Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Laughing
“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”
Kahlil Gibran
When laughter is shared it connects people. It also has the ability to spread among people in a disarming way. A belly-laugh is hard to ignore and can easily bring a smile to someone even if they have no idea what the laughter is about. Vigorous laughter gives the body a release from tension and has been reported to boost the immune system and stimulate the chemicals our bodies use to feel good.
What opportunities can you take advantage of to enjoy laughing? Perhaps a funny movie or TV shows of a standup comic? What was the last funny joke you heard? How about seeking out a joke in the humor section of your local bookstore and sharing it with a friend.
What makes you break out in laughter? What or who has the ability to make you laugh and when last did you spend time with them?
Call and Response from 6/28/09 Service
Reader
You are worthy of all God’s Love for God cares without condition for all us children. And god, God is waiting, waiting to welcome you home. There’s no, no need to worry, Love wants you just as you are. No matter how far away from Love you have strayed, it is ready to answer your call – Love’s waiting for you are worth, worthy of all God’s love.
Congregation
There is one Life, that Life is God’s life, that Life is perfect, that Life is my life now. My life is a manifestation of God’s Love. My body is a manifestation of the living Spirit. I created and sustained by the one Presence, the only Power: Love. That Power is flowing in and through me now, animating every organ, every action, and every function of my physical being.
Reader
You are perfect in Love’s sight. Come and make your burden light. Know that Love dwells in all of us. Love shall give you rest. No matter how far away from Love you have strayed, it is ready to answer your call – Love’s waiting for you are worth, worthy of all God’s love.
Congregation
There is perfect calm in my mind, in my body and in my affairs. There cannot be any congestion, confusion, or inaction, because I am in harmony with the infinite rhythm of Life. It flows through me in love, in harmony and in peace. There is no fear, no doubt, and no uncertainty in my mind. I am letting that life which is perfect flow through me. It is my life now. There is One Life, that Life is perfect, that Life is my life now.
Reader
May Love hold you and keep you in love’s arms. May all the Gifts of the Spirit be upon you your whole life long. No matter how far away from Love you have strayed, it is ready to answer your call – God’s waiting for you, you are worth, worthy of all God’s love..
Congregation
Blessed Power within me, I am looking to You as a guide in all my affairs. I am led from within to see and do what is right, and in this way I am supplied with all I require through you, my Divine agent within.
So, establish right contacts, set in motion right influences, start right activities in me and around me. I am willing to follow so that my life may continue to be harmonized with Your Love.
Reader
Oh lover of my soul, and keeper of my spirit, none can separate us for we are one. We are one, We are one, none can separate us we are one.
Congregation
My confidence comes from your presence within me and so I am guided to see the right people, say and do the right things, give the right kind of service, and make myself valuable to others. I live wholesomely and efficiently, and give generously. My life is a reflection of your love.
Reader
All nations of the earth, all people of our planet, none can separate us for we are one. We are one, We are one, none can separate us we are one.
Congregation
Divine Spirit within me, you are supplying me with exactly the right idea so I can meet all the duties of my life. I am grateful even now – for although I do not know the specific idea I require, your all knowing intelligence within me does know.
Reader
You are worthy of all God’s Love for God cares without condition for all us children. And god, God is waiting, waiting to welcome you home. There’s no, no need to worry, Love wants you just as you are. No matter how far away from Love you have strayed, it is ready to answer your call – Love’s waiting for you are worth, worthy of all God’s love.
Congregation
Therefore I do not permit myself to be worried or hurried about any new plan, opportunity or need. The right idea becomes known to me easily and effortlessly according to your glorious ways. I accept it at this moment.
Congregation
There is one Life, that Life is God’s life, that Life is perfect, that Life is my life now. My life is a manifestation of God’s Love. My body is a manifestation of the living Spirit. I created and sustained by the one Presence, the only Power: Love. That Power is flowing in and through me now, animating every organ, every action, and every function of my physical being.
