Past Lives (Reincarnation)

Thanks for creating this board just for me! I believe in reincarnation totally, which seems to be a rather unusual opinion to have here in the Bible Belt. I think that some souls go to heaven, some to hell, some stay here on Earth in the form of ghosts, and some people are reincarnated. I don't know if there's rhyme or reason to who goes where, but I believe that's the way things work. I've had some bizarre experiences with what I believe to be past life experiences--once, when I was in a lower-level French class, the teacher was reading aloud and she asked if anyone knew what "mouchoir" meant. It had never been one of our vocabulary words before, and I don't recall ever having looked it up, but I just popped up and said "It means 'handkerchief'." I was even amazed myself, because when the teacher asked me how I knew what it meant, I didn't know. I still to this day don't know how I new that.

Wow! That's really impressive! Do you have any other such things to tell? I've never experienced reincarnation, but I've read and heard so many things about it which I found convincing and plausible that I believe in it in the same way I believe in ghosts.

Well, off the top of my head I can't think of any other specific incidents, other than that my French teacher once told me that I must have spoken French in a former life because I was too "intuitive" when it came to learning it, and my mentor told me that I was an "old soul" because I could understand things at a very young age which take some people years to understand. I do have dreams, though (see my post on the "Dreams" topic,) that are very strange.

i've had only one dream that i can remember that was set in the medieval age. it was so much fun.

Do tell! What was it about? Was it realistic, or like a movie?

no, it was realistic but also like a comedy. it was a love story. i actually wrote the thing down when i woke up! i remember being the wife of a prince or king and he was handsome. the only regal part really of the whole thing was a dinner engagement. at some point, i was ill and a physician was called who said not much could be done but to wait. the husband stayed all night and then caught the illness too. of course, by the end of the dream, both of us were well. for as much detail as was included, i only lasted a few minutes. i remember the inside of the castle being either brick or stone with lamps along the stairwell to the upper parts. i saw the bedroom as that was where i stayed the duration of whatever illness i had. the bed was low and covered with furs. it was also in the middle of the room and i don't remember much else about the furnishings. there were servants but they were never treated cruelly. the prince's only concern was me and it was wonderful to be in such a supportive situation he was not possessive in any way. i don't even know how i got to be his wife but knew that somehow i was not royalty to begin with. which may be why the beginning of the dream was of us moving in. oh, the feast was rather civilized, there being a table, dinnerware, napkins, and such. there were fingerbowls on the table. i can't remember who was in the room but it was full and everyone was having a good time. can't say whether this indicates a past life of any sorts. i've been in castles before (thanks to my dad's tours in germany) and did some research on knighthood. it may have been wishful thinking and the loving attention was something i needed in reality.

Well, if you had flatware with which to eat, it probably wasn't a real medieval past life experience. You would have been grubbing around with your hands, probably. Do you think it could have been a metaphor for something going on at the time? Off the top of my head, I can't specifically remember any of my might-be past life dreams, although I know I've had some in which I'm wearing very restrictive clothing (like a corset) and I feel like I'm going to burst. I'll have to look back through some of my old journals and see if I can find any details that I'd written down.

no, i don't remember any silverware. but the table was dressed. and yes, i believe some dreams are a way of acting out what we need. then sometimes i feel like it's a parallel universe. as a child i would decide during the day what i would dream about and then almost couldn't wait to go to bed and live it.

I did the same thing when I was little! I don't know how I controlled my dreams back then, but I can't seem to do it now. Do you think that there are parallel universes? Also, do you think that time may not be linear? I mean, if I died tomorrow, might I be born in 1752 rather than a later date than now? I've always wanted to discuss this with someone.

I've never thought of that! That's really interesting! What if death is the merely the process of being born into another universe?

