: Today’s Reflection is about another perspective of looking at our deeply
: and profoundly interconnected world, where nothing exists in isolation,
: and everything impacts, affects, and depends on everything else.
The following is a story Keli
told me, about a live performance Prince gave in Vancouver a long time
ago; I hope that in retelling it, I will do the story as much justice
as it deserves.
Prince. Live performance. Crowds. Music. And
everything else that accompanies such an event. At some point, Prince
stops playing, turns to the audience, and asks: “What’s better, to give
or to receive?”
“To give,” scream some. “To receive,” shout others.
He
repeats his question. In return, even more screaming and shouting and
noise, all variations of the same answers. He points to a woman,
screaming from her seat in the front row: “What is better, to give or
to receive?”
“To give!” is her reply.
“OK,” says Prince.
“You are saying that to give is better than to receive?” Her loud “Yes”
carries through the whole space, as he raises his hand and quiets the
audience.
“I want you then,” he says, pointing to the woman, “to
give your seat to someone at the very last row and go sit there
instead. Trade places.”
Silence descends on the whole place.
“What is better, to give or to receive?” he asks again.
By
now, the silence is palpable and the audience can feel, sense, taste,
and touch it. It is as if time stands still. He repeats the question
again. Now the silence is heavy, drawing people deeper and deeper into
themselves. Nothing moves.
He then invites the woman from the
front row to the stage. Assistants bring pillows and make a comfortable
and cozy area for her to sit, right there, in the center of the stage.
He turns his back to the whole audience and performs a song – facing
the woman, singing just for her.
:: “You cannot teach an ego to be anything but egotistic, even though egos have
:: the subtlest ways of pretending to be reformed. The basic thing is therefore
:: to dispel, by experiment and experience, the illusion of oneself as a
:: separate ego.” - Alan Watts
When the song is over, he turns to the audience and asks again, “What is getter – to give or to receive?”
There
is still silence in the space, yet it is different now. Somehow, it is
more gentle, contemplative, intimate. “You cannot have one without the
other,” says Prince.
I keep coming back to this story, time and
time again, in a variety of situations and circumstances. How true his
message is. Some weeks ago, I witnessed a profoundly beautiful,
touching, and inspiring ceremony, where a group of students and faculty
acknowledged and appreciated a program dean, who has contributed
immensely to an MBA school, from the very beginning. She is now taking
a short sabbatical, and in an opening circle, people stood up and
acknowledged her contribution to the school and their own lives. Beyond
the appreciations themselves, one of the things that touched me the
most was observing her receive the appreciations – gracefully, humbly,
without trying to avoid or deflect the kind words that were shared with
her in front of a group of about a hundred people.
One cannot
fully give, if the message is not being fully received. The giver and
the receiver depend on each other for a full experience of grace,
kindness, appreciation, and love. Without such relationship of
interdependence, there is no giver and no receiver.
:: “The hostile attitude of conquering nature ignores the basic interdependence
:: of all things and events – that the world beyond the skin is actually an
:: extension of our own bodies – and will end in destroying the very environment
:: from which we emerge and upon which our whole life depends.”
:: - Alan Watts
This is It
and I am It
and You are It
and so is That
and He is It
and She is It
and It is It
and That is That.
- James Broughton
A sunny week to you all, inside and out.
:: Simon’s Reflections newsletter is published on a
:: bi-weekly basis and contains writings that touch
:: the heart, provoke the mind, and inspire action.
:: And I do welcome your thoughts and comments.
Simon
About: http://www.SimonGoland.com
Blog: http://www.SimonGoland.com/news
Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SimonsReflectionsList
08 December 2008
04 December 2008
Voice Dialogue
Dr Hal & Sidra Stone's Voice Dialogue Tips
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:10:40 +1100 (EST)
From: Voice Dialogue Tips
Voice Dialogue Tips
December 2008
Email us: jcoroneos@bigpond.com
Web Site: http://www.bodymindinformation.com
Dear Participant
Welcome again to Hal & Sidra's Voice Dialogue Tips.
1. The month's article is titled "Meditation and Voice Dialogue"
2. Become a WRITER: Learn the Art and Craft of Story and Screenwriting
The most highly paid profession and rewarding career!
1. Meditation and Voice Dialogue
by
J'aime ona Pangaia
The goal of Voice Dialogue practice is the emergence of the Aware Ego Process. What is that? It's operating with free will, the ability to make choices in the moment with compassion and an energetic connection to our body. Essentially that means separating from our identification with a, or any part of ourself and having an ego experience ("I") that has the capacity to make choices with Awareness. By Awareness, I mean non-judgmental, unconditional, un-attached witnessing awareness. Choice-less awareness. Unvarnished beholding. Dispassionate Compassion. How many of us experience that?
