BOO!

Happy Halloween!

My favorite decoration is a large, colorful banner with art by Mary Engelbreit. It shows a kid dressed up like a fortune-teller with her crystal ball. Other little “goblins” are gathered ‘round to hear what she has to say.

At the bottom is a quote by Peter Drucker, which reads:

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

Although sometimes things can sound pretty scary on the evening news, it’s good to keep this quote in mind.

AND it’s especially good to be busy working to create something good for the future of  mankind.

 

WHO’S IN CHARGE?

BLOG # 27    OCTOBER 28, 2013   WHO’S IN CHARGE??

Here is something that is heart warming and mind-expanding all at one time.  It thrilled me to the core because it is proof positive that I’ve been telling the truth and surely know whereof I speak!

It’s about a pitiful little school in Mexico that happens to be turning out geniuses by allowing the children to be in charge of their own learning.

The implications are huge.  The potential for change is awesome.

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/free-thinkers/all/

 

UNIQUE YOU

Did you know that each human cell measuring 1/1000th of an inch in diameter contains within its DNA instructions that would fill 1000 books of 600 pages each?

Just try to picture what your bedroom would look like with 1000 books piled up in it – thick books – each with 600 pages, all about YOU – – the instructions for what makes you unique in all time, space and eternity.

What a marvel you are!  What a marvel is each tiny newborn baby just bursting with potential and each busily active grown-up and each old person with a life’s worth of experience.

There’s a place for each of us to fully express who and what  loving and wonderful thing we were born to be.

Here’s you a really fun reminder of this marvelous fact.  Jump, dance, celebrate!     (Thanks Bill Stains, Celtic Thunder and cousin Patti.)

ClickHERE

“Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and the thinkers.  But most of all surround yourself with those who see greatness within you.”  ANON.

SLIPPERY SLOPES

I know a lot about slippery slopes.  A hurricane in the Great Smoky Mountains?  The old- timers said such a thing had never happened before.  But there I was, after spending a wild and scary night on top of Mt. Le Conte, staring with wide eyes at unbelievable, complete, crazy devastation.  Enormous trees had been thrown up and set back down like a bunch of pick-up-sticks.  The trail?  The once well-maintained and clearly marked 5½ mile path down was seen only in patches and covered with the trunks of trees too huge to climb over or under.   Clearly, the only way down and back to civilization was to blaze a new trail.  This, I was to learn, is not easy:  it’s not fun, it’s scary, dangerous, dirty, strange, slick, and takes all the quick thought, courage and creativity one can muster.  “Inch by inch, life’s a cinch,” Mom had taught me. Even exercising all possible care, at one point my very life was at stake and I thought I was a goner. Finally, just before nightfall, covered head to toe with mud and blood and my clothes in tatters, I was down.  It made me forever stronger, wiser and braver, but also much more respectful of both the forces of nature and the comforts of civilization.

Humanity is at a similar critical juncture, with no easy paths in sight.  Taking a long view and a deep breath, many have realized just how much is at stake, how connected we all are and how deeply held beliefs may determine our fate. What values can best glue together our shattered sensibilities and give us hope?  What route is on a solid foundation? What direction will lead toward greater enlightenment?  We can’t afford to stand paralyzed by indecision for long.

 

A REASON FOR OPTIMISM

Today I feel so optimistic about the future of the world.

A young boy named Jack had seen his uncle die of pancreatic cancer.

One day in science class, an idea came to him about a way to detect this hideous disease.

He started working out this idea, contacting 199 doctors to ask for the help he needed.  They all rejected his thinking and declined to help him. Undeterred, he finally found a doctor at Johns Hopkins who agreed to help him with his science fair project.

The rest is history. It touched me to the heart.  You’ve got to see this!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmVzs3-GNBc

 

What an example of persistence, and autodidact-ism.  I love it!

 

And thank you Intel, for providing this great award to young “would-be (!?)” scientists.

 

The unbelievable human potential is about people who take things into their own hands and determine to break the barriers.

SEEING AHEAD BY LOOKING BACK

My two cousins, my sister and I recently took a day to learn more about our family heritage, visiting a restored ancestral home in the remote county where our family members had lived, worked and lie buried.

I thought I already knew all about pioneer ways.  But in the context of my own real, dear  kin, whose personal histories I know, what I absorbed touched me in a far deeper way.

A quiet amazement began to consume me.  My take away for the day was how far civilization has advanced in just three generations. What hardships they had endured! Cold, cold winters in drafty homes, hot, hot summers with no air conditioning, no indoor plumbing, no vaccines, no preventive dentistry, no feminine hygiene products, no birth control pills, the early deaths of dearly loved children, no freezers, no electricity, no hot and cold running water, the “putting by” of crops to avoid certain starvation in winter.  Every day was constant toil just to feed all the hungry mouths and bravely face the wilderness with just their own wits.

It occurred to me that given all our ease and leisure, for which I am grateful to my core, perhaps our generation doesn’t yet know quite what to do with itself besides hustle and consume.  Our values seem skewed compared to theirs which seem simple and rock solid:  they loved those beautiful unspoiled vistas in their mountain homeland, and their kinship with nature was profound.  How deeply they cherished know-how and survival skills.

But surely all their blood, sweat and tears were not just so that their progeny could live shallow, empty lives of a never ending rat race, depending on drugs to endure its insanity.

No.  Something is coming:  something that will bring with it freedom, true community, purpose, fulfillment, mastery, natural mental and physical health.

Thank you, dear ancestors for all your heroic efforts that will help bring us to this better place.

 

YOUR PROPER ENVIRONMENT

What is the proper environment in which humanity will thrive, just like ducks in the water?

It is the one in which you will find and so deeply enjoy what you were made for. It is an environment for true, delightful learning, carefully prepared to:

1. Show you all knowledge at a glance: “the big picture,” in the most engaging and tangible way possible.

2. Be easily accessible to you and others.

3. Provide for your wonder, curiosity, discovery, joy, imagination, creativity and inventiveness.

4. Set you free to you to learn just as you wish:

*what you wish to learn.

*when you wish to learn it.

*how you wish to learn it.

*where you wish to learn it.

*in harmony with why you wish to learn it.

 5. Give you permission to fail and fail and fail because that is how you learn.

WHAT WERE YOU MADE FOR?

“We’re like horses raised in the basement.  We know something’s missing but we don’t know what it is.” said Barbara Sher

It’s really the truth.  Humanity has enormous potential but we’ve simply never had the freedom to thrive in our right environment.

The following wonderful video makes the point better than a million words.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrPajlIsKd0