Determination, stamina, devoting your time and energy to realizing a dream, which you are not certain to reach. Talent is not enough in itself, still hardwork in itself has its reward anyways for athletes who choose to follow the long path to success, as they can learn many things about themselves and others through preparing for various competitions including the Olympic Games. However, the most wonderful feeling is when an athlete can be ’there’ and is able to show the world and particularly themselves that they are the best of all.


There is a wonderful song called ’Olympic Dreams’ by a German band called Mr. President. I would like to quote here the lyrics and you can listen to the song at this link on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AClVcmBvxGE&feature=related
Listen to it, because it is one of the greatest of all and expresses the spirit of the Games so truly!! :)

Olympic Dreams

No day before
so full of deep devotion
and in my heart
I feel a strong emotion
Olympic fire
wakes my desire
to join in the games of the world

So far away the day's of pain and sorrow
enjoy the games
there's a new tomorrow
let's share the story
of fame and glory
the party of friendship for all

Refrain:

Goin' for Olympic dreams
Goin' for the gold
Goin' for the medals
That I never thought I'd hold
Flyin' on the wings of freedom
reachin' for the sky
the Olympic dreams will never die

The time has come just do it now or never
a star is born
and it will last forever
congratulations
and celebrations
it's only one moment in time

Refrain

The winner really takes it all
no loser will be standing small
so come on let us celebrate together

Refrain

(performed and written by Mr. President and Nino de Angelo)


I feel very proud of the athletes of my country who reached the 21st place of the overall medal standings for Hungary in Beijing.

Gold Medallists:

Canoe/Kayak - Flatwater
Canoe Single (C1) 1000m Men VAJDA Attila Sandor
Kayak Double (K2) 500m Women KOVACS Katalin, JANIC Natasa


Water Polo Men
SZECSI Zoltan, VARGA Tamas, MADARAS Norbert, VARGA Denes Andor, KASAS Tamas, HOSNYANSZKY Norbert, KISS Gergely, BENEDEK Tibor, VARGA Daniel Rudolf, BIROS Peter, KIS Gabor, MOLNAR Tamas, GERGELY Istvan


Silver medallists:


Canoe/Kayak - Flatwater
Kayak Four (K4) 500m Women KOVACS Katalin, SZABO Gabriella Timea, KOZAK Danuta, JANIC Natasa

Wrestling Men's Greco-Roman 84 kg FODOR Zoltan

Swimming Men's 200m Butterfly CSEH Laszlo
Men's 200m Individual Medley CSEH Laszlo
Men's 400m Individual Medley CSEH Laszlo


Bronze medallists:

Canoe/Kayak - Flatwater Canoe Double (C2) 1000m Men KOZMANN Gyorgy, KISS Tamas

Fencing Women's Individual Epee MINCZA-NEBALD Ildiko

It isn’t easy keeping your sense of peace when everyone and everything around you is going crazy. Short of completely isolating yourself from the whole world, within a perfectly peaceful environment, what do you do? This article is going to explore quite a few tools that will help you formulate your very own Stress Reduction Plan. This plan will help you keep your cool even when those around you are losing theirs, and quite possibly blaming it on you!

If you’re like me, you work hard at maintaining a desired level of peace and serenity within your life. Then, it can easily be blown in one incident of having to deal with other stressed out people or places. You might find yourself blowing your cool over something inconsequential such as an irate driver, or a longer than preferred line at the store.

When your stress levels soar, you could end up resenting other people or yourself for losing that nice peaceful feeling you were just starting to enjoy. On top of that, it can be frustrating to have to start over again in getting back the serenity you worked so hard to maintain in the first place. Now you’re stressed about being stressed. It can be a vicious, hard-to-break cycle. Luckily, there are positive steps you can take to change all that!

Let me first assure you it’s perfectly natural to find yourself getting stressed out along with the people you’re around, or the environment you’re in. Studies show that one negative person can bring down a whole room full of positive people. The same holds true for how one stressed-out person can raise the stress levels of those around him/her. There is also the energy in an environment, caused by people or the environment itself, that is a very powerful force to deal with. The more sensitive you are to energy, the more susceptible you will be to energy given off by other people and places. We will talk about how to deal with that in a little while.

I feel the first thing we need to do is put it firmly in our minds that Stress Happens! In all of our efforts to remain calm and peaceful, it’s easy to forget that stressful events in and of themselves are not what does the damage to us. Whether its good or bad stress, coming from within yourself or from other people and places, it completely depends on how you process the stress that ultimately determines how it will end up affecting you. Cultivating acceptance can help immensely. That is the first, and very important, part of our Stress Reduction Plan.

