Bettina Network's Blog - Table Talk at a Bettina Network Home - Page 28

Describe Sin!

October 13th, 2014

copyright 2014 Bettina Network, inc.

We had an interesting question over breakfast and an even more interesting answer.

The question was – can you describe sin?

The answer was – sin is the lack of empathy no matter how or where it surfaces.  The most common way it surfaces is in racism and sexism, but it is prevalent in all areas of society, anyplace where human beings live and in anything we do and in any way we function.

The conversation went on – what is the most painful experience in the world?

The answer was – lack of empathy.

Why?  – Because we are all connected and someone showing/feeling lack of empathy towards another human being has let go of, cut off that connectedness and experiences moving off into the darkness and un-known-ness of space alone to experience the cold, depression, addiction, extreme loneliness of one cut off from him or herself.

Does everyone experience lack of empathy?

The answer was – yes, at some time or other and in different degrees.

Is there an antidote?

The answer was – yes, but I don’t know what it is.

The question was – how do we know we are experiencing lack of empathy?

The answer was – by the strength of our denial when confronted with our lack of empathy.

It was a very strange and intense conversation and we hope the above captures it to pass its content along.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

GRITS – Creole Style

October 9th, 2014

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2014 – by Marceline Donaldson

I have had several requests for my grits recipe.  Sorry it has taken so long to respond, but I really didn’t want to share this family secret. I have two recipes that I hold close. One is the oyster dressing recipe for Thanksgiving turkey that I have already shared and this one for grits.  It is simple to make, but as a child my day started with grits for breakfast and I have many great breakfast memories that I keep to myself.

1) Use only organic grits.  We use grits from Deaf Smith County and Arrowhead Mills.  Why Deaf Smith County?  The claim is that they are the only place in the United States where you can get food grown in soil which does not have a DDT residue.  I don’t know if that is true or not, but I choose to believe there is at least one place in this country free of all the stuff we poured into our soil poisoning us and the soil.

2)  Put one cup grits into four cups water.  Add one teaspoon Himalayan Salt.  Sometimes I only use 3 1/2 cups water if I want grits with more substance.  Stir with a wire whisk for a couple minutes to make sure you don’t have lumps and then stir occasionally with a large spoon.  The grits can cook over low heat for as long as you want to cook the grits.  The longer, the better, but nothing under 1/2 hour.

3) About ten minutes into the cooking process add four ounces of either a) organic creole cream cheese (preferred), b) organic cream cheese or c) neufchâtel cheese if you want something with less fat.  Put in the cream cheese and after letting it cook with the grits about five to ten minutes, stir until the cream cheese and grits become one.  And no, I am not giving out my recipe for creole cream cheese.

Some people use milk instead of water in their grits, but I find this a bit heavy.  Others drown their grits in butter, but I think this kills the taste of the grits.  You are using grits as a way to eat butter.

Enjoy!

What’s great about these grits – they can be reheated and you can’t tell the freshly cooked grits from the reheated grits.

To reheat.  Put the pot over a very low light and let it simmer until it looks the way it did when it was first cooked.  This will take about 20 minutes or more.

AND ALWAYS – ALWAYS cook your grits in a glass pot.  I keep a large stash of Corning pots.  My sense of security needs lots of Corning pots in all shapes and sizes, especially for stove top cooking when cast iron skillets are not appropriate for the food I am cooking.

Serve it with all kinds of things – creole shrimp; mushrooms cooked in balsamic vinegar; poached eggs served on top of the grits.  You are only limited by your imagination and the part of the country in which you were born and raised.  The classic is grits, ham and eggs.  If you are from the Carolinas and that part of the U. S. you will drool over and want to add red eye gravy.  If you are from New Orleans you will turn your nose up at putting this coffee-based gravy over your grits.  You also can’t serve grits without biscuits.  I have moved to making my biscuits with organic sprouted wheat flour – they are fantastic, although sometimes I just have to go back to biscuits with organic whole wheat flour.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

 

“Do Not Be Afraid”

October 6th, 2014

What follows is a link to a sermon preached on October 5, 2014 in Harvard’s Memorial Chapel by Rev. Jonathan Walton.  It quotes a powerful poem written by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, past president of Morehouse College.  We recommend a quiet space to listen to this very powerful sermon which addresses a lot of what ails us personally and as a society.

http://www.harvardmemorialchurch.org/media/sermon_audio/sermon_10.05.14_walton.mp3

A guest at breakfast quoted this poem in a most powerful way as he tried to sum up the sermon he had just heard.  He was especially moved on hearing the sermon since the poem was one he’d heard many times over his life and one which he committed to memory because he found it so moving.  What he found so moving was the context in which the Rev. Walton used the poem in his sermon.  We thought our guest should turn professional because his delivery added to the profoundness of the poem

 

For you – the poem is reprinted here:

Life Is Just A Minute

Life is just a minute—only sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon you—can’t refuse it.
Didn’t seek it—didn’t choose it.
But it’s up to you to use it.
You must suffer if you lose it.
Give an account if you abuse it.
Just a tiny, little minute,
But eternity is in it!”

By Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, Past President of Morehouse College

Ed Note:  Sorry for all the “powerfuls” in this blog.  Couldn’t find another word to fit.

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Problem Feet

October 1st, 2014

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2014

I read your blog on ‘Old Feet’.  I thought it was great.  I would change your title from “Old Feet’ to “Problem Feet.”  Most women have a problem with their feet, usually caused by the fashion shoes we wear and as the years pass the stress on those feet from the high fashion shoes increases and puts lots of stress on the body.