Reader
You are perfect in Love’s sight. Come and make your burden light. Know that Love dwells in all of us. Love shall give you rest. No matter how far away from Love you have strayed, it is ready to answer your call – Love’s waiting for you are worth, worthy of all God’s love.
Congregation
There is perfect calm in my mind, in my body and in my affairs. There cannot be any congestion, confusion, or inaction, because I am in harmony with the infinite rhythm of Life. It flows through me in love, in harmony and in peace. There is no fear, no doubt, and no uncertainty in my mind. I am letting that life which is perfect flow through me. It is my life now. There is One Life, that Life is perfect, that Life is my life now.
Reader
May Love hold you and keep you in love’s arms. May all the Gifts of the Spirit be upon you your whole life long. No matter how far away from Love you have strayed, it is ready to answer your call – God’s waiting for you, you are worth, worthy of all God’s love..
Congregation
Blessed Power within me, I am looking to You as a guide in all my affairs. I am led from within to see and do what is right, and in this way I am supplied with all I require through you, my Divine agent within.
So, establish right contacts, set in motion right influences, start right activities in me and around me. I am willing to follow so that my life may continue to be harmonized with Your Love.
Reader
Oh lover of my soul, and keeper of my spirit, none can separate us for we are one. We are one, We are one, none can separate us we are one.
Congregation
My confidence comes from your presence within me and so I am guided to see the right people, say and do the right things, give the right kind of service, and make myself valuable to others. I live wholesomely and efficiently, and give generously. My life is a reflection of your love.
Reader
All nations of the earth, all people of our planet, none can separate us for we are one. We are one, We are one, none can separate us we are one.
Congregation
Divine Spirit within me, you are supplying me with exactly the right idea so I can meet all the duties of my life. I am grateful even now – for although I do not know the specific idea I require, your all knowing intelligence within me does know.
Reader
You are worthy of all God’s Love for God cares without condition for all us children. And god, God is waiting, waiting to welcome you home. There’s no, no need to worry, Love wants you just as you are. No matter how far away from Love you have strayed, it is ready to answer your call – Love’s waiting for you are worth, worthy of all God’s love.
Congregation
Therefore I do not permit myself to be worried or hurried about any new plan, opportunity or need. The right idea becomes known to me easily and effortlessly according to your glorious ways. I accept it at this moment.
Reader
You are perfect in Love’s sight. Come and make your burden light. Know that Love dwells in all of us. Love shall give you rest. No matter how far away from Love you have strayed, it is ready to answer your call – Love’s waiting for you are worth, worthy of all God’s love.
You are perfect in Love’s sight. Come and make your burden light. Know that Love dwells in all of us. Love shall give you rest. No matter how far away from Love you have strayed, it is ready to answer your call – Love’s waiting for you are worth, worthy of all God’s love.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Playfulness
Everything you can imagine is real.
Pablo Picasso
A playful approach to life is a wonderful way to spread gladness. And it is a wonderful way to exercise child like creativity, that capacity to dream up impossible futures and wonderful endings and fantastic stories. If you know that you are reasonably safe from delusion and not prone to living in denial, you might be able to really get some wonderful creative glee from spending time describing a wonderful scenario that you would like to experience. Be outrageous and include elements of humor and whimsy. After all, nature does all the time.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Humor
I know that two and two make four -- and should be glad to prove it too if I could -- though I must say if by any sort of process I could convert 2 and 2 into five it would give me much greater pleasure.”
Lord Byron
What makes one person experience something as humorous may have no such effect on another person. Humor apparently is as personal as our taste in food, romantic attractions and anything else that is influenced by culture, age, education, intelligence and context. I particularly enjoy watching children when they are experiencing something as funny. Not so much because what they are watching appeals to me, but because their laughter and gladness is infectious and helps me feel like I am in the presence of holiness.
What do you consider to be funny and entertaining? When last did you enjoy funny entertainment and how did you feel afterwards?
Pleasure
“Pleasure for one hour, a bottle of wine. Pleasure for one year a marriage; but pleasure for a lifetime, a garden.”
