Get the look x American hustle.

Since I saw American hustle I am obsessed with Edith Greensly wardrobe and I just love low neck dresses. You can definitely wear her wardrobe today with a little adjustment!

Asos dress and sunglasses, Urban code coat, Sergio Rossi heels, Givenchy bag

Straps.

Real winter has finally arrived but you can't see that on todays outfit pictures unfortunately. Luckily we are going to take some photos today so I will be up to date with all the snow in the background. Having photoshoots in cold weather isn't really the best thing in the world, but if the results are good, it's all worth it. :)

All black outfits are my favourites and the other day I found the best denim pants with high-waist in Zara. And what are the odds that they were just the perfect length. As a tall girl I can assure you that length of the pants in shops is usually a problem. Pairing these slim denim pants with my favourite Valentino Rockstud lookalikes was my favourite option that day.

Don't forget to vote for me here for London Fashion week! Thank you all!

Pants, bag- Zara, shirt- H&M, coat- S.Oliver (old), heels- Ebay

Photos taken by Eva Boruta, edited by me

Love,

Katarina

'The Dr. Fritz Phenomenon'

 



Masao Maki’s In Search of Brazil’s Quantum Surgeon: The Dr. Fritz Phenomenon (1998) is a nonfiction account making clear that encountering Rubens Faria was only the most blatant manifestation of an intermediary Superconsciousness in Maki’s life. 

Maki described witnessing how Faria’s own personality would regularly be substituted by a consciousness identified in part as that of Dr. Adolph Fritz, the World War I German army surgeon who’d formerly been associated with Arigo and other Brazilian trance healers.  Faria would be unconscious as his body enabled 'Dr. Fritz' to regularly treat hundreds or even more than a thousand patients in a single day.  A graduate of the Institute of Military Engineering, Faria had previously worked as a computer engineer.

Early in his account, Maki observed, "All this synchronicity meant something, I felt. I couldn’t simply dismiss these coincidences as flukes."  In Faria’s warehouse clinic in Rio de Janeiro, Maki found himself observing the process where Faria ‘channeled’ Dr. Fritz.  While Faria needed eyeglasses as he was myopic with an astigmatism, the incorporated Dr. Fritz’s spirit "can see everything without glasses, inside and out."

Maki’s book includes interviews with many people who’d been successfully treated for maladies deemed inoperable by their customary doctors, including some who expressed their gratitude by working as clinic volunteers.  At the time of Maki’s visit in May 1996, it was estimated that 350,000 patients had received medical treatment.  Maki noticed that a large number of patients each day were treated with a dark brown liquid inside hypodermic needles.  Maki eventually decided to have his painful left shoulder be treated with an injection from Dr. Fritz and the treatment proved successful.  He discovered that this liquid was made up of alcohol, iodine and turpentine.  Standard anesthesia practices were not necessary during the healing being accomplished. 

Maki was able to locate Faria after becoming acquainted with David Sonnenschein, an American filmmaker residing in Brazil who was working on a documentary about Dr. Fritz.  Music composed by Maki is featured in the completed documentary "Dr Fritz — Healing the Body and Spirit" (1996).   Maki commented about this documentary: "This ninety-minute video could be very persuasive to people skeptical about psychic surgery, perhaps as people of the sixteenth century were skeptical of Copernicus’s theory."

On the final day of five days of observing the healing work before returning to the United States, Maki thanked Dr. Fritz, who said: "There is some deeper meaning to your visit here.  Maybe it would be a good idea to contemplate this.  Thank you very much.  Someday I will see you again."

For his second expedition to Brazil to observe the Dr. Fritz phenomenon, Maki was joined by his friend Kaori, a professional astrologer who’d coauthored two Japanese books with Maki.  In the first book Spiritual Adventures of a Sushi Chef (1997) the duo "debunked" an Indian "prophecy scam" that had become popular in Japan while in the second book "we debunked a fake shaman in Peru . . ." Watching the Dr. Fritz documentary convinced Kaori to seek treatment for her neck because of a vertebra injury due to a car accident.

Maki quoted Rubens Faria from the documentary:

"In 1983, I was recently married and my wife was a Spiritist.  One day, she said to me, ‘Let’s go to my friend’s house for a Spiritist meeting.’  I wasn’t a Spiritist, but you know, when you are married, you’ll do anything.  So I went.  I got there, sat down, and the praying started.  Then she said, ‘Come here, Rubens.  Sit at the table with us to talk about Spiritism.’  I said, ‘Okay.’  The minute I sat there, I started to get dizzy, nauseated, cold and hot flashes.  I think I fainted, but I’m still not sure.  I came back after forty minutes and the friend’s daughter had a bunch of towels on her face.  I awoke kind of dizzy and asked ‘What happened?’  Everybody looked at me quietly.  She said, ‘A spirit doctor came and operated on my daughter using a razor blade.’  I looked at the bloody razor on the table and said I couldn’t believe it was me that did that.  ‘No, it was really you.’  A few days later, she went to the doctor, who said she had a fantastic operation for her cataracts and they were no longer there."