I tried your exercises and they work wonders.  Combined with the exercises – and I think you may have this someplace else in your blog – I discovered soaking my feet in Organic Apple Cider.  It was a god-send.  I soaked my feet in a pail with 1/2 quart organic apple cider and I could then go dancing in any kind of shoes.  And – I have gotten so accustomed to those feet exercises that I find I do them unconsciously now whenever a few minutes turns up and I have either no stockings on or am waiting for some reason sitting in a chair in some office.  I take my feet out of my shoes and sit there exercising my toes.  (Yes, I am young enough to have jettisoned panti -hose.) The reaction of the people around me was hilarious.  People stare, but I have become immune to caring about what people think.  I have come to realize that we will suffer much to ‘fit in’ and not be considered ‘odd’.  Somehow, I have escaped this and am enjoying my lonely position immensely.

I was exercising my toes and feet without thinking and another woman came over to ask if I didn’t want to put my shoes back on?  Before I could shut my mouth, which had dropped open with her comment/question, a man sitting next to me was taking off his shoes and socks following my example.  Maybe we can change the world – although that woman will probably be the opposition trying to keep things as they are and us with all of our inhibitions.  It feels so great to get rid of even one and realize you are not alone, but others around are just waiting to follow your lead.

After soaking my feet for at least 1/2 hour, not only did my feet feel great, but the rest of me had energy for several days.  It was magical the way my feet responded to that Organic Apple Cider Vinegar.  I also use it as a softener for my clothes.  So I put in a load of clothes, added the organic apple cider vinegar to the softening cycle, put the rest of the quart bottle of apple cider vinegar in a pail of very warm water, sat back with Egbert Tolle’s book and enjoyed a fantastic morning and was more than ready for the afternoon’s activities.  And NO! You cannot substitute White Vinegar.  It is a coal tar derivative or some such thing and not a substitute for anything.  I don’t even use White Vinegar to clean my house.  Only Organic Apple Cider Vinegar does the job.

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Balm in Gilead

August 24th, 2014

copyright Bettina Networi, inc. 2014

Who would have expected different guests, not previously known to one another,  pick up and read Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot’s book “Balm In Gilead” during their stay in a Bettina Home.

All of our homes have large quantities of books.  Host families generally buy them at Estate Sales for very little money so they are able to offer great reading materials to and  encourage guests to take a book home with them if they are in the process of reading it and would like to finish the book.

We have such responsible guests that they do take books home and when they return, they bring new books they have purchased the same way, giving them to the host family for other guests to discover.  What a lovely interlude!

Lightfoot’s book brought some wonderful reminiscences by the guests.  The first days conversation, one woman shared the book with the other guests and on the second day, all contributed because they found the book in their rooms and read it.  It was an unexpected gift for me because I knew the family and the southern United States that was under discussion.

Mostly, the book caused the women (no men present) to go over their history rather than critique the book.

One critique, however, was what one woman felt as the author’s anti-southern bias, which she said permeated the book.  It talked of relatives going South as a ‘missionary field’ to raise the educational standards of the poor Blacks in the South.  That caused a discussion of great emotion since racially the women at breakfast were a mixed group and all but one from the north.  That left the poor lone Southerner with only me as back-up and sometimes I can’t be trusted to be loyal.

The truth of life among Blacks in the South is very seldom portrayed accurately.  Just like those who most profited from slavery is often skewered with slavery’s  Northern interests very seldom revealed.

The Northern women – both Black and White – understood the books bias and didn’t see it as a bias, but as fact.  One small part of “Balm in Gilead” describes Margaret and Charles Lawrence, with their very substantial education at top schools not able to find a job in the north and so consequently going south to Fisk and Meharry.  The author (their daughter) didn’t seem to know why or rather described the Lawrences as not knowing why.  What most Southern Blacks would understand is that -in the day – when you had that top rated education you went South for a job because you were not hired in the North.  Black millionaires and other very financially substantial African Americans were Black Southerners or Black Northerners transplanted to the South because they had no place else to thrive.

A veery famous Black New England family moved to Alabama from Boston and worked there in substantial jobs until retirement when they returned to New England and took up their Yankee existence without missing a beat.  They moved to Alabama because even with a Harvard Doctorate there were no jobs for them in the North.

There was much talk about “Victory over trauma” – which was portrayed as one way African Americans can survive this society almost intact.  “Trauma and strength.”

One particular quote, read to us by one of the women was very poignant.  “In order to survive one must confront the deep wound, experience the knifelike pain, move through the zombielike period of ‘depersonalization’ speak about the event, act it out, cry over it, stomp on it and finally emerge from it – usually with a scar.”

“One must transcend.  Pain must not be the victor.”

In part of the conversation about Black Anger – “Anger nurtures until you can find more suitable vehicles out of which to act and to love.”

Black male sexism – “He did not denigrate my path, but he blocked it.”

“My mother gave me away to my grandmother.”  Since I was raised by my grandmother, when they gave that quote from the book as a way of describing the phenomena of grandparents raising their grandchildren tears flowed from a couple of us.

There was so much more.  To get the entire story you must read the book.  We recommend it heartily.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Making Old Feet New Again!

July 25th, 2014

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2014

I love breakfast in a Bettina Home.  No matter how horrible I feel arriving, I leave refreshed.

The last breakfast from my most recent stay was great!  The food is always good, but the conversation unbelievable.  I am going home to work on my feet so I can wear high heels again.  I have a closet full of shoes, which are sitting idly on the floor collecting dust and drying out because it hurts so badly to wear them.  The shoes I can wear are so ugly they ruin every outfit I put on.

Would you believe old women at breakfast having a hilariously good time about a conversation over feet?

One woman, who was 80 years old if she was a day, had on these really elegant shoes with high heels in which she was going to spend the day.  I advised her to take another pair with her in a bag of some kind because she was going to be finished for the day before she reached her car.  She just looked at me shaking her head.

The next morning we were all back around the table and I was packed and ready to go.  Before leaving, however, I wanted to know how her day went since she was back at the table in another pair of really fantastic shoes – high heels, of course.  She said her day went just fine, like all her days and suggested I learn to deal with my feet if I wanted to get back into something other than the slip slops I had on.  Expensive flip flops, but no support, no heels and comfortable as could be.

