Flirty little poems
MaryHadALittleLamb
2019.07.05 13:31 criddlesmcgee MaryHadALittleLamb
For the funny, witty, crude and nonsensical mary had a little lamb poems.
2013.03.06 22:11 readyno Where it tells our stories
This sub is for those lovely moments when google speaks to you while searching it.
2012.02.22 00:26 sushisushisushi AskLiteraryStudies
A place for questions and discussion related to literature, its production, its history. NOT a place for getting people to do your homework.
2024.05.21 19:38 HBCYG5260 Is it possible to date in today's world if it takes a while to develop attraction?
Long story short - Several months ago I ended the only serious relationship I've (28m) ever had. We dated since high school, and we knew each other beforehand so it was like a friendship that turned into relationship situation. I didn't realize it at the time, but now looking at getting back out there I've realized it takes me a while to realize if I'm attracted to a girl enough to ask her out.
It seems like dating now is so based on physical attraction and getting to know someone after the fact. But for me it's like the physical attraction is enough to catch my eye, but is not my primary motivation and never enough for me to think about asking a girl out. It's only after I've gotten to know who she is/how she is as a person that I'm interested in asking her out.
Usually by the point I've realized I'm interested in a girl in that way, we've talked and gotten to know each other enough that we've crossed into the friends only territory and there's really no way of coming back from that. In retrospect, I realize this led to me having many problems in high school always crushing on my close friends who were girls.
I haven't really tried actively dating again yet, but I've already seen this pattern show up since becoming single again. I met a new coworker that got assigned to work on a project with me. This required talking at least an our a day. Initially our conversations were kinda slow, but after a while we just clicked and spent a lot of time getting to know each other. I just thought she was pretty cool, but after getting to know her more I realized I actually found her really attractive and thought about asking her out.
By that time, though, we'd been talking at least an hour or two per day every work day for at least 3 weeks. And when I finally started being a little flirty, she nicely gave me indications that she only saw me as a friend. Sure, I know that there may have never been an opportunity there. But it would be naive of me to think me not showing any indication in interest before 3 weeks of talking at least an hour a day didn't help land me in that friend zone kinda spot.
So I'm just wondering if I'm weird in this way and if this will cause me issues trying to date again?
submitted by HBCYG5260 to dating_advice [link] [comments]
It seems like dating now is so based on physical attraction and getting to know someone after the fact. But for me it's like the physical attraction is enough to catch my eye, but is not my primary motivation and never enough for me to think about asking a girl out. It's only after I've gotten to know who she is/how she is as a person that I'm interested in asking her out.
Usually by the point I've realized I'm interested in a girl in that way, we've talked and gotten to know each other enough that we've crossed into the friends only territory and there's really no way of coming back from that. In retrospect, I realize this led to me having many problems in high school always crushing on my close friends who were girls.
I haven't really tried actively dating again yet, but I've already seen this pattern show up since becoming single again. I met a new coworker that got assigned to work on a project with me. This required talking at least an our a day. Initially our conversations were kinda slow, but after a while we just clicked and spent a lot of time getting to know each other. I just thought she was pretty cool, but after getting to know her more I realized I actually found her really attractive and thought about asking her out.
By that time, though, we'd been talking at least an hour or two per day every work day for at least 3 weeks. And when I finally started being a little flirty, she nicely gave me indications that she only saw me as a friend. Sure, I know that there may have never been an opportunity there. But it would be naive of me to think me not showing any indication in interest before 3 weeks of talking at least an hour a day didn't help land me in that friend zone kinda spot.
So I'm just wondering if I'm weird in this way and if this will cause me issues trying to date again?
2024.05.21 19:22 Prescott_Local Goldie Marion “Yellowstone Pete” Robbins - A Local Legend
I'm the same guy that posted that the Independent Order of Odd Fellows cemetery by Acker park was in disrepair and tried finding resources to help turn it around. Here's the link if anyone is interested. I'm still trying.
While walking through the cemetery I came across a gravestone marked "G.M. Robbins - The "End of the Trail" for "Yellowstone Pete" after 25,000 miles by mule train, may he rest in peace" and it got me interested in finding out more about the person. It turns out that Yellowstone Pete holds a place in Americana culture, and really did travel by mule train. There are several pictures linked here that have him, his wife, and mules. I'd love to hear more about him if anyone has more details.
Imgur album of photos I collected. The one that has "OH HOW WE HATE TO WORK" is a postcard that I ordered from Etsy while researching Yellowstone Pete.
There's even a poem about his only daughter.
Yellowstone Pete's Only Daughter was originally published in the book “Rhymes from a Round-up Camp, 1903, and written by Wallace David Coburn in 1894. The book of poetry has been published in 21 different editions. Coburn wrote the preface of the book in Malta, Montana.
Yes, this is the Milk River Valley,
And that's the old ranch that you see,
Where Yellowstone Pete lost his daughter,
The pride of the 7 U. P.
Was she pretty?-Well, stranger, your knowledge
Of these parts is shore incomplete,
When you ask such a comical question
'Bout the daughter of Yellowstone Pete.
Why, man! If the heavens were bluer,
And pansies were deeper in hue ,
They couldn't "size up" with her peepers,
Which shone like the spring poet's dew.
Her teeth were like snowdrops made whiter,
Her hair like the sealskin she wore,
Only softer and silkier and browner,
And she was true blue to the core.
Was old Yellowstone Pete's only daughter,
Whose voice was the envy of birds,
As she warbled at night to the long-horns,
Or when pointing her father's trail herds.
She was happy and good and as loving
As an angel could possibly be,
With always a smile and a greeting,
For tough old cow-punchers like me.
But what I was startin' to narrate,
Before you cut into the game,
Was a love affair she tangled up in,
And the tragical end of the same.
You see, she was borned in this country,
Her mother, a woman of gold,
Kissed her baby and lined out for Heaven,
When Beauty was seven days old.
The boys, you see, nicknamed her "Beauty,"
And each one, he fought for his turn
At feedin' her out of the bottle,
But dress her -- we never could learn.
So Pete he sent off for a nurse girl
And a teacher (not stunning for looks),
To give her the care of a woman,
And learn her the knowledge of books.
Thus Beauty grew up at the home ranch,
And learned how to shore ride and shoot,
Also play and sing on the pianer,
And to tie down a wild steer to boot.
And charming-- why, partner, the sunbeams
They scrapped for the sweets of her face,
And the alkali dust and the zephyrs
They jockeyed to get second place.
So was it a wonder young Dawson,
The son of a neighbor of Pete,
Lost his heart to this rose of the prairie,
And his love for her couldn't be beat?
“Buck"-- that was the handle he went by,
Had pre-empted some learnin' at school,
Was a handsome and big, manly feller,
And in a gun-fight was shore cool.
And there wasn't no man round the country,
Could ride with him down the Red Lane,
He could rope, fork, and ride with clean saddle
Any outlaw that ever wore mane.
They'd been youngsters and brought up together,
And Dawson was shorely dead game,
His father a wealthy old-timer,
All burdened with early-day fame.
Yes, Beauty loved "Buck," that was certain,
But a gal's ways are never foreseen,
And you can't tell what's liable to happen
Be-tween the betwixt and between.
So when a young feller from college
Comes a-romancin' like out this way,
Well, things looked a little promiscuous,
And there was the devil to pay.
Of course, he was welcomed by Beauty,
As the flowers are welcomed in May;
His college pin pleased her, I reckon,
And he had a girl-catchin' way.
But wait till I roll me a smoke, pard,
To filter my bad feelin's down,
Makes me wanter shore squander some powder
When I ponder on that sneakin' houn'.
Well, we was all out on the round-up,
When this college masher, you see,
Ran off with old Yellowstone's daughter,
The pride of the 7 U. P.
Now, old Pete he shore worshipped his daughter,
Loved her better than money or life,
For she was the pride of his old age--
The gift of his beautiful wife.
So he and young Dawson together,
With hearts like the lead in their guns,
Hit the trail of this college-bred villain,
And secured him before many suns.
The gal they found up in Butte City-
He'd deserted her up there, you know;
But Dawson caught him near the border,
Where numerous cottonwoods grow.
And there, in the depths of the forest,
With the beasts and the birds lookin' on,
They fought to the death with their bowies,
Till the Eastern-bred feller was gone.
And Beauty-- she married "Buck" after,
But never seemed happy or gay,
Like the Beauty we'd worshipped from childhood,-
She just drooped, shrunk, and withered away.
Yes, she paled like the flowers in summer,
And died with the leaves in the fall ;
And we buried her close to her mother,
While the sunshine went out of us all.
Poor old Pete, his hair white as the snowdrift,
And eyes that stare vacant and old,
Sits and sobs at the foot of two gravestones,
All alone, whether hot days or cold.
All alone? No, for Buck often joins him,
Grim and stern, with his face like a stone;
Never smiling nowdays like he used to,
When he tries he winds up with a moan.
No, the sun don't shine quite as it used to,
And the wind has a lonesomer sound,
As it sings soft and mournful in summer,
And howls when old winter comes round.
Here are the links to original photos:
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/yellowstone-pete-passes-through-yellowstone-pete-news-photo/161995779
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/rppc-goldie-marion-robbins-aka-1904877006
https://www.phillipscountynews.com/story/2016/09/14/news/yellowstone-petes-only-daughte4302.html
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/52400720/goldie-marion-robbins/photo
submitted by Prescott_Local to Prescott [link] [comments]
While walking through the cemetery I came across a gravestone marked "G.M. Robbins - The "End of the Trail" for "Yellowstone Pete" after 25,000 miles by mule train, may he rest in peace" and it got me interested in finding out more about the person. It turns out that Yellowstone Pete holds a place in Americana culture, and really did travel by mule train. There are several pictures linked here that have him, his wife, and mules. I'd love to hear more about him if anyone has more details.
Imgur album of photos I collected. The one that has "OH HOW WE HATE TO WORK" is a postcard that I ordered from Etsy while researching Yellowstone Pete.
There's even a poem about his only daughter.
Yellowstone Pete's Only Daughter was originally published in the book “Rhymes from a Round-up Camp, 1903, and written by Wallace David Coburn in 1894. The book of poetry has been published in 21 different editions. Coburn wrote the preface of the book in Malta, Montana.
Yes, this is the Milk River Valley,
And that's the old ranch that you see,
Where Yellowstone Pete lost his daughter,
The pride of the 7 U. P.
Was she pretty?-Well, stranger, your knowledge
Of these parts is shore incomplete,
When you ask such a comical question
'Bout the daughter of Yellowstone Pete.
Why, man! If the heavens were bluer,
And pansies were deeper in hue ,
They couldn't "size up" with her peepers,
Which shone like the spring poet's dew.
Her teeth were like snowdrops made whiter,
Her hair like the sealskin she wore,
Only softer and silkier and browner,
And she was true blue to the core.
Was old Yellowstone Pete's only daughter,
Whose voice was the envy of birds,
As she warbled at night to the long-horns,
Or when pointing her father's trail herds.
She was happy and good and as loving
As an angel could possibly be,
With always a smile and a greeting,
For tough old cow-punchers like me.
But what I was startin' to narrate,
Before you cut into the game,
Was a love affair she tangled up in,
And the tragical end of the same.
You see, she was borned in this country,
Her mother, a woman of gold,
Kissed her baby and lined out for Heaven,
When Beauty was seven days old.
The boys, you see, nicknamed her "Beauty,"
And each one, he fought for his turn
At feedin' her out of the bottle,
But dress her -- we never could learn.
So Pete he sent off for a nurse girl
And a teacher (not stunning for looks),
To give her the care of a woman,
And learn her the knowledge of books.
Thus Beauty grew up at the home ranch,
And learned how to shore ride and shoot,
Also play and sing on the pianer,
And to tie down a wild steer to boot.
And charming-- why, partner, the sunbeams
They scrapped for the sweets of her face,
And the alkali dust and the zephyrs
They jockeyed to get second place.
So was it a wonder young Dawson,
The son of a neighbor of Pete,
Lost his heart to this rose of the prairie,
And his love for her couldn't be beat?
“Buck"-- that was the handle he went by,
Had pre-empted some learnin' at school,
Was a handsome and big, manly feller,
And in a gun-fight was shore cool.
And there wasn't no man round the country,
Could ride with him down the Red Lane,
He could rope, fork, and ride with clean saddle
Any outlaw that ever wore mane.
They'd been youngsters and brought up together,
And Dawson was shorely dead game,
His father a wealthy old-timer,
All burdened with early-day fame.
Yes, Beauty loved "Buck," that was certain,
But a gal's ways are never foreseen,
And you can't tell what's liable to happen
Be-tween the betwixt and between.
So when a young feller from college
Comes a-romancin' like out this way,
Well, things looked a little promiscuous,
And there was the devil to pay.
Of course, he was welcomed by Beauty,
As the flowers are welcomed in May;
His college pin pleased her, I reckon,
And he had a girl-catchin' way.
But wait till I roll me a smoke, pard,
To filter my bad feelin's down,
Makes me wanter shore squander some powder
When I ponder on that sneakin' houn'.
Well, we was all out on the round-up,
When this college masher, you see,
Ran off with old Yellowstone's daughter,
The pride of the 7 U. P.
Now, old Pete he shore worshipped his daughter,
Loved her better than money or life,
For she was the pride of his old age--
The gift of his beautiful wife.
So he and young Dawson together,
With hearts like the lead in their guns,
Hit the trail of this college-bred villain,
And secured him before many suns.
The gal they found up in Butte City-
He'd deserted her up there, you know;
But Dawson caught him near the border,
Where numerous cottonwoods grow.
And there, in the depths of the forest,
With the beasts and the birds lookin' on,
They fought to the death with their bowies,
Till the Eastern-bred feller was gone.
