dessyswonderland:

The final walk at Elie Saab’s Fall/Winter 2012 Paris Fashion Week runway presentation. 

dessyswonderland:

The final walk at Elie Saab’s Fall/Winter 2012 Paris Fashion Week runway presentation. 

peacecorps:

Peace Corps Volunteer Tackles a Sensitive Women’s Health Problem in Uganda

When Stacey Frankenstein-Markon discovered that girls in Uganda often used rags, old socks or wads of newspapers to do the job of sanitary napkins, she was shocked. She was even more horrified to realize that purchasing commercial pads was an impossible dream for most of them, since they come from families of subsistence farmers making about $1 a day in disposable income. 

“Disposable pads cost $1 for an 8-pack,” says the 25-year-old Peace Corps Volunteer, who with her husband, Tony Markon, is serving in Uganda as part of Michigan Technological University’s Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) program in applied science education. “If a family has three daughters who need pads, that family would have to spend 20 percent of their income just on menstrual pads. Who can afford to do that?”

The pad problem also was leading girls to stay away from school, fearing that they might stain their clothes and be badgered by boys, Frankenstein-Markon said.  Eventually, they fall so far behind that they have to drop out. 

But thanks to the inventiveness of another Peace Corps Volunteer who had served in the eastern Ugandan region just before the Markons got there in 2010, the Michigan Tech student has been able to help hundreds of girls practice better hygiene while they learn about menstruation, their bodies and women’s health.  And not incidentally, stay in school. 

If people are sending out negative energy and not meeting your expectations, it is important to send them unconditional love. They are simply being themselves, doing the best they know how. You will find great inner peace when you do not need others to act in a certain way to be happy yourself. When you send someone unconditional love, it is no longer possible for you to be harmed by his or her negative energy.

—Orin (via nirvikalpa)

(Source: moreofamore, via wordslessspoken)

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else

—Judy Garland (via ninagarcia)

The man who loves God

simplyorthodox:

The man who loves God benefits from both praise and blame: if commended for his good actions he grows more zealous, and if reproved for his sins he is brought to repentance. Our outward life should accord with our inner progress and our prayers to God with our life.

-St. Mark the Ascetic, fifth century