The next step of the Stress Reduction Plan is to practice staying in the Right Here, Right Now, present time. Staying with the immediate will dramatically decrease feelings of anxiety and fear. You will be aware of the energy going on around you, so you can be alert to stressful energy and deal with it accordingly. You will also be able to face the stress head on before it turns into another tension headache or sleepless night.

One thing that helps me stay mindful of focusing on the present is to practice, practice, and practice some more! Be mindful of how your body moves, feel how your eyes are moving as they read this article, how you are sitting in your chair, how the air around you feels on your body. Listen to what is going on around you, the hum of the computer, or outside traffic, birds singing; whatever you can hear, really take time to hear it. Use all of your senses to experience everything that is around you at all times. Practice these things throughout the day as you accomplish your daily tasks and see if it helps you, too.

The third step we are going to take in creating our Stress Reduction Plan is to make a list of your Stress Hot Spots. Perhaps it’s trying to get ready for your day, especially if you’re getting kids to school and significant others off to work. Maybe it’s rush hour, or suppertime, or the end of the workday where things are the most chaotic and apt to take you out of your Happy Place. Really take some time to create a list of all the different areas of your life where stress is going to be inevitable.

Once you have a list of your “Stress Hot Spot” times, ask yourself these questions for each item listed:

· Are there ways you can lessen the impact of that stress for yourself and others? Maybe it’s as simple as waking up 10 minutes earlier to avoid the morning rush).

· Can you ask others for help?

· Can you allow other people to keep their own feelings of stress in this situation without feeling you’re abandoning them if you don’t join in by getting stressed out yourself?

· Are there any items that you are procrastinating about that might make stressful times even more stressful for yourself or others? How can you correct that?

· Can you find any humor in it at all? There’s usually a lighter side of every situation and looking for that can really help when things start getting too heavy.

· Do you have time for a quick break, before, during, or after the stressful event?

· What others strategies might help Stress Hot Spot times go as smoothly and enjoyably as possible?

Part of creating your list might be to request a team or family meeting to help brainstorm suggestions to alleviate the stressful areas you all share together. This will help improve everyone’s stress level and peace of mind!

After you answer all the questions, add the suggestions you came up with to your Daily To-Do list. It also might be helpful to post some reminder signs around your house or office to keep you aware of what you’re working towards.

Another important part of keeping your cool is to release being judgmental. For example, that excruciatingly slow driver probably isn’t really a bum out to ruin your life. They might be having any number of personal crisis situations going on. You never really know what’s going on in other people’s lives, and most likely they’re not thinking about what’s going on in your life either. Think about when you have been the most challenged in your own life and how wonderful it would feel if others gave you patience and understanding. Maybe you can teach those others a lesson by being the patient, understanding one first. You will feel more control of yourself and your day as well!

Speaking of being in control, Free Will offers us the wonderful blessing of being able to consciously accept or reject stress coming from others. For example, if your boss or life partner is exhibiting high stress symptoms, you can allow them to keep their own stressed energies without becoming attached and absorbing those energies yourself. Allow other people to own their own negative feelings or stress, and allow yourself to stay attached to your own feelings of peace and serenity. You can still be there for the person without experiencing their negative or stressful emotions with them. I can guarantee that you will be a bigger help to them, and to yourself, when you are coming from a center of peace than if you are a stressed out wreck waiting to happen!

Another wonderful thing about Free Will is it gives you the ability to consciously create your environment. If you walk into a room that has negative or stressful energy, imagine positive and peaceful energy filling up the room as well. This will help you from being overcome with the bad energy and help others in the area by drawing out more of their positive energy. It’s a simple scientific equation that like attracts like. In keeping with that equation, the more positive feelings you give out, the more will come back to you. Play with this idea for a while and see how effective it can be.

Of course, unless you are completely enlightened, there will be times that stress gets the best of you. When you get anxious or afraid, allow the feelings to flow through you without fighting with yourself over them. It really is okay to have those or other not-so-pleasant emotions from time to time; it’s how you act on them that determines if they are going to be beneficial or harmful to you. Always remember that you have Free Will and can make choices from a place of serenity no matter what situation you find yourself in.

I hope these ideas help you keep your cool even in the most challenging of times. If you would like more specific tools in regard to your own unique lifestyle, I would be more than happy to talk with you about it. Also, I would love to hear from you if you would like to share how these tools I’ve mentioned work for you in your life, or have any other suggestions or questions. Please contact me anytime.

