliefs. The decision was all yours, and yours alone.


However, there is another type of situation. There are, unfortunately, times when people are forced into a situation that they cannot foresee in any way. This has nothing to do with a decision we make for ourselves, but a decision that was made by someone else.For example, if for no reason at all, out of the blue, someone walked up to you, put a gun to your head and asked if you believed in God, what would your reaction be? This situation is different and could lead to what I call the “Ultimate Temptation.” It is the denial of God. And just like in the past, it is very real today.

A lot of people in the past have been faced with situations similar to this. A lot of them were beaten, tortured, and even killed because of their faith. This kind of thing still goes on every day in different parts of the world. For example, in 1960, a monkpriest named Nestor was born in the province of Crimea in southern Russia. All the monks in Russia were required to be registered with the state which was atheist. Nestor did not register, so if he was caught he would be put in jail or killed. He was eventually ordained as a monk-priest. He found a church in Zharky and decided to stay there and serve God.

There were many times that Nestor’s faith was tested. His church was robbed several times. Eventually the people stopped caring about robbing the church; they wanted Nestor’s life. He was held at gunpoint in front of his own house. He ran inside and locked the door. They shot at him, but all he could do was shoot towards them to try and scare them away. He would never shoot at them. This scenario went on for quite a while in his life. Monk-Priest Nestor was eventually found dead outside the window of his house on December 31, 1993. His throat was slit and he had multiple stab wounds. This all occurred only 18 years ago.

I’m sure we have all heard about what happened on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Denver, Colorado. There was a school shooting by two boys who went to that school. It was a very tragic situation. But there is much more to it than that. Cassie Bernall was a student at Columbine and was in the library at the time of the shooting. One of the boys walked up to her at gunpoint and asked if she believed in God. Her response after a short pause was yes. Apparently they did ask her why, but didn’t give her a chance to answer. She was killed instantly.

The only way for me to answer that question is to actually be faced with the situation. I am a strong believer in God, and I would love to say that if someone held me up and asked that question, I would without a doubt say YES! But until I am faced with this (and hopefully I never am) I cannot give you an answer.
If someone just walked up to me and asked me if I believed in God, I would say yes. Of course I believe in God. But would the circumstances change if that person was a complete stranger and had a gun to my head? Of course it would. I don’t think that I would be so quick to answer. I personally have thought a lot about this for the last couple of months. In the end, my answer would still be “yes.” Christ offered us the promise of eternal life, which means life forever after death. I could either die for Christ and live forever, or live and really die.

What would your answer be in this situation?