Chinese Proverbs
The philosopher Epicurus defined pleasure as the absence of suffering. Imagine that. American philosopher Ernest Holmes believed that the ultimate goal of life is the complete emancipation from discord of every nature. Imagine that! I think of these ideas from time to time to remind myself to nurture little suffering-free moments in my life. It can be so simple to take a walk in the neighborhood or indulge in an ice cream sundae or spend uninterrupted time with a good book. And the benefits are immense. I have noticed that I don’t take pleasure as much as I could in the things, people and places that I take for granted. For example, seeing the sun rise over the trees I can see out of my bedroom window, because it happens so frequently, I tend to forget to take in the marvel of it. And in moments of complete abandon to the pleasure such as a sunrise, it becomes so very easy to feel the Presence.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Dog Pack Attacks Gator In Florida Fascinating!
(Thanks Michael)
Dog Pack Attacks Gator In Florida
At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty, and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty.
The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the "apex predator", can still fall victim to implemented 'team work' strategy, made possible due to the tight knit social structure and "survival of the pack mentality" bred into the canines.
See the remarkable photograph below courtesy of Nature Magazine.
Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator preventing it from breathing, while another dog has a hold on the tail to keep it from thrashing. The third dog attacks the soft underbelly of the gator.
Not for the squeamish 
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Queen Kunti's Prayer (adapted)
For a word by word translation with explanation click here.
Oh Krishna
As the river Ganges forever flows to the sea
Let my mind, my being
Be constantly drawn to thee
Oh most gentle
Oh original personality
Master of the senses
Seated in the hearts of all that be
Existing both within and without
Seeing all
But seen by none
Unto you i offer all my respects
Oh Krishna
Oh soul of the universe
Beyond the ranger of our perception
Covered by the curtain of misconception
We are bewildered by your movements
Though you work you are inactive
Thought you take birth you are unborn
And though you descend among people and animals and all beings
You are the transcendental reality
And although you are unknown above all that be
You reveal yourself to the surrendered souls who worship you in their hearts
Unto you i offer all my respects
Oh Krishna, Oh eternal master, friend
Oh my lord I offer all to you
Oh lord whose glace is as cool as a lotus
Who protects us
You befriend us and stay with us and guide us through all
I offer myself and whatever I have unto you
My lord your love kindness and mercy often come clothed in strange guises
Enveloped in a shroud of tribulation
Yet our journey through life is made easy through these hardships you provide
Let the calamities come again and again
That we may remember you and meet with you again and again
For those who always see you in all things certainly find shelter at your feet
My lord you can be easily approached
But only by those who are unimpressed with opulence
Unimpressed with fame and wealth
Status and studies and sensual pleasure
Only those who are finished with idle talk
Finished with mundane beauty
Finished with all forms of religiosity
My Lord I am not afraid to be abandoned by luck and good fortune
By friends and relatives
I am not afraid to be handled roughly
I m not afraid to wonder the streets homeless
To be cast away
Condemned
Exiled
Oh most gentle, most holy, most merciful
Help me
Prepare me
Do whatever is necessary to render fit
This soul of mine for entrance into your eternal abode.
Continue Reading...