Everyone’s been burned, cheated on and totally deflated by their loved one at some point. It’s not a fun thing to go through, and sometimes it causes the person to become disillusioned with the whole idea of romance, relationships or beginning anew.

They retreat into a shell, vowing to never allow anyone to penetrate this invisible shield of protection to their heart because, after all, they don’t want to be hurt again. And do you blame them?

These people whose hearts have been crushed to the point where they just say “no” to relationships are in what I call “relationship remission.”

As a relationship expert focusing on the soul mate relationship in particular, you would think that I would discourage closing off your heart for awhile, but there comes a time in one’s life when it’s often necessary to take a step back and find out who you are and what you want out of life.

At the tender age of four, Molly envisioned what her husband was going to look like and that they’d have two boys, two girls and all the puppies and kittens they wanted. She had a “pretend” marriage with Alfred, the little boy next door, and while the adults thought it was cute, Molly knew, even back then, that she wanted a fairytale marriage and was going to live happily ever.

Fast forward thirty-nine years later, and Molly has been divorced three times and never found the fairytale marriage she was looking for. She became disillusioned with the whole dating scene after two attempts of rape, relationships that never lasted and several therapy sessions in which she felt she was the reason her life had turned out so horrible.

Had she not grown up to believing that life was one Cinderella story after another, maybe she would have been prepared for the frogs along the way. But then, who is to know what the future has in store?

No matter how hard you try, the relationship factor has baffled everyone. Since time began, man has always looked for that magic key that would open the lock to that fulfilling and lifelong relationship, without any problems or grief. So far, no one has been able to find that magic key.

Until now.

That magic key lies within you and by entering relationship remission, you’ll find out what it is you need to do to unlock that door to your heart and find the Cinderella life that’s been eluding you.

By taking a time-out and examining yourself closely, you’ll hopefully discover:

1) The only person who can make you happy is yourself

2) In order to be the person someone would want to love, you have to love yourself first

3) Being a queen instead of a pawn guarantees self-confidence and self-satisfaction

4) Self-love comes first and relationships naturally follow

5) You are queen of your own destiny

When you have had time to regroup, you discover things about yourself that you might have been ignoring, and it’s a perfect time to fix those things that are making you unhappy. What is life? Is it is a continuous pattern of hardships and mistakes?

In my relationship e-class, I teach that self-love is the most important thing. If you don’t have self-love, you have to go back to square one and fix it. It’s not hard to do, and if you don’t at least make an attempt, your relationships will go nowhere.

Taking a break from relationships when the need arises is very necessary. It’s the time when we can sit back and evaluate our past lives and try to figure out how we went off our intended path and how to get back on it.

The irony of this is that this is when your soul mate does appear—when you least expect it!

So, take time off when the need arises and listen to your intuition, which will guide you to make the right decisions. Follow your gut instincts when things don’t feel right and when things do feel right, it just means that it’s meant to be.

The soul mate relationship isn’t hard to figure out. But, sometimes, we need to regroup within ourselves to realize why our knight in shining armor just never seems to be within our reach. Fairy tales are fairy tales, but why not turn your life into your own fairy tale and live happily ever after?

While no relationship is perfect, you have the power to make it into anything you want it to be. After all, you are the queen of your own destiny and hold that key to your future happiness and well-being. Use the power.

It is so beautiful.

Gabor Talmacsi or "Talma" as he is called here in his homeland Hungary, today won the 125 cc motorcycle world championship by finishing at the 2nd place at the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain. He is the first Hungarian to become a motorcycle world champion in any class, and as one can imagine there is so much work and stamina behind his achievement. What is most important beside his talent in motorracing, however, is that he is a very modest and good-willed person who truly believes in fair play. Talma is among the persons who motivate others and show example by the long way they covered, the odds they conquered, experiencing ups and downs...till finally they get to the top. Congratulations, Talma!

Hungarian tennis talent Ágnes Szávay won the final of China open on Sunday, and thus got into the world top 20 on the WTA rankings. We, Hungarians are very proud of her :)

See you guys there at comp next year!