It's one of those things that we can suspect, but never really know if it's true or not. I think it's very possible, though.

hmmm...some ideas of reincarnation are supported in the bible, being given a new heaven and new earth, those that are first will be last, etc. but i'm not sure it supports reincarnation as we see it. i think that if reincarnation is real, then this must be my first go around on earth. although, when helping other people work with their different situations, some things come out of my mouth that i would never take credit for. not terrible things, just the advice that comes spewing forth that i would never dream of if in the same situations. you know what i mean? i can still control my dreams to an extent. while i was little, i could wake up and go to the bathroom and come back and finish the dream. now, if i wake up, i know i'll never get back to whatever was going on. sometimes, i could finish it the next day. if i dream about people i know, i feel really strange the next day. like, did they know they were in my dream and what we did? *grin* what interests me, are the people that i don't know in life but know so well in my dreams.

Why do you think that it's your first go-around on Earth? I've known some people that I suspected to be "young souls," and anyone as interested in poetry and stuff as you are couldn't be too young! I have always wondered if you're having a really strong, really realistic dream about someone, could they be having the same one about you at the same time? I've had some dreams that are so realistic that I have to believe that he was having the same one too, because it was almost like our souls were communicating across space. Maybe I just think that because I was madly in love with him, too!

That madly-in-love bit is the answer to your wondering question...even para-challenged I have had those kinds of dreams!

Yeah, I kind of figured that's why I was having those dreams...but what's really weird is when you have them about men you wouldn't even consider that way in waking life!

I know!!! I remember having a fantastic dream about a guy when I was in High School who was hopeless in real life...but he was awesome in my dream. I searched him out the next day hoping to find I was wrong about him IRL...but he was just as bad as I remembered...*sigh*

Alas! Well, the object of my dreams wasn't hopeless--just hopelessly unattainable!

I know about them, too...! They are the most anguishing sometimes...

...or the one I had about one of my Father's business associates...when I awoke I felt like my mind needed washing...thoroughly nasty, as I recall...

Eww! I can't remember having any dreams about anyone I knew that made me ill--the only really disgusting ones were about men I didn't know, and that's probably the main reason why they felt so nasty. I have an absolute taboo about having sex with men I don't know (it seems obvious, but some women don't,) and I believe that it was probably my naughty little id making itself known.

Do you ever think that you and the love of your life were together in another life? I wonder if my Beloved and I have always been a hopeless couple, century after century.

...Not I...the love of my life was not available to me...*very BIG sigh*

i think souls that we knew before exist in our present but not in the same way as we knew them. but the true love thing, don't think i've met them yet. (meaning no respect to my wonderful cutiepie of an alpha male whom i do love)... it's really weird to meet someone of either sex that you connect with. you know, like you've known them forever. oh, and do you think souls are neither male or female and can come back as any sex? amy, as to your question on why i believe this is my first time here: well, because i can be so naive, romantic, and gullible. maybe i was a dog the first time which would explain my devotion to my pets. did have a co-worker tell me that he could see me in the victorian era. and i said, what, as a maid, and he said, nope, he could see me wearing those dresses and all that. i was flattered, really. aside from the beautiful things this life has to offer (my children, flowers, etc.), i don't think i'd want to come back to earth. don't get me wrong, i love living and looking for the beauty, but to have to come back and not know what i was in for after having lived this life, that's a bit scary to me.

I know a lady who seriously studies things like this and she says you can return as either sex and as mother and son, father and daughter (sounds perilously like incest here) or brother and sister, as well as lovers. Yes, it is an incredible feeling to meet someone and have so much in common... with single thoughts, often. Most amazing! ...and most wonderful...!

You know, I think I agree with your friend, Marcia. I think that certain bonds are so strong that they transcend time and space. And you know, the love of my life treated me like his daughter (I mean, he is 22 years older than me,) when he wasn't trying to seduce me. How odd!