And Beauty-- she married "Buck" after,
But never seemed happy or gay,
Like the Beauty we'd worshipped from childhood,-
She just drooped, shrunk, and withered away.
Yes, she paled like the flowers in summer,
And died with the leaves in the fall ;
And we buried her close to her mother,
While the sunshine went out of us all.
Poor old Pete, his hair white as the snowdrift,
And eyes that stare vacant and old,
Sits and sobs at the foot of two gravestones,
All alone, whether hot days or cold.
All alone? No, for Buck often joins him,
Grim and stern, with his face like a stone;
Never smiling nowdays like he used to,
When he tries he winds up with a moan.
No, the sun don't shine quite as it used to,
And the wind has a lonesomer sound,
As it sings soft and mournful in summer,
And howls when old winter comes round.
Here are the links to original photos:
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/yellowstone-pete-passes-through-yellowstone-pete-news-photo/161995779
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/rppc-goldie-marion-robbins-aka-1904877006
https://www.phillipscountynews.com/story/2016/09/14/news/yellowstone-petes-only-daughte4302.html
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/52400720/goldie-marion-robbins/photo
2024.05.21 18:02 rosebird99 My bf 23M is screenshotting bikini pics of my sister 20F… How do I bring it up with him?
My boyfriend 23M and I 23F have been together for almost 5 years, so we have spent a lot of time with each other’s families. Last week I was going through his camera roll (with his permission) to help him dig up a profile photo for a new social account. Admittedly, further up than I should’ve scrolled, I did a double take on some pics I recognised as screenshots from mine and my sister’s 20F instagram stories. He had taken several screenshots of my sister’s ass from photos of her in a bikini posted online. This happened while he was preoccupied with something else and I was too shook to say something in the moment so I just panicked and left it. The more I think about it, the more disgusted I am by it. Honestly, this has come completely out of nowhere and I’m so indescribably uncomfortable with it all. I know that nothing has ever happened between the two of them (my sister would absolutely NEVER), so I don’t know if it comes down to him being attracted to the thought of something he can’t have??? Either way, wtf, I feel like a major unspoken boundary has been crossed here regardless. What would you do in this situation? How can I bring this up with him without him feeling like I invaded his privacy beyond looking for that PFP?
Update: Gotta clarify that we’ve always had a really great and secure relationship and he’s never shown any sort of weird or even flirty vibe towards another girl, let alone my sister 😭 Mostly just looking for advice on how to tackle this as I’m super torn up and shocked by the whole thing (pls be a little gentle as I clearly still love this guy!)
submitted by rosebird99 to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
Update: Gotta clarify that we’ve always had a really great and secure relationship and he’s never shown any sort of weird or even flirty vibe towards another girl, let alone my sister 😭 Mostly just looking for advice on how to tackle this as I’m super torn up and shocked by the whole thing (pls be a little gentle as I clearly still love this guy!)
2024.05.21 18:01 geistersuppe 24 [F4A] #Portland , Oregon - Looking for a fun adventure partner or/and someone to explore the city and hang out with!
Hi :)
I'm visiting Portland (I'm from Germany) in June for a week and hope that I can find some fun and kind people on here to hangout with or maybe even go on a small hike!
I was looking into Trips to the Coast or some Waterfalls on Get Your Guide but you can only do most of these with at least one other person, so if you'd be up for that as well let's go!!!! I don't plan to rent my own car in Portland because I have severe driving anxiety and driving in a different country would probably not go so well LOL so I was HOPING I could use Get Your Guide but oh well.
A little about me:
Definitely looking for someone kind and fun to hang out with! I'm visiting like at the end of June and also arriving on a Saturday lol I'm definitely fine hanging out on my own throughout the day but would LOVE to have someone to maybe grab a drink with, have dinner with basically do anything fun!
Please just be in the age range of 23-34 lol!
I'll also be in Portland over my Birthday lol, please someone have a drink with me. I mean I could be mysterious and have on at my hotel bar but its more fun with friends!
If we do get along very well over text I'll bring some sweets from Germany <3
submitted by geistersuppe to r4r [link] [comments]
I'm visiting Portland (I'm from Germany) in June for a week and hope that I can find some fun and kind people on here to hangout with or maybe even go on a small hike!
I was looking into Trips to the Coast or some Waterfalls on Get Your Guide but you can only do most of these with at least one other person, so if you'd be up for that as well let's go!!!! I don't plan to rent my own car in Portland because I have severe driving anxiety and driving in a different country would probably not go so well LOL so I was HOPING I could use Get Your Guide but oh well.
A little about me:
- 24, from Germany, but I'm half German, half Thai!
- I work in aviation and study business psychology on the side.
- I'll happily send a pic so you can put a face to this post but I'm not sure if its matters but I'm a curvy girl but I hit the gym, so I think I'd do decently on hikes lol.
- I enjoy nature, books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, anime and regular tv shows, gaming and of course traveling!
- Love Karaoke! I think I'm very balanced in enjoying a night out and loving to stay in.
- Music!!!!!!!! Like Anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- I can get excited about anything as well and love if people have the same energy!!!
- I'd describe my personality as sweet, kind, a little bit anxious and flirty lol.
- Get Donuts and all the goooood food
- Visit Powell's Book Store
- Go on a small Hike
- Find an open karaoke bar
- Live Music?
- Buy Magnets for Grandparents
- Buy Baseball Cap for my Dad
- Need Postcards!
Definitely looking for someone kind and fun to hang out with! I'm visiting like at the end of June and also arriving on a Saturday lol I'm definitely fine hanging out on my own throughout the day but would LOVE to have someone to maybe grab a drink with, have dinner with basically do anything fun!
Please just be in the age range of 23-34 lol!
I'll also be in Portland over my Birthday lol, please someone have a drink with me. I mean I could be mysterious and have on at my hotel bar but its more fun with friends!
If we do get along very well over text I'll bring some sweets from Germany <3
2024.05.21 17:52 Sure-Pin6003 Alpha male sigma grindset mentality
 | submitted by Sure-Pin6003 to coaxedintoasnafu [link] [comments] |
2024.05.21 17:39 TaMaDa1995 Crossing Boundaries
This is a long one. And a bit of a doozy, so stick with me lol.
I don’t really know what is and what isn’t relevant to this situation, so I’ll give as much back story and such as I can. But feel free to ask further questions or for clarification also.
So I (28F) started nannying for a single dad (31M) in November of 2023. And when I say single dad, I mean only parent single dad. The girls’ mom left 3 years ago and signed away her rights. They haven’t seen her or talked to her since. For reference, the girls are (almost) 5 and (newly) 6.
Everything started like a normal job. We didn’t text or talk unless it was to confirm me coming to his house at a certain date and time to watch the girls. Then in December, he started texting me outside of things related to nannying. He just wanted a friend. He moved states to get away from his ex and start his life with the girls over. Then those friendly texts started getting flirty and suggestive. To the point that eventually in January, we crossed those lines one night (the girls were asleep in their room and had no idea. Still don’t as far as I know)
We’ve been doing this back and forth off and on friends with benefits thing since January. We keep that stuff completely separate from nannying. Or as separate as we can.
Well anyway, the girls have really imprinted on me and have started calling me mom. We correct them. But it’s hard.
When I started nannying, it was just for the weekends. But in February I also started getting them ready in the mornings and taking them to school 3 of the 5 days a week. (He works Friday through Tuesday 6AM-2PM). I am also in charge of holidays that fall on days he works. We also do birthdays and stuff together. Sometimes the girls and I do overnights if he has to work early the next day. I also help out any other time he needs me. He has also stated he would like us to be on the same page with everything, especially discipline. Which sounds a lot like coparenting to me.
I like him. Like I really like him. And we’ve had this conversation. Recently. He doesn’t feel the same way. I’m continuing to nanny. The girls are the most important and come first always. I wouldn’t quit just because things between me and him are messy, confusing, and maybe a little awkward right now. I don’t believe in punishing children the decisions of adults. They wouldn’t understand this.
Then my pay is all sorts of fucked up. But that’s another thing entirely.
Anyway, I don’t really know what advice I’m asking for. But some guidance would be nice.
Feel free to ask questions and I’ll answer them as best as I can.
submitted by TaMaDa1995 to Nanny [link] [comments]
I don’t really know what is and what isn’t relevant to this situation, so I’ll give as much back story and such as I can. But feel free to ask further questions or for clarification also.
So I (28F) started nannying for a single dad (31M) in November of 2023. And when I say single dad, I mean only parent single dad. The girls’ mom left 3 years ago and signed away her rights. They haven’t seen her or talked to her since. For reference, the girls are (almost) 5 and (newly) 6.
Everything started like a normal job. We didn’t text or talk unless it was to confirm me coming to his house at a certain date and time to watch the girls. Then in December, he started texting me outside of things related to nannying. He just wanted a friend. He moved states to get away from his ex and start his life with the girls over. Then those friendly texts started getting flirty and suggestive. To the point that eventually in January, we crossed those lines one night (the girls were asleep in their room and had no idea. Still don’t as far as I know)
We’ve been doing this back and forth off and on friends with benefits thing since January. We keep that stuff completely separate from nannying. Or as separate as we can.
Well anyway, the girls have really imprinted on me and have started calling me mom. We correct them. But it’s hard.
When I started nannying, it was just for the weekends. But in February I also started getting them ready in the mornings and taking them to school 3 of the 5 days a week. (He works Friday through Tuesday 6AM-2PM). I am also in charge of holidays that fall on days he works. We also do birthdays and stuff together. Sometimes the girls and I do overnights if he has to work early the next day. I also help out any other time he needs me. He has also stated he would like us to be on the same page with everything, especially discipline. Which sounds a lot like coparenting to me.
I like him. Like I really like him. And we’ve had this conversation. Recently. He doesn’t feel the same way. I’m continuing to nanny. The girls are the most important and come first always. I wouldn’t quit just because things between me and him are messy, confusing, and maybe a little awkward right now. I don’t believe in punishing children the decisions of adults. They wouldn’t understand this.
Then my pay is all sorts of fucked up. But that’s another thing entirely.
Anyway, I don’t really know what advice I’m asking for. But some guidance would be nice.
Feel free to ask questions and I’ll answer them as best as I can.
2024.05.21 17:28 dirtynaders420 Crush on my coworker ’F30’, did I ‘M 32’ miss my opportunity or was a missing reading signs?
A little background on everything. I work at a bank so there’s only 12 employees. This new woman transferred about 3 months ago and I wasn’t interested in her at first. After a week she started coming over to my desk a few times a day with little questions or just to sit and chit chat. The chit chat quickly turned into the flirty teasing and banter between coworkers. Every time I’d walk to the printer or copier she would make eye contact and give a big smiles or a little cute look. We related being close in age while all of our other coworkers are +/- 10 years from us, her birthday is 3 days before mine both being in May. The more we talked the more I liked her but I was told by others that she did have a boyfriend. So about 2 months ago I helped her open a new account and as I’m opening the account we’re talking, I tell her this I am diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, I have a son that’s 2 and half, and that me and his mother broke up a few years ago. Fast forward about a week later she tells me she’s going to a walk that benefits my disease and asked if I would want to attend or if I think any of our coworkers would be interested as a group. I told her I wouldn’t expect people to go to a walk for me but I may be interested and I would let her know. A week later she ask about my plans for the weekend to which I tell her I’m with my son this weekend, and he’s always my #1 priority. About two weeks later she’s telling me about new shelves she’s getting and installing over the weekend and that she’s probably going to be doing it herself, while just looking at me. At this point I’m thinking she’s hinting that she wants me to help her but I’m also saying that if she has a boyfriend will this be awkward, so I didn’t say anything. The following Monday I asked how were the shelves and as she’s showing me pictures she’s says she got her boyfriend to help. Now I’m thinking ok she has a boyfriend she’s probably just very nice, so I started to suppress any feelings at had. So I chose not to go the benefit walk because it would’ve felt weird with her having a boyfriend. We still had a little banter and flirting but tried to keep it professional, especially if she has a boyfriend. Since then she will still lock eyes with me as I go to the printer and give me smiles and the cute look, but when I try to talk to her there’s something wrong or she’ll look at her phone. After all this another coworker told me that she is single. This weekend was her birthday and I texted her and wished a happy birthday and we joked about her only turning 22. We’re both off for our birthdays, with mine be this week I felt like asking her to hangout but I’m not sure if it’s smart. Was there anything there or was a miss reading signs, and if there was did I miss my opportunity?
submitted by dirtynaders420 to dating_advice [link] [comments]
2024.05.21 17:27 miserablendelusional I found out that the man I fell in love with was married.
