Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

#AnneFrank Hatred killed her yet she saw the good in others. She continues to inspire me. https://t.co/vnYGoc1JOC — Nicole M. Verhaaf (@nimavenl) June 12, 2015 Anne Frank would have turned 86 today. Anti-Semitism killed this gifted young writer. #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/UYiK7pizGc — Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) June 12, 2015

I took this photo of white flowers / white buds on a tree branch a few days ago. It was a warm and sunny day, the sky was a gorgeous blue and there was just enough wind to provide a pleasant breeze. A perfect day to stare up at the trees and the sky, to enjoy the beauty right there and all around me. I walk past this tree almost daily however rarely stop to actually look up at the beauty above. How much beauty and how many happy moments have I missed, walking past without looking up? White flowers can have different meanings depending on country, culture and context - purity and innocence, perfection, or death and mourning. A quick online search for the symbolism of white flowers tells me they are "Often associated with innocence, humility, and reverence" ( Teleflora ) as well as purity, honesty and perfection ( Flower Shopping ). Today all those meanings feel appropriate. As The Netherlands remembers those who died in World War Two , I am drawn to the diary of a young girl...

The following is a quote from a Times of Israel newspaper article regarding the fatal shooting outside a synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, this past weekend. T he mother of the girl who celebrated her bat mitzvah at a Copenhagen synagogue when a gunman opened fire outside, killing one Jewish security guard, recalled the attack with horror and grief on Monday, and expressed sorrow at the death of the beloved community member, Dan Uzan.  “Only an hour beforehand I went out to bring [Uzan] cakes and sandwiches,” Mita Ben-Tov told Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. “All of the sudden the celebration looks vain, [my daughter] Hannah told me ‘Mom, I wish I had not had a bat mitzvah and that Dan would have stayed alive.'”  Ben-Tov said guests and children were forced to hide in a basement for two hours following the shooting.  “We were dancing and singing, and suddenly the second guard entered and told us to turn the music down,” she said. “We were not aware that there was ...

One only has to turn on the television or read the newspaper to realise our world is full of war, injustice, senseless hatred, racism, discrimination, murder and terrorism. We have brains capable of imagining how others might act, react, think and feel. We have books and movies which give us the opportunity to see the world from another's point of view or even from inside their hearts and minds. We have the internet and free online translation services that allow us to communicate with people from all over the world, no matter their language or home country. Yet even with books, movies and the internet to connect us and our human ability to imagine how others might think and feel, we haven't learned to live together in peace and prosperity, to share our planet together without bloodshed or violence, to coexist without trying to bend others to our will and our ways. Source: "Colour Blind" by Acvelyen | Deviant Art We are all human, yet relatively small differe...