Faria began treating patients after asking Dr. Fritz to help his ill ten-day-old adopted daughter and seeing her made healthy.  "I was at the side of her crib and saw a bright white light and his image.  He looked at me and said that he would save my daughter to prove to me that God exists and that I would have to work for the sake of humanity." 

As seen in the documentary, David asked Rubens about communicating with Dr. Fritz and Rubens explained, "I hear his voice and see him at night, mainly when he wants to say something, give me some advice."  Rubens also mentioned that he, himself, after eleven years of his work as a channeler, underwent surgery for skin cancer under the direction of Dr. Fritz.

Some of the quotations taken from the documentary also are presented in Sandy Johnson’s book The Brazilian Healer with the Kitchen Knife (2003) with some minor variations in the transcription.  When asked about the date of his birth, Dr. Fritz stated that he was born in Munich on July 1, 1874.

Kaori received an injection from Dr. Fritz to find on the following day that the swelling and pain were gone.  She was quoted by Maki: "I'm really glad I came to see Dr. Fritz . . . I didn't feel like I was getting treated by a doctor; I felt I was being blessed by God's energy."

Dr. Fritz explains that he injects the energy body, called the astral body: "I see colors, diagnosis only, not treatment, just to see what the problem is. I can’t see liver or heart or brain.  I just see colors, like the chakras, the same system, but not the mystical principles.  The mistake human beings make is that they just focus on the visible body.  They forget that there is an invisible energy body. I see an array of colors that function like the density of water.  It’s like the phenomenon that happens with the formation of a rainbow.  You human beings have to be able to see these energies.  You can call the energy body that is around the physical body anything you like.  A name is just a name.  Steiner called it the astral body. Steiner studied the principles of the astral body.  So I am injecting into the astral body.  So I am extracting the tumor first from the astral body and second from the material body.  In the astral body, we don’t have pain, bleeding, infections."


"The alcohol in the injection liquid is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.  It’s easier to break down these molecules using the raw materials.  In reality, the body is not solid.  The body is the electromagnetic union of particles in constant resonance.  So when I inject this composition of iodine and alcohol, these substances take on a different configuration inside each person’s body, making different substances.  I move the magnetic fields.  I can use these fields to stop the bleeding and pain and to increase or decrease the growth of cells.  Energy fields and mass . . . You put together the mass; everything is mass.  If you interrelate these and have the same frequency field, you generate the same magnetic field.  You have to move the field to learn how to do this."

Dr. Fritz also spoke about the significance of the pineal gland —

"You don’t study this in the middle of the head.   Study more here, between the eyebrows, the pineal gland.  If you study here in the third eye, you will be able to do it.  There’s something here that helps, that hasn’t been noticed.  They say this is good for nothing.  Ridiculous, it helps a lot."

During a discussion with David Sonnenschein during this sojourn in Brazil, Maki was reminded: "Dr. Fritz is like a spokesman, the verbal part of a lot of other spirits and entities."  Another doctor occasionally recognized treating patients while incorporated in the body of Faria was Dr. Ricardo, who was known to deal with "deeper surgery" and make large incisions.  Sonnenschein also reported that Dr. Fritz said that each patient has an individual spirit accompanying them.  When Maki asked about the mission of the spirit group, Sonnenschein commented:

"He is trying to heighten the levels of human consciousness and spirituality.  He would like to show people that there is a wonderful world that is invisible beside the material world.  He likes people to believe in themselves and God.  His ultimate message is that we are all connected to one another, that we and nature and the universe are ultimately one.  Oneness is the truth."

Although Maki admitted that his book didn’t divulge everything he’d learned about Dr. Fritz, one of the most illuminating surgeries described by Maki involved a blind baby boy.  Maki was surprised when—as shown in the documentary—Dr. Fritz asked the mother to hold her child’s hand and then began operating on her healthy eyes.  Dr. Fritz explained:

"This is one of the most difficult operations to perform.  This is how to treat the mother for her child.  I cut here, freeing the tissue in the mother.  In two or three days, there will be no more tissue in his eye.  Then this baby boy can see.  This kind of operation hasn’t been performed before.  The mother and her baby have a very similar DNA structure, so through the hand-holding, the change in the DNA can be transferred to the baby at the speed of light."