I (27F) am in love with a man (33) for months. Actually we are not dating. We are not even friends. We don't live in the same country. He is not a celebrity but a peace activist. So there are some information about him and his work on Google. I watched his tedtalk, read his interviews and followed him on social media. Once I messaged him on Instagram. We talked a bit. But it was not a flirty talking. It was like "hey, I watched your tedtalk. It was very inspirational." "Thank you." "I also read your interviews. You are a smart and kind person." "Thank you very much, I am just trying to promote humanity and peace." And a little chitchat about our hobbies and countries. We only talked for a day. To be honest he was not very talkative. He rarely uses social media. I think about him every single day. I imagine that we are dating. We are living together. We are going to holidays. We are talking for hours. We are playing video games. We are having sex. I even dream of him while masturbating. There isn't much information about his private life on the internet. So all this time I assumed he was a single man. (He rarely posts on Instagram and it is usually nature photos and his dog.) Today I was searching about him on the internet again. I saw an interview. It says "he and his wife created an organization together." His wife. So he is married. I felt sick. I was frozen. I read the same article again and again. I just wanted to throw up. I wanted to disappear. Then I searched if they have a child. I couldn't find anything. I hope they don't have a child. I know is none of my business but I think I can't handle this right now. I feel so hopeless and helpless. Please, give me an honest advice. I need help. I am cold as ice right now. I feel like all my dreams and my future have been stolen.
submitted by miserablendelusional to offmychest [link] [comments]
2024.05.21 16:50 Character-Second-774 Can't Tell If She Likes Me or Just Being Nice
Having trouble reading the signs from a classmate. Here's the thing: she seems super uptight normally, but when I'm around, she's always down to try something new, even if it's a little risky. She tries to join in on whatever I'm doing, and even took a day off just to attend an event with me! We have great conversations, playful teasing (goes both ways!), and tons of eye contact. Sometimes she keeps glancing at me, even smiles at me from across the room for no reason. She's picked up all my slang and words! Now she uses them constantly. We have things like slangs and nicknames only we use for each other. She even said she'd kill me (joking) if I use that nickname for any other girl. On top of that, she keeps asking me a lot about myself. Now, the thing is, she's just a really nice person overall, so maybe I'm just overthinking it? My friends think we're both into each other, but I'm worried I'm being too dense and ruining a good friendship if she's just being friendly. She never makes any super obvious moves, and her texts can be a bit flirty, but never super clear-cut. Am I overthinking this? Is she just nice?
submitted by Character-Second-774 to dating_advice [link] [comments]
2024.05.21 16:45 Character-Second-774 Can't Tell If She Likes Me or Just Being Nice
Having trouble reading the signs from a classmate. Here's the thing: she seems super uptight normally, but when I'm around, she's always down to try something new, even if it's a little risky. She tries to join in on whatever I'm doing, and even took a day off just to attend an event with me! We have great conversations, playful teasing (goes both ways!), and tons of eye contact. Sometimes she keeps glancing at me, even smiles at me from across the room for no reason. She's picked up all my slang and words! Now she uses them constantly. We have things like slangs and nicknames only we use for each other. She even said she'd kill me (joking) if I use that nickname for any other girl. On top of that, she keeps asking me a lot about myself. Now, the thing is, she's just a really nice person overall, so maybe I'm just overthinking it? My friends think we're both into each other, but I'm worried I'm being too dense and ruining a good friendship if she's just being friendly. She never makes any super obvious moves, and her texts can be a bit flirty, but never super clear-cut. Am I overthinking this? Is she just nice?
submitted by Character-Second-774 to Crushes [link] [comments]
2024.05.21 15:40 This_Rub4353 Isn't it crazy how people you consider one of the most important people in your life can turn into complete strangers?
After going through a breakup with my girlfriend a few months ago, I found myself passing through the city where she lives. It's important to note that she lives far, about 300 km away from where I reside. While there, I visited some friends I had met during our time together and ended up seeing her working at the bar where she always used to work. The experience left me with a realization about relationships, prompting me to reflect on their significance and authenticity.
There was a time when our love felt unbreakable, filled with both tears and laughter. But now, in her presence, our connection felt fake and insubstantial, a mere shadow of what it once was. It's a strange feeling, watching someone who once knew you so intimately from a distance, now a stranger you barely recognize.
Of course, we'll both move on with our lives and find new paths. But the image of her, working away in that dimly lit bar, will forever be etched in my mind. It's a reminder of how easily love can come and go, how quickly things can change, and how we must cherish those we love while we can.
Has anyone have something similar happen to them before?
Here is a little poem I wrote, basically immediately after I saw her again:
In a foreign land I roamed, Passing by familiar streets I called my own, Amidst my journey, an unexpected slight, My lost love, now a mere barkeep, out of sight.
Once our love was strong, pure, and true, But now, in her presence, I feel so blue, Our connection, once a steadfast bond, reduced to nothingness, all gone.
I am but a mere mortal, insignificant, In this world, where love is transient, The time we shared now a distant memory, our once shared life, now a mystery.
Despite the pain, I move on, But the image of her remains etched upon, A reminder of what once was, A love lost, a forgotten cause.
Perhaps this is just my post-breakup sorrow, But it has made me ponder for tomorrow, Are relationships mere facades we adorn, Or is true love ever born? Has making love overpowered the real love? Can I trust anyone more than my life, ever?
submitted by This_Rub4353 to BreakUps [link] [comments]
There was a time when our love felt unbreakable, filled with both tears and laughter. But now, in her presence, our connection felt fake and insubstantial, a mere shadow of what it once was. It's a strange feeling, watching someone who once knew you so intimately from a distance, now a stranger you barely recognize.
Of course, we'll both move on with our lives and find new paths. But the image of her, working away in that dimly lit bar, will forever be etched in my mind. It's a reminder of how easily love can come and go, how quickly things can change, and how we must cherish those we love while we can.
Has anyone have something similar happen to them before?
Here is a little poem I wrote, basically immediately after I saw her again:
In a foreign land I roamed, Passing by familiar streets I called my own, Amidst my journey, an unexpected slight, My lost love, now a mere barkeep, out of sight.
Once our love was strong, pure, and true, But now, in her presence, I feel so blue, Our connection, once a steadfast bond, reduced to nothingness, all gone.
I am but a mere mortal, insignificant, In this world, where love is transient, The time we shared now a distant memory, our once shared life, now a mystery.
Despite the pain, I move on, But the image of her remains etched upon, A reminder of what once was, A love lost, a forgotten cause.
Perhaps this is just my post-breakup sorrow, But it has made me ponder for tomorrow, Are relationships mere facades we adorn, Or is true love ever born? Has making love overpowered the real love? Can I trust anyone more than my life, ever?
2024.05.21 15:33 its_sanaa Guys need help ASAP what to do
There is a guy in my college. When I knew he liked me through ( someone wrote confession on our college confession page but the writter was not mentioned but my name was mentioned in it. And I m sure that it is him xyz. When I found out 1 month after the confession page existence I was really happy about it that someone wrote confession for me.). When I knew that it was the same guy who kept looking at me all the time. ( Before the confession post one fb. I was drinking water alone in college classroom, He came in with his few friend and When I was about to leave the room, he said my heart just skip a beat when I entered the room. And I heard that like bruhhhh). So, I was sure that it was that same guy. But I have some feeling for him. I have never been in a relationship my entire life. I am introvert.
The main problem is I am really feeling uncomfortable these days. Is it just me or you guys also feel that like a uncomfortable feeling. I was checking his instagram these days he was not mutual friend with my girls classmate but now he is with some. ( he is from another section but same batch) Someone also mentioned my id on that comment section on the confession post. That was a friend of mine, he wasn't friend before but he is now after that confession post. Like wtf, if you like me that much can't you even sent friend request to me or follow on insta. I am introvert but he is not. It just pisses me out. I just hate this, out of nowhere I just passed. When he look at me I feel little uncomfortable but when I reach home thinking about it makes me happy. I don't know what should I do. I am just ignoring and not making eye contact with him. Because if he wanted he would.( I guess 🥲). It was first written on December and now it's May( he almost wrote 4 5 poem about the confession, it was cute). I don't have guts to send him request on social media. I also want to change my college. I have been ignoring people who liked me (they never told me but you kinda felt it). I am hopeless. (I just felt bad for everyone who is introvert like you are just scared of expressing love not even speaking a single word). I am just feeling pathetic these days. When I was listening emotional music I was crying just fearing about how genuinely he liked me but how pathetic it is that I can't even express my feeling. I scared about if it goes this way he will also forget me like others who liked me and forgat about me when I ignored. I guess nothing can be done.
submitted by its_sanaa to Crushes [link] [comments]
The main problem is I am really feeling uncomfortable these days. Is it just me or you guys also feel that like a uncomfortable feeling. I was checking his instagram these days he was not mutual friend with my girls classmate but now he is with some. ( he is from another section but same batch) Someone also mentioned my id on that comment section on the confession post. That was a friend of mine, he wasn't friend before but he is now after that confession post. Like wtf, if you like me that much can't you even sent friend request to me or follow on insta. I am introvert but he is not. It just pisses me out. I just hate this, out of nowhere I just passed. When he look at me I feel little uncomfortable but when I reach home thinking about it makes me happy. I don't know what should I do. I am just ignoring and not making eye contact with him. Because if he wanted he would.( I guess 🥲). It was first written on December and now it's May( he almost wrote 4 5 poem about the confession, it was cute). I don't have guts to send him request on social media. I also want to change my college. I have been ignoring people who liked me (they never told me but you kinda felt it). I am hopeless. (I just felt bad for everyone who is introvert like you are just scared of expressing love not even speaking a single word). I am just feeling pathetic these days. When I was listening emotional music I was crying just fearing about how genuinely he liked me but how pathetic it is that I can't even express my feeling. I scared about if it goes this way he will also forget me like others who liked me and forgat about me when I ignored. I guess nothing can be done.
2024.05.21 14:58 FarragutCircle Reading The Big Book of Cyberpunk, Week 17
Welcome to Reading The Big Book of Cyberpunk!
Each week we (u/FarragutCircle and u/fanny_bertram) will be reading 5-ish stories from Jared Shurin’s The Big Book of Cyberpunk, which includes a curated selection of cyberpunk stories written from 1950 to 2022! We’ll include synopses of the stories along with links to any legally available online versions we can find. Feel free to read along with us or just stop by and hear our thoughts about some cyberpunk stories to decide if any of them sound interesting to you.
Every once in a while, we reach out to people who have more insight, due to being fans of the author or have some additional context for the story. (Or we just tricked them into it.) So please welcome u/RuinEleint who will be sharing their thoughts on "The Yuletide Cyberpunk Yarn, or Christmas_Eve-117.DIR" by Victor Pelevin!
“Deep Eddy” by Bruce Sterling (published 1993; also available in his collection Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling)
Deep Eddy is acting as a data courier to the Cultural Critic in Düsseldorf, right as the city goes through a Wende (a sort of anarchist “Purge”).
A corrupt mayor’s computer is infected by a virus that causes chaos in Russia.
Lalo (or is it Eduardo?) wakes up every day in the most awesome life in 1974, but it’s revealed to be a lie and ends tragically.
A FAQ-style story that clearly describes a bizarre future where images on the web and TV are banned due to the risk of death.
Spider, uh, does something? Is looking for drugs, maybe? But something else happens instead?
Also posted on Bochord Online.
submitted by FarragutCircle to Fantasy [link] [comments]
Each week we (u/FarragutCircle and u/fanny_bertram) will be reading 5-ish stories from Jared Shurin’s The Big Book of Cyberpunk, which includes a curated selection of cyberpunk stories written from 1950 to 2022! We’ll include synopses of the stories along with links to any legally available online versions we can find. Feel free to read along with us or just stop by and hear our thoughts about some cyberpunk stories to decide if any of them sound interesting to you.
Every once in a while, we reach out to people who have more insight, due to being fans of the author or have some additional context for the story. (Or we just tricked them into it.) So please welcome u/RuinEleint who will be sharing their thoughts on "The Yuletide Cyberpunk Yarn, or Christmas_Eve-117.DIR" by Victor Pelevin!
“Deep Eddy” by Bruce Sterling (published 1993; also available in his collection Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling)
Deep Eddy is acting as a data courier to the Cultural Critic in Düsseldorf, right as the city goes through a Wende (a sort of anarchist “Purge”).
- Farragut’s thoughts: We’ve read Sterling before in Science Fiction. Eddy is a misguided libertarian creep who won’t stop hitting on his German bodyguard and is too dumb to understand the philosophical points that the Cultural Critic is making (for that matter, I’m too dumb to understand, too). He survives his time in Germany, but has learned nothing of value for his punk attitude. What’s the point of rebelling if you don’t understand why? The naivete and creepiness were a little too much for me.
- fanny’s thoughts: This did not work for me. Eddy is creepy and annoying. He keeps hitting on the bodyguard and she makes it VERY clear she is only there in a professional context. Eddy also seems to generally not have any clue what he is doing. He is libertarian and against something but no one seems to know what. He doesn't even seem to know what he delivered to the Cultural Critic.
A corrupt mayor’s computer is infected by a virus that causes chaos in Russia.
- Special Guest Ruin: This was a fascinating story to read. The way the narrative segued from a discussion on poetry to a darkly comedic look at a Russian city was remarkable. The author seems to like to start or lead with a theme or themes which seem to be only tangentially related to each other such as for example the name of the computer virus, or Gerasimov and his dog. But both elements circle back into the story and are crucial to its structure. As for the content of the story itself, I amused myself by imagining the events as being a movie that blended the stylistic elements of Tarantino and Wes Anderson. So we have brutal, bloody violence in increasingly absurd settings and the way it is all described makes it easy to imagine it all taking place amidst the highly stylized sets and characters we would expect in a Wes Anderson movie. Overall, I really enjoyed this story.
- Farragut: We’ve read Pelevin before in Modern Fantasy. First of all, this is a fantastic title for a story, period. Second of all, I just enjoyed Pelevin’s style here (via Shvartsman’s translation), with an omniscient narrator telling us about a completely ridiculous situation. It gets a little cagey with the identity of the perpetrator and the ending, but I’m very curious as to how darkly I should read it (now that I think about it, it’s directly connected to the original, so I should read it very darkly indeed). Shvartsman’s occasional footnotes were very helpful, however, especially with the context surrounding Gerasim(ov) and Mumu.
- fanny: Ruin's review is so good, I am not sure what to add. The style of this story fit the elements so well. It starts with a poem whose themes carry through the story. The footnotes were a really great addition and helped contextualize. The narrator keeps upping the ridiculousness until we get to the end and everything gets wrapped up.
Lalo (or is it Eduardo?) wakes up every day in the most awesome life in 1974, but it’s revealed to be a lie and ends tragically.