Oh Krishna
As the river Ganges forever flows to the sea
Let my mind, my being
Be constantly drawn to thee
Oh most gentle
Oh original personality
Master of the senses
Seated in the hearts of all that be
Existing both within and without
Seeing all
But seen by none
Unto you i offer all my respects
Oh Krishna
Oh soul of the universe
Beyond the ranger of our perception
Covered by the curtain of misconception
We are bewildered by your movements
Though you work you are inactive
Thought you take birth you are unborn
And though you descend among people and animals and all beings
You are the transcendental reality
And although you are unknown above all that be
You reveal yourself to the surrendered souls who worship you in their hearts
Unto you i offer all my respects
Oh Krishna, Oh eternal master, friend
Oh my lord I offer all to you
Oh lord whose glace is as cool as a lotus
Who protects us
You befriend us and stay with us and guide us through all
I offer myself and whatever I have unto you
My lord your love kindness and mercy often come clothed in strange guises
Enveloped in a shroud of tribulation
Yet our journey through life is made easy through these hardships you provide
Let the calamities come again and again
That we may remember you and meet with you again and again
For those who always see you in all things certainly find shelter at your feet
My lord you can be easily approached
But only by those who are unimpressed with opulence
Unimpressed with fame and wealth
Status and studies and sensual pleasure
Only those who are finished with idle talk
Finished with mundane beauty
Finished with all forms of religiosity
My Lord I am not afraid to be abandoned by luck and good fortune
By friends and relatives
I am not afraid to be handled roughly
I m not afraid to wonder the streets homeless
To be cast away
Condemned
Exiled
Oh most gentle, most holy, most merciful
Help me
Prepare me
Do whatever is necessary to render fit
This soul of mine for entrance into your eternal abode.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A Stimulus Package
by Miriam Marcus
Howls of protest erupted last month when California's Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, stripping gay and lesbian couples of their right to marry. Adding to the din: all the disappointed planners, seamstresses, jewelers, travel agents and caterers who comprise the massive yet plodding American wedding industry.
There are 781,267 same-sex couples living together in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau's 2005-07 American Community Survey. The Williams Institute, a research arm of UCLA's law school, predicts that if gay marriage were legalized nationwide--only Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, Iowa and (as of earlier this month) New Hampshire allow it now--about half of those couples would tie the knot within three years.
Talk about a stimulus package. While wedding-related revenues--snagged by small shops to giant corporations like Tiffany ( TIF - news - people ), Williams-Sonoma ( WSM - news - people ) and Marriott International ( MAR - news - people )--top $160 billion (an average wedding now costs $20,400), the industry has shrunk at an annualized 1.9% rate after inflation since 1999. If half of the same-sex couples got hitched, Forbes estimates that the industry would reap nearly $10 billion in additional revenue.
The Williams Institute draws from data on same-sex marriages in Massachusetts (where the practice has been legal for five years) and Vermont. As of September 2008, 52% of all same-sex couples living in Massachusetts were married; overall, the institute says, in the states that provide legal recognition, "more than 40%" of same-sex couples married, entered a civil union or otherwise have registered their relationships.
The average same-sex couple tends not to spend as much on their wedding as the average straight couple, notes Lee Badgett, research director at the Williams Institute and professor of economics at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. On average, those couples spent 34% of what straight couples spent on their weddings.
Chalk up part of that difference to the rush of exhilaration to seal the deal after legislation gets passed. Says Badgett: "It takes time to spend a lot of money." Badgett adds that many couples may have already held commitment ceremonies and as a result don't have a need (or the money) for a large second celebration. It's also possible that same-sex couples don't have the financial support of their parents. Or that more than a few are older and have been together for so long that they don't feel the urge for a big bash.
To estimate the financial impact of gay weddings were they legalized nationally, we multiplied the number of same-sex weddings by 34% of the amount straight couples would spend on such items as engagement rings, banquet halls, wedding dresses and honeymoons. Add it all up, and it comes to $9.5 billion.
The biggest category--at $3.4 billion--is gifts. According to the Association of Bridal Consultants, the average amount spent per wedding gift is $113, and the average couple receives 75 gifts. The haul per couple: $8,475. To find the aggregate figure, multiply by 406,000 (a little over half the number of same-sex couples that live together). (We assumed gift givers are as generous to same-sex couples as they are to straight ones.)
Coming in second is reception and catering. According to The Wedding Report, a research company that tracks consumption trends, the average straight couple spends $11,863 on the reception, catering and bar service (including rentals of tents, tables, chairs, etc.). Multiply by 406,000, take 34% of the total and there's $1.6 billion.
Honeymoon expenditures came in third, at $694 million, followed by photography and video ($554 million) and jewelry ($502 million), including wedding bands, earrings and anklets--but not engagement rings, which clock in at $444 million.