"Later you will learn that these chromosomal genetic associations can transport energy.  There is a chain that is electronically interlinked.  You have to alter a piece.  Not the whole thing, just a piece.  Remember the formula: adenine, guanine.   One triggers the next.  Change one and that’s it."

Dr. Fritz also said that he could reconstruct anything except nerve cells; while the disease he couldn’t cure is "the disease since birth, that which is congenital.  And also the physical body that has fibrosis I can’t cure, because the astral body does not have enough water for me to do anything."

On one occasion, Maki asked Dr. Fritz to explain the energy being used while he was simultaneously treating patients.

"When I treat patients, I use the energy inside the patient.  Everybody has this kind of energy in their cells.  Inside the cells, the name of the organism is the mitochondrion [a micro-thread inside the cytoplasm of the cell].  I use the energy of the mitochondrion to treat my patients.  The energy I use is closer to the concept of chi energy, as they call it in Chinese; or prana, as the Indian people call it; or ki, as the Japanese call it.  But I use this energy very intensively."

 
As with some other cases I’ve read involving perspectives offered by visitors from the ascended realm, Dr. Fritz was perceived by Faria to have offered commentary that proved incorrect regarding a prediction of Faria's demise around the end of the year 2000.  Dr. Fritz was also reported to have said that in the year 2000 an expected "big change"/"big noise" would happen: "Boom!  That will happen in six years."  Readers such as myself who’ve considered a variety of metaphysical case studies will acknowledge that warnings concerning some form of world catastrophe are sometimes found in the communication with otherworldly visitors; considering the environmental disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima along with the threat of further nuclear weapons use, the expectations have not been baseless.

A few years ago, an Internet search brought to my attention an interview with Rubens Faria by Sarida Brown in the spring 2002 edition of the UK health and healing magazine Caduceus.  Since the publication of Maki’s book, there had been an alteration in the healing work.  After fourteen years of being unconscious as he served as the channel for the healing work, he survived the expected date of his demise and reported:

From that time I began to work more consciously, and later in Wisconsin I received a gift and became fully conscious in the healing.  But the name of Dr. Fritz remains as a symbol of faith.  We all need something beyond us, that is so high that it is difficult to reach.  The real symbol is not in Dr. Fritz; the symbol is inside you, and I am just a proof that this symbol of faith exists.

This comment about symbolism impressed me as something important for readers to consider upon reading the case study of my own spiritual awakening Testament (1997).

A testimonial about a spiritual path that encompassed spiritual healing and Rubens Faria has also been presented by William Moreira in his nonfiction book "Dr. Fritz" The Phenomenon of the Millennium (2002) as profiled in three 2012 blog articles (1, 2, 3).

Cases involving communication of people from an ascended state of existence offer evidence that individual personality and perspective transcends an Earth life and that the universe is seen and understood through the unique experiences and education of each so-called 'personality' or 'consciousness unit.'  The processes of the human mind and innate creativity provide us with a basis for understanding the ultimate Source of our intellect as we live each moment in the presence of this Source that can also be expressed with the word 'God.'

 



Fashion icon x Ciara.

This stylish singer is lately one of my favourites and it is all because of her minimalistic style. She rocks my socks on and off the red carpet.

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Again on the go with my favourite bag! It seems so small, but sometimes I even struggle to find car keys in it, ha!:) Anyway, you could see in my outfit posts that I usually wear basic shirts with my outfits. I love nothing more than basics with one nice, different piece.

Anyway, I literally don't have anything much to say, nothing new has happened! But I am wishing for one special thing to come true and it is ridiculous that I can't do anything to make it come true! And it is completely opposite opposite of what I always think about luck. You have to work and do something to make your wishes come true!:)

I am asking all my dear readers to vote for me HERE and help me go to London FW! Thank you all! <3

Pants- Zara, shirt- H&M, coat- New Yorker, boots- Promod, bag- Annaxi

Photos taken by Eva Boruta, edited by me

Love,

Katarina

My spring pick x Extra long trench coat.

My must have item for this spring is extra long trench coat! It will never go out of style, so you better find a really good one that will last for a long time. :) I found mine at Topshop, but you can find yours also at Asos, H&M...

Topshop

Camel coat.

This one is my first camel coat ever and I always wanted one. And I'm pretty sure I will get me another one at sales. Just obsessed with coats lately. One is not enough! I am hardly resisting to get one in tartan print but I am quite sure that this tartan trend won't be so huge next winter. I was saying to myself at the beginning of this tartan trend that I won't be spending money on clothes with this print... but now I have so much stuff with it, it's crazy. And now on sales I can't resist buying new ones.