She took off her shoes and her panty hose, as we all howled with laughter, and we went through her exercise regime.  We all shed our shoes, but she was the only one wearing panty hose.  She said she wears them for the girdle effect she gets from the panty part – doesn’t want her tummy to ‘pout’.  We had on ankle length stockings or knee hi’s under pants.  She was clearly from a generation that dressed to the nine’s and she still did with a great figure, beautiful hair and my jealousy is really showing since I am about 20 years younger than she is – at least – and she looks younger.

I really don’t exercise any part of my body – especially my feet.  Who would think of foot exercises as being relevant or doing the body any good?  My bias is showing, but really, I have enough trouble keeping my energy level up to just getting up in the mornings, let alone complicating my life with exercise.

This woman exercises her feet before going to bed at night and before getting up in the mornings.  She widens her toes as far as possible  – spread them open like a fan – and closes them while she watches television or reads.  She also makes circles with her feet going clock-wise and then counter clock -wise moving her feet in these circles from the ankle and sometimes she does the spread-the-toes with both feet at the same time and the circles with both feet at the same time.

We were sitting around the table exercising our feet making sure we got it right.  Unreal!  Must be losing it because I was very avid about doing this and intend to go home and take up this exercise every night and morning.  Nice that I can do these exercises before getting out of bed in the mornings.  Maybe that will help me be diligent about it.

Before I showed up at a Bettina Home I was a little depressed about my feet becoming so old and stiff,  limiting my shoe wearing possibilities. ,  so this did cheer me up a little bit!  I wanted to take pictures, but the women were adamant they didn’t want their feet showing up in  pictures anyplace – so respecting that – and you certainly aren’t going to see my naked feet in pictures, you will have to imagine the scene.

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

 

Eggs and Lime

July 23rd, 2014

copyright 2014 Bettina Network, inc.

We made a wonderful discovery at breakfast – and we have to thank a guest from Mexico for the new information.

Breakfast consisted of soft-boiled eggs in egg cups, which is one of our favorite breakfasts.  Our guest remarked that she loved soft-boiled eggs for breakfast, but was accustomed to eating them with a bit of lime juice.  My stomach wrenched.  I could not fathom putting lime juice in a soft-boiled egg.

Fortunately, we had organic limes in the refrigerator so we brought them out and watched.

She cut the lime into four pieces, then  cut off the top of her egg.   Before putting in her spoon to eat the egg, she squeezed the 1/4 piece of lime into the top of the egg with a little salt and enjoyed her breakfast immensely. What came to mind as I watched was Margaritas.

We decided we would have to be polite and follow suit.  I was prepared to have to push down the eggs while trying to smile at this inconceivable new taste combination.   I could not conceive it as being anything but really horrible – at best, something for which you would have to acquire a taste.  It is one thing to have been raised on this taste combination, quite another to have it sprung on you brand new at breakfast, the time of morning when your stomach cannot handle many new taste sensations.

Imagine my surprise when I had my first spoonful of the egg, doused in lime juice, and it was fantastic.  I don’t think I will ever have soft-boiled eggs again without lime juice.  It lightened the taste of the egg considerably and gave it a light, exceptional taste which even topped the fact that the eggs were already great because they were organic, super large eggs.

From here on, you will find organic limes on the table whenever we serve soft-boiled eggs!!!

Is this how cultures pass information from one to another in today’s very mobile society?  May it continue and accelerate – bring on the next new taste sensation!!!

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

A Great Job Possibility

July 15th, 2014

Follow the link below and it describes the job at Trinity Church Copley Square in Boston. A possible career path which should be interesting, stretch your boundaries, fun, challenging and life changing.

http://www.diomass.org/jobs/trinity-church-city-boston-boston/senior-parish-administrator

Trinity Church is a thriving Christian community in the heart of Boston’s Back Bay, and a member parish of the American Episcopal Church. Housed in a grand and historic building consistently ranked as one of America’s most significant architectural landmarks, we are also a parish family drawing members from Boston and much of eastern Massachusetts. In our common worship and shared ministries we seek to encounter the holy together and stand as a visible witness of God’s love for the world. Trinity’s operating budget is approximately $5.7 million, and its foundation for outreach and social justice has an operating budget of $2.5 million. Some significant statistics about the church indicate the scope of operations: average Sunday attendance at worship is approximately 900; approximately 850 households make annual pledges; 70,000 people visit the building annually as tourists; there are five ordained clergy, and 61 staff members of the church, and another 21 employees of the foundation (which has its own management, human resources, operations, and development staff.)

The Senior Parish Administrator is a new position, designated as temporary for a two-year term, with possible conversion to permanent status being mutually determined prior to the conclusion of the term. Reporting directly to the Rector, the Senior Parish Administrator will be responsible for enhancing the internal organization processes and infrastructure that will allow Trinity Church to continue to grow and fulfill its mission. The Senior Parish Administrator will be a peer to and serve on the senior leadership team of the church, which includes the clergy, the director of communications and the executive director of the Trinity Boston Foundation. The Senior Parish Administrator will also have three direct reports, the Director of Finance and Human Resources, the Director of Stewardship, and the Director of Facilities and ten indirect reports.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  1. Strategic Implementation: Although the Rector and the Senior Leadership Team together shape the strategic direction of the church, the Senior Parish Administrator will support and hold the team accountable for implementation. This includes assisting with management of weekly meetings, quarterly goal-setting process, and semi-annual calendaring sessions. Working with the Director of Finance and Human Resources, manage the annual budgeting process so that all budget recommendations align with organizational strategy and priorities.
  2. Human Resources: Working with the Director of Finance and Human Resources, manage and oversee recruitment, hiring and compensation, benefits administration and oversight, professional training and development including new employee orientation, retention strategies, regulatory oversight and legal compliance, personnel policies and annual review processes. Build and support staff culture and connection with regular meetings and communication including crisis management.
  3. Finance: Working with the Director of Finance and Human Resources, provide financial oversight and monitoring of business policies and accounting practices, reporting and analysis. The Senior Parish Administrator will pay particular attention to the financial implications of an upcoming capital campaign and building renovation projects.
  4. Fundraising and Capital Campaign: Working with the Director of Stewardship and the Rector, ensure that policies and protocols are in place and are adhered to as the church undertakes both its regular annual fundraising and a major capital campaign. Ensure strong communication and collaboration among finance, facilities and stewardship teams throughout the campaign.
  5. Infrastructure: Working with the Director of Facilities and the Clergy, oversee the care, management and use of Trinity’s three buildings by internal and external groups to assure compliance with applicable regulations and with church program priorities. Ensure strong oversight and inter-office and inter-vendor communications during building renovation projects. In addition, working with the Directors of Facilities and Finance, ensure that the church’s information technology, telecommunications and data management systems are adequate for the staff to perform its work expediently and securely, particularly in the areas of finance, membership, and program planning.