Adds up fast, doesn't it?
exceprted from http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/15/same-sex-marriage-entrepreneurs-finance-windfall.html
Continue Reading...
Howls of protest erupted last month when California's Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, stripping gay and lesbian couples of their right to marry. Adding to the din: all the disappointed planners, seamstresses, jewelers, travel agents and caterers who comprise the massive yet plodding American wedding industry.
There are 781,267 same-sex couples living together in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau's 2005-07 American Community Survey. The Williams Institute, a research arm of UCLA's law school, predicts that if gay marriage were legalized nationwide--only Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, Iowa and (as of earlier this month) New Hampshire allow it now--about half of those couples would tie the knot within three years.
Talk about a stimulus package. While wedding-related revenues--snagged by small shops to giant corporations like Tiffany ( TIF - news - people ), Williams-Sonoma ( WSM - news - people ) and Marriott International ( MAR - news - people )--top $160 billion (an average wedding now costs $20,400), the industry has shrunk at an annualized 1.9% rate after inflation since 1999. If half of the same-sex couples got hitched, Forbes estimates that the industry would reap nearly $10 billion in additional revenue.
The Williams Institute draws from data on same-sex marriages in Massachusetts (where the practice has been legal for five years) and Vermont. As of September 2008, 52% of all same-sex couples living in Massachusetts were married; overall, the institute says, in the states that provide legal recognition, "more than 40%" of same-sex couples married, entered a civil union or otherwise have registered their relationships.
The average same-sex couple tends not to spend as much on their wedding as the average straight couple, notes Lee Badgett, research director at the Williams Institute and professor of economics at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. On average, those couples spent 34% of what straight couples spent on their weddings.
Chalk up part of that difference to the rush of exhilaration to seal the deal after legislation gets passed. Says Badgett: "It takes time to spend a lot of money." Badgett adds that many couples may have already held commitment ceremonies and as a result don't have a need (or the money) for a large second celebration. It's also possible that same-sex couples don't have the financial support of their parents. Or that more than a few are older and have been together for so long that they don't feel the urge for a big bash.
To estimate the financial impact of gay weddings were they legalized nationally, we multiplied the number of same-sex weddings by 34% of the amount straight couples would spend on such items as engagement rings, banquet halls, wedding dresses and honeymoons. Add it all up, and it comes to $9.5 billion.
The biggest category--at $3.4 billion--is gifts. According to the Association of Bridal Consultants, the average amount spent per wedding gift is $113, and the average couple receives 75 gifts. The haul per couple: $8,475. To find the aggregate figure, multiply by 406,000 (a little over half the number of same-sex couples that live together). (We assumed gift givers are as generous to same-sex couples as they are to straight ones.)
Coming in second is reception and catering. According to The Wedding Report, a research company that tracks consumption trends, the average straight couple spends $11,863 on the reception, catering and bar service (including rentals of tents, tables, chairs, etc.). Multiply by 406,000, take 34% of the total and there's $1.6 billion.
Honeymoon expenditures came in third, at $694 million, followed by photography and video ($554 million) and jewelry ($502 million), including wedding bands, earrings and anklets--but not engagement rings, which clock in at $444 million.
Adds up fast, doesn't it?
exceprted from http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/15/same-sex-marriage-entrepreneurs-finance-windfall.html
Monday, June 15, 2009
Did you know, you can subscribe to this....
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Sunday, June 14, 2009
Some Interesting and Useful Sites....
www.dafont.com
www.flipclips.com
www.goodreads.com
Continue Reading...
More than 7,500 free fonts (for Mac and PC), so you can at last stop using Copperplate for your party invitations.
www.flipclips.com
Turn your home videos into animated flip books. Much more appealing than another DVD.
www.goodreads.com
Expand your reading. Catalogue your books online and others make recommendations based on what you seem to enjoy.
www.ehow.comHow to do just about everything, from getting stains off curtains to buying a second-hand car.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
When I in awesome wonder consider alll...