This nice coat is by Croatian designer store ELFS. I was choosing between this coat and a nice dress and at the end decided to get the coat. Like I said... one can never have enough coats!:)

I am competing with this outfit to go to London fashion week with We love fashion! They have this awesome competition and you can apply too! Fashion week is a huge event and I think one should dress up for it! I want to stay true to my style and would wear this one to it. Well made designer coat with elegant heels and clutch and this is it! You can vote for me HERE! Thanks! <3

Coat- ELFS, jeans- Zara, heels- Bershka, clutch bag- H&M

Photos taken by Eva Boruta, edited by me

Love,

Katarina

Love and Terror in the Middle East

 

 

Frank Romano's memoir Love and Terror in the Middle East (2012) chronicles his quest for spiritual meaning and his work in the interfaith peace movement.

The Introduction begins with the statement: "This book recounts the fulfillment of a 30-year-old vision that I would someday work for peace in the Middle East."  He observed:

My search led me to the most contested areas in the West Bank, such as the Jenin Refugee Camp and the Old City in Hebron, to especially work with extremists.  My life became quickly tangled with the people there, some still living in the shadow of the Intifada, others motivated by hate, fear and illusions.

 

The book begins with remembrances of his earlier life and relationships.  After passing the California Bar and opening his own law firm in downtown San Francisco, he wanted to extend his practice to the international sphere and was accepted for a graduate fellowship in an international law masters program at the University of Paris in France.  The year was 1993.  He eventually became a professor at the University of Paris and worked on international law cases.  When his wife left Paris with their children, the upheaval left him to explore new relationships yet his search for love would be ultimately fulfilled through his metaphysical understanding.

He wrote about his decision to prepare to take the French bar exam so that he eventually could become a French lawyer:

. . . I wanted to get out of the corporate world and get back to my working class roots: to litigate, to wrap myself in the lives of victims and go to court on their behalf, as I'd done in the US before coming to this place.

It had been a long-time goal as I needed to get back into the gritty trenches of life and ease out of the ivory tower of my safe professorship.  I was also desperate to get away from the carrot-on-a-stick greed of the world in corporate law firms (where I was employed as a law clerk previous to the professor position), or shifty corporate types skulking around in a superficial business world, oblivious to the world's suffering and sometimes the heartless cause of it.

Twenty seven years after the events chronicled in his book Storm Over Morocco, he decided to again pursue the goal of participating in the interfaith peace movement in the Middle East.  In 2005 his life was unsettled anew as he left behind a job as a civil law litigator for a Marseille law firm and traveled to the 'Holy Land.'  Upon arriving at the airport in Tel Aviv, he boarded a train and what he saw would not be forgotten. 
 

For the first time, I saw youngsters, men and adolescents alike in khaki uniforms, carrying rifles on shoulder straps.  I had to remind myself that Israel was constantly in a state of alert.

 
Romano described his encounters with people involved with the interfaith movement and articulated his perspective.

I shared with them my views on Islam which I considered a loving, peaceful religion, and that the extremists distorted the true meaning of it.  I continued by focusing on my faith, which was to pray and study, as well as live according to the common denominators among religions.  I sought to be unattached to a specific church and/or the rituals of one religion and not confuse them with truth, the light.  I then, remembering the teachings of Ramakrishna, shared the idea that one should not confuse the physical church and rituals with the truth, that they were just vehicles and paths to the true light; and, most importantly, there were different paths leading to it. 

In Ramallah, Romano was led to a hotel where he attended a meeting celebrating the recent liberation of long-term prisoners of the Israeli government.  When he went to sleep in his hotel room that night, he was aware he was surrounded by men who were considered militant extremists.

 

And then a voice echoed from somewhere, "Beware, beware, fool . . ." so loud it woke me up. I sat up rigidly with my back flat against the wall and tried to focus, but everything seemed to fade into fuzziness, maybe subconsciously to soften the reality of this destitute place.

 

A man he met at the meeting, Abdullah—a prisoner of the Israelis for 28 years—would be instrumental to Romano meeting a variety of other people interested in peace.  Abdullah provided him with a list of names and phone numbers of people in several West Bank cities.

In Galilee, he visited the Hukuk Kibbutz, where he became involved with the group's interfaith events.  Romano wrote about his participation in an event where he decided to lead a group meditation instead of following the course of recent meetings where it had been "almost a tradition to have a medium channel at each interfaith event."

Usually during our meetings, we gathered around a lady who put herself in a semi-trance and became the medium through which the spirit of God communicated with us.  They called it channeling.  I remember the first time it happened about a year ago: I looked over at the Muslims who showed disapproval, as they believe no one can be the mediator between Allah and his servants.  However, they explained to me, not wanting to obstruct the peaceful interfaith meeting, they begrudgingly bowed their heads and listened to the woman channel.

 

The event also featured speakers discussing similarities and differences among religions. 