So the storks have started out on the long and difficult journey... More precisely on the morning of the 22nd of August they 'got up' early and cleaned out a bit in their nest so that next spring (when they are back) their home in the Hungarian village called Darány would wait for them nice and comfortable. After these arrangements the good parents (Ludmilla and Chuck) asked their four children namely Una, Unika, Uránusz and Unikum in their clattering stork language to get prepared for the long-long road to be taken between Hungary and Cape Colony down in South Africa.* And they flew away... all our stork friends whose home is partly here in Hungary... with the good summer weather leaving after them. The three stork webcams now only show the empty nests in the rain, but those lovely moments of hatching, getting grown up and learning to fly will stay with us nevertheless... Wishing you a safe journey! Come back in spring! :)
I have a strange feeling in me as I think of the big adventure the storks embark upon now, and I cannot help remembering my own life. We all have aims and dreams in life, goals to work for and to be attained, a long and difficult journey we have to make in order to reach what we want. And we have to do this again and again, each time as a new goal appears. Exactly as the storks, although they have the same goal every year, that is to bring up their 'kids' safely, and reach to the warm place before winter.

* The east-european storks, among them the Hungarians fly through the Bosporus then towards the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea which they follow until they reach Africa at the Suez-bay. From this point they fly along the Nile and then cross Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Zimbabwe as far as Cape Colony. Some of the storks however stop in the middle of Africa and spend the European winter months there. The whole Darány stork family has been ringed so ornithologists will be able to establish what places 'our' storks visit. The parents will be back next spring, but the youngsters may spend their first year in Africa and return to Hungary only in 2009.

The following poem is called Szózat (Appeal in English) and is considered as the second national anthem in Hungary. Beside the Hungarian National Anthem (Himnusz) it is usually sung in ceremonies dedicated to celebrate national holiday in Hungary such as yesterday on the 20th of August when we had the day of Saint Stephen (1000-1038) the founder of the Hungarian state.
On the pic you can see the Hungarian crown made of flowers, the flower crown along with other beautiful flower compositions was exhibited on the Flower Carnival which is held always on the 20th of August every year in the town of Debrecen in Hungary.

Szózat (Appeal)

Hazádnak rendületlenűl
Légy híve, oh magyar;
Bölcsőd az s majdan sírod is,
Mely ápol s eltakar.
A nagy világon e kivűl
Nincsen számodra hely;
Áldjon vagy verjen sors keze:
Itt élned, halnod kell.
Ez a föld, melyen annyiszor
Apáid vére folyt;
Ez, melyhez minden szent nevet
Egy ezredév csatolt.
Itt küzdtenek honért a hős
Árpádnak hadai;
Itt törtek össze rabigát
Hunyadnak karjai.
Szabadság! itten hordozák
Véres zászlóidat,
S elhulltanak legjobbjaink
A hosszu harc alatt.
És annyi balszerencse közt,
Oly sok viszály után,
Megfogyva bár, de törve nem,
Él nemzet e hazán.
S népek hazája, nagy világ!
Hozzád bátran kiált:
"Egy ezredévi szenvedés
Kér éltet vagy halált!"
Az nem lehet hogy annyi szív
Hiában onta vért,
S keservben annyi hű kebel
Szakadt meg a honért.
Az nem lehet, hogy ész, erő,
És oly szent akarat
Hiába sorvadozzanak
Egy átoksúly alatt.
Még jőni kell, még jőni fog
Egy jobb kor, mely után
Buzgó imádság epedez
Százezrek ajakán.
Vagy jőni fog, ha jőni kell,
A nagyszerű halál,
Hol a temetkezés fölött
Egy ország vérben áll.
S a sírt, hol nemzet sűlyed el,
Népek veszik körűl,
S az ember millióinak
Szemében gyászköny űl.
Légy híve rendületlenűl
Hazádnak, oh magyar:
Ez éltetőd, s ha elbukál,
Hantjával ez takar.
A nagy világon e kivűl
Nincsen számodra hely;
Áldjon vagy verjen sors keze:
Itt élned, halnod kell.

Written by Mihály Vörösmarty (1836)

Appeal (Literal Translation)