(excerpted from Wikipedia)The Rosette Nebula is a large, circular region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy.
It is believed that stellar winds from a group of stars are exerting pressure on interstellar clouds to cause compression, followed by star formation in the nebula. This star formation is currently still ongoing.
A survey of the nebula with the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2001 has revealed the presence of very hot, young stars at the core of the Rosette Nebula. These stars have heated the surrounding gas to a temperature in the order of 6 million kelvins causing them to emit copious amounts of X-rays.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Gamezine reports: All violent video games to be banned in Germany
Friday, 05 Jun 2009 20:06
From Gamezine.co.uk
German ministers have today agreed to ban the production and distribution of all violent video games, with the law only having to go through parliament in the next few weeks.
According to german website Chip Online and supported by Spiegel Online, ministers of the interior of all sixteen German federal states came together for a conference today in Bremerhaven where they agreed to forbid the production and distribution of all video games "where the main part is to realistically play the killing of people or other cruel or unhuman acts of violence against humans or manlike characters."
The country has been infamously hard on violent video games before now, but an outright ban would result in a huge loss for the video games industry in one of its most successful European countries.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Tear Drop Memorial
From Wikipedia:
To the Struggle Against World Terrorism (also known as the Tear of Grief and the Tear Drop Memorial) is a 10-story-high sculpture by Zurab Tsereteli that was given to the United States as an official gift of the Russian government as a memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.[1] It stands on The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor in New Jersey and was dedicated on September 11, 2006 in a ceremony attended by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.[1][2]
The sculpture is in the form of a 100-foot (30 m) tower made of steel and coated in bronze, split with a jagged opening through the middle.[1] Inside the opening hangs a large stainless-steel teardrop, 40 feet (12 m) high,[1] in memory of those whose lives were lost during terrorist attacks in the United States.[3] The eleven sides of the monument's base bear granite name plates, on which are etched the names of those that died in the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.[4]
Tsereteli has not disclosed the cost of the sculpture except to say that he was paying for labor and materials. A lawyer for the sculptor released the cost of the figure at about $12 million
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Listening
“Before you speak, listen.”
William Arthur Ward
Abigail Van Buren gave excellent insight when she said that the less we talk, the more we are listened to. It is my experience also that being reserved with opinions allows people to feel comfortable enough to enquire about my point of view. If only I could remember more consistently to speak less and listen more. Winnie the Pooh’s advice for dealing with people who like me sometimes talk too much and listen to little is this: “If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.” Something about this gentle and light hearted advice reminds me to lighten up about the whole thing – to struggle less and to accept that the spiritual practice of becoming aware of the Presence can be joyful and simple too.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Liberty
“There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.”
Jane Austen
Can you call to mind someone in whose company you feel completely free to be yourself? What do you think are the contributing factors that create the kind of liberty that allows a person to reveal their cares, concerns, and joys unreservedly? How do you exhibit those qualities?
Friday, June 5, 2009
Intimacy
“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
Albert Einstein
In a class a student once made the humorous observation that the word “intimacy” sounds vaguely similar to the phrase “In to me you see”. At the time the comment was extremely helpful because we were practicing active listening skills. The phrase has stuck with me ever since and whenever I am attempting to listen to another being, I try to remember that their soul expression is contained in more than the words I’m hearing, so I have to listen with more than my physical ears. It is difficult for me to see into another person if I am doing many things at the same time in my mind while they are sharing.
Continue Reading...
Albert Einstein
In a class a student once made the humorous observation that the word “intimacy” sounds vaguely similar to the phrase “In to me you see”. At the time the comment was extremely helpful because we were practicing active listening skills. The phrase has stuck with me ever since and whenever I am attempting to listen to another being, I try to remember that their soul expression is contained in more than the words I’m hearing, so I have to listen with more than my physical ears. It is difficult for me to see into another person if I am doing many things at the same time in my mind while they are sharing.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Liking
“A true friend is one who knows all about you and likes you anyway.”