Some of the common denominators mentioned by the speakers were the belief in one God, the obligation to help the poor, the interdiction of killing and treating neighbors as thyself, with respect and dignity.

Romano reported that he later began being viewed as a radical by the group and was no longer invited to be involved with Kibbutz events.  Difficulties arose when he included in his flyers the statement "The occupation of the West Bank must end as a precursor to peaceful coexistence."  Also criticized were his constant visits to the West Bank.

Romano was in Israel during one military conflict and commented, "Watching the constant rain of bombs over Northern Israel and the retaliatory bombing and destruction in Southern Lebanon, I had reached the real gates of hell . . ."  He reflected:

War, so terrible, so unnecessary, so cruel; it was often just a blowing off of steam or like retaliatory actions countered by more retaliatory actions.  The end result was often the many innocent victims paying for the short-sighted and ruthless excesses of others, only to be shoved to the side in importance, losers in the struggle for power.

Conflicting information among Israeli and Al Jazeera telecasts led Romano to wonder, "Were they all spinning the reality to suit their propaganda goals?"

Omar Al Sahaf—"a high civil servant employed by the Palestinian government"—befriended Romano by advising him that if he ever had a problem with the Palestinian police during a peace march, to have them call Al Sahaf and he would vouch for him, thus several major difficulties were avoided.

Romano wrote:

Being prepared to bring peace to the land was my interest, my cross and my passion.  I would learn to love and hate going into the West Bank: I loved it because I felt that I was making my small contribution to a peace movement which would eventually give rise to a durable peace in the area; I hated it because each time I headed there, I had to go through a maze of checkpoints, walls, and I could never anticipate what would happen during the dialogue/marches.  I would sometimes be stopped, detained, arrested or harassed by the Palestinian Authority Police or by Israeli soldiers, depending on the jurisdiction.  I guess nothing is worthwhile without a struggle because at the end of the day, I was able to organize and participate in interfaith peace dialogues and marches there, mobilizing the people and bringing hope to some who had lost it—Jews, Muslims and Christians alike.


I'm very much opposed to suicide attacks and my non-violent peace work would not allow me to be in any way linked to anyone even indirectly involved with them.


. . . I realized that I would always have God and the prophets with me.  I wasn't alone, after all!

Here is the message translated into Arabic during the dialogue/marches.

INTERFAITH PEACE MARCH

You are welcome to participate in The Interfaith Peace March on [Date].

The group will set out at [Time and Address of event].

The people in the Holy Land, Muslims, Jews and Christians alike, are enshrouded by deep suffering, terrible restrictions on freedoms, limitation of circulation, restricted access, unfair confiscation of land, etc.  Whenever that happens in the World, we all suffer because I truly believe, my friends, we are all connected.

When they are free (of suffering, etc.), only then can we be free!  It's time we all do something about it, in an effective, non-violent way.

Let this march be a precursor to freedom through love and understanding by bringing all people together, as brothers and sisters and as children of the creator, showing the world that all people want peace in Israel and Palestine.

—Dr. Frank Romano

 

Romano realized, ". . . if I didn't answer the call to do something about the humanitarian disaster in the West Bank to bring people together, to at least help raise peoples' consciousness about the situation and at the same time find a solution for a durable peace, WHO WOULD?"

He responded to the point of view that anyone working for peace to the Middle East must have a Messiah complex or a death wish: ". . . helping to bring peace to the Middle East was a true vision I held deep within."

 

An epilogue to the third edition of the book concludes with Romano recounting a dream.

That night, I dreamed I was walking on the sand in a place shrouded in mist.  It was so quiet, I could hear the crunch of each footstep as it settled into the sand.  Each foot lifted, raining down grains of sand.  The mist became heavier so that I could only see a few feet in front of me.  Then it suddenly lifted and the vastness of infinite sands spread in all directions.

Nothing was visible on the farthest horizon, except a tiny, greyish dot off to the right.  I walked toward it and as I approached, the dot looked more like a Djellabah crowned by a pointed hood.  Closing in, I noticed the black and white striped patterns on the enormous back of someone sitting in the sand with his legs crossed.  I swung to the front and saw the face within the hood . . . it was Juliano [peace activist Juliano Mer-Khamis was murdered in Jenin].  His dark eyelashes were closed and hovered over a glimpse of his full lips.  Ever so subtly, their corners stretched upwards into a faint smile creasing the edges of his smooth, olive skin . . . 

 

Reading Frank Romano’s memoirs, I was reminded that paths of spiritual discovery involve the intellect in relation to one's dedicated research and contemplation.  As in Frank's case, there may also be visionary experiences, instances of transcendental communication, and noticeable occurrences of what is sometimes called 'synchronicity' (or opportune co-incidences).  I also found myself acknowledging once again that the true 'holy' land in the transitory world we call Earth is not limited to any geographical area but is the condition where one recognizes that all people are members of the same vast family.