- Farragut: Bef is a Mexican SF writer, a crime writer, and a graphic novelist, and honestly his whole bibliography sounds cool as heck. Told in a series of diary entries with some small interruptions, we follow a kid whose life is like a Mexican kid’s sugar-fueled dream. The reason for its inclusion in this thematic section of the anthology becomes clear however, and I yelled, “Noooo!” at the ending. Sigh. It’s very good!
- fanny: I am a sucker for diary entry style stories and this was no exception. Lalo’s life seems almost perfect, but it feels so off. The story feels progressively more off until we start to question everything. Also, yelled “Nooo!” at the ending. Very good. Absolutely loved.
A FAQ-style story that clearly describes a bizarre future where images on the web and TV are banned due to the risk of death.
- Farragut: Langford is famous for having the most Hugo wins (29), mostly for the Fan Writer category, but also Short Story (not this one) and Best Related Work (not this one either). This is a delightful story that made me think of it as a precursor to qntm’s later story “Lena” from Week 5 (though obviously only in general form). Apparently I love the faux-nonfiction style where some of the horror and plot is between the lines. The final FAQ about Microsoft was darkly funny.
- fanny: This was fun and very short. The FAQs related to basilisk and writing were great. It goes between funny, dark humor, and just dark. I liked the commentary on technology and software. I also really appreciate the standard response answers explaining they should post someone else. This is something I deal with often and this was great.
Spider, uh, does something? Is looking for drugs, maybe? But something else happens instead?
- Farragut: Çakan is a German writer from Hamburg, and after reading this story, I’d say Shurin made hamburger out of me, too. The main thing I got out of this story was that Spider really wanted something, maybe. I thought it was drugs, but he got angry at his dealer and then got super weird with his friend’s girlfriend? And then there was a Silver Spider, who wasn’t him, but maybe he plugged himself in to replace her? What is happening?
- fanny: Spider definitely wanted drugs from his dealer, Ant. I think. Ant got annoyed at something then Spider got into a voyeur situation (maybe). There is a Silver Spider in his dreams that makes him feel better. I couldn't tell if this was dream or drug induced or technology induced. The end is super weird and makes even less sense than the story. Spider might have done a murder on himself? I have been confused before in this anthology, but not to this level.
Also posted on Bochord Online.
2024.05.21 14:36 InfectedEllie Need help with my insecurities with a LDR 28M 25F
So about a month back my girlfriend wrote me a poem, it’s was brilliant and since it was about me it felt even more special. Last Tuesday she turned it into a song and sent it me, and said make sure nobody is around when you play it. I assumed since it was about me and because she said make sure “nobody is around when you play it” she only sent it me. Yesterday I found out she sent it to my best friend too. When I asked her about it she messaged my friend asking “did you tell X about the song I sent you” he replied “yes! I thought he knew” and her reply was “he knew but not that I told you” This made me overthink since I wasn’t sure why she’d keep it a secret.
Normally this wouldn’t make me go and ask a bunch of strangers on the internet for advice, but because the background of how we got together is a little complicated and it really played on my mind.
My best friend (who the song was sent too) also liked my girlfriend and took it quite hard when he knew we got together, but eventually got over it and during a trip to Australia we were talking about it and he was telling me how they had “dry humped and did other things with each other on a trip to queenstown” I am almost certain this never happened since we were in a hostel and there were 4 of us in the room, but he mentioned it more than once, And it keeps playing on my mind which I think was his goal. So when I see they’re quite close texting each other I get insecure.
I trust her 100% and I really do love her but I hate how close she is with my friend. And despite her knowing she upset me, she still hasn’t apologised.
How do you overcome insecurity?
submitted by InfectedEllie to LongDistance [link] [comments]
Normally this wouldn’t make me go and ask a bunch of strangers on the internet for advice, but because the background of how we got together is a little complicated and it really played on my mind.
My best friend (who the song was sent too) also liked my girlfriend and took it quite hard when he knew we got together, but eventually got over it and during a trip to Australia we were talking about it and he was telling me how they had “dry humped and did other things with each other on a trip to queenstown” I am almost certain this never happened since we were in a hostel and there were 4 of us in the room, but he mentioned it more than once, And it keeps playing on my mind which I think was his goal. So when I see they’re quite close texting each other I get insecure.
I trust her 100% and I really do love her but I hate how close she is with my friend. And despite her knowing she upset me, she still hasn’t apologised.
How do you overcome insecurity?
2024.05.21 14:04 ThrowRA-throwmeout How do I (24F) tell my bf (35M) that I cheated on him?
I F24 messed up everything. I’ve been with my partner M35 for almost 3 years. I know the age difference is big, but in his defence I lied about my age on the dating app so that I could meet older men. He knew from the first date and decided to still give it a try. Anyways, we’ve always been perfect. Never a single argument, we always resolve everything. He’s bought a new flat and is waiting for the keys, which should’ve happened weeks ago but solicitors are awful. For the last 2-3 months we’ve been living at my mums house as he had to move out quickly of his old flat due to a crazy roommate and my mum was more than happy to have him here. This is where the issues started. My mum is very dependant on me emotionally, more than what is healthy, so is my younger sister. I’ve been struggling to be a daughter and a girlfriend. I’ve been feeling suffocated etc, whatever.
Anyways, thoughts started running through my mind about the relationship and doubts, I’ve never moved in with a man before, what if it all becomes a shit show? We usually have sex everyday but that’s been difficult at my mums. We always reconnect with each other through sex and without it, we’ve been tense. So to the cheating- he went on a business trip for 2 weeks. I meet up with friends on a weekly basis for an activity. I’d like to say my partner and I are very flirty with everyone, it’s just how we are together and separately. My friends know this and we always have a little flirt. It’s 2 girls and 1 guy. When we travel for dinner after our activity, the two girls go together as they’re closer and I go with the guy, someone I’ve known since I was 5. We were always flirty as kids and teens but were never close or anything. Anyways, in the car he kisses me and after a while I kiss back. I really enjoyed it, we were flirty all night. I knew it was wrong but it felt so good to have something new and exciting. I didn’t want him, I knew he wouldn’t be as good as my partner or anywhere near as fun, but for some reason I loved it. For the rest of the week I was excited about it. I don’t know why, I’m young and dumb and then it hit me how bad it all was. It wasn’t just a kiss, it was quite passionate, there was grabbing and touching and afterwards flirty messages that I’ve had to delete out of disgust and guilt.
The guilt is eating me alive. I know I need to tell him but I don’t know how. It’s his birthday in 2 days, we have a huge party on the weekend. Regardless of that, how do I tell him while he’s still living at my mums? What if he wants to go somewhere else, where will he go? I don’t know how he’ll react. He loves me so much. I love him so much, but clearly I lack respect. I can’t even use the drunk excuse as I was sober when I was texting the days after. Do I wait until he gets the new flat so he can make the decision to leave and have his own space? He’s my best friend, my confidant, my comedian, my sexy man, my home, and i fucked it all for what? A passionate kiss to make me forget my living situation?
This is no excuse, but it has been hard at home. My mum goes through a lot, I am basically a second parent to my sister who is now experimenting with drugs, things aren’t easy and I always went to my boyfriends as an escape at times. I think I went crazy without that escape and made a stupid mistake. The worst part is that I enjoyed the thrill when it happened. I’m so angry at myself. I still get butterflies for my boyfriend, I’ve been thrilled enough. Now I can’t believe I’ve done something to hurt him. I feel it’s best to not tell him and move on but at the same time it’s eating me alive and he needs to know so he can decide what to do. He’s said in the past he’d forgive me for cheating (it was a weird topic we were on) but I can’t hold him to that. I have to tell him, but when? How? If he does forgive me, how do I forgive myself? I can’t imagine him looking at me differently. I’ve been acting weird for weeks because I feel I don’t deserve him, and I don’t. He makes these grand gestures of his love, he genuinely loves me so so much and I’m about to ruin it all.. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I’m descending into madness, all deserved, but I want it to stop. Please help me
TLDR- I doubted my relationship with my partner of almost 3 years and kissed an old friend, it’s eating me alive. Don’t know how to tell my bf as we are both currently living in my mother’s house until he gets his flat keys.
submitted by ThrowRA-throwmeout to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
Anyways, thoughts started running through my mind about the relationship and doubts, I’ve never moved in with a man before, what if it all becomes a shit show? We usually have sex everyday but that’s been difficult at my mums. We always reconnect with each other through sex and without it, we’ve been tense. So to the cheating- he went on a business trip for 2 weeks. I meet up with friends on a weekly basis for an activity. I’d like to say my partner and I are very flirty with everyone, it’s just how we are together and separately. My friends know this and we always have a little flirt. It’s 2 girls and 1 guy. When we travel for dinner after our activity, the two girls go together as they’re closer and I go with the guy, someone I’ve known since I was 5. We were always flirty as kids and teens but were never close or anything. Anyways, in the car he kisses me and after a while I kiss back. I really enjoyed it, we were flirty all night. I knew it was wrong but it felt so good to have something new and exciting. I didn’t want him, I knew he wouldn’t be as good as my partner or anywhere near as fun, but for some reason I loved it. For the rest of the week I was excited about it. I don’t know why, I’m young and dumb and then it hit me how bad it all was. It wasn’t just a kiss, it was quite passionate, there was grabbing and touching and afterwards flirty messages that I’ve had to delete out of disgust and guilt.
The guilt is eating me alive. I know I need to tell him but I don’t know how. It’s his birthday in 2 days, we have a huge party on the weekend. Regardless of that, how do I tell him while he’s still living at my mums? What if he wants to go somewhere else, where will he go? I don’t know how he’ll react. He loves me so much. I love him so much, but clearly I lack respect. I can’t even use the drunk excuse as I was sober when I was texting the days after. Do I wait until he gets the new flat so he can make the decision to leave and have his own space? He’s my best friend, my confidant, my comedian, my sexy man, my home, and i fucked it all for what? A passionate kiss to make me forget my living situation?
This is no excuse, but it has been hard at home. My mum goes through a lot, I am basically a second parent to my sister who is now experimenting with drugs, things aren’t easy and I always went to my boyfriends as an escape at times. I think I went crazy without that escape and made a stupid mistake. The worst part is that I enjoyed the thrill when it happened. I’m so angry at myself. I still get butterflies for my boyfriend, I’ve been thrilled enough. Now I can’t believe I’ve done something to hurt him. I feel it’s best to not tell him and move on but at the same time it’s eating me alive and he needs to know so he can decide what to do. He’s said in the past he’d forgive me for cheating (it was a weird topic we were on) but I can’t hold him to that. I have to tell him, but when? How? If he does forgive me, how do I forgive myself? I can’t imagine him looking at me differently. I’ve been acting weird for weeks because I feel I don’t deserve him, and I don’t. He makes these grand gestures of his love, he genuinely loves me so so much and I’m about to ruin it all.. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I’m descending into madness, all deserved, but I want it to stop. Please help me
TLDR- I doubted my relationship with my partner of almost 3 years and kissed an old friend, it’s eating me alive. Don’t know how to tell my bf as we are both currently living in my mother’s house until he gets his flat keys.
2024.05.21 13:57 thrownketchuppacket I (18F) think I love my best friends (18F) brother (19M)
I don’t know what to do…. So reddit it is.
About three years ago I got out of a bad relationship. I swore I wouldn’t catch feelings with someone until I was ready, but this snuck up on me.
I didn’t mean to fall for him, I just remember seeing him always helping, being kind and adorably awkward. Once I caught on I tried to deny it but I reached a point where I couldn’t.
Then we started working together and I saw more of him. Turns out he’s also really funny. We teased each other a lot and it first I knew it was just friendly but now I’m not so sure….
Here’s a brief list of things he’s done that’s made me question -Stayed up two hours after his shifted ended to make sure I was okay with my later shift (until 3am) -Said he’d only do that for me -Offered to come back to work because I said I was struggling, got in his car before I actually asked and then I had to tell him to stay home -then said if I ever needed him, he’d be there -gave me a special part of uniform he no longer needed (said he wanted me to have it) -more flirty teasing and didn’t deny when my friends accused him of flirting
Is he flirting?? I’m torn because maybe he just views me as his sisters friend. Or he’s just an absolute gentleman?
He no longer works with me and I really miss it, not just because of the crush, but because I miss hanging out with him and being friends. He’s not perfect ik, but he makes me happy.
If he is interested, his sister has said it would be weird if one of her friends dated her brother explicitly to me. I love her and would never want to hurt/upset her by doing this, but I’ve never felt so genuinely for someone who I know would treat me with so so much respect. I also know it would be different if it was just a little crush, but it’s been two years now.
They both mean so much to me, what do I do if he does like me? I have so many questions and there’s so many variables so maybe I’m stupid for asking what to do if he is interested because he might not be. I just can’t ask my best friend about this or him without admitting how I feel.
TL;DR - I’ve liked my best friends brother for two years and think maybe he likes me back. She’s not okay with one of her friends dating him. How do I know if he likes me and, if he does, how do I make it work without ruining our friendship?
submitted by thrownketchuppacket to Crushes [link] [comments]
About three years ago I got out of a bad relationship. I swore I wouldn’t catch feelings with someone until I was ready, but this snuck up on me.
I didn’t mean to fall for him, I just remember seeing him always helping, being kind and adorably awkward. Once I caught on I tried to deny it but I reached a point where I couldn’t.
Then we started working together and I saw more of him. Turns out he’s also really funny. We teased each other a lot and it first I knew it was just friendly but now I’m not so sure….
Here’s a brief list of things he’s done that’s made me question -Stayed up two hours after his shifted ended to make sure I was okay with my later shift (until 3am) -Said he’d only do that for me -Offered to come back to work because I said I was struggling, got in his car before I actually asked and then I had to tell him to stay home -then said if I ever needed him, he’d be there -gave me a special part of uniform he no longer needed (said he wanted me to have it) -more flirty teasing and didn’t deny when my friends accused him of flirting
Is he flirting?? I’m torn because maybe he just views me as his sisters friend. Or he’s just an absolute gentleman?
