Teimladau o ddicter

           As humans we are prone to a variety of different feelings for a variety of different reasons. These could be personal reasons such as stress or your relationship with others, it could even be a simply be hormonal shifts. Emotions motivate what we do sometimes for the better and sometimes the worse. This is one of the reasons why we should be aware of our feelings, and how they motivate our mood and demeanor towards others!
       
            Today I wanted to take some time to talk about feelings of anger and frustration. We all have these feelings at one point and there is nothing wrong with them! It is letting go of these feelings that can be difficult and challenging for many. Anger is one of our most shallow emotions and is one of our most powerful. When people feel anger, they feel simple aggression towards other people, which can make people dehumanize each other. It is so easy to hold on to anger, and so easy to let it hurt us. When you realize that even anger passes and when you try to see the good in people you lose that aggression and turn it into compassion!

Thanks! Noswaith dda!

Gaf i Siarad?

Well today I was thinking about how people interact with people daily! How much does what one person says affect me? How seriously do I actually take other people? I thought, and then I realized that I weigh things on how important I WANT things to be, where as what the person said could be a simple and plain courtesy in their minds. Then I started to think about how much time I spend thinking about myself, how I look, feel, what I think of other people, even just processing what I'm going to say to people, now that was hard to observe! I often think of what I'll say, what I'll do, what I feel, how I look to other people. Then I realized aren't other people way to focused on themselves? asking themselves the same questions? Wondering what other people think is a waste of time, not only because of it's moral compromise, but also because people don't think about a specific person as much as we make them out to. Sure, we all make judgments, but aren't judgments just a quick way to characterize someone? And why would we want to characterize someone, so we can continue to ask those same questions what do I feel, what will I say, what will I do? And in the end aren't answering those for yourself more important then answering those for someone else?

Just a thought :)  

Cariad

Today I thought a lot about how I feel on a day to day basis, what I tell myself and I realized a lot. I personally worry about how moral things I do are, I scold myself for having feelings of lust or vanity and rarer, want! Most of the time I never feel that bad about it but sometimes my own scolding makes me feel kind of bad about myself! And trust me while I want to be good getting myself down is no price to pay.

Otherwise, I expect my last week of summer 2011 to be great, I'm starting to use my daily organizer more so that I will use it when school starts. I finished all my school books and I'm ready to see all of my friends again! I also have a little more time to squeeze some welsh in before I start required Spanish classes which is honestly is making me kind of nervous! Having to learn two languages at once makes me think I may have to give up some welsh but I will try to keep going with it!

I also saw the help this weekend and I thought it was an absolutely amazing movie! The whole premise was great the acting superb and I really had a great laugh and a hard cry at times of it. I warn you if you leave home to see it bring a box of tissues!! Hope you all had a good week and write to you later!

Gwyrdd Te

Okay so most recently I have discovered the magic of this delicious liquid. So I decided I would write a whole article about it! Okay so I have been drinking so much green tea, and at first it kinda made me think why I was drinking so much. I mostly drink cold green tea because I am too lazy to make hot tea all the time and it's just refreshing! I also love to drink Arnold Palmer which if you don't know is a lemonade green tea hybrid which is also very delicious.

So why am I so excited about drinking tea? Well the main reason is that it makes me feel all healthy and special :D. But also because it removes me from things like soda and coffee which both seem to me like unhealthy things. It's mostly the health benefits but it's also all the hype about it. People always talk about how it promotes longevity and all that fancy stuff! even though I don't have to worry about that at 13.

I also like iced tea when it's sweetened enough otherwise it just tastes like really bland slightly flavored water. Black tea is good only hot though I've never heard of cold black tea.
See chai gives me mixed feelings just because I always feel like its more of a treat then something good for me. But I still love the taste. Okay well until I can come up with any more about about tea Nos Da!

Cymru chi rhyfeddod?

Okay so I know I really haven't gone over, at all where the hell Wales is, why I use the language on my blog and why it even matters!

Okay well one explanation is that I'm Welsh myself, only through my heritage, like I've said before I've lived in Phoenix my whole life. I've really started to wonder about my culture a little bit more lately. When I was younger my Mom always said that her side of the family originated in Wales but at that time I always thought of the big fat mammal that roams the sea! When I started writing the blog this month is when I really got interested in the language itself. I thought that by learning it I could maybe build a bridge from a complete lack of understanding of my heritage, to someone who was proud and confident in it! So far it has been a very enlightening experience to learn certain phrases in Welsh, I don't know it almost makes me feel like I have a special link to a part of me, my ancestry.

Part of looking into Welsh culture is also my search for meaning, I mean we all search for meaning in some area of our lives, whether it be our interests or our physical appearance, like my friends amazing fashion blog, the life of Pippa January (check it out if your into that stuff). Anyways I think in my search for meaning I came across my lack of cultural knowledge and decided to fix it. I think I've read six articles on the Welsh language this week alone! I went to a Welsh Music performance yesterday, and I've watched like ten youtube videos on Wales!

One very important part of Wales I have not decided to venture into is of course, ever looming Welsh politics. I have decided to take no part in arguing for or against Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. (unless of course I move to Wales myself!) I mean, I'm already over involved in American politics for my age!