To your homeland without fail
Be faithful, O Hungarian!
It is your cradle and will your grave be
Which nurses, and will bury you.
In the great world outside of here
There is no place for you
May fortune's hand bless or beat you
Here you must live and die!
This ground on which so many times
Your fathers' blood flowed
This, to which, every holy name
One thousand years has coupled
Here fought for home the hero
Arpad's hosts
Here broke apart the prisoner's yoke
Hunyadi's arms
Freedom! Here is carried
Your bloody standard
And our best were felled
During the long war
And through so much ill fortune
After many feuds,
Though depleted, but not broken
The nation lives on this homeland.
And home of the nations, great earth!
Shouts bravely to you:
"A thousand years of suffering
demands life or death!"
It cannot be, that so many hearts
Uselessly spilled their blood
And in vain, so many faithful hearts
Were broken for the homeland.
It cannot be that mind, might
And so holy a will
Would uselessly wither
Under the weight of a curse;
It still needs to come, it still will come
A better age, for which
Fervent prayer yearns
On hundreds of thousands' lips.
Or it will come, if it must come
The glorious death
Where above the funeral
A nation wallows in blood
And the grave, where the nation is lowering,
Nations surround
And in the millions of peoples'
Eyes, a tear of mourning wells.
Be faithful, without fail
To your homeland, O Hungarian:
This is your succor, and if you fall
With its grave it covers you
In the great world outside of here
There is no place for you
May fortune's hand bless or beat you
Here you must live and die!

Translated by Laszlo Korossy


Appeal (Lyrical Translation)

Oh, Magyar, keep immovably
your native country's trust,
for it has borne you, and at death
will consecrate your dust!
No other spot in all the world
can touch your heart as home—
let fortune bless or fortune curse,
from hence you shall not roam!
This is the country that your sires
have shed their blood to claim;
throughout a thousand years not one
but adds a sacred name.
'Twas here brave Árpád's mighty sword
ordained your land to be,
and here the arms of Hunyad broke
the chains of slavery.
Here Freedom's blood-stained flag has waved
above the Magyar head;
and here in age-long struggles fell
our best and noblest, dead.
In spite of long calamity
and centuries of strife,
our strength, though weakened, is not spent;
our country still has life.
To you, O nations of the world,
we call with passioned breath:
"Should not a thousand years of pain
bring liberty—or death?"
It cannot be that all in vain
so many hearts have bled,
that haggard from heroic breasts
so many souls have fled!
It cannot be that mind and strength
and consecrated will
are wasted in a hopeless cause
beneath a curse of ill!
There yet shall come, if come there must,
that better, fairer day
for which a myriad thousand lips
in fervent yearning pray.
Or there shall come, if come there must,
a death of fortitude;
and round about our graves shall stand
a nation washed in blood.
Around the graves where we shall die
a weeping world will come,
and millions will in pity gaze
upon the martyrs' tomb.
Then, Magyar, keep unshakeably
your native country's trust,
for it has borne you and at death
will consecrate your dust!
No other spot in all the world
can touch your heart as home;
let fortune bless or fortune curse,
from hence you shall not roam!

Translated by Watson Kirkconnell

These young storks are ready to try their wings for the first time! At the end of August they will
start their long journey towards the South, to the African continent in order to spend the chilling months of European winter in a warm place.

Another Stork Webcam in Hungary. It is located in a village called Zalaistvánd:
http://81.160.240.41/cgi-bin/guestimage.html

According to the stork family it definetely is...

Click on the following link to see the life of a stork family living in a place called Darány in the southern part of Hungary:
http://195.199.93.181/webcam.htm
You can see with how much care try the parents to defend the little storks from the heat of the sun or from the rain, and how they feed them.
The stork couple (mother stork: Ludmilla, father stork: Chuck) has 5 little storks named Una, Unika, Uranus, Ubul and I dont know the name of the fifth little stork, but will write it here as soon as I get to know it.... :)
The webcam refreshes every 10 seconds.
The link can be found on the righthand side of my blog under my favourite links, too.

Magdolna Rúzsa represented Hungary on the Eurovision Songcontest in 2007 in Helsinki, Finland with a beautiful song written by her called "Unsubstantial Blues" (Aprócska Blues in Hungarian).
You can listen to her performance on the following site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyE_4bVsqUs

An interview in English with Magdi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alnsvjJSe7o&feature=RecentlyWatched&page=1&t=t&f=b

She finished 9th and she won the Best Songwriter Award.

Here in Hungary we have a nice tradition: girls paint eggs before Easter, you can see some of those decorated eggs on the picture, the art of decoration varies from region to region. Nowadays you can buy painted eggs made of wood or ceramics, and they are also great. It is connected to another lovely tradition here when guys went from house to house to sprinkle girls with some parfume ( in older times with water : couldnt be so pleasant) and the girls gave the boys those above-mentioned hand-painted Easter eggs in exchange for the parfume sprinkling. Of course girls needed to wash their hair after Easter because of the various parfumes on their head by the end of the day. :) Unfortunately this tradition is dying out slowly, and can be found mainly in smaller communities like villages, while people who live in cities go out into the open or visit Easter fairs.