Most interesting!!! I agree with her, I think...she was very convincing and knew an old soul...a lovely elderly lady! Most interesting

Do I know about that one, Amy! I'm married to the love of my life, who is 25 years older than me - he will ALWAYS treat me like a child. It is very safe and very infuriating at the same time. All in all I think elderly chaps are pretty awesome to be with. About that soulmate thing. Don't you think that people have several soulmates in each lifetime? Because otherwise, what would the chances be of finding one's soulmate? Although, the way Chris found me was pretty odd. He was on holiday in South Africa, went to Namibia for a single day on a special price train journey, we met and knew each other for 5 hours, didn't see each other again for many many months, and yet I just knew it was going to be him or nobody. There is no such thing as chance...

Ree, you're right. What is meant to be will be. And, my ex treated me as a child as well, and he was only 5 years older than I. You're right - it is both reassuring and infuriating at the same time. And, will you kids pick on someone your own age - what are the elderly ladies supposed to do? Rob the cradle?!) While I am at it, why do you think society accepts an older man with a young lady but not the reverse?

Well, Riette, the love of my life isn't exactly "elderly"--he's only 44 now and was 41 when I met him! (However, when we met I was 19.) I don't know if I'll have any other soulmates in my lifetime--he was the only one so far, and I can't imagine, at this point, feeling that way about someone else. I guess it's just that I'm still too close to the whole thing--our offices are right next door to one another and I see him almost every day! I wouldn't always say that society accepts older men with younger women--not so in my case! Everyone said, "Eww, gross!"

..small-minded little twits....! Sorry, but there it is; love does not care about age and status and all of those tangible things...it just knows the incredibly intangible feelings...

that's right, the heart does the choosing regardless...

*smile knowingly*

I know--it's just like the Duke of Windsor said: "The heart has reasons which reason knows nothing of." Even so, I was very stupid about him...

What I find fascinating is how the idea of reincarnation is widely accepted in the Western Culture now, though it completely contradicts that which many people in this culture view as legitimate and proper foundation of this culture, christianity. From an anthropological/ethnological point, it's very curious to see how contradicting positions are merging into some mix that is more agreeably to people.

I think I heard once that reincarnation was originally a part of Christianity, but that Emperor Justinian's Empress Theodora forced him to have it taken out of the texts for some reason that I can't remember. Does anyone know any more about this, or was this just my imagination?

i don't know about that, but the bible does mention being given a new body and a new heaven and earth being created. of course, i don't want to take it out of context, so let me research that.

Wolf, the bible does indeed, but it's ONCE and only after certain events took place. It's one of the prerequisites of judgement day. And you're supposed to be back as yourself, looking like you did, feeling like you did. The idea of reincarnation has different aspects, depending on who tells the story: You come back looking the same or different. Again and again. You are always reincarnated as homo sapiens sapiens, or as whatever you please. Or whatever your karma allowed. You choose where and to whom you're born or karma does. Or fate or the gods. You know about your next life in your current life, e.g. where you will be born (see the Tibetan Lamas). Or you don't. You know about your past lifes in your current lifes (look at all the people who have been Cleopatra...) or you don't. You're always coming back with the same personality, or never twice even near it. It's always the same soul reincarnated, or only a part of it. Your soul never dies or it does, or part of it decays (as the Chinese believed). There is a power behind it all or there isn't. It has a divine end at one time, or it doesn't. If it has an end or not depends on yourself, or external powers, or it's unchangeably eternal. It matters or it don't.- Amy, if you could verify what you mentioned, I'd be happy to hear more about it. There is no doubt that there were many things that once belonged into one religious canon or another and have been purged for whatever reasons. Perhaps it is in the Apogryphes (?), of which I don't have a copy.

Sorry, I couldn't verify it--I just heard it somewhere a long time ago and I can't remember where. Maybe it's not true at all, or a story made up to make Theodora look either better or worse, depending on who was telling it and what they wanted to achieve!

