Some of the things you might find on my personal web site: [link]


18/10/2008

Dasha and Illusha are looking into adopting a puppy in need of good home. It doesn't matter where the puppy is situated, next summer the plan is to bring to Canada one of the numerous homeless puppies in Russia. [link]

18/10/2008

Irina Makarova is an amazing artist and an art teacher who lives in Tyumen, a siberian city in Russia. She uses various techniques in her works and they may be described as soulful, full of light and color! She is one of the most heart warming people to be around. Her dream is to share her talent with the world. There is a plan to bring her collection to showcase in Canada for the start. You could also see Irina's collection here on "Empress Dasha" web site. [link]

18/10/2008

Syoma is a very young and active lad. This photo is yet another proof that he can hardly sit still. He is so handsome he could be a model, yet his wit and his heart show that he will grow up to be as mighty and family oriented as his father - Genna, who has recently undergone many operations on his spine. Syoma lives with his Mom Inna and his Dad Genna on a small piece of land in Tyumen, a siberian city in Russia. They are farmers and live off what they grow. However this summer a tragedy happened, and somehow a fire started on their land at night burning down their freshly built house and everything else surrounding it including birds, trees, plants. Hearing of this tragedy we have come and brought them what little we had: clothes, shoes and other stuff that they could use.

Syoma's life is a tale of harsh realities that exist around the world and can happen to anyone. His father is very ill, his land is burnt down, and sooner or later he will have to join the army because it is a mandatory law for all young lads unless they are in school or university. His own parents have never dreamt of this destiny for Syoma. However, there is always another way. The plan is to help Syoma visit Canada and take English lessons. And with time he can choose whether he will want to stay in Russia or whether he would want to pursue his education and his life in Canada surrounded by the love and support we can provide. [link]

18/10/2008

To introduce the fellows in the picture, a few words must be said about the union of Dasha (Daria Smolentseva) and Illusha (Free Will). Each one of them has travelled the world extensively before they were united to become One. However, both of them have not forgetten the brothers and sisters tney are connected to all over the world. One of those places - is the family of Niamey. This is how the Konzo project was born. It was born out of the need to continue our work to help our family in Niamey. Read more about it here. [link]

--please forgive me for my poor english, I simply wrote this very late at night and hadn't had the chance to review it. I will though... _--- here it goes:

Two Brothers

Some time ago, there was a family: an elder woman, man and their two sons - twins. However their mom died and their dad died. So two brothers were sitting in their house - only a minute was a difference in their age. So the older brother says: our father hasn't had the time to give us his wisdom, people will laugh at us for we don't possess it. The younger brother answered: worry not, you spend lots of time in silence and thoughts, I am sure you can find wisdom. I can live without living in my thoughts, I love just living life, loving the sun, doing things. How about I stay here and take care of the house, and the land, and you go on a journey to acquire wisdom. And so the older brother agreed saying: wisdom cannot be acuired by just staying here, of course one has to travel, and learn many things around the word to come to an answer of the purpose of this life. So i shall travel around the world and learn from the wisest men on Earth. and so he left.

Many years have passed - 60 years to be precise. And the older brother became a very wise men, he even got an army of followers. He was very curious, could put wisdom in rhymes, and he acquired all the fame of the wise man he ever could wish for. So surrounded by fame and love and admiration of so many people he travelled back to his family house where his younger brother lived.

Upon his arrival the younger brother ran out, he bowed his head in great respect and said humbly: My beloved brother, bless me with our presence! Enter our house I will wash your feet from the long weary road. Keeping his head high the older brother gave a royal gesture to his followers to stay behind and proceeded to the house.

As the younger brother began to wash the feet of the older brother. The older began to speak. He said: I have fulfilled my goal, I have understood the wisdom of all great man, I have created my own teaching, so I will not stay long in your house, I must be on my own. And I will reward you brother with my wisdom, so you too can learn the Truth of Life. Listen attentively. The first Truth of Life is: all people should live in a beautiful garden.

The younger brother could hardly be still, trying to be as hospital as he could, so he wiped his brother's feet with a clean beautifully made cloth and answered: Yes, brother, look at the table, I have prepared fruits from my garden - I have picked the best for you.

And the wise brother tasted the fruits and continued his teaching. - The second Truth of Life, brother, is that each human being living on Earth must plant and grow his own family tree. When he will die, this tree will be a reminder and a good memory to his children and grandchildren and other generations to come. This tree will also bring lots of good for it will clean the air for the children, and we must all breath good air.

The younger brother felt bad because he absolutely forgot, and moving really fast he ran up to the window and opened it saying: Oh brother, forgive me, I have forgot to open the window - please fill your lungs with fresh air. Can you feel the cider tree? I have planted two when you left: one for me, and one for you. I have dug out a hole for one tree with your tools, and the other with mine.

The Wise Man has attentively looked at the tree. Then he continued his speech again. - Younger brother, you must understand, Love is the greatest thing on Earth. Not each can be worthy enough to have that Great Love in his life. The true Wisdom lies in the hands of the One who is able to stay devoted and cultivate Love with every day, learning more and more about Love, and falling even more and more in Love.