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Trinity Church seeks a mission-driven administrator with 7+ years of experience. The successful candidate will have demonstrated experience in managing projects and teams, with strict attention to detail and deadlines; outstanding interpersonal and communication skills; a high degree of self-reliance and initiative; an analytical mind; the ability to create and manage to a budget, including P&L analysis; experience leading an organization through periods of significant growth preferred, as is experience in management of non-profit and/or church organizations. Proficiency in Microsoft Office is required and strong Excel skills preferred. A Bachelor’s degree is required; an MBA or MPA is preferred.

How to apply

To submit your application, please visit this link:

http://fs30.formsite.com/TrinityChurch/form3/index.html

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. No phone calls or hard copies, please.

Location

206 Clarendon Street, Copley Square, Boston, MA, 02116, US

Details

Application deadline
July 20, 2014
Education requirements
Employment type
Full time
Professional level
Managerial
Job function
Owner’s areas of focus

Please pass this along to whoever you know who might be interested and qualified.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

BN Foundation’s Mission Statement

July 7th, 2014

copyright Bettina Network Foundation 2014

501(c)3 status applied for

We have developed and are expanding Bettina Network’s Foundation. As it moves along we would like to share what we are doing with you.

While trying to define what it is we are doing – we came up with a mission statement which will guide all of our efforts.  We have reproduced it below for your information, feedback, comments, criticisms.

“The Bettina Network Foundation is about helping people to restructure and re-frame their lives and their thinking using various avenues and tools to get that accomplished.” 

TRAINING/EDUCATION  –  HOUSING  –  JOBS

Join Us.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

French Pancakes Breakfast

July 3rd, 2014

I know which house served those ‘pancakes’.  They are really a different take on New Orleans’ favorite dish – bananas foster.  All you left out was bringing the crepe wrapped bananas to the table in a flaming dish.  Now that would be something to see.  The next time I show up at your house will you make that breakfast?

From Host Family: – NO!

Well, maybe!

Possibly!

If you don’t tell which house I will make the crepes for you.  They are really good!  Hadn’t made the connection.  I guess we have our past in our heads and hearts and it comes out in the strangest ways. Thanks!

Ed Note:  For those of you who did not read that blog check out Bettina’s Cookbook and scroll through to the breakfast featuring French Pancakes.  They are not to be missed.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

 

How Exciting is This!!!!!

June 24th, 2014

Sometimes life gives you lemons, sugar and beautifully clear water all at the same time and all mixed together ready for you to drink.

That is how we feel this morning in Bettina Networks little community.

Why?

Something very small, but very important in the way we live and are with each other.

At the end of a Bettina estate sale, everything left goes to the Bettina Network Foundation and we look for those who are in need and work with them to help them establish a better, more productive lifestyle.  We prefer helping those who are recently homeless, because they have the greater need.

Well, one such person established a new policy with these sales.  It is called “When you are given something, give back.”  No matter how little you have you can always find a way to give to others.

One young woman, in difficult circumstances, was given a dining room table and chairs from one of our sales – something that didn’t sell.  She called the person from Bettina’s who gave her the gift and said “I would like to help on your next sale.”  And help she did.  She didn’t help in the actual sale, she helped during those evening hours after the sale when we pack and move what is left to clean out the house and leave it ‘broom clean’ for the next inhabitants.

We couldn’t have finished our last sale without her help.  What she did was to make it possible for someone else to receive a gift as she had and to make sure the gifts could continue to be given because we were fulfilling our obligations to those who were ultimately providing these gifts.

At the end of her work evening – and she worked unbelievably hard – she decided she wanted to join our small band permanently.  She liked what we did – the way we were with each other – and felt she had a lot to contribute.

She also wholeheartedly joined the rest of us who do this work for the benefits of weight loss and the exercise it provides.  We don’t have to join a gym to work out we have our own calisthenics and weight loss machines to help us reduce fat and move it around the body from one place to another:)   I won’t give her name.  You will see her around Bettina Network activities and hope you will reach out to embrace another human being who has decided it is time for all of us to look out for each other – without agendas.

We all need to give back.  No matter how independent we think we are and no matter how strongly we consider ourselves ‘self-made’.

Sometimes, we just don’t know how to give back or to who.   Well, Bettina Network Foundation is providing a way for you to do that.  Join us and help us to help more people get their lives on a new footing.  We are lawyers, doctors, management, sales people, bankers, therapists, psychiatrists and the very young learning to live in a way that we thrive realizing and committing ourselves to make sure that others thrive also.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Another Bettina Moving Sale

June 20th, 2014

COME AND SPEND THE SUMMER SOLSTICE WITH US.

Saturday, June 21, 2014 is the day.  From 10am-4pm is the time.  And if you miss that we will do it again on Sunday, June 22 from 3-5pm.