 

Frank Romano





Straight to the point.

It is my classic move that when it's time to study, especially two days before an exam, I do everything except studying. So here it is, a new outfit. This one is truly one of my favourites among all of them. I only wish that my Chelsea boots would have higher heels, but why buying it if your're not going to wear it, right? From all the boots, pointy Chelsea high heels are my favourites. I got these at Asos and they are a Topshop lookalike. The heel height is perfect for very tall women like me, who doesn't want to look like a giant with a 10 cm heel on a casual day. And let me tell you, it is very hard to find a shoe or heels with 6 cm heel or lower. Kitten heels are a rare thing if you ask me. The only time I saw a lot of kitten heels was when everyone was wearing that Valentino Rockstud heels.:)

Boyfriend jeans- New Look, bag, jacket- Zara, turtleneck sweater- Pull&Bear, boots- Asos

Photos taken by Eva Boruta, edited by me.

Love,

Katarina

Latest obsession.

When it comes to trainers, I usually wear Converse Chucks but now I am all about this slip on trainers. I mean, how cool are they!! You can literally wear them with everything- leather pants, wide pants, elegant coat... My favourites are black ones and leopard print ones. I can't wait to get my hands on the black ones. You can find some great ones of course at Vans but also at Asos, River Island, Windsor Smith.... 

So fluffy I could die.

I finally got myself this fluffy, faux fur, kitty jacket! The softest thing ever. I was looking for it in black but didn't find one so this had to be good enough. I hate when some fur jackets are really huge and they make my shoulders even wider. This one doesn't, so that's good. Because I'm tall I really have to choose my jackets carefully. And I got this nice bag from new H&M collection. Love the zipper in front! It reminds me of that gorgeous Rebecca Minkoff bag with three zippers. Kind of a lookalike withouth the other two zippers, don't you think? When I first saw it online I fell in love with it and I haven't found it in Slovenian H&M stores, so my lovely friend brought it from Germany. And the second he got it, I found it at our store. Ayayay. And the other new thing are these high heels, they were soooo cheap on sales I couldn't resist buying them!

Last week I got my nails done, first time in my life! Gel manicure is so cool, I don't now why I haven't got it sooner! I wanted to go to Berlin to Stylight Fashion blogger awards to which I got invited to and I was really planning to go, it was truly the best day in my life when I got the invitation! But going there for only one night, planning the long drive up there and back, the hotel, being all alone the whole time just wasn't a good thing at the moment. And with my exams coming next week, it was all a bad idea. I know I will reeeeally regret it one day, but what can I do. I hope they will do something similar next year so I will have another chance to meet all my favourite bloggers! :)

P.S. Have you heard about this new, cool and -most importantly- free app CHIC-FINDER? If you see some really cool piece on someone and you don't know where can you buy it, you can just use this fine app and it will find you similar items! Pretty handy app, if you ask me! Download it here and give it a try!

Fur coat- New Yorker, bag, shirt, pants- H&M, heels- Bershka

Photos taken by Eva Boruta, edited by me

Love,

Katarina

That jacket.

We finally took photos of my favourite jacket this winter! It is so warm, cozy and the colour is a plus too. I've never had nude jacket. I remember myself checking this beauty when it came to the store but I didn't want to spend so much on yet another jacket. And luckily a few weeks ago I got it more than half off. Talking about a bargain, huh! I know Acne has or had a similar one, if you want to check. Oh, and Sheinside has a cheaper version as well. And I noticed that a lot of stores is now selling similar ones in black.

A few days back I just realized how truly hard it is to be true to yourself and to another person as well, especially when you don't want to hurt anyone. The most awful feeling ever! And I thought this kind of feelings only exist in movies. Psh! Bad times...:)

Jacket, shirt, beanie- H&M, pants, bag- Zara, boots- Promod

Photos taken by Eva Boruta, edited by me

Love,

Katarina

Storm Over Morocco

 

 
 
Frank Romano is the author of two autobiographical books chronicling his spiritual path in life: Storm Over Morocco (Fourth Edition 2010) and Love and Terror in the Middle East (Third Edition 20123).

This is how he has described his first memoir:

Storm Over Morocco is a true story about me, the author; I was wrongly accused of being a Zionist spy in 1978 and tried for sabotage, a capital crime, by an extremist Islamic group in Morocco.

While traveling across Africa searching for a universal religion, I was invited to study Islam in a mosque in Casablanca, Morocco; it turned out to be controlled by a militant Moslem group which promptly imprisoned me.