He no longer works with me and I really miss it, not just because of the crush, but because I miss hanging out with him and being friends. He’s not perfect ik, but he makes me happy.
If he is interested, his sister has said it would be weird if one of her friends dated her brother explicitly to me. I love her and would never want to hurt/upset her by doing this, but I’ve never felt so genuinely for someone who I know would treat me with so so much respect. I also know it would be different if it was just a little crush, but it’s been two years now.
They both mean so much to me, what do I do if he does like me? I have so many questions and there’s so many variables so maybe I’m stupid for asking what to do if he is interested because he might not be. I just can’t ask my best friend about this or him without admitting how I feel.
TL;DR - I’ve liked my best friends brother for two years and think maybe he likes me back. She’s not okay with one of her friends dating him. How do I know if he likes me and, if he does, how do I make it work without ruining our friendship?
2024.05.21 13:47 Debblesxo 27[F4M] Europe/Anywhere/Online - Looking for my golden retriever boyfriend!
Hi :)
I'm Deb, 27, from Belgium and looking for someone to fall in love with! I don't really care where you're from (I'm open to long distance), but I do care that we both put in the effort :)
Here's a little about me:
I'm 5'7, curvy with dyed hair and hazel eyes.
I'm a huge animal lover and have a cat and dog of my own, and yes, I'll gladly share pictures.
I'm a huge foodie. I love discovering new recipes, desserts, and main courses but mostly a pasta lover. Some of my favorites are chicken Alfredo, tiramisu, mac and cheese (simple but so gooooood), creme brulee aaaaaand homemade pizza!
I'm a gamer. I play shooters mostly, on PC (PC masterrace ofc) games like Overwatch, COD, Siege, and some CS2. I also play the Sims whenever I feel a little overwhelmed.
I adore listening to music. If you've got a favorite song or artist, send them my way! I've mostly been listening to Noah Kahan, Benson Boone, Beyonce, Taylor Swifts new album and some Hozier!
Now as to what I'm looking for: Someone who can sweep me off my feet! I would love someone who matches my vibe. Someone who maybe gets a little obsessed with me (in a cute way😂), someone who doesn't mind me spamming them, either with selfies or with tiktoks. I love sending and receiving voicenotes so I'd love it if you do too :) I'm a flirty person when the energy feels right, so bring your A-game!
If you've read this far, (congratulations, because I can rant) don't hesitate to shoot me a message with a little introduction, a picture of yourself, if you don't mind, and let's get this chat going :)
(Please be between 26-36 if you decide to message me)
submitted by Debblesxo to ForeverAloneDating [link] [comments]
I'm Deb, 27, from Belgium and looking for someone to fall in love with! I don't really care where you're from (I'm open to long distance), but I do care that we both put in the effort :)
Here's a little about me:
I'm 5'7, curvy with dyed hair and hazel eyes.
I'm a huge animal lover and have a cat and dog of my own, and yes, I'll gladly share pictures.
I'm a huge foodie. I love discovering new recipes, desserts, and main courses but mostly a pasta lover. Some of my favorites are chicken Alfredo, tiramisu, mac and cheese (simple but so gooooood), creme brulee aaaaaand homemade pizza!
I'm a gamer. I play shooters mostly, on PC (PC masterrace ofc) games like Overwatch, COD, Siege, and some CS2. I also play the Sims whenever I feel a little overwhelmed.
I adore listening to music. If you've got a favorite song or artist, send them my way! I've mostly been listening to Noah Kahan, Benson Boone, Beyonce, Taylor Swifts new album and some Hozier!
Now as to what I'm looking for: Someone who can sweep me off my feet! I would love someone who matches my vibe. Someone who maybe gets a little obsessed with me (in a cute way😂), someone who doesn't mind me spamming them, either with selfies or with tiktoks. I love sending and receiving voicenotes so I'd love it if you do too :) I'm a flirty person when the energy feels right, so bring your A-game!
If you've read this far, (congratulations, because I can rant) don't hesitate to shoot me a message with a little introduction, a picture of yourself, if you don't mind, and let's get this chat going :)
(Please be between 26-36 if you decide to message me)
2024.05.21 13:47 thrownketchuppacket I think (18F) I love my best friends (18F) brother (19M)
I don’t know what to do…. So reddit it is.
About three years ago I got out of a bad relationship. I swore I wouldn’t catch feelings with someone until I was ready, but this snuck up on me.
I didn’t mean to fall for him, I just remember seeing him always helping, being kind and adorably awkward. Once I caught on I tried to deny it but I reached a point where I couldn’t.
Then we started working together and I saw more of him. Turns out he’s also really funny. We teased each other a lot and it first I knew it was just friendly but now I’m not so sure….
Here’s a brief list of things he’s done that’s made me question -Stayed up two hours after his shifted ended to make sure I was okay with my later shift (until 3am) -Said he’d only do that for me -Offered to come back to work because I said I was struggling, got in his car before I actually asked and then I had to tell him to stay home -then said if I ever needed him, he’d be there -gave me a special part of uniform he no longer needed (said he wanted me to have it) -more flirty teasing and didn’t deny when my friends accused him of flirting
Is he flirting?? I’m torn because maybe he just views me as his sisters friend. Or he’s just an absolute gentleman?
He no longer works with me and I really miss it, not just because of the crush, but because I miss hanging out with him and being friends. He’s not perfect ik, but he makes me happy.
If he is interested, his sister has said it would be weird if one of her friends dated her brother explicitly to me. I love her and would never want to hurt/upset her by doing this, but I’ve never felt so genuinely for someone who I know would treat me with so so much respect. I also know it would be different if it was just a little crush, but it’s been two years now.
They both mean so much to me, what do I do if he does like me? I have so many questions and there’s so many variables so maybe I’m stupid for asking what to do if he is interested because he might not be. I just can’t ask my best friend about this or him without admitting how I feel.
TL;DR - I’ve liked my best friends brother for two years and think maybe he likes me back. She’s not okay with one of her friends dating him. How do I know if he likes me and, if he does, how do I make it work without ruining our friendship?
submitted by thrownketchuppacket to relationships [link] [comments]
About three years ago I got out of a bad relationship. I swore I wouldn’t catch feelings with someone until I was ready, but this snuck up on me.
I didn’t mean to fall for him, I just remember seeing him always helping, being kind and adorably awkward. Once I caught on I tried to deny it but I reached a point where I couldn’t.
Then we started working together and I saw more of him. Turns out he’s also really funny. We teased each other a lot and it first I knew it was just friendly but now I’m not so sure….
Here’s a brief list of things he’s done that’s made me question -Stayed up two hours after his shifted ended to make sure I was okay with my later shift (until 3am) -Said he’d only do that for me -Offered to come back to work because I said I was struggling, got in his car before I actually asked and then I had to tell him to stay home -then said if I ever needed him, he’d be there -gave me a special part of uniform he no longer needed (said he wanted me to have it) -more flirty teasing and didn’t deny when my friends accused him of flirting
Is he flirting?? I’m torn because maybe he just views me as his sisters friend. Or he’s just an absolute gentleman?
He no longer works with me and I really miss it, not just because of the crush, but because I miss hanging out with him and being friends. He’s not perfect ik, but he makes me happy.
If he is interested, his sister has said it would be weird if one of her friends dated her brother explicitly to me. I love her and would never want to hurt/upset her by doing this, but I’ve never felt so genuinely for someone who I know would treat me with so so much respect. I also know it would be different if it was just a little crush, but it’s been two years now.
They both mean so much to me, what do I do if he does like me? I have so many questions and there’s so many variables so maybe I’m stupid for asking what to do if he is interested because he might not be. I just can’t ask my best friend about this or him without admitting how I feel.
TL;DR - I’ve liked my best friends brother for two years and think maybe he likes me back. She’s not okay with one of her friends dating him. How do I know if he likes me and, if he does, how do I make it work without ruining our friendship?
2024.05.21 13:42 throw_away_and-hide How do I tell my boyfriend I cheated on him?
I F24 messed up everything. I’ve been with my partner M35 for almost 3 years. I know the age difference is big, but in his defence I lied about my age on the dating app so that I could meet older men. He knew from the first date and decided to still give it a try. Anyways, we’ve always been perfect. Never a single argument, we always resolve everything. He’s bought a new flat and is waiting for the keys, which should’ve happened weeks ago but solicitors are awful. For the last 2-3 months we’ve been living at my mums house as he had to move out quickly of his old flat due to a crazy roommate and my mum was more than happy to have him here. This is where the issues started. My mum is very dependant on me emotionally, more than what is healthy, so is my younger sister. I’ve been struggling to be a daughter and a girlfriend. I’ve been feeling suffocated etc, whatever.
Anyways, thoughts started running through my mind about the relationship and doubts, I’ve never moved in with a man before, what if it all becomes a shit show? We usually have sex everyday but that’s been difficult at my mums. We always reconnect with each other through sex and without it, we’ve been tense. So to the cheating- he went on a business trip for 2 weeks. I meet up with friends on a weekly basis for an activity. I’d like to say my partner and I are very flirty with everyone, it’s just how we are together and separately. My friends know this and we always have a little flirt. It’s 2 girls and 1 guy. When we travel for dinner after our activity, the two girls go together as they’re closer and I go with the guy, someone I’ve known since I was 5. We were always flirty as kids and teens but were never close or anything. Anyways, in the car he kisses me and after a while I kiss back. I really enjoyed it, we were flirty all night. I knew it was wrong but it felt so good to have something new and exciting. I didn’t want him, I knew he wouldn’t be as good as my partner or anywhere near as fun, but for some reason I loved it. For the rest of the week I was excited about it. I don’t know why, I’m young and dumb and then it hit me how bad it all was. It wasn’t just a kiss, it was quite passionate, there was grabbing and touching and afterwards flirty messages that I’ve had to delete out of disgust and guilt.
The guilt is eating me alive. I know I need to tell him but I don’t know how. It’s his birthday in 2 days, we have a huge party on the weekend. Regardless of that, how do I tell him while he’s still living at my mums? What if he wants to go somewhere else, where will he go? I don’t know how he’ll react. He loves me so much. I love him so much, but clearly I lack respect. I can’t even use the drunk excuse as I was sober when I was texting the days after. Do I wait until he gets the new flat so he can make the decision to leave and have his own space? He’s my best friend, my confidant, my comedian, my sexy man, my home, and i fucked it all for what? A passionate kiss to make me forget my living situation?
This is no excuse, but it has been hard at home. My mum goes through a lot, I am basically a second parent to my sister who is now experimenting with drugs, things aren’t easy and I always went to my boyfriends as an escape at times. I think I went crazy without that escape and made a stupid mistake. The worst part is that I enjoyed the thrill when it happened. I’m so angry at myself. I still get butterflies for my boyfriend, I’ve been thrilled enough. Now I can’t believe I’ve done something to hurt him. I feel it’s best to not tell him and move on but at the same time it’s eating me alive and he needs to know so he can decide what to do. He’s said in the past he’d forgive me for cheating (it was a weird topic we were on) but I can’t hold him to that. I have to tell him, but when? How? If he does forgive me, how do I forgive myself? I can’t imagine him looking at me differently. I’ve been acting weird for weeks because I feel I don’t deserve him, and I don’t. He makes these grand gestures of his love, he genuinely loves me so so much and I’m about to ruin it all.. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I’m descending into madness, all deserved, but I want it to stop. Please help me
TLDR- I doubted my relationship with my partner of almost 3 years and kissed an old friend, it’s eating me alive. Don’t know how to tell my bf as we are both currently living in my mother’s house until he gets his flat keys.
submitted by throw_away_and-hide to relationships [link] [comments]
Anyways, thoughts started running through my mind about the relationship and doubts, I’ve never moved in with a man before, what if it all becomes a shit show? We usually have sex everyday but that’s been difficult at my mums. We always reconnect with each other through sex and without it, we’ve been tense. So to the cheating- he went on a business trip for 2 weeks. I meet up with friends on a weekly basis for an activity. I’d like to say my partner and I are very flirty with everyone, it’s just how we are together and separately. My friends know this and we always have a little flirt. It’s 2 girls and 1 guy. When we travel for dinner after our activity, the two girls go together as they’re closer and I go with the guy, someone I’ve known since I was 5. We were always flirty as kids and teens but were never close or anything. Anyways, in the car he kisses me and after a while I kiss back. I really enjoyed it, we were flirty all night. I knew it was wrong but it felt so good to have something new and exciting. I didn’t want him, I knew he wouldn’t be as good as my partner or anywhere near as fun, but for some reason I loved it. For the rest of the week I was excited about it. I don’t know why, I’m young and dumb and then it hit me how bad it all was. It wasn’t just a kiss, it was quite passionate, there was grabbing and touching and afterwards flirty messages that I’ve had to delete out of disgust and guilt.
The guilt is eating me alive. I know I need to tell him but I don’t know how. It’s his birthday in 2 days, we have a huge party on the weekend. Regardless of that, how do I tell him while he’s still living at my mums? What if he wants to go somewhere else, where will he go? I don’t know how he’ll react. He loves me so much. I love him so much, but clearly I lack respect. I can’t even use the drunk excuse as I was sober when I was texting the days after. Do I wait until he gets the new flat so he can make the decision to leave and have his own space? He’s my best friend, my confidant, my comedian, my sexy man, my home, and i fucked it all for what? A passionate kiss to make me forget my living situation?