This type of awareness may occur for moments, randomly in a person's life, or we may never experience it consciously. But, we have a greater potential to experience this awareness when we've engaged in an activity to practice it, to cultivate it. One of the oldest, simplest form of awareness practice is breath meditation. This involves setting our intention that the natural rise and fall of our breath be the sole object of our attention for a set period of time. This is a humbling discipline, because as soon as one begins meditation, other experiences rush in to compete for our attention. Thoughts, sensations and emotions layer in and our attention on our breath is lost. We quickly become possessed by these competing perceptions; we become attached, identified with whatever wins our attention in the moment.
We become consumed by that feeling of anger, or sadness, we become obsessed with that sudden, relentless itch behind our ear, we are mesmerized by our plans for tomorrow's meeting, we start rehearsing what we're going to say to someone. Our intention to focus on our breath is forgotten and our attention has been hijacked by whatever perception has won the moment.
Practicing meditation helps us to develop the strength to separate from selves. When I sit down for a half hour of meditation, I have to separate from selves a thousand times. Or more. Over and over, I bring my attention to just watching my breath, without comment, without emotion, without distraction or avoidance, without desire or resentment, just watching. With every returning to my breath, I groom my capacity to just watch. I discover Awareness, which is omnipresent although not often consciously experienced due to the almost ceaseless possessions of the ego. Again and again, I intend to watch my breath and over time and practice, I become more attuned to the experience of empty awareness, and what clouds it over.
Awareness doesn't do anything, and so we cannot 'aware our way through life'. We must engage with life, make choices and live with the consequences. Voice Dialogue, a psycho-spiritual discipline shares the stance taken by Buddhism that we can train ourselves to recognize ego states (sub-personalities, inner selves, 'parts', individualized archetypal patterns) as states, not what-I-am, once we are aware. We call this the 'aware ego process'. From there, we can begin to live life with choice, compassion, engagement and non-attachment. Through awareness, we recognize the existence of these selves while remembering and experiencing them as means of being; they are not our essential being. Our essential being is paradoxically full of every creative possibility, indelibly unique, and empty of anything in permanence.
Our closest common experience of awareness is with an inner part I'll call the Inner Critic. While witnessing Awareness is non-judgmental and has no agenda, the Inner Critic also perceives everything, but with negative judgment. When bringing our Awareness to the Inner Critic, we can perceive that it has an agenda - to change our behavior in order to protect vulnerability. Awareness of the basic nature of the Inner Critic can transform our relationship with the Inner Critic. We can pay attention to what it's trying to orient us to ~ our vulnerability, and when we start becoming relating to our vulnerability with Awareness, the Inner Critic calms down. Now we are no longer victim to the Inner Critic, nor trying to change or repress it. We accept it.
Meditation is a practice, it is an exercise, a discipline to potentiate a direct experience of Awareness. Any given time we settle down to meditate, we may or may not have much direct experience of Awareness. Or we may. We practice meditation, not so much so that we have awareness experience while meditating, but that our practice of meditation provides us with more Awareness experience in everyday life, on and off the proverbial meditation cushion. In fact the more we try to have an Awareness experience, the less we'll have one, since we're fixedly in a self that has an agenda.
The same goes for Voice Dialogue facilitation (a kind of engaged, two person practice of meditating). We may, or may not, have a big 'aha!' during the facilitation experience, in fact, it often comes afterwards, and more quietly. Because of Voice Dialogue facilitation, we simply see more clearly and immediately when we are in the throes of an inner self, and we can recognize it as such: ah, a self! There's a choice now, and we're more aware of it. We perceive that choice with less, or no judgments. We may still have to wrestle ourselves from the habit of our old patterns, but this is very similar to wrestling our attention away from passing thoughts, feelings, and sensations while meditating.
In everyday life, the practice of meditation conditions us to a return to the fleeting, yet expansive moment. Here I am now, and I have options. In meditation, our option is to return to our breath. That's our intention, our practice. In everyday life, our intention is to return to the present, to complexity, to paradox, to include more of how we can be, given the actual conditions of the moment.
Without the Aware Ego Process, we live by habitual patterns, we live through projections on the world, we live identified with some ways of being and by disowning others, we live by 'right' and 'wrong': judgment, we live through memories and fantasies, without relating much to what actually is, right now. Meditation and Voice Dialogue are like twin practices, complementing each other. Either one by itself is helpful; together, our direct experience of Awareness, and the Aware Ego Process is more probable.
For more Voice Dialogue tips and information, visit http://www.bodymindinformation.com
2. Become a WRITER: Learn the Art and Craft of Story and Screenwriting
The most highly paid profession and most rewarding career!