Anyhow, I find it very interesting that many people take up believe in this concept in one way or another, while declaring themselves to be christian. Is Christianity changing then? What will become of the Salvation, e.g.? What role does the God of Christianity have, if there is reincarnation?

He's the one who gets to decide whether, in the next life, you get to be a pauper or a prince - or the artist formerly known as Prince, for that matter.

Riette--LOL! I couldn't really explain how I consider myself a Christian and yet still believe in reincarnation--I never went to church and was taught religion entirely at home and later by my own interpretation of the Bible, so I don't subscribe to any particular sect's specific beliefs.

Bah, an eclectic! ;=} I guess you gotta make up your mind, because either way, you'll doubtlessly cause queues either at HIS desk on Judgement Day, or at Reincarnation Unlimited's Karma-Counter. But Riette, does reincarnation plug in ok with Jewish beliefs? I found your suggestion amusing, but hey, that's actually worse that a benevolent god smiling on us all. What does that guy decide on? What if he doesn't like my haircut and thinks if had some, uh, attitude? OR if he found the mistakes and errors in last issue, and has me reincarnated as dust-bin because we misspelled something? Hmh? Do tell me, please!

HOnestly! It's time the dear Lord got himself and e-mail address, so you won't have to ask ignorants like me about these matters! No, reincarnation is not a part of our formal religious beliefs. Though Reform Juda�sm leaves very much room for personal belief as well. If you believe in re�ncarnation, no-one will condemn you or anything. We basically believe in God, but understand that how religions work was thought up by people, and therefore different people will have different versions of things like what happens to us hereafter. And different people will have different ideas of God and his 'Eigenshaften'. None of it can be judged as either right or wrong, because NO-ONE knows what will happen to us when we die. Reform Juda�sm is, I think, not so much a religion as a particular intellectual mentality regarding God and the hereafter. The only thing we more or less agree upon is that there is always room for argument and discussion. That doesn't really answer your question. But that's because no-one really can. Personally I don't think God is a dictator - unless Hitler managed to shove Him into an oven as well in the meantime. I consider myself a relativist. I don't see him as a person as such, but as a force - earth, rain, fire, soil, sea, the whole universe as an entirety. One reads so many baffling stories about reincarnation; they may be coincidence, but I don't believe in chance at all. So, while it is not a part of how I worship God and think of the hereafter, I would never dismiss it as an untruth either. I always find it silly that we are all so concerned about what is right and what is wrong. And how believing or not believing in a thing like reincarnation can take something away or add to religion. I mean, God created all these different cultures, all these different beliefs, millions of different personalities - differences are his Forte, so to speak. Then we reduce Him to a Being that can only see specific beliefs as righteous and good. What is your view on all this? Do you believe in reincarnation? Or in God? What do you think God is? Actually, perhaps each of us should answer those questions - it would be interesting to see what everyone beliefs and thinks. So, GO! I take it you don't care much for that religion-thang?

How beautiful, Riette! I could never have put it so aptly. I don't believe that I'll be causing any holdups in the line at the Pearly Gates--I think when our souls are released from our bodies, there is a moment of supreme enlightenment before we go on to the next place, and it's all dazzling and beautiful and we have the answers to all of the questions and we see everything with perfect clarity. There won't be any holdup to moving on because I believe that God has already decided where each one of us will go--he had it planned before we were ever born. I think the most important things are to have faith, be spiritual, and love God. If you do that, no matter what name you place those things, God understands. I don't believe that this person will go to Hell because he's a Buddhist or this person will go to Hell because she's Hindu and so on--I think if you spend your life trying to do right and live an upright life, you don't have anything to worry about after you die.

Amen, ladies. Ree, your summation of God is pretty much what my nebulous idea of that existance is, as well. Trying to describe God in human terms is the first problem, and all others are compounded by it. God understands all of his children and know that they take different routes up the mountain in the search for enlightemment. Same goal, different paths!

well, i just want to say that alex really clarified the reincarnation theories bor me, or not *big grin* maybe that's what heaven and hell are. besides being just places where we go if we're bad or good. maybe it's the roles we'll get. i dunno, but heaven is the place i wanna go! so, yes, i believe in God.

