NEWSLETTER VOLUME 4, #4
Ideas for people pursuing an empowered life,
NEWSLETTER VOLUME 4, #4
Ideas for people pursuing an empowered life,
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On voluntary prosperity
The September 2004 issue of National Geographic Magazine has a devastating read on "Global Warming". With graphs and haunting photos, they look at the state of the Biosphere from 3 perspectives they named Geo, Eco and Time Signs.
The challenges ahead are huge. We have to rethink our handiwork and how we treat our world. In Geo signs, I learned that the climate changes now occurring in a single human life span normally took place in a geologic age. The atmosphere's level of carbon dioxide, for example, is dangerously higher than it has been in thousands of years.Because the North and South ice caps are melting, changes in ocean temperature are affecting the overall climate in disastrous ways.
In the week that preceded my reading the article, our home planet endured three hurricanes, a typhoon, several huge tropical storms were brewing and the thermal shock helped produce an earthquake and 2 volcanic eruptions.
The "Eco Signs" looked at the effect humans are causing other species. With examples like missing frogs from the Monteverde Cloudforest Reserve in Costa Rica, one of my own favorite haunts, they painted an alarmingly sad scenario.
Imagine a pristine garden high in the sky, all misty and lush, where a great diversity of life survives by constantly and gently being sprayed by the passing clouds. For millennia, Creation’s ideal mix of sun and nutrient rich water produced and awesome array of flora and fauna there. Then things suddenly changed; logging on the lower mountain slopes caused warmed air to rise up and push the clouds to higher elevations. That condemned many species - like Sapo Dorado - to die.
Everywhere, species are struggling to adapt to changing conditions but the lifecycles in which various creatures depend on each are falling out of synch, and that makes any hope of a future for them most dire.
From Time Signs, I learned an amazing aside to all of this: As Polar ice caps melt, science can see far into the biological past of the Earth. Fossils and other deposits are revealing the history of climate change, and how it affects the whole planetary system. Networks of researchers in every discipline are building models that push the current facts near and far into the future.
There is no question about whether climate change is occurring - It is. And it's no longer a matter of theory or of belief. There is no more time to afford the skeptics, fools and robber-barons who continue to sow disinformation. You can bet the fascists will feed their selfish gains to the detriment of us all.
Even if the Planet has fluctuated between ice ages and tropical climes before, this time it is very different. This time we know how our own works are the major contributing force. But this time we can do something about it. This time we can avoid the predictable catastrophe:
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Ever have to present an idea in a meeting? Are you good at it? I had a rather unpleasant experience recently while animating a work session for a group where someone wasn't.
A participant didn't succeed is selling his agenda to his team - and then decided the fault lay with the group's unwillingness to listen to him. Of course he also blamed the process so, in answer, I put together a technique I call Persuasive thinking.
In future, I'll suggest it to anyone about to walk into a meeting with an idea to sell. For a close look click here
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Time to plan a strategic retreat? Learn when and how to use a multi-day retreat in Nature that will help the management make strategic decisions that'll be the basis for your future success.
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"Nothing on Earth can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goals; nothing on Earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." Thomas Jefferson
"A person will be led on the path that he truly wants to travel on." The Talmud
"I'm not telling you it is going to be easy - I'm telling you it's going to be worth it." Art Williams
"The most painful thing to experience is not defeat but regret." Leo Buscaglia
"Life is like a grinding stone - it can polish or pulverize you - depending on how you position yourself." Larry De Angelo
"You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you." James Allen
"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." Carl Bard
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A frog - less brave than most frogs - grieved at not having a strong leader to rely on. Nightly, he croaked loudly, going on about the need for an powerful frog ruler.
In awhile, after they'd heard his endless croaks on threats and dangers, a good many Frogs were seduced to agree with the him: Better be safe than sorry‚ they croaked in unison. To protect themselves from the long list of fears, they mandated a "Committee Of The Convinced" to brainstorm possible solutions and - being frogs - they came up with two of them.
The first - "We'll wait for life to end while buried in the mud at the bottom of the pond!" was deemed the lesser of the 2 because it was thought that it might be difficult to convince the unconvinced to willfully, ahhh -CROAK - before actually having to.
And so their 2nd idea was retained: A few of the frogs had befriended a great sorcerer who used the secretions off their backs for some potion or other. An interesting chap, he actually spoke frog and always gave them some delicious morsels for a gentle and quite pleasant scrape of their back.He'll find them a leader, the Committee was convinced.
So a delegation was sent to the sorcerer and, after introductions were made and they'd offered him a back-scrape for his services, the chief delegate asked him to become involved in their affairs, to help them find a ruler who’d protect them from danger. Seeing the folly in their fear-based logic, the sorcerer tought things would probably work themselves out and so he told them - sure - he'd make everything A-OK.Then he scraped them, fixed them some snacks and sent them on their way.
Relieved, they hopped home happily.
Approaching their pond, after they'd jumped over the last mound and saw its wet stillness, a huge tree limb dislodged from above and fell into the water in a great splash. Some Frogs became terrified at sound and, reacting to plan #1, dove to the depths of the pond to hide. When they realized that there was no further ado and the menace sat motionless above them, they swam back to the top of world and, as they their fear lessened, croaked at it in resentment: How dare it cause them such a fright?
After a bit more time though, as the tree limb sat oblivious to their croaks, one after another they began to think: It has such calm authority, it might very well be the great ruler we were promised.
They'd wait to see if he'd resolve the dangers and make their fear go away. So the frogs went about their business for awhile but soon saw things hadn't changed at all. Oh sure some were less afraid than before (having found there was no imminent danger) but the "Committee of the Committed" decided they'd been short-changed with such an "inert" ruler and called for an "all pond" meeting.
They kept the assembly awake with their terror-talk until it decided to send a second delegation to see the sorcerer. This time they'd hard-bargain so he'd set them free with ...a rather more mobile sovereign...
Leaving nothing to chance, they'd drawn a precise list of all they wanted their ruler to be: "Regal‚ we see him in royal robes and with deadly power. He'll have great facility moving about the pond and the ability to be among us, listening to our concerns, so we'll feel protected under the cover of his might and reflect in the shadow of his greatness‚" - and quite a bit more.
This time, the sorcerer was put off by their fear-based complaints and was convinced that their attitude had ruined his last batch of potion by making it sour. He told them he'd fix everything for sure, for sure, to be off and leave it to him.
When they got home, they found that a Great Blue Heron had moved into the pond and was bringing order to their affairs. From that day on, those frogs saw that beautiful, royal blue Heron strut majestically about their lily pads and deep grasses, easily stepping over to those frogs who croaked the loudest, to devour them instantly and unceremoniously.
Soon quiet and calm ruled the pond. And to this day, frogs know 2 things for sure: 1. Be careful what you wish for, and 2. Living under the wings of a Great Blue Heron is no cure for frog-fear.
And they being frogs and all, knowing those 2 things for sure is plenty.