My questions as to the treatment of women served as a catalyst for one of the Islamic gurus to unjustly charge me with being a Zionist spy and sabotage of the "back to Islam" movement.  I was eventually acquitted by an internal inquisitorial tribunal, but remained a prisoner behind the towering walls of the mosque located in the outskirts of Casablanca.

This harrowing ordeal was followed by excruciating suspense built up during attempts to escape the 10-foot high compound.

The book is an autobiographical narrative about my spiritual path and about fundamentalist religions and brainwashing techniques.  It also discusses the status of women in orthodox/fundamentalist Islamic communities.

Storm Over Morocco, however, does not criticize Islam and often portrays me as a student who learned a great deal from that religion.

This experience has inspired me to organize and participate in interfaith events including but not limited to fundamentalist Muslims, Jews and Christians in Israel and Palestine. 

Here is some biographical information.

Frank Romano earned a PhD at University of Paris I, Panthéon Sorbonne, and a JD at Golden Gate University, Faculty of Law, San Francisco.  At present, he teaches law, literature, history and philosophy of law at the University of Paris Oueste and practices law in France and in the United States.  The author actively organizes and participates in interfaith events involving Jews, Muslims and Christians in Israel and Palestine.

While visionary aspects of his journeys are described in both memoirs, an epilogue of his first book mentions and affirms a "30-year-old vision."  Another influence was his father, a World War II veteran who discussed his evolving spiritual philosophy with his son.  Romano commented in Storm Over Morocco:

. . . he planted a seed in my young mind that many years later would inspire me to use the idea of universal political unity to create a hybrid definition of universalism.  The dictionary defines universalism as the state of being universal, as including or covering everything without limit or exception.  I define universalism as a universal awakening through the search for a common denominator underlying all things, preferences, particular identities, cultures and philosophies.

Romano became convinced that world peace depended on the promotion of a universal faith (presumably an expansion of people's existing beliefs).  He decided to visit Morocco, learn the language and find out what Islam was all about.

I sought to change my thinking by beginning anew in Morocco; then I would travel across North Africa to Egypt and then to Palestine, where I would end my voyage.  There, I would lend a hand in resolving the crises between Moslems and Jews.  I believed I could help bring peace to those hostile groups after I purified myself.  I believed that I was sent from heaven to lead mankind to a better world.  I would only look in people's eyes—beggars and professionals alike—in a compassionate way, neither feeling nor showing favoritism, even to people of my own heritage, my own family.  This was to initiate the dawn of a new age of tolerance, love and caring for all people, not just for those close to me.

I truly believed in this role and that I was in a place, surrounded by a sore and bleeding humanity, to save the world from suffering caused by ignorance, intolerance, hatred, xenophobia, racism, gender discrimination, homophobia and selfishness.  I believed that we are on this earth to help all people through the purity of our hearts, including those outside of family connections.  I believed that I returned to earth, to the soil, to share the humble life and to lead all to peace and love

In Casablanca, his perspective was: "I was about to embrace the path that I hoped would lead me to truth, to the cosmic spirit of love . . ."  During an interval of preparation—"severe training"—to live at an Islamic monastery under the guidance of Camara, a man from Guinea, Romano retired to bed early one evening and experienced a momentous occasion.

A cool wind blew, ruffling the curtains to the tune of some invisible, heavenly organ.  I meditated to the Supreme Being, to God, to truth, to love and a light was cast in the room, reflecting from the dense fog outside.  In spite of the intense moments of the day and my utterly exhausted body, my mind felt rejuvenated, uplifted to a light which had shone through the crusty ceiling of closed mindedness.  The path visualized through the opening was not necessarily that of one ideology—Islam—but was a path on which Muhammad guided me.  Then, like a spiritual tag team, the guide changed to Jesus, and as I ascended, I was met by Muhammad, who continued leading me up to the steady, warm hand of the Buddha, there to embrace me as I continued my ascent.  My hand was then grasped by Moses; with strong arms, he held me before him, becoming the many-faceted, omnipresent spirit of Krishna.  Proceeding toward the heavens, I was received by all of the prophets and handed by Krishna to Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha and Moses, who received me with spontaneous joy and humility.  With their arms around me, I basked in their love shared by the Supreme Consciousness, who was neither man nor woman, but transcending all things, reigned within and without, melding pure love together into one good, pure force.  This energy linked me to the love of all creatures, to the peace deep within me, to the tolerance and understanding that armed me against the threat of ignorance, fear and allegiance to material things.  I felt finally free of the confining embrace of the superficial, neon world, where pure, innocent love and passions are inhibited in the name of progress.

As Romano began to experience life in the monastery, he reflected about his actions.