This is no excuse, but it has been hard at home. My mum goes through a lot, I am basically a second parent to my sister who is now experimenting with drugs, things aren’t easy and I always went to my boyfriends as an escape at times. I think I went crazy without that escape and made a stupid mistake. The worst part is that I enjoyed the thrill when it happened. I’m so angry at myself. I still get butterflies for my boyfriend, I’ve been thrilled enough. Now I can’t believe I’ve done something to hurt him. I feel it’s best to not tell him and move on but at the same time it’s eating me alive and he needs to know so he can decide what to do. He’s said in the past he’d forgive me for cheating (it was a weird topic we were on) but I can’t hold him to that. I have to tell him, but when? How? If he does forgive me, how do I forgive myself? I can’t imagine him looking at me differently. I’ve been acting weird for weeks because I feel I don’t deserve him, and I don’t. He makes these grand gestures of his love, he genuinely loves me so so much and I’m about to ruin it all.. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I’m descending into madness, all deserved, but I want it to stop. Please help me
TLDR- I doubted my relationship with my partner of almost 3 years and kissed an old friend, it’s eating me alive. Don’t know how to tell my bf as we are both currently living in my mother’s house until he gets his flat keys.
2024.05.21 13:04 Kash-1 Talked to this sweet girl and was declined. Need your views.
Hey everyone. I am a 29, M and just entering into this dating stuff. I know it's kinda late but would like to know your suggestions about something.
For the first time from dating perspective, I just talked to this girl on reddit and she was very sweet. She asked some details about me and had some filters which I honestly answered. But there was this one thing which she asked- what my filters were or if she is good for me or did I ask her out just because I am lonely?
I told her honestly this "To keep it short, I couldn't afford to go to college. I had to get a job right after my 12th and have been in a job ever since, barring some period in between. So, I never went on any date. And to be honest, I never paid any attention to this aspect of life as well. And, now as you can imagine, I have trespassed into the 'marriage age'. So, before I do that as my parents want so desperately for me to do, I decided, literally this weekend, that I want to experience this. Will it turn into something meaningful? I don't know but I hope so. So, there's the reason I asked you."
Everything was well, she thanked me for being open and honest but then she said that she can't date someone without a graduation. It was a bit off putting since she didn't ask me what I did, what my job was, what other things I did, interests, nature, hobbies, nothing. I explained to her that I do have graduation from distance mode and that's why I have a good stable job. I wanted to tell her more that I am more of a self taught person if she had showed interest. But that was it from her side and I just didn't get the chance.
We are of the same age and both financially stable and both live and will live in Delhi. That's why I texted her as I thought we could be compatible and could hit it off but when I was declined for the graduation part, I felt a bit down as there was no open heart to heart conversations and that too before I could initiate some. Although I must emphasize, I really have no hard feelings towards her, not even a little bit for she was very polite and kind in declining me. I truly respect her for that.
What I want to know is how does this dating world work? I mean do girls just like these flirty type guys with cheesy lines or was I right being honest? I am not into these flings and stuff and more of a one life-one girl type person. So, are my expectations wrong in this dating world or this graduation college part too important for girls or is it something else? I just always had this habit of learning from my mistakes and correcting them so I don't repeat them. I'd love to get your feedback on this. Thanks.
P.S. Won't share the whole chat without her consent. It just wouldn't be right.
submitted by Kash-1 to IndianBoysOnTinder [link] [comments]
For the first time from dating perspective, I just talked to this girl on reddit and she was very sweet. She asked some details about me and had some filters which I honestly answered. But there was this one thing which she asked- what my filters were or if she is good for me or did I ask her out just because I am lonely?
I told her honestly this "To keep it short, I couldn't afford to go to college. I had to get a job right after my 12th and have been in a job ever since, barring some period in between. So, I never went on any date. And to be honest, I never paid any attention to this aspect of life as well. And, now as you can imagine, I have trespassed into the 'marriage age'. So, before I do that as my parents want so desperately for me to do, I decided, literally this weekend, that I want to experience this. Will it turn into something meaningful? I don't know but I hope so. So, there's the reason I asked you."
Everything was well, she thanked me for being open and honest but then she said that she can't date someone without a graduation. It was a bit off putting since she didn't ask me what I did, what my job was, what other things I did, interests, nature, hobbies, nothing. I explained to her that I do have graduation from distance mode and that's why I have a good stable job. I wanted to tell her more that I am more of a self taught person if she had showed interest. But that was it from her side and I just didn't get the chance.
We are of the same age and both financially stable and both live and will live in Delhi. That's why I texted her as I thought we could be compatible and could hit it off but when I was declined for the graduation part, I felt a bit down as there was no open heart to heart conversations and that too before I could initiate some. Although I must emphasize, I really have no hard feelings towards her, not even a little bit for she was very polite and kind in declining me. I truly respect her for that.
What I want to know is how does this dating world work? I mean do girls just like these flirty type guys with cheesy lines or was I right being honest? I am not into these flings and stuff and more of a one life-one girl type person. So, are my expectations wrong in this dating world or this graduation college part too important for girls or is it something else? I just always had this habit of learning from my mistakes and correcting them so I don't repeat them. I'd love to get your feedback on this. Thanks.
P.S. Won't share the whole chat without her consent. It just wouldn't be right.
2024.05.21 12:34 tornikekv Real country that Sordland is based on
After playing I grew opinion that Sordland is most similar to Georgia and I will explain why.
(It's just a speculation and theory)
Sordland: Wisci (first president of Sordland) wrote a constitution which tried to establish the institutions necessary for a democratic republic. Soon, Wisci's government became the victim of a military coup led by the nationalist general, Eduard Luderin. Luderin instituted a reign of terror that crushed dissent against his government. The Sordish Civil War erupted.
Georgia: Gamsakhurdia’s (who was also the first president) government also try to wrote constitution and to form government, but it failed because of Nationalist military coup led by Jaba Ioseliani. which started the times of Anarchy and civil war with trumvirate government ruled by Jaba Ioseliani, Tengiz Sigua and Tengiz Kitovani.
Sordland: The civil war ended after Colonel Tarquin Soll intervened, which resulted in Luderin's capture and Rikard's death. Soll restored the republic with himself as president and established the United Sordland Party, which served as the governing party of Sordland. Under Soll's leadership, the young republic experienced stability and growth and protection from foreign influence, which solidified the country's position.
Georgia: Civil war ended after Eduard Shevardnadze intervened, which also funny enough resulted in capture of Tengiz Sigua, Tengiz Kitovani and Jaba Ioseliani’s death. Shevardnadzes finally formed government and established constitution and Presidency. Shevardadzes rule was characterised of ending anarchy, stability, growth and also establishing protective measures against any foreign powers.
Sordland: Unfortunately over time, Soll grew increasingly authoritarian, which brought the country into stagnation and increased political and racial tensions. Tarquin Soll was eventually succeeded by Ewald Alphonso, a reformist within the USP who promised to bring reform to the country. Unfortunately, a combination of infighting, a hasty liberalization of the economy and continental economic tensions led to a recession and the empowerment of various oligarchs.
Georgia: As expected Shevardnadze was practicly a authoritarian dictator with infinite power because of broken Constitution that established Absolute presidency. He was succeded by Mikheil Saakashvili who was also part of Shevardnadzes party and was known reformer. His reforms was charaterised as pro-free market and excesive privatization, which led to reccession, uneployment and problem with oligarchs, but it was hard because of as said in Suzerain “hasty liberalization of the economy and continental economic tensions” which perfectly explains it.
I believe simillarities end there because there is no corrolations between Anton and party that succeded the Saakashvili.
In north there is Rumburg which is identical to Russia. both imperialist country that is characterised by agression. Sordland can have war with Rumburg, as well as Georgia had one with Russia.
Sordland and Agnolia are friends and Agnolia is clearly Netherlands. Georgia has strong relationship with netherlands (probably best in Europe).
Wehlen can be Azerbaijan. They are simillar because of Authoritarian President and Oil.
Georgia: There sadly was a Autonomous region of Abkhazia which was also seccesionist and is probably exactly is like bergia. Abkhazian separatists were suplied with AK by guess who… Russia.
Ewald and Mikheil
I don't know if this kinda story repeats in every country in reccession but it definetly happend in Georgia.
Sorry for any grammar mistakes and thank you if you for read it and for learning a little more about my country.
submitted by tornikekv to suzerain [link] [comments]
(It's just a speculation and theory)
History parallels
I will start with direct parallers.Sordland: Wisci (first president of Sordland) wrote a constitution which tried to establish the institutions necessary for a democratic republic. Soon, Wisci's government became the victim of a military coup led by the nationalist general, Eduard Luderin. Luderin instituted a reign of terror that crushed dissent against his government. The Sordish Civil War erupted.
Georgia: Gamsakhurdia’s (who was also the first president) government also try to wrote constitution and to form government, but it failed because of Nationalist military coup led by Jaba Ioseliani. which started the times of Anarchy and civil war with trumvirate government ruled by Jaba Ioseliani, Tengiz Sigua and Tengiz Kitovani.
Sordland: The civil war ended after Colonel Tarquin Soll intervened, which resulted in Luderin's capture and Rikard's death. Soll restored the republic with himself as president and established the United Sordland Party, which served as the governing party of Sordland. Under Soll's leadership, the young republic experienced stability and growth and protection from foreign influence, which solidified the country's position.
Georgia: Civil war ended after Eduard Shevardnadze intervened, which also funny enough resulted in capture of Tengiz Sigua, Tengiz Kitovani and Jaba Ioseliani’s death. Shevardnadzes finally formed government and established constitution and Presidency. Shevardadzes rule was characterised of ending anarchy, stability, growth and also establishing protective measures against any foreign powers.
Sordland: Unfortunately over time, Soll grew increasingly authoritarian, which brought the country into stagnation and increased political and racial tensions. Tarquin Soll was eventually succeeded by Ewald Alphonso, a reformist within the USP who promised to bring reform to the country. Unfortunately, a combination of infighting, a hasty liberalization of the economy and continental economic tensions led to a recession and the empowerment of various oligarchs.
Georgia: As expected Shevardnadze was practicly a authoritarian dictator with infinite power because of broken Constitution that established Absolute presidency. He was succeded by Mikheil Saakashvili who was also part of Shevardnadzes party and was known reformer. His reforms was charaterised as pro-free market and excesive privatization, which led to reccession, uneployment and problem with oligarchs, but it was hard because of as said in Suzerain “hasty liberalization of the economy and continental economic tensions” which perfectly explains it.
I believe simillarities end there because there is no corrolations between Anton and party that succeded the Saakashvili.
Geopolitics
Sordland is between two superpowers of Arcasia and United Contana. This is pretty easy to see as Georgia is also between influence of Capitalist USA and Communist China. Georgia is friendly to both and is experiencing benefits from both of them.In north there is Rumburg which is identical to Russia. both imperialist country that is characterised by agression. Sordland can have war with Rumburg, as well as Georgia had one with Russia.
Sordland and Agnolia are friends and Agnolia is clearly Netherlands. Georgia has strong relationship with netherlands (probably best in Europe).
Wehlen can be Azerbaijan. They are simillar because of Authoritarian President and Oil.
Separatist Region
Sordland: There is Special zone of Bergia within the Sordland that is problematic Region because of it’s Seccesionist tendencies. Bludish separatis are suplied with AK’s by Rumburg.Georgia: There sadly was a Autonomous region of Abkhazia which was also seccesionist and is probably exactly is like bergia. Abkhazian separatists were suplied with AK by guess who… Russia.
Characters
Wisci and Gamsakhurdia
- Both first presidents.
- both were authors and wrote poems.
- Famous father and son.
- Came with Revolution (definetly with a blast).
- was couped.
- had tragic and undeserving death.
Tarquil Soll and Eduard Shevardnadzee
- both were experienced statesman.
- ended anarchy and stabilized country.
- Saviours of Government at first, but Authoritarians at the end.
- Protectionist politics.
- Created Constitution.
- the way game describes vibe of soll is same as Shevardnadze (Abstract I know but both had same presence in room trust me).
- Was ousted by Inexperienced Reformist.
- Have not been seen after resignation and were isolated.
- had protection status (somethin like member of honour).
- had immense power and infuence even after resignation.
Ewald Alphonso and Mikheil Saakashvili
- Both were Reformist within Party (Ewald in USP and Saakashvili in UCG (Union of Citizens of Georgia).
- Implimented Free-market reforms.
- Privatization and Tax cuts.
- Pro-wester capitalists
- Radical reforms that hindered public opinion.
- Ties to Businessmans.
- Constantly in a battle against Old Guard.
- Tried to hurt authoritarian nature of previous leader.
Ewald and Mikheil
Conclusion
This is my opinion and even though I tried to base it on as much facts as I can it is just a speculation. Because I dont know much about modern Turkey I can’t say much about their similarities.I don't know if this kinda story repeats in every country in reccession but it definetly happend in Georgia.
Sorry for any grammar mistakes and thank you if you for read it and for learning a little more about my country.
2024.05.21 11:13 The_Way358 Essential Teachings: The Good News That God Reigns
The Scriptures seem to imply that the kingdom of God isn't exactly synonymous with what is called "the Church." The Church was a temporary eschatological community of believers that existed on earth in preparation of a kingdom where God Himself would reign, and said community had Christ reign over them in the meantime. The head of the Church was Christ, with the Father serving as his head (1 Cor. 11:3). The Scriptures teach that, when all Christ's enemies were to be made his footstool, he was to give back all authority to the Father (Psa. 110:1, 1 Cor. 15:22-28), and it is this page's belief that this happened in 70 AD.
The following quotation is from the above hyperlink:
To be as succinct as possible: man sinned, and so the great level of authority God initially granted us ourselves over the creation was stripped. As a result, the human condition has suffered and it must be redeemed for God to allow us to reign with Him in the way that He originally intended for us. God has always been sovereign, of course, but He seeks the good of man to make us stewards over His world with Him, as that was His original plan and this was His original view of what a kingdom of His truly looks like: a kingdom characterized by man's love for Him and love for others.