We would love to add pictures, but the ones we have are larger than the 2MB limit Word Press allows so if you would like to see more go to

www.estatesales.net/estate-sales/MA/Waltham/02452/661158

The address:  24 Mallard Way – Waltham, MA. 02452.  Look for the flag blowing in the wind.  That is where we will be.  Come by to say hello; to look around; and to buy something you can’t do without.

Instead of going to the mall, come and spend your money with us.  We take American Express, MasterCard, Visa, Discover Cards – what more could you want?

What will you find?

Oriental Rugs – room size and scatter rugs; dining room table and chairs; lots of miscellaneous in very good condition – they have been well cared for; interesting collectibles; clothes; very large cabinet for your very large television set as well as other technical-electronic pieces; sheet music from popular songs of years ago, Schirmer Publishing collections, Organ music, xerox copies of special arrangements; pocketbooks and sportsbags; silver serving pieces; pots and pans – some brand new still in the box and more.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Bettina Network Foundation

June 19th, 2014

We are working with an attorney to finalize the Bettina Network Foundation and to shepherd it through a 501(c)3 filing.

If you have asked Bettina Network to manage your Estate Sale, or Moving Sale or Scattering Sale or Antique Sale you know there are two parts to the sale and when it is over everything left is handled by Bettina Network as we work towards leaving the house “Broom Clean” because either it has been sold; the people have deceased and this is one step in the process of settling an estate or etc.

What happens to those ‘left overs’.

That is one of the exciting parts of the sale.  At the end of the sale Bettina Network takes everything left and oversees those items getting directly to people who are newly in a home from homelessness.  We make sure all of the items go to help furnish the new home of someone or several someones who need all of the things which make life comfortable.

That is a very important step for those leaving a life of living on the street to living in an apartment or other kind of home.  They need everything and we try to help provide that by working with those who have vetted people to whom we give the items left over from a sale.

Hopefully, when our 501(c)3 comes through we will be able to give a receipt to the people who have given us their items left over from a sale, which they can include in their federal tax return as a deduction.

There are those who have reached the status of “Gold” members of Bettina Network Foundation  because of what they have given and the spirit in which they have given to others.

To know more about what we do to give back – click on the Foundation link on the Bettina Network web site.  It is in the process of being updated, but should contain more information shortly.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

Weight Loss – Works for Me!

June 15th, 2014

Hi folks,

Someplace on your blog I found something which talked about weight loss and the power of lemons and water.  Don’t know where and I can’t find it, but I wanted to write to let you know this is working for me beautifully.

I have been taking one lemon (organic, of course) in a cup of very warm water.  I do this before I eat and I find it cuts my appetite and I am not hungry.

To keep this going I have a string bag I carry around with me with my lemons.  Going to a restaurant I squeeze my lemon into a cup and ask for a pot of hot water so I can pour the water into the cup.

When going to meetings and they serve those horrible cold cuts and bread that makes you want to throw-up, I squeeze my lemon into a glass and if they don’t have hot water I put in cold water and drink that.

Always a lemon in a glass or cup of water and I am set to go.  Not only have I lost weight, but I look great and my energy level has increased dramatically.  I don’t know if my energy level increase has come from the lemon in water or the weight loss, but for whichever one I am grateful.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Bettina Network Estate Sales

June 10th, 2014

I had to send in this blog and hope you will publish it.  I really had second thoughts about sending it because I don’t want too many people to know what I have discovered – don’t like the competition, but you have an openness that I have seldom found in this world so  I will depend upon your wisdom because of the many benefits I am receiving from being a part of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

We recently asked you to manage our parents’ estate sale because we have inherited a houseful of furnishings and I thought you would be the best person for the job.  When we asked you I was a little taken aback by your ending requirement that what is left over after the sale be given away, first to those who are members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community and then to those who purchased at the sale.  My natural instinct is to want all of what is mine and give away very little to others.  In addition, I want others to give to me.  I don’t know how else to put it.  That makes me sound pretty bad,  but it is true and clearly my sentiment is shared by many.

My wife and I talked about this and we realized that we have benefited from your ‘give away’ policy.  There are several items we needed to furnish our apartment when we had very little.  I went to one of your sales with $5 to spend looking for a birthday present for my wife.  I bought a pocketbook.  You wrapped it beautifully in the wrapping paper that you gave me and my wife was delighted.  More recently, we wanted a microwave.  When we received the invitation to come back for the free part of your sale, there was a microwave and we brought it home.  That is when we realized the genius of what you are doing and we want to be a part of your business so I called this morning to ask you to take on the management of our estate sale for my deceased parents and whatever is left over at the end of the sale we will gladly give to whoever comes along who needs or wants some of those items that did not sell.  At first, we wanted to limit you to only giving away small items and you would not accept the sale under those circumstances.  We realized we would not have our microwave oven if that were the case so yes, we want you to go ahead under your terms and just drag us along albeit kicking and screaming all the way.

We were also at your sale when a couple came along looking at the rosary beads you had on the table with other things for sale.  They were not priced.  When the woman eyed the rosaries, picked up one and asked for the price we were floored when you said you would not sell a rosary, but she was welcome to accept it as a gift from the owner.

What do I know now?  I will be more giving and I know when I need something I will look for one of your sales, bring my Bettina password and just maybe there will be what I need waiting for me when my money is short and my need is large.  It takes a lot to survive this life to the end.  It takes even more to thrive.  With a little help from my friends I will get through.  I certainly didn’t expect genuine help to come from a commercial business.

I think I will just hang-out at your next sale.  I loved those moments.  Keep up the good work and may God bless what you are doing.

A fan and now a follower – Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ed. Note:  We removed the persons name because we are hyper about privacy and would like to respect the privacy of others.