I was once told that if you are having a bad time with finances in this life you were probably rich and did not share in a past life - so now you know how it is to be on the other end of that equation. Buit, that does not make sense if we cannot remember how we behaved when we were rich...! Same goes for arrogance or any other human frailty. You get the opposite in the next go-round!

I think we all have a karmic relationship with the universe, so I can buy that. I think life is a big circle, and what you don't conquer in this lifetime, you'll finish in the next.

...but...but...how can we learn if we can't remember what we did wrong the last time???

We don't have to know the mistakes we made in our past lives--we just keep repeating them until our souls finally figure out what we've done wrong all this time! It goes back to the concept of being an "old soul"--that's why they're wise beyond their years!

I guess only in some things am I an old soul...but I was told that as a child - adults would ask me curious questions and I would always answer them seriously. It continues even now...Don't know why...! (Does this mean if I don't experience some things I really want to experience I will never get the chance?!)

I'm not the one to say, but I think you're pretty close to nirvana or whatever you want to call it! :-)

Sometimes it seems very near...other times it is just as elusive as ever...I guess that is why I am still here!

Oh boy! Hey, when y'all dig all that karmic stuff, then explain to me please what role the genders play in reincarnation... Most cultures known to me that place faith in reincarnation say, what you're born as results from laws of cause and effect. And all the cultures I know that believe in anything place women below men, sometimes even below e.g. his horse or what have you. So, if I have not helped to sick, I get reincarnated sick, right? Pretty cool, then sickness is not brought on me by medical reasons or e.g. poisonous industrial waste, but my own dumb fault. Next: If I am suppressed, it is because I was a suppressor in my last life. Get it? That thing works PERFECTLY to tell people to shut up and quit whining, the way the world is is because of what they did IN THEIR PAST LIFES. Go tell that to some Pakistani child laborer. I liked the idea of reincarnation, until thinking of what a soul had to have done to be reincarnated into some of our more male-oriented societies. I mean, here they go and say, born as a guy = pretty cool in last life, born as a woman = cool enough to make that, but not as cool. This is in no ways different from the European aristocratic and religious mass-control concepts. See, I have difficulties seeing a difference between (a) being told another guy is boss because he was born to be, and that was granted by a gracious god, and women are worth less because that's how it is (patriarchical bloodlines monarchy w/ monotheism), and (b) being told you're poor and will never amout to anything because it's last life's karma, and one of the differentiations made amongst the reincarnated is whether they are demon, ghost, animal, human (male/female), spirit-being, god-being, the all-being (nirvana/nothingness). I found that very upsetting to think about, but yeah, aren't beliefs entwined with their societies structure? And what is there to control the populace when you don't tell them one guy is better because of birth rights. You have to tell them something so they behave, e.g. "ok, you're born as leper, but try to steal, and next time round, you'll be a leperous dog, how'd ya like that fer alternative?" - Try to think this through, and think how women might have been be quieted by this: "OK, so you don't like eing lower than men, but think of how it'll be for you next time around if you don't just accept it and take things as they are?" I would appreciate your opionions on this.

In some (many) societies people are brought up and conditioned into never asking questions. I appreciate the fact that we all live in societies where we CAN ask the questions we like to ask. And where we are allowed to get upset about some possibilities that spring from the questions, or are suggested in response. I don't really believe in reincarnation or karma, but I don't judge it as being wrong and fulstop. People should be free to believe what they want. The reason why I don't believe in it is precisely because I cannot imagine that people around us suffer because they have been bad in another life. Too many factors can influence what become of us on this earth, even in this 'safe' society we live in. Especially where innocent little kids are involved. I do believe in the soul and that perhaps some people have the ability to 'mitbekommen' something of another soul which may belong to any other person, dead or alive. And that it must be fascinating when that happens.