A Biblical understanding of Adam's sin, contrary to popular thought, isn't that we are guilty of what he did personally. We simply inherit his fallen nature and a fallen world as a result of his sin, the same way a baby could leave the womb already addicted to certain substances because the mother abused said substances while pregnant. It's not the baby's fault for its condition, it was the parent's. But the baby is born with this condition and enters the world like this nonetheless.
The implication of this is that we are all only guilty of our own sins, and whether or not we ever seek to treat (or possibly cure) our condition in the first place is on us. We were dealt a bad hand due to Adam, sure, but God doesn't hold us responsible for what our forefather did. God only holds us responsible for what we do, and whether or not we seek to be liberated from the dark forces which keep us in bondage to our sinful condition (Gen. 4:6-7, Deut. 24:16, Jer. 31:30, Ezek. 18, Matt. 9:9-13).
The whole Old Testament is essentially a record of God's people constantly breaking their covenant(s) with Him. There are individuals mentioned throughout that were, of course, commended by God and the Biblical authors for their righteousness in honestly pursuing to remain faithful to their covenant with Him. But even the best of these people often faltered and, in fact, did rather heinous things in their lives at one point or another. One of the greatest examples of this is king David, who was literally called by the Scriptures "a man after God's own heart" (1 Sam. 13:14, Acts 13:22). Yet, this same man at one point committed adultery and then murdered the man he stole the wife of to try and cover it up. This was a heinous thing, and David repented of what he did with genuine sorrow and guilt toward God. God ultimately forgave him, but not without a heavy hand of chastisement and earthly consequences for his actions.
All throughout the Old Testament, you see various men of God who were deemed righteous, but these same men were usually shown to have some major flaw that prevented them from living a life that could be characterized as consistent obedience to the commandments to love God and love others as themselves. There is something deeply wrong with man's heart, according to the Bible. Something so wrong, in fact, that a whole prophecy had to be given that promised to address the issue of man's seeming incapability to accomplish fulfilling the commandment to love consistently on their own without some sort of divine help from above:
On the other extreme of these things, transcendental worldviews and philosophies say that the physical world is illusory. Only the spiritual world is ultimately real. Humans are an expression of the divine spirit that is the essence of all things. If naturalistic views demote humans to the level of animals, transcendental views promote human beings. God is not “out there” somewhere; we are God. God is all, thus God is us. But this view doesn’t explain real evil. Why are people selfish? Why do they hurt others? What accounts for personal acts of evil like rape or terrorism? If we are all truly "God," then why would we ever do such things to what is ultimately "ourself"? And why can't a person who practices the belief that we are all actually "God" be only loving? There are so many people who adopt this view of reality who are constantly, day by day, finding that they struggle to be as truly loving as they wish to be because they will still sometimes find themselves thinking and doing rather evil and selfish things. I can speak from experience here, remembering throwing myself into the New Age movement when I was desperately seeking what I did not know at the time was forgiveness for and redemption from my sins because of who I was as a person up until that point. I was seeking the mythic "ego death" that promised me that I could truly be loving and find the forgiveness and redemption I was searching for, because I thought that if only I truly realized I was "God" all along, I could then accomplish these things all at once and simultaneously. I eventually found even this philosophy unsatisfactory when I came to the aforementioned conclusions concerning our great capacity for evil, and also realized that forgiveness can only exist if there are two parties: forgiver and forgivee. Such a thing is impossible if there is only really one being at play at the bottom of reality, and I knew deep down that forgiving oneself (at least, on its own) will never satisfy one's pursuit for redemption that we all inherently take part in whenever pursuing to mend even our own relationships with each other as humans. Further, love would be an illusion in this philosophy too, being that there is only really one party behind and in all of existence if "everything is God." Such an idea would make true altruism a farce, as well. There would be no such thing as real sacrifice for another, because there is no "another."
The French mathematician and Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal said, “Man’s greatness and wretchedness are so evident that the true religion must necessarily teach both.” Any philosophy that cannot fully account for human greatness and human depravity at the same time should be abandoned because it misses something obvious about the human condition. The religion of the Bible has a valid explanation for human greatness: people are made in God’s image. Thus we have dignity, value, and capacity for good. The Bible also explains human evil: the image of God has been defaced by sin. Our great capacity gets used for the wrong purposes. Our creativity is placed in the service of evil and our best intentions twisted for selfish gain. Something has gone terribly wrong. While other worldviews unduly demote or promote humanity, the Bible gets the tension just right.
Thus, human nature is puzzling and conflicting. Other worldviews—both secular and religious—struggle to account for this enigma, and don't offer satisfying solutions to the problem itself. The Bible, however, explains what happened when it tells us that man rebelled against God in the paradise that was prepared for him called "the Garden of Eden." We fell into temptation and estranged ourselves from God by tarnishing the image we were created in, and now are born with a natural proclivity to do evil, despite our best efforts to do good (that is, to do good consistently).
And so, the Bible promised a solution in the prophet Ezekiel that God will literally change our natural human condition, if we simply choose to humble ourselves before Him in faith to allow for such a change. While as unbelievers our inner disposition towards God is often rebellious, we at least still have the capacity to choose to do the righteous thing in seeking God that He may change us and forgive us if we so let Him. This is one reason why Jesus, (the one who made the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy even possible by his coming, sacrifice, ressurection, and outpouring of the Spirit upon his ascension), said that only faith the size of a mustard seed was required for something so miraculous as moving a mountian to happen, because so little is required from us to allow God to change us into the kind of person He's always wanted us to be, and yet changing the condition of our own heart can be compared to literally moving a mountain if we were to try and do so on our own strength alone. The mustard seed was the smallest of seeds, and yet if one simply planted it and nurtured it, it could become a bush so large that it was comparable to a tree with branches that stretched to the heavens for the very birds of the air to rest on.
It was when I came to these realizations that I prayed to God for the first time again, having been years since I did so, going so far back as to when I was a little child even. I prayed in the dead of night in my room, and asked God to show me the truth and to reveal Himself to me if indeed these things were true, and in an instant I felt His very presence in my room, and my heart was changed. To describe such an experience would be like trying to describe the taste of something to the man born without tastebuds, the color of something to the man born blind, or the sound of something to the man born deaf; there are no words, and it is only something you can know by experiencing it for yourself. Suddenly and all at once, I knew right then and there that Jesus really was who he said he was, that the one true God is the God of the Bible, and that I have been forgiven. As the time of this post, it's been 5 years since then, I'm 23 now, and I'm still walking with God.
My prayer for anyone reading this that may not know God for themselves yet is that one day, you will too.
Back to the topic at hand.
When Adam sinned, we fell under the tyranny of death, corruption, evil heavenly powers, and sin itself. When Jesus came, Jesus was the new and exalted human, the new Adam, through whom humanity could now realize their original destiny that was laid out for them in the Garden of Eden. Because Jesus, being a man, obeyed unto death, he has defeated the powers which held us so long under bondage; we are now promised liberation so long as we simply place our faith in his sacrifice to wash us of our sins and receive the Spirit of God that is also promised to all who exercise this faith.
We often think of ‘the gospel’ as the part that brings the forgiveness of sins (and of course, that is part of the idea), but ‘gospel’ is the announcement that everything has changed in the coming of Jesus and it leads us to a new kind of living.
The gospel Jesus preached and the gospel the apostle Paul preached were different, in that Jesus preached of a kingdom where God reigns directly and with all His faithful subjects as participants in that reign. The gospel Paul preached was about the exaltation and reign of Christ, and because Christ reigned, the consummation of the kingdom of God with earth could now finally take place (Col. 1:12-13). This consummation was put on hold during Christ's "millennial" reign, which transpired between his ascension and his return. However, the consummation has come to full fruition since that return.
We will be arguing for some of these claims by pointing out how central the kingdom of God actually was to Jesus' earthly ministry and message, and demonstrate what Jesus taught about how it actually looks like.
The term 'kingdom' appears 53 times in 42 places in Matthew, 17 times in 13 places in Mark, and 41 times in 29 places in Luke. When the 'kingdom' is qualified, Luke always refers to the 'kingdom of God' (32 times) and Mark follows this pattern (14 times). Matthew, on the other hand, prefers the term "kingdom of heaven" (31 times), using the phrase to refer to the same idea "kingdom of God" only four times: 12:28, 19:24, 21:31, 43.
The Gospel of Luke records an event where Jesus responds to the population that lived near Simon Peter's house who believed in him after he had done his miraculous work there, but saw that he was leaving them:
There’s this beautiful poem in the Old Testament, and it’s in chapter 52 of the Book of Isaiah. The city of Jerusalem had just been destroyed by Babylon, a great kingdom in the North. Many of the inhabitants of the city have been sent away into exile, but a few remained in the city, and they’re left wondering, "What happened? Has our God abandoned us?" This was because Jerusalem was supposed to be the city where God would reign over the world to bring peace and blessing to everyone.
Now, Isaiah had been saying that Jerusalem’s destruction was a mess of Israel’s own making. They had turned away from their God, become corrupt, and so their city and their temple were destroyed. Everything seemed lost. But the poem goes on. There is a watchman on the city walls, and far out on the hills we see a messenger. He’s running towards the city. He’s running and he’s shouting, “Good news!” And Isaiah says, “How beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings [news]” (vs. 7a). The feet are beautiful because they’re carrying a beautiful message. And what’s the message? That despite Jerusalem’s destruction, Israel’s God still reigns as king, and that God's presence is going to one day return with His city, take up His throne, and bring peace. And the watchmen sing for joy because of the good news that their God still reigns (vs. 10).
Jesus saw himself as the messenger bringing the news that God reigns. Jesus also claimed to be the Son of man. This was Jesus' favorite self-designation, being used some 80 times in the Gospels. Notice, not just a son of man, but the Son of Man. Jesus was directing our attention to a vision described by the prophet Daniel:
But again, what is the kingdom of God? What does it look like exactly?
Well, the way that Jesus described God’s reign surprised everybody. I mean, think about it. A powerful, successful kingdom needs to be strong, able to impose its will, and able to defeat its enemies in physical combat. But Jesus said the greatest person in God’s kingdom was the weakest, the one who loves and who serves the poor (Matt. 23:11-12). He said you live under God’s reign when you respond to evil by loving your enemies, and forgiving them, and seeking peace (Matt. 5). To us, this is an upside-down kingdom. But to God, it's right-side up. This was what God had originally planned for us: a kingdom where God reigns in our hearts.
The kingdom of God is the totality of God’s influence that covers the world and heaven. It’s everywhere, but its manifestation isn’t everywhere. It manifests on earth wherever there are those who are born again and live as if God reigns in their hearts.
Before Jesus, John the Baptist announced to all people, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matt. 3:1-2), as he saw a soon coming kingdom of God that would be ushered in by the Messiah. Notice that John the Baptist didn’t say that something “like” the kingdom would come and he didn’t say that the real kingdom might be thousands of years away. He said over and over that THE kingdom was at hand! Do you believe him? Did God inspire him to give a clear and accurate message or a mistaken one? If we dare to believe him, things might become surprisingly clear, simple and exceedingly optimistic.
The kingdom is NOT something to wait for. Jesus says the kingdom is NOT something visible, and it is NOT something in the sky. The Kingdom Jesus taught is a spiritual reality that comes into the world through us. Considering that Jesus even said the kingdom was in and among the Pharisees in Luke 17, which seems almost offensive to consider, perhaps it is like a spiritual seed that has been planted inside each of us, and that activating faith in God makes it grow.
Since Jesus the Messiah returned only 40 years after his earthly ministry, putting all enemies under his feet, the complete consummation of earth with the kingdom of heaven has finally taken place.
The kingdom of God has come, and it continues to come through us as believers. It makes progress like light shining into the world and dispelling the darkness.
submitted by The_Way358 to u/The_Way358 [link] [comments]
The following quotation is from the above hyperlink:
Thus, the community to replace the Church on earth was to be the kingdom of God. But, what even is the kingdom of God, and why did God have to reclaim authority of His own creation in the first place?As for the "1000 years" mentioned in Revelation, they are apocalyptic metaphor for the 40 years Christ "reigned" (triumphed) over his enemies both human and spirit, with the final triumph being the judgement of apostate Jerusalem. The "1000 years" began with his ascension, and ended with this judgement.
To be as succinct as possible: man sinned, and so the great level of authority God initially granted us ourselves over the creation was stripped. As a result, the human condition has suffered and it must be redeemed for God to allow us to reign with Him in the way that He originally intended for us. God has always been sovereign, of course, but He seeks the good of man to make us stewards over His world with Him, as that was His original plan and this was His original view of what a kingdom of His truly looks like: a kingdom characterized by man's love for Him and love for others.
A Biblical understanding of Adam's sin, contrary to popular thought, isn't that we are guilty of what he did personally. We simply inherit his fallen nature and a fallen world as a result of his sin, the same way a baby could leave the womb already addicted to certain substances because the mother abused said substances while pregnant. It's not the baby's fault for its condition, it was the parent's. But the baby is born with this condition and enters the world like this nonetheless.
The implication of this is that we are all only guilty of our own sins, and whether or not we ever seek to treat (or possibly cure) our condition in the first place is on us. We were dealt a bad hand due to Adam, sure, but God doesn't hold us responsible for what our forefather did. God only holds us responsible for what we do, and whether or not we seek to be liberated from the dark forces which keep us in bondage to our sinful condition (Gen. 4:6-7, Deut. 24:16, Jer. 31:30, Ezek. 18, Matt. 9:9-13).