The inhabitants of the mosque, at least with regard to their words and gestures during prayer and at other times, were almost a carbon copy of one another.  I was almost comfortable in this atmosphere even though I had always rejected blind conformity with standards set forth by any organized religion or political system.


Only later was I to discover the sharp differences between the Masjid Nord, where I was living, and other Moslem parishes.


I became more and more enchanted with my own infatuation for this new lifestyle, which seemed more and more a viable alternative to life in a mechanized, seemingly unspiritual city, like the one from whence I had come.  It seemed that my rejection of the urban "dream" was the catalyst for inspiring me to embrace this adventure into Islam.

But a voice inside me reverberated from a deep place, sometimes excruciatingly loud; it seemed to be warning me that something was very wrong.  Something whispered within me, "Accepting without questioning, accepting without questioning, accepting without questioning, accepting without questioning . . . ? ? ?"

Romano's spiritual beliefs were a source of some of the conflicts that arose: "I believed in one God, but I did not believe that Muhammad was his last prophet sent to earth to save the people."  A key influence was the philosophy of Gandhi.

. . . Gandhi who, being a Hindu, had also studied Christianity and Islam; he had concluded that all three religions were valid because they were based on monotheism, the belief in one God, and thus were basically similar.

Romano's efforts to help world peace like those of renowned men such as Gandhi reminded me that a fundamental message of the world's religions is for each person to closely consider their actions, goals and motivations as these will be significant to our life when our physical demise brings the transition to another state of existence.

Eventually Romano sought deliverance from the monastery where his life had become a nightmare.  After seizing an opportune moment, Romano succeeded in escaping from the mosque where he had been trapped for a month and a half.  He soon returned by train to Paris.

My dream of unifying all people and their myriad ideologies into one faith had been temporarily shattered.  But I was not disappointed as I had found the true spirit, the cosmic force in the arid plains of this mysterious country.  It seemed that I had come such a long way to find this unifying spirit of love already existing within and outside of me.  It was clear that the framework in which this search had taken place, in particular while residing in the mosque and traveling with the brothers, living according to the Hadith and the Qur'an, had enhanced my spiritual awakening.  Of this I was absolutely certain, in spite of my differences with some of the teachings of the spiritual leaders living within the walls of the Masjid Nord.

In Paris, Romano contemplated his experiences in Morocco.

Reflecting on a lifetime of spiritual yearning, I wondered at my willingness to give up all in order to experience a deeper connection with Supreme Consciousness.  In an isolated mosque in the heart of the arid Moroccan plains, I received a powerful dose of Universal energy which suffused every part of my being, vibrating with the unfathomable love I knew to be at my core.

My constant companion has now become an energy force propelling love, like a laser, directly into my heart.  This light force encompasses the universe I can no longer ignore.  In the past, I have suffered upon seeing a homeless person or thinking of senseless killings, ignorance, poverty, starvation and death.  Even as I live in the inner city, I refuse to be indifferent in order to protect a fragile sensibility.  Now surging through me are not just charitable sympathies but bright, God-inspired solutions.


My heart has opened to absorbing the violence and ignorance of our time, transforming them into knowledge and love of inconceivable or infinite magnitude.  Ever present in my mind and heart, along with what has been expressed, is the word "FORGIVENESS."  The need for forgiveness gave and still gives me the strength to make an accounting of all my relationships—with humans and other beings—and to take measures to repair any injury.  From this accounting comes the wisdom and motivation to relieve my burdened soul of the profound ignorance begetting fearfulness, hateful prejudice, selfishness and lack of faith.
 
Though I loved my father dearly, I needed to forgive him for over-zealously disciplining me during my youth.  I knew I needed to release the hatred and tension I had carried within me for years and replace it with understanding of the pressures my father had been under at the time.  In so doing, the final barriers between my father and I dissipated long before he passed on, clearing the way for the warm, unconditional love I have for him to this day.  Strangely, opening up to love with my father helped me release the problems I was experiencing in other relationships, in a kind of domino effect.

The thorough assessment of my life led me to forgiveness from those I had transgressed and to face my ignorance, failures, weaknesses, prejudices and lack of faith.  I was thus able to transcend many obstacles on the path of Cosmic Truth, no doubt helping to purify my being and prepare me to share this greater strength in spirituality with others, before my final days . . . before total, ecstatic union with the Supreme Being.


. . . the truth of this experience has manifested in different ways, notably in subsequent intense meditations during which this unfathomable love force has helped people to heal themselves.

At different times in his life, Romano has "lived with Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics and others, sharing their happiness, sadness and passion for truth."  He wrote, "What I experienced in Morocco was the turning point in a life which has become steeped in meaning and purpose—the deep feeling of universal Oneness I felt there has grown within me, anchoring me firmly in the knowledge of oneness with my Creator and all life."