I don't believe that reincarnation has the goal of becoming something better in the next life--since no one can remember his/her past life in depth anyhow, and if anyone remembers anything about it at all, it's just shadows, how would a person know that they had moved up in the reincarnation ranks? No, I think it is more about obtaining wisdom--your soul grows in profoundness, and although you may not end up being wealthy or noble or whatever, you're still better off than a young soul who can't understan why they're doing what they're doing. If you have no wisdom, then you're wandering around in circles, not knowing why certain things keep happening to you over and over again, why you're never happy, etc.

Alexander, I am afraid I am like you and have problems with anointed authority which gained that power just be luck of being born to certain parents. I am having enough trouble understanding what is happening in this life - I cannot even fathom another one. The Judeo-Christian framework into which I was born did not even consider the possibility of souls migrating and reappearing. You are an individual creation - there will never be another quite like you (unless you are Ree and her twin sister), and w en you die the soul goes back to the creator. End of story. I cannot improve on that because I know nothing else.

Certainly I agree that religion has been abused by persons of authority as a means of controlling the masses (I'm a Marxist, for crying out loud,) but I think that using that as a good reason to not believe in reincarnation is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Before the Reformation, the Catholic regimes of Europe were just as oppressive to the masses by promising them heaven if they shut up and did what they were told. And being reincarnated does not necessarily mean that you're not unique--you've just been "recycled" into something new. Is a purse made out of an old tire still an old tire? Well, it still has some of the characteristics of a tire, but it's now more of a purse than anything. (Okay, that was an odd analogy, but the best one I could think of.)

In our house, my father WAS power and control...and Santa Claus...and Daddy! Marxist or not, some of us need organization in our lives so the rest of the world does not run amok on us - but always subject to the approval of the electorate. I guess I have been so science-oriented for most of my life that para-anything is strange to me thus open to skepticism. I do not say it does not work or that it does not happen - but it does not for me.

My dad had that kind of control too--but I was subversive!

Ah....I was the youngest by many years of three daughters. He though it was his duty to hand us over to our husbands as virgins...I wonder how well he succeeded. Anyway, by the time I arrived into the family, my submissiveness was expected and demanded. Just the inside of my head knew differently. It has taken me a long time to get rid of those old ghosts! Watch out world!

My strategy was to do everything my parents wanted in their presence, build up their trust, then misbehave and never have them suspect it. I still do it all the time, and now I'm to the point that I could sneak off and sleep with half of the university and they'd never suspect that I wasn't working away at the library!

Okay, so that sounded bad. I've never actually done that--I'm just saying that I could. The worst I've ever done is gotten drunk a few times.

...as you wish, Princess...we believe you! (Did you see The Princess Bride"? It was wonderful!) I have the most guileless mind. If you look at me sideways I'll confess to whatever you want to blame on me. I got the lickings as the littlest kid, anyway, so I said I did it often enough that no one believed I did anymore. Is that reverse logic? Anyway, I never got away with anything, so I never tried! I'm not sure that is a virtue, but that is Marcia.

A good Irish Lass getting drunk??? Nevah!

To the Irish, getting drunk is a virtue!

ha-ha! Do they not suffer hangovers then? My parents used to always tell us, kids are nothing but trouble. So we acted the part. It must be hard when one is alone like you were, Marcia. Sonja and I just stuck together in everything we did - from sneaking out of the house at night to going shopping in town when we were supposed to go to school. There was a while when we were about 13, when we got really pissed off that we had to stay with my parents during term-time (the rest of the time we lived with my grandparents), so we decided to stay ou of school for as long as we possibly could. Every now and again some teacher would ring up, and I had this really good voice, and I'd say, 'No, Miss, Sonja and Ri�tte are very, very ill, and won't be coming to school for a long time.' We managed it for only 7 weeks - my father was headmaster of our school, and one of the teachers made a direct inquiry....