 Okay back to the first question. Were the hell is Wales?

Answer your Question? The blue part of the map outlines Wales, the smallest nation of the United Kingdom, Wales is unfortunately sometimes group with England, although it is most certainly not, containing its own culture, people, and language. The only reason most Welsh people speak English today is because of British conquest in the area, forcing the natives to learn English. Wales had long been its own independent Celtic nation before this time and only had Welsh as its national language. Today all signs in Wales read in both English and of course the native tongue Welsh. Regarded by the natives of the country as Cymru, the language called Cymraeg. The capital of Wales being Cardiff. 

Enough information for you? I thought so. Chi rhyfeddod nag mwy!

Cymraeg! Rydw i Cariad Cymru!

To, taking a little less deep look at life, I went to the Musical Instrument in Phoenix Arizona, to see A performance on Welsh Traditional Music. I went and it was absolutely Amazing! I was so thrilled I went. After the performance I went up to talk to the guy about the instruments, and then I asked him about the Welsh language! I found out that on tuesdays (one of my only free days) I can really start to enhance and use my Welsh! I already know some phrases and grammatical structure, but this will surely help me with conversational Welsh!

Back on the topic of the music, I was thinking I wouldnt like the bagpipes, because they are not really my favorite instrument in the world. The Welsh Bagpipes however were at a reasonable volume, and with less drone pipes it felt much more relaxing. I also got to hear this awesome wooden pennywhistle, that the musician (John  Good look him up!) blew the hell out of! One of my favorite things as well was a form of poetry and music that I just can't remember the Welsh name for. Anyway, I had a great time and I am so excited. Da Rydw i da!

Mae'r Llanw yn Mynd yn

Today was one of the true responses to the killings in Arizona that occurred last weekend. Sarah Palin removed the map on her website that used targets as a marker for house seats that she felt the Republican Party needed. Many of the Local Arizona newspapers are running titles responding to the motivations behind the killings and responding to the responses of people around the world. Titles include pictures of people protesting immigration laws, questioning the validity of our gun laws, and the volatile political climate in Arizona.

Throughout these horrible occurrences I can only hope for change specifically in Arizona. I have lived in Arizona my entire life. I am very young (13 going on 14) but I feel like  this gives me a unique and in depth look at Arizona's culture. As someone who was raised as a primarily democratic liberal, I do not feel like an especially appreciated minority, and the election results would show that most people in Arizona are not in favor of Democrats in government. I hope that all of the negative press aimed at Arizona shows that Arizona may no longer act so politically volatile. We have disrespected each other throughout political races, and we have ignored the rest of the country on policies such as immigration and gun laws.

We must understand that it is our responsibility as a state to act on things as if they affect people in the country and not only people in our state. Just because we are one of the states on the Mexican border we cannot act as the US Department of National Security! It is our job to vote on things that are specific to our state, Immigration is a National affair not a state one.(Remember that these are my opinions that I do see as true, they are debatable) I am very hopeful for Arizona! Hopefully people realize that just because we live in Arizona, it doesn't  mean we can act out of character or in the promotion of any form of violence. I do believe that we do have hope in Arizona and in this country for safe and fair politics!

Hello

This is my first post on my new blog. For those of you who dont know me. My name is Ryan Featherston. I live in Phoenix, Arizona and attend Arizona School for the Arts. I play Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, and piano. I enjoy listening to Celtic Folk, 80's Pop, and Classical music. I am a Unitarian Universalist and I have very Humanist agnostic beliefs. I am very respectful and understanding of opposite beliefs, but I will not stand still in the face of blatant ignorance and hate. I feel like sometimes people miss out on life when they dont pay attention to the beauty of the world around them! I encourage people to explore and cultivate what they believe and hey, maybe I'll learn something from you! I believe that common human discourse and discussion is the only answer to any problem.

I am starting my blog two days after the attempted assassination of House Representative Gabrielle Giffords. This is a great time of tension in our nation and what I feel is a great turning point. People are not respectful of each other in this society, especially in politics. I most certainly do mourn the death of the six shot and hope for the stable recovery of Representative Giffords. Once again these occurrences should not be used for political name calling, but only as a reminder of the consequences of a lack of fair discussion in The United States of America.

A strange point of irony lies in this post. Most of you who may be reading are probably wondering. What does Meddyliau Heddychlon mean? This phrase is Welsh for peaceful thoughts. It seems almost surreal to have a blog named peaceful thoughts in this time. So much tension, hate, and anger roams around the world and yet here there is a small blog called Peaceful Thoughts? One of my strongest thoughts is that an idea can motivate the world. Our problem is that we have to many bad ideas motivating the world! Its that simple right? Well unfortunately not! An idea is a lumbering wall, that spreads quickly and sustains itself. Each idea carrying its little followers named actions. An idea can be graceful or corrupt, sublime, or dramatic each moving in its own way, influencing the minds of many. But Peaceful Thoughts are also an idea, the idea that someday, someway we, together can understand each other and appreciate each other. To always remember that in the darkness lies peaceful thoughts.