Christi Mary Warner
American psychologist Carol Giligan is quoted as saying “I've found that if I say what I'm really thinking and feeling, people are more likely to say what they really think and feel. The conversation becomes a real conversation.” Real conversations open the pathway to true friendship and the possibility of liking each other despite our differences. Think about the people in your life you can say you really like. Possibly they have many qualities you do not like and yet you like them still. What is it that allows you to continue liking them?
Interest
“So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti
One way to practice being aware of the Presence through love, is to give your attention fully to other people from time to time. So many people have not truly been listened to. Try the following experiment. Ask a friend to tell you about something that you know is important to them. Ask them to leave out no details. Invite them to start at the very beginning and to take as much time as they like to share everything. And then settle in to listen to what is being revealed to you beyond the words.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The Prayer
Infinite Power within,
Your nature is wholeness and perfection
You are eternally present everywhere.
And from within you guide me
For your ways are my ways.
Let your delight be expressed through my life,
On the outside as it is in the inside.
Infinite Power within,
My every need is contained within You.
As I dwell on your ways,
I am released from all previous errors…
And I am able to release the errors of others.
With my mind centered you,
I am empowered to be all that I can be today.
I am strong and courageous through the Power and the glory of God which is Love.
How To Pray Inclusively in Public
Charles Filmore on Prayer
I Let My Thoughts Be Direct, Simple and Receiving
Pray in Good Times and in Bad
Continue Reading...
Your nature is wholeness and perfection
You are eternally present everywhere.
And from within you guide me
For your ways are my ways.
Let your delight be expressed through my life,
On the outside as it is in the inside.
Infinite Power within,
My every need is contained within You.
As I dwell on your ways,
I am released from all previous errors…
And I am able to release the errors of others.
With my mind centered you,
I am empowered to be all that I can be today.
I am strong and courageous through the Power and the glory of God which is Love.
How To Pray Inclusively in Public
Charles Filmore on Prayer
I Let My Thoughts Be Direct, Simple and Receiving
Pray in Good Times and in Bad
Monday, June 1, 2009
Taking Time
In Banff, Canada, an underwater lake has been formed by a tiny waterfall, taking its time over who knows how many ages to fill up the cavern.
Looking at this photos reminded me of my affection for immediate results, instant gratification, and microwave meals. With no one around for the better part of the formation of this lake, the waterfall had no validation, approval or recognition, and not even the definite possibility that someone would find it and enjoy it one day. Such a lot to think about.
Healing or Stealing?
The Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of
Portland, May 3, 2009
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was "direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there.
Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.
This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food—but all that is changing.
There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe
cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint.
And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done. When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary
power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages,
campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.
You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are
working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.
There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.
Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown — Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood — and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity.
Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.
The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. We are the only species on the planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation.
And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich. The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. And dreams come true. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe, which is exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science
would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your
body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are
free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. You can feel it. It is called life.
This is who you are. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those
molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life
inside you, just as in all of nature. Our innate nature is to create the conditions that are conducive to life. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every
thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions
overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television.
This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that
threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss.
The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense
when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life
depends on it.
……….
Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many
books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May, when he delivered this superb speech. Our thanks especially to Erica Linson for her help making that moment possible.
www.paulhawken.com
Continue Reading...
Portland, May 3, 2009
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was "direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there.
Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.
This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food—but all that is changing.
There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe
cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint.
And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done. When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary
power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages,
campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.
You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are
working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.
There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.
Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown — Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood — and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity.
Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.
The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. We are the only species on the planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation.
And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich. The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. And dreams come true. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe, which is exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science
would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your
body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are
free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. You can feel it. It is called life.
This is who you are. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those
molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life
inside you, just as in all of nature. Our innate nature is to create the conditions that are conducive to life. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every
thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions
overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television.
This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that
threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss.
The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense
when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life
depends on it.
……….
Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many
books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May, when he delivered this superb speech. Our thanks especially to Erica Linson for her help making that moment possible.
www.paulhawken.com
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