Thank you very much for those kind words.  It is nice to know someone gets what we are doing and not only approves, but enjoys the process.  We will do our best to continue to earn your respect and will work very hard for you with the distribution of your parents lifetime collections.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

We Invite You to Another Bettina Moving Sale

June 8th, 2014

-3Sunday, June 8, 2014 from 3pm to 5pm AT:

19 Maura Drive

Woburn, MA. 01801

You will find furniture, crystal, microwave, washer, dryer, books, clothes, shoes, pocketbooks, and all the miscellaneous you need to better equip your home for comfortable living.  Some are very unusual – some traditional – all in immaculate condition.  You could take the dishes home and eat off of them the house and its contents have been so completely and cleanly kept.

Of course, with this sale – as with any sale –  it is a bit disorganized as we empty closets, drawers and the basement.

Come and help us clean out the house so this move can happen in a quick, comfortable and, of course, elegant way.

No reasonable offer refused AND there are special deals for members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.  Please identify yourselves and come bringing bags, paper and whatever else you will need to carry away your purchases.

This is your opportunity to become a part of this Lifestyle Community – simply by purchasing and asking that your name be added to the membership list.  The membership roles are not open very often, but sometimes, in special circumstances we do add new members.

-1

Mirror with two sconces

Two Antique Rocking Chairs, 10 x 14 foot Oriental-style rug

Two Antique Rocking Chairs, 10 x 14 foot Oriental-style rug

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Food and Pharma Connected?

June 1st, 2014

copyright 2014 Bettina Network, inc.

We had another one of those breakfasts and we are all still reeling, having put different backgrounds, experience, education, parts of the world together we came up with a startling conclusion:

The discussion centered around Bettina Network’s attempt to keep Bettina Homes as organic as possible – in cleaning, food, and everything else.  We don’t succeed 100%, but it is a constant effort and we think we do a pretty good job – considering all the outside negative influences that press in on us to go in a different direction.

One person brought up the chemicals – especially Potassium Nitrate – in most of the foods being processed and wanted to know more about it.  Another person piped up with the fact that Potassium Nitrate, when he was a boy, was called ‘Salt Peter’ and some private schools used it in the food to keep the young men toned down a bit sexually.  Well, that wasn’t new.  It was something we all had heard from time to time and we all knew the affect “Salt Peter’ has on the body.

Another came up with the connection between the processed food industry and big pharma.  The processed food industry was putting ‘salt peter’ into our food supply to give the foods they process a longer shelf life.  In the meantime, that was dumbing down and destroying the sexual performance ability of many – especially males – since that is what salt peter is supposed to do.

Enter Big Pharma with their development of the block buster drug for men called ‘Viagra” and other names.  Each company which produces it has its own name.

What a pass through.  The food industry creates the dysfunction – big pharma develops and sells the drug to address the dysfunction.  No wonder so much money is going out of the pocket of the middle class into the pockets of both the food industry and the pharmaceutical companies.

Our question was – what else has such a symbiotic relationship?  Was this a deliberate collaboration or accidental?  Some didn’t believe in accidents like this?  Others weren’t so sure! Others felt we needed to step back and take a look to see how we could expose this early on before fortunes were made, peoples health negatively affected for profit, etc.

There wasn’t enough time over breakfast to solve the problem, but we certainly left with something to think about!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Sterling and Company

May 5th, 2014

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2014

We should not be amazed when such things happen, but we always claim to be no matter how often we have to act outraged – as though this was an unusual happening for us in these United States.

We are especially outraged if this happens in the north – most particularly if it happens in those ‘race free’ zones called New England and/or California.  This kind of thing is only expected if it happens in the deep South.  But it seems to me this happens much more often in these ‘race free’ zones.

I’m sure you would expect that there would be a fairly heated discussion over breakfast in one or more of the Bettina Homes.  And not to disappoint here is a bit of a summary of a couple breakfasts merged into one blog.

The consensus was the outrage that was felt over the NAACP’s singling out Sterling for a second Lifetime Achievement Award.  We thought those awards were given to those who worked to eliminate racism, not to those who worked to make sure it was intensified and the old Jim Crow culture maintained.  We must have been mistaken because clearly the NAACP is doing its best to award those who have done a great deal to keep separate and unequal alive and well and functioning in this society.  Maybe it is afraid its mandate will leave and the organization will have to dismantle itself if society acts otherwise and we move into a space where minorities and women are free and equal.

Most folks at breakfast were upset that this happened at all.  Most blamed the entire NAACP organization not just the Los Angeles group because the National Office could have stepped in and done something to bring sanity back to the LA chapter before the award business went as far as it did, but that national office did nothing until all of this news broke and all were totally embarrassed.

It was interesting that one man took the blame for the entire NAACP organization and stepped down.  However, that did not satisfy those in these Bettina Breakfast conversations.  Its like a large corporation having its CEO step down for something that permeated the institutional structure and for which many have blame.  We think these kind of actions have permeated the entire structure of the NAACP and more than this one man stepping down needs to be done to make things right.

The conflicts and contradictions in this event were clearly outlined and sometimes, during breakfast,  caused a bit of hilarity, because clearly without a good sense of humor we would all be insane over such events.

Sterling, being Jewish and clearly of an age where the holocaust would not be foreign to him was one of the conflicts and contradiitons outlined and talked about.  Having a young woman who described Sterling as being a “father figure” to her – with the young woman being part African American and part Latina was another very tragic conflict and contradiciton.  The Clippers being an organization supported by thousands even after the United States Department of Justice stepped in; even after one of their own sued because of the ‘plantation’ environment of the Clippers and on and on and on, makes a very strong statement about the lack of sincerity towards the elimination of racism and sexism within the U. S. Society by its own citizens.  Does being a sports team allow such to fester for so long a period of time complete with awards from Civil Rights organizations to justify and cover-up the muck of the racism and the sexism being so blatantly and publicly practiced?