Seven weeks is an awesome stretch to pull off this mother of all hookey playing ventures. I think we have to award you the Spring's Austin Slacker Award for Meritorious Slacking. You deserve it, you rascally girls! This is your version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off!

only 7 weeks!!!

Some where, some how, your kids are going to bring home to you the enormity of concern your little vacation caused. When I was raising my son, an most compliant happy child, I wondered how I'd survived childhood and not been thrown out with the rubbish...! ONLY 7 WEEKS?! Yikes!!!

Well, I've never done anything like that... Nope, I've never had a hangover, either!

you guys are silly! *grin* i'm kinda like you, marcia, maybe it's a gemini trait. my dad was the despot, mom was next, i was the first-born and fave of the despot and my brother, the baby, my mom's. BUT, i could not do what i wanted or anything. i was obedient and fiercely loyal no matter what. to say that something i did in my last life brought on what happened to me is ludicrous. what could i have done to deserve it? certainly, my soul would never had tried that on anybody. instead, i think God gave that to me but not to hurt me, but rather because i was strong enough to deal with it and to handle it the way i did. He has done nothing but bless me and I am eternally grateful!

I'm a Gemini too...

Amy!!! You, too? When's your Birthday?

May 22--I'm just on the edge of being a Gemini. Did you know there is also a Celtic Astrological chart? I just found that out last week when I was looking for Celtic jewelry. I was born under the sign of Uath, the chalice, which means I have "a flair for the dramatic and a strong sense of self"...go figure!

Mine is May 31, David's is May 14, and you share Olivier's birthday!

Oooh, you need to put that Celtic horoscope thingy on Porch / horoscope!!! Well, Wolfie, I was not cherished by the women in the family and did not appreciate my strict father till I was an adult. I absolutely adored him as a small child and as an adult. What a joy it was to know such an incredibly witty and intelligent man!

I know about sharing Olivier's birthday--isn't it exciting?!?

I guess !!! *big time sigh*

...and I know someone who knew his parents and HIM!!! (attended his father's church as a child, no less!)

Who is Olivier??? I don't like astrology charts. They always say my personality is unstable and lots of other unflattering things. But at least if I am, then so is my sister! ha-ha!

can't remember if we have an astrology topic in here but definitely put up the celtic one, that would be interesting. i'll see what info i can find about the chinese zodiac and get a topic going on that as well.

It certainly is interesting stuff. How ARE you, woman???

Ree, Laurence Olivier was THE pre-eminent actor of the English-speaking world until his death some years ago. He was Knighted by the queen and later made Lord Olivier, Baron of Brighton. Oh my - I have 7 book at least about him - and 2 actually written by him. (He has his own sleeping topic in Drool...Topic 11)

i'm good, dear ree-head! am a bit grumpy though but i'll get over it. haven't looked for the chinese zodiac stuff yet. have had halloween stuff to do. just got back. they'll be trick-or-treating tomorrow night, which i think is a shame.

they'll be trick-or-treating tomorrow night, which i think is a shame. because... 1. you don't get to go, too 2. you have to go, too 3. you'd druther it wasn't Hallowe'en 4. other ... ?

because it's a sunday night, they go to school the next day and i go to work. no time to enjoy trick-or-treating.

I agree--trick-or-treating should be completely enjoyed for as long as possible. I always hated having to be home by a decent hour because I had to got to school the next day!

Yep! The used to change it to Saturday night when it fell on Sunday, here. But, unlike on the Mainland our kiddies stop coming to the door at 8PM sharp. I do not know how they know, but that has happened as long as I have been here! They also do not come to your door if your front porch light is not on.

kids around here could care less if the porch light is on! anyway, i sat outside for an hour and the candy ran out.

How much of it did you eat???!!! ( I never buy candy I don't like to eat!)

ha-ha!!!