The whole Old Testament is essentially a record of God's people constantly breaking their covenant(s) with Him. There are individuals mentioned throughout that were, of course, commended by God and the Biblical authors for their righteousness in honestly pursuing to remain faithful to their covenant with Him. But even the best of these people often faltered and, in fact, did rather heinous things in their lives at one point or another. One of the greatest examples of this is king David, who was literally called by the Scriptures "a man after God's own heart" (1 Sam. 13:14, Acts 13:22). Yet, this same man at one point committed adultery and then murdered the man he stole the wife of to try and cover it up. This was a heinous thing, and David repented of what he did with genuine sorrow and guilt toward God. God ultimately forgave him, but not without a heavy hand of chastisement and earthly consequences for his actions.
All throughout the Old Testament, you see various men of God who were deemed righteous, but these same men were usually shown to have some major flaw that prevented them from living a life that could be characterized as consistent obedience to the commandments to love God and love others as themselves. There is something deeply wrong with man's heart, according to the Bible. Something so wrong, in fact, that a whole prophecy had to be given that promised to address the issue of man's seeming incapability to accomplish fulfilling the commandment to love consistently on their own without some sort of divine help from above:
"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh."-Ezekiel 36:26Naturalistic philosophies see the physical world as all that exists. Humans beings are the result of mindless, chance causes and processes. Humans are essentially animals – highly evolved, but no different in significance than any other living thing. Thus naturalistic views demote humans. But this view leaves a lot unexplained. Why do humans practice altruism, benevolence, or acts of heroism? What explains acts of incredible goodness? Sure, naturalistic arguments have been made that true altruism doesn't exist, and that "unconditional love" is really just an illusion that's been disguised very well by our survival instincts that we've developed over a long period of time at certain stages of our evolutionary process. However, many people have found such arguments to be unpersuasive and naive when compared to their actual experience of the world as they mature in their lives and have what they know to be truly meaningful experiences that can't simply be reduced in the way that the naturalist wishes them to be. This realization was ultimately why I transitioned from hard atheism to agnostic spiritualism at one point or another.
On the other extreme of these things, transcendental worldviews and philosophies say that the physical world is illusory. Only the spiritual world is ultimately real. Humans are an expression of the divine spirit that is the essence of all things. If naturalistic views demote humans to the level of animals, transcendental views promote human beings. God is not “out there” somewhere; we are God. God is all, thus God is us. But this view doesn’t explain real evil. Why are people selfish? Why do they hurt others? What accounts for personal acts of evil like rape or terrorism? If we are all truly "God," then why would we ever do such things to what is ultimately "ourself"? And why can't a person who practices the belief that we are all actually "God" be only loving? There are so many people who adopt this view of reality who are constantly, day by day, finding that they struggle to be as truly loving as they wish to be because they will still sometimes find themselves thinking and doing rather evil and selfish things. I can speak from experience here, remembering throwing myself into the New Age movement when I was desperately seeking what I did not know at the time was forgiveness for and redemption from my sins because of who I was as a person up until that point. I was seeking the mythic "ego death" that promised me that I could truly be loving and find the forgiveness and redemption I was searching for, because I thought that if only I truly realized I was "God" all along, I could then accomplish these things all at once and simultaneously. I eventually found even this philosophy unsatisfactory when I came to the aforementioned conclusions concerning our great capacity for evil, and also realized that forgiveness can only exist if there are two parties: forgiver and forgivee. Such a thing is impossible if there is only really one being at play at the bottom of reality, and I knew deep down that forgiving oneself (at least, on its own) will never satisfy one's pursuit for redemption that we all inherently take part in whenever pursuing to mend even our own relationships with each other as humans. Further, love would be an illusion in this philosophy too, being that there is only really one party behind and in all of existence if "everything is God." Such an idea would make true altruism a farce, as well. There would be no such thing as real sacrifice for another, because there is no "another."
The French mathematician and Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal said, “Man’s greatness and wretchedness are so evident that the true religion must necessarily teach both.” Any philosophy that cannot fully account for human greatness and human depravity at the same time should be abandoned because it misses something obvious about the human condition. The religion of the Bible has a valid explanation for human greatness: people are made in God’s image. Thus we have dignity, value, and capacity for good. The Bible also explains human evil: the image of God has been defaced by sin. Our great capacity gets used for the wrong purposes. Our creativity is placed in the service of evil and our best intentions twisted for selfish gain. Something has gone terribly wrong. While other worldviews unduly demote or promote humanity, the Bible gets the tension just right.
Thus, human nature is puzzling and conflicting. Other worldviews—both secular and religious—struggle to account for this enigma, and don't offer satisfying solutions to the problem itself. The Bible, however, explains what happened when it tells us that man rebelled against God in the paradise that was prepared for him called "the Garden of Eden." We fell into temptation and estranged ourselves from God by tarnishing the image we were created in, and now are born with a natural proclivity to do evil, despite our best efforts to do good (that is, to do good consistently).
And so, the Bible promised a solution in the prophet Ezekiel that God will literally change our natural human condition, if we simply choose to humble ourselves before Him in faith to allow for such a change. While as unbelievers our inner disposition towards God is often rebellious, we at least still have the capacity to choose to do the righteous thing in seeking God that He may change us and forgive us if we so let Him. This is one reason why Jesus, (the one who made the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy even possible by his coming, sacrifice, ressurection, and outpouring of the Spirit upon his ascension), said that only faith the size of a mustard seed was required for something so miraculous as moving a mountian to happen, because so little is required from us to allow God to change us into the kind of person He's always wanted us to be, and yet changing the condition of our own heart can be compared to literally moving a mountain if we were to try and do so on our own strength alone. The mustard seed was the smallest of seeds, and yet if one simply planted it and nurtured it, it could become a bush so large that it was comparable to a tree with branches that stretched to the heavens for the very birds of the air to rest on.
It was when I came to these realizations that I prayed to God for the first time again, having been years since I did so, going so far back as to when I was a little child even. I prayed in the dead of night in my room, and asked God to show me the truth and to reveal Himself to me if indeed these things were true, and in an instant I felt His very presence in my room, and my heart was changed. To describe such an experience would be like trying to describe the taste of something to the man born without tastebuds, the color of something to the man born blind, or the sound of something to the man born deaf; there are no words, and it is only something you can know by experiencing it for yourself. Suddenly and all at once, I knew right then and there that Jesus really was who he said he was, that the one true God is the God of the Bible, and that I have been forgiven. As the time of this post, it's been 5 years since then, I'm 23 now, and I'm still walking with God.
My prayer for anyone reading this that may not know God for themselves yet is that one day, you will too.
Back to the topic at hand.
When Adam sinned, we fell under the tyranny of death, corruption, evil heavenly powers, and sin itself. When Jesus came, Jesus was the new and exalted human, the new Adam, through whom humanity could now realize their original destiny that was laid out for them in the Garden of Eden. Because Jesus, being a man, obeyed unto death, he has defeated the powers which held us so long under bondage; we are now promised liberation so long as we simply place our faith in his sacrifice to wash us of our sins and receive the Spirit of God that is also promised to all who exercise this faith.
We often think of ‘the gospel’ as the part that brings the forgiveness of sins (and of course, that is part of the idea), but ‘gospel’ is the announcement that everything has changed in the coming of Jesus and it leads us to a new kind of living.
The gospel Jesus preached and the gospel the apostle Paul preached were different, in that Jesus preached of a kingdom where God reigns directly and with all His faithful subjects as participants in that reign. The gospel Paul preached was about the exaltation and reign of Christ, and because Christ reigned, the consummation of the kingdom of God with earth could now finally take place (Col. 1:12-13). This consummation was put on hold during Christ's "millennial" reign, which transpired between his ascension and his return. However, the consummation has come to full fruition since that return.
We will be arguing for some of these claims by pointing out how central the kingdom of God actually was to Jesus' earthly ministry and message, and demonstrate what Jesus taught about how it actually looks like.
The term 'kingdom' appears 53 times in 42 places in Matthew, 17 times in 13 places in Mark, and 41 times in 29 places in Luke. When the 'kingdom' is qualified, Luke always refers to the 'kingdom of God' (32 times) and Mark follows this pattern (14 times). Matthew, on the other hand, prefers the term "kingdom of heaven" (31 times), using the phrase to refer to the same idea "kingdom of God" only four times: 12:28, 19:24, 21:31, 43.
The Gospel of Luke records an event where Jesus responds to the population that lived near Simon Peter's house who believed in him after he had done his miraculous work there, but saw that he was leaving them:
"And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them. And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore [i.e., for this pupose] am I sent." (vss. 42-43)The Greek word euangelion is often translated as the word “gospel.” In the Bible, this word is always used whenever it concerns the announcement of the reign of a new king. And in the New Testament, the Gospels themselves use this word or the phrase "good news" to summarize all of Jesus’ teachings. They say he went about “preaching the gospel [good news] of the kingdom [of God]” (Matt. 4:23).
There’s this beautiful poem in the Old Testament, and it’s in chapter 52 of the Book of Isaiah. The city of Jerusalem had just been destroyed by Babylon, a great kingdom in the North. Many of the inhabitants of the city have been sent away into exile, but a few remained in the city, and they’re left wondering, "What happened? Has our God abandoned us?" This was because Jerusalem was supposed to be the city where God would reign over the world to bring peace and blessing to everyone.
Now, Isaiah had been saying that Jerusalem’s destruction was a mess of Israel’s own making. They had turned away from their God, become corrupt, and so their city and their temple were destroyed. Everything seemed lost. But the poem goes on. There is a watchman on the city walls, and far out on the hills we see a messenger. He’s running towards the city. He’s running and he’s shouting, “Good news!” And Isaiah says, “How beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings [news]” (vs. 7a). The feet are beautiful because they’re carrying a beautiful message. And what’s the message? That despite Jerusalem’s destruction, Israel’s God still reigns as king, and that God's presence is going to one day return with His city, take up His throne, and bring peace. And the watchmen sing for joy because of the good news that their God still reigns (vs. 10).
Jesus saw himself as the messenger bringing the news that God reigns. Jesus also claimed to be the Son of man. This was Jesus' favorite self-designation, being used some 80 times in the Gospels. Notice, not just a son of man, but the Son of Man. Jesus was directing our attention to a vision described by the prophet Daniel:
"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him:"-Daniel 7:13-14aAt Jesus' trial, the Jewish high priest accused Jesus: "Art thou the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed [God]?" His answer left no room for doubt. "I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." (Mark 14:61-62). Because Jesus' was rejected and killed for threatening the power the religious authorities had over the people, the consummation of God's kingdom with earth had been put on hold until all of Christ's enemies would be put under his feet after his ressurection and ascension.
But again, what is the kingdom of God? What does it look like exactly?
Well, the way that Jesus described God’s reign surprised everybody. I mean, think about it. A powerful, successful kingdom needs to be strong, able to impose its will, and able to defeat its enemies in physical combat. But Jesus said the greatest person in God’s kingdom was the weakest, the one who loves and who serves the poor (Matt. 23:11-12). He said you live under God’s reign when you respond to evil by loving your enemies, and forgiving them, and seeking peace (Matt. 5). To us, this is an upside-down kingdom. But to God, it's right-side up. This was what God had originally planned for us: a kingdom where God reigns in our hearts.
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."-John 3:3Jesus was being quite literal here. You can’t see the kingdom until you’re born again and have the life of that kingdom. When you’re born again, you start 'seeing' differently. You see what others don’t see, you hear what others don’t hear, you know what others don’t know. And yet you may be physically in the same earthly location as they.
The kingdom of God is the totality of God’s influence that covers the world and heaven. It’s everywhere, but its manifestation isn’t everywhere. It manifests on earth wherever there are those who are born again and live as if God reigns in their hearts.
Before Jesus, John the Baptist announced to all people, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matt. 3:1-2), as he saw a soon coming kingdom of God that would be ushered in by the Messiah. Notice that John the Baptist didn’t say that something “like” the kingdom would come and he didn’t say that the real kingdom might be thousands of years away. He said over and over that THE kingdom was at hand! Do you believe him? Did God inspire him to give a clear and accurate message or a mistaken one? If we dare to believe him, things might become surprisingly clear, simple and exceedingly optimistic.
"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."-Matthew 6:10Jesus taught his followers of his generation to pray that God's kingdom come and that His will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Why pray for something that will just inevitably come by force, unless it was actually through our willing participation? That is, unless God's will is carried out through us "in earth, as it is in heaven"?
"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."-Mark 1:14-15It's very telling that these are the very first words the Gospel of Mark chooses to record Jesus as saying.
The kingdom is NOT something to wait for. Jesus says the kingdom is NOT something visible, and it is NOT something in the sky. The Kingdom Jesus taught is a spiritual reality that comes into the world through us. Considering that Jesus even said the kingdom was in and among the Pharisees in Luke 17, which seems almost offensive to consider, perhaps it is like a spiritual seed that has been planted inside each of us, and that activating faith in God makes it grow.
"Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it."-Luke 13:18-19Jesus talked about the kingdom as if it would be a present reality, yet one that was growing in the world like a seed grows into a tree.
"And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."-Luke 13:20-21To Jesus, the kingdom was something growing in us like yeast through dough, increasing in effectiveness.
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."-Romans 14:17Paul says the kingdom isn’t something you taste or touch like physical food. It’s not even saying the right words. But rather the kingdom comes in the realities of righteousness, peace, joy and power that flavor our lives when we live empowered by the Spirit of God and God's Spirit in us.
"For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power."-1 Corinthians 4:20
Since Jesus the Messiah returned only 40 years after his earthly ministry, putting all enemies under his feet, the complete consummation of earth with the kingdom of heaven has finally taken place.
The kingdom of God has come, and it continues to come through us as believers. It makes progress like light shining into the world and dispelling the darkness.
"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."-Matthew 5:14-16