This was not new to anyone, and Sterling’s attitudes were widely known and had been addressed by several of our organizations, yet nothing was done about it and all of the many organizational structures in place which should have ferreted this out long before the sore ruptured and the pus poured out on society did nothing – the MEDIA? – the COURT SYSTEM? – the CIVIL RIGHTS groups? – the JOHN AND JANE Q public who knew about all of this but still bought tickets to Clipper Games? – the CLIPPER MANAGEMENT TEAM? –  THE TEAMS THEY PLAYED …………….and many more.

Since this was brought through our Court System and still was given the go ahead to continue on the path of this extreme racism and sexism it calls into question what we like to parade out as an oft touted structure praised as the keystone of our country’s greatness the  “Rule of Law”.

Our Conclusions!!!  The United States is very comfortable with people like Sterling.  Its just that we don’t want them ‘outed’ because then we have to react in a way which violates our history and brings up for the whole world to see,  a reminder of from whence we try to tell people we have come and are no more.  Our public story is that we have moved away from slavery of Africans, we have moved away from the Jim Crow society which once thrived in the United States, we have moved away from taking away from minorities their rights supposedly guaranteed to them by the U. S. Constitution and other laws,we have moved away from discriminating against women.

But have we really or have we simply changed the way we discriminate – changed how our racism and sexism is expressed – changed how the oppression we dump on the minorities and women in our midst is acted out – and most of all (the biggy), changed how we engage in denial of everything so we can continue the practice.

We really aren’t that put out  as long as we can continue the actions; as long as we can continue being a racist, sexist society.

How does sexism fit into this scenario?  What is more symbolic of the pain experienced by and the convoluted ways we have of inflicting sexism than the experience of the young woman – Black and Latina – who sees someone with the views and practices of Sterling – as a father figure.  What more pain could one internalize and survive!  How twisted does one’s life have to be to find that not only acceptable, but feel that is a great way to live and a great role model of fatherhood! This whole business is sick and what it says about all of us is not pretty.

However, it did make great breakfast conversation.  And, as one woman said, at one breakfast – ‘what a relief to be able to talk about something like this without worrying about ‘political correctness.’  She felt freed up and was going to take back with her an independence of acting and thinking in the areas of sexism and racism with which she would approach the subject.  Mostly, her experience was a validation of herself as a fully thinking and properly acting human being who was not going to be intimidated in her views on the subjects and would express them more clearly and act on her thoughts and beliefs.  We hope that is a good thing!

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

 

Another Great Breakfast!

April 23rd, 2014

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2014

It gets to be a challenge to come up with fantastic ideas for breakfast 365 days of the year.

So far, sometimes, in the process of coming up with new, different and fantastic ways to start the day for our guests, we  manage to outdo ourselves and others.  This latest breakfast is one of those times.

MENU

Fruit  and, of course, Juice

Orange Juice

Ripe, Organic, Mangoes – sliced with organic strawberries and blackberries

 

Main Dish

Organic Grits

Mushrooms

Biscuits (Homemade)

 

Ending With

Beignets

Organic Coffee made in a French Press; organic Tea – try hibiscus or hawthorn berries or Tulsi; Warm Milk with Cinnamon; or Warm Lemon Juice in water with Organic Turbinado Sugar to taste – the guests choice.

 

PROCESS

1) Using organic frozen orange concentrate – put one container in a large pitcher and add three containers of filtered water.  Put the juice of one or two organic oranges with the frozen juice.  Let this sit in the refrigerator while you continue breakfast.  Don’t stir the mixture until you are ready to serve. and don’t take it out of the refrigerator to serve until guests are seated.  Nothing worse than juices in the morning on the way to becoming room temperature.

2) Start the organic yellow corn grits.  The amount you use depends upon the number of people you are feeding.    We use one cup grits to three cups water.  If you want something really different, put frozen whole organic corn into the grits as they cook.  Not everyone likes this, but we think it is fantastic.

Put your grits mixture in a glass Corning pot with a glass cover on top, bring to a boil and let it simmer for about one hour or until the grits is the right consistency – which means, not too watery and not too clumped together, but just right.  It can actually simmer until you are ready to serve it even if this is longer than an hour. Great grits cook for a very long time.  No quick cooking, processed grits should come near your breakfast table.  You are trying to nourish your guests in the morning – not fatten them and processed, quick cooking, etc. is meant to make the processing company rich by making their grits able to sit on the grocery shelf for years until it is sold – not to make you and your guests healthy.

Occasionally stir the grits with a wooden spoon to keep the consistency smooth and great.

3) Make the fruit for cups by slicing the mangoes – ignore the pit,  peel the mango with a small sharp knife, and slice it lengthwise all around the pit until you have reached the pit and can’t slice anymore.  Use as many as you need to make a nice fruit cup.  We’ve heard lots of complaints about slicing mangoes – don’t fight it.  Go with the mango – slice it lengthwise around the pit, don’t try to take the pit out and then slice the mano – it is not an avocado, it has its own way of being used.

Rinse the strawberries, take out the green top and slice into two pieces. Put the strawberries in the bowl with the Mangoes.

Rinse the black berries and put them in the bowl with the strawberries and mango slices.

You can use any fruit to make this fruit cup.  Think of the nutritional value of the fruit you are combining – the colors and how well they look together – and how the combination taste together.  Serve the fruit in a beautiful bowl – nicely mixed – so guests can put the fruit into their fruit cups in the amount they want to eat.

It is nice to serve  fruit cups by putting them filled with fruit at each place, but much nicer to give guests the freedom to help themselves with however much they would like.

4)  Once guests are served with their fruit cups, you can now pay attention to the star of this breakfast – the mushrooms.

Best made with organic portabello mushrooms because of their size and how nice they look sliced lengthwise.

Lightly rinse and take any dirt or other debris off the mushrooms

Slice them the longway so you have nice long and fairly thick slices

Put butter in an iron fry pot and when it melts, put the sliced mushrooms into the pot.