- My older Brother! You are truly wise! said in awe his younger brother. You have acquired such great wisdom and I feel I am nothing in front of you. However, please forgive me in the midst of my excitement I have completely forgotten to introduce you to my wife. And so he raised his voice towards the door playfully: Hey Granny, where are you my busy bee?

And the smiling "granny" appeared on the door step carrying in her hands big hot apple cake. She lovingly said: this cake took me awhile! I was hoping to be done in time with it. She put the cake on the table and looked at her husband with outmost respect and admiration. She also did a little playful gesture and turned as if she was a young little girl and sort of ran up to the Younger husband and whispered into his ear even though the Older brother still heard it: My Love, My husband, please forgive me but I must leave to rest. The younger brother replied: my dear one, have you fallen ill? My brother is back and you want to leave? And she replied: my head is spinning and I feel a bit nautious. Oh my love, the brother replied, have you been working too hard again? She laughed, and said, no my love You have been working on me, we will be expecting a child And with such words she giggled as if she was 20 again and ran out of the door.

Blushing, the younger Brother, took his head in his hands and said to his older brother: Forgive me, for my wife is a simple woman, she doesn't know the ways of intelligent men or the great wisdom you are talking about. She's always been this cheerful, her young spirit stays the same no matter how old her body gets.

The Wise man was growing deeper and deeper into his thoughts. Only the voices of children outside interrupted his thought process and he said: Oh younger brother, another Great Truth of Life -the Wisdom Divine is that each person must understand that he must create life - his children, and he must provide everything for them to be happy and to live knowing justice.

Oh older wiser brother, replied younger, I may know what you are talking about, please look at my grandchildren - do they seem happy to you? And as he was saying that his children ran in and started playing with their grand pa.

When the joy calmed down and children ran away to play in the garden, the Wise man turned to his younger brother and said: remember, my brother we had this old rock in front of our house. Give me a tool to write my final lesson on it for the World to know and learn from.

And he wrote: "Everything that you are searching, seeker/traveller - you already carry within you and with you, and you are not finding anything new, you are just losing the essence with every step".

Daria is still in Russia. Why? Have you heard of government officials ever failing to issue certain documents because they simply misplaced the application? It is ridiculous that due to someone failing to do their job right, someone else's life is on the line. It is a lesson in general. Although it also had a great effect on my personal feelings and notions of patriotism and love towards the Mother land. I have only further affirmed in the idea that governments are a big waste of time, and if ever it was a gift from divinity to human beings, the forces above failed to recognize that we are still humans, one foot on earth and another foot in the skies. I am yet to see wise politicans or fair governments, so until that time I will float in my boat carried by the waves of the ocean of anarchy.

It's been raining all week as if nature works according to my heart's sadness. Whenever weather allows I sneak into a forest across the apartment building I live in, and simply wonder aimlessly fully immersed in the serenity of the green oasis. You could tell, that the forest/park used to have a loving owner who took care of it and made sure to keep it in the most beautiful condition. With the collapse of the soviet system, the social program that encouraged having full responsibility for the environment we live in, has been cut. Democracy, unfortunately, set a different set of ideals and morals for the nation. In one night, all weak "elements" such as pensioners, orphans, medical workers, teachers, science workers, soldiers, agriculture, and all anything else that didn't classify as being "commercial interest" including parks in the cities have simply been left to survive on their own. Nothing has changed since then. Every time I am in the forest, I see the enormous destruction overtaking the forest metre by metre. Yet the forest stands still, calm and quite in its profound wisdom that has outlived many generations of human beings. And maybe some day it will have an owner again who will protect it from the hands of those alienated filthy beings that call themselves human.

Crisis in the world. Have you heard about it? The perfect system built has been proving itself to be very and very unreliable. Banks going bankrupt every day. Markets are in deep shock! Economies are in deep shit. At the same time US is yelling: let's start a war with Russia. Venezuela is yelling: Fuck Yankees! The world of politics and economics are failing at all speeds with no hope for recovery. What happens to the rest of the population? We mortal citizens are only given one direction to work harder and make more money and give it to our lousy governments so that they could try and get themselves and whoever is dependent and connected to them out of this miserable situation. So to all I have one message: do not panic, every threat, every challenge is just another opportunity to take a look around and think of universal truth recorded in the ancient scriptures. It will help you see through the shallowness of the principles our society stands on. Just perhaps we are doing something wrong. Just perhaps for quite some time now we have been hitting our head against the wall. Just maybe this is the time to step aside and think: ah, what are we doing again and why are doing this? what is the result of our actions to this day? can we change something? is it us that wants to be hitting our head against the wall, or is it someone's persistent strategy of brainwashing the majority of the world population to suit their interests? Just a question or two to think about or maybe to raise your own.

A word on love. It is the most amazing and the most challenging thing on Earth. If you let it, it defines your life, it defines your character, it sorts out bad seeds from the good. Sigh* what I have experienced with my love the past 6 months or so can truly make up an encyclopedia of priceless experience. We are blessed beyond our own understanding.

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I-Present

My Blog: [link]

Resume: [link]

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I-Present

My Blog: [link]

Resume: [link]

Myspace: [link]