Add himalayan salt, a touch of cayenne pepper, and a barbecue sauce – either one you make or your favorite kind found wherever you buy such.  Trader Joe’s has an “All Natural” sauce which is very good.  We don’t like the fact that it is not organic and they try my last nerve by making this “All Natural” claim and expect that to pacify me, but until I can find a great organic barbecue sauce or learn to keep a large jar of such sauce that I make in the refrigerator for just such instances, well… what can I say.

Pour the sauce over the mushrooms and add an equal amount – at least –  of water.

Let the mushrooms saute for five minutes or so and take the top off the fry pan.

These mushrooms are best when the sauce has boiled off and they are left glazed with the sauce and seasonings.

Serve these in a very elegant flat bowl to go along with the grits.  Guests can put their mushrooms over their grits or they can put them on the side of the grits and eat them together – a little grits and mushrooms on the same fork because they do go together fantastically well.

You could serve the mushrooms before the sauce cooks out  if you are a person who likes a bit of gravy with your grits.

Either way they are awesome and a great breakfast which wakes up your metabolism and makes sure your food is used and turned into energy as the day progresses.

5)  Homemade biscuits are a great bread to go with this because if you keep the gravy with the grits you can sop up what remains with these biscuits.

To make these biscuits takes about ten minutes, if that long.

Put 2 cups flour (organic whole wheat flour) – in a food processor with one teaspoon himalayan salt, a touch of cayenne pepper, a teaspoon baking powder.

Let this whirl around the processor for a minute or so.

Add one stick butter and let this whirl until you have what looks like little peas – That should take another minute or two.

Then add 2/3 cup organic milk – or organic heavy cream, and not the ultra-pasteurized kind .  It is bad enough you have to use that awful pasteurized milk, Puleeze don’t ruin these biscuits with the ultra-pasteurized milks.  The only thing ultra-pasteurized does – and not for you – is to make their shelf life extend into eternity.  Ultra-pasteurized has less of everything – less nutrition, less taste, less texture – more convenience for the processing company and more time it can stay on the shelf.

Take a wad of biscuit dough from the processor, roll it around in your hand very gently and put it on a buttered baking dish.  Being careful you don’t squash the biscuit.  Lightness is the code word as you make biscuits. Take other wads of dough all about the same size so they cook and are done together – until you have used all of your dough.

Bake at about 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

6)  After the main meal, serve all of this with Beignets – old fashioned beignets, not the kind you get today in New Orleans where they are now served under a box of powdered sugar.  Meant to make sure you think they are fantastic because you won’t be able to taste the beignets only the sugar – and we know sugar doesn’t taste, it only gives us a sweet sensation and lots of health problems.

The recipe for the beignets – another time.  I am not ready to give up all my secrets in one blog.

7)  Breakfast drinks.

We have found to add a cup of warm milk with a teaspoon of organic Ceylon Cinnamon is a nice alternative to coffee or tea.  With Organic Ceylon Cinnamons’ reputation for helping to control diabetes, that is a nice way for some of your guests to start the day.

Another drink you can offer is a lemon – squeezed – with enough hot water added to fill a cup and organic turbinado sugar to taste or organic honey or organic maple syrup.  Bettina’s Breakfast drinks.

The lemon and water helps to give your body an alkaline environment in spite of the acid in the lemon.  It changes in the body to produce that alkaline environment which helps ward off disease, colds, etc.  What a nice way to start the day.

And there you have a great Bettina Breakfast.

If you find this served in other non-Bettina Homes, you know they read Bettina Network’s Blog.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

An Intensely Religious Week

April 17th, 2014

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2014

Intensely Religious – how do we turn that into – gloriously  Spiritual!  I hope it is not the intensely religious who have brought about so much bigotry in the world and the gloriously Spiritual who have given us so much freedom!  Maybe my values are a bit screwed.

It is one of those years when the religious celebrations around Spring are shared in close date proximity by several Religious faiths.  That doesn’t always happen.  After the winter we had and after the destructive forces hitting at the economy and the terrorists hitting at all of us it is no surprise that this Spring season finds some of our religions practically intertwined date-wise.

Within all of this hectic ceremonial time – and there is now a lot of ceremony going on all over the place – with its requirement of watching our diets; scheduling around many religious services – there came that still small voice in the form of guests in one of the Bettina Homes.  It was such a reprieve and a taking back to what we are all about and what is really important that we found ourselves being really grateful for the reminder.

A family came from England to America to witness to the life of a friend, and isn’t that what it is all about.  To take time from very busy lives; to spend money traveling to another country for just a few days to say  by your physical presence that this person mattered. He was important to us and our lives and we want to just stand with a group of his friends to give witness to his life.  In that small act – which today isn’t so small when you consider that most of us would be worried that our lives would fall apart if we took time out to do such a thing and we could better spend the money on something for our family – these guests and friends, by their presence and the reason for their visit,  gave me reassurances about the goodness of humans who can still sometimes come through with what is most important in life in still, small ways.

I am now ready for these Spring Religious Holidays.  I can get through all of the trappings because I know there are people who still care and get it right.  I am human and sometimes frail and one day I won’t be here anymore.  Will anyone witness to my life?  Did I reach out and live so that someone will stop and in the silence give thanks that I lived?

We are fast becoming a society where we don’t and won’t take that time away from the hectic busyness in which we constantly involve ourselves to keep from becoming conscious of the fact that we are slowly and sometimes at a faster pace marching to our own deaths.  We go to great lengths to cover-up that fact so we are not conscious of our limits as humans.  We walk across and away from those who have no home; those who are not so successful; those who are not interested in getting caught up in that busy, busy cycle of life.  We can’t after all be around those who would remind us of our own humanness.

I give thanks today for the family that took just a couple days to acknowledge the importance of the life of another human being.

Ed Note:  Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people.  Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.


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