2. from Michael Domeyko Rowland,
presenter, director and writer of the Voice Dialogue Series.
Writing is an incredibly fulfilling activity and probably the most creative outlet for anyone interested in the personality and exploring the deeper parts of the mind. You will reveal your own inner being and discover all sorts of things about yourself that you would never find in any other way. Writing for the screen or the page is a fascinating and amazing experience, when approached in the right way. It is also the fastest way to generate a very large income, with royalties that can pay off for the rest of your life.
Most people make the mistake of writing from the conscious mind. The conscious mind can only ever come up with clichés, because it is not the source of originality and creativity. It is vital for editing, but not for creation. Many also make the mistake of not understanding the true function of story for an audience.
Deep within your mind you have an unlimited resource, a realm of undiscovered selves, which only the greatest writers know about. This resource I have called the Mythopoetica. It is the realm of the superconscious. It holds the ability to create any story whatsoever. This is the part of your mind that creates all your dreams. It is also the part of your mind that will bring into your consciousness the most inspiring, interesting and amazing stories you can imagine.
If you are interested in discovering the complete structural system, used by the world's finest story and screenwriters to guarantee that they have a professional and saleable story, as well as how to write directly from your superconscious, then please email me and I will send you a free ebrochure about a web based writing course I am offering. It is available for a limited time only.
The integration of classic structure and the superconscious is what makes this course unique. Email to: info@lifeact.com and put ‘Writing' in the subject line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Send these Voice Dialogue Tips to Friends:
If you would like to send these tips on to any of your friends, please forward them by email. You can also advise your friends at http://www.bodymindinformation.com/tell-a-friend.php If you are able to help us do this, we would like to thank you by sending you a FREE REPORT titled: Voice Dialogue: A Guide To Great Relationships.
They can also register to receive future copies on our web site, which has a subscriber's panel, or they can email jcoroneos@bigpond.com directly. We will not be giving any of the addresses we receive to anyone else or any other organization. At any point you can stop receiving them - just click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.
How To Change Your Email details:
If you need to change your email address, the quickest and surest way is this: click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this page. Then go to the web site http://www.bodymindinformation.com and resubscribe with your new address. If you find your name spelt incorrectly, or have no name mentioned at the beginning of this letter, then email us on jcoroneos@bigpond.com and we will change it.
Warmly,
Dr John Coroneos
Medical Doctor
Producer of The Voice Dialogue Series
Copyright Wiseone Edutainment P/L
No part of Hal and Sidra's Voice Dialogue tips may be reproduced, in any form, without the written permission of Drs Hal and Sidra Stone except for forwarding an issue, in its entirety and complete with copyright information, to a friend.
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:10:40 +1100 (EST)
From: Voice Dialogue Tips
Voice Dialogue Tips
December 2008
Email us: jcoroneos@bigpond.com
Web Site: http://www.bodymindinformation.com
Dear Participant
Welcome again to Hal & Sidra's Voice Dialogue Tips.
1. The month's article is titled "Meditation and Voice Dialogue"
2. Become a WRITER: Learn the Art and Craft of Story and Screenwriting
The most highly paid profession and rewarding career!
1. Meditation and Voice Dialogue
by
J'aime ona Pangaia
The goal of Voice Dialogue practice is the emergence of the Aware Ego Process. What is that? It's operating with free will, the ability to make choices in the moment with compassion and an energetic connection to our body. Essentially that means separating from our identification with a, or any part of ourself and having an ego experience ("I") that has the capacity to make choices with Awareness. By Awareness, I mean non-judgmental, unconditional, un-attached witnessing awareness. Choice-less awareness. Unvarnished beholding. Dispassionate Compassion. How many of us experience that?
This type of awareness may occur for moments, randomly in a person's life, or we may never experience it consciously. But, we have a greater potential to experience this awareness when we've engaged in an activity to practice it, to cultivate it. One of the oldest, simplest form of awareness practice is breath meditation. This involves setting our intention that the natural rise and fall of our breath be the sole object of our attention for a set period of time. This is a humbling discipline, because as soon as one begins meditation, other experiences rush in to compete for our attention. Thoughts, sensations and emotions layer in and our attention on our breath is lost. We quickly become possessed by these competing perceptions; we become attached, identified with whatever wins our attention in the moment.
We become consumed by that feeling of anger, or sadness, we become obsessed with that sudden, relentless itch behind our ear, we are mesmerized by our plans for tomorrow's meeting, we start rehearsing what we're going to say to someone. Our intention to focus on our breath is forgotten and our attention has been hijacked by whatever perception has won the moment.
Practicing meditation helps us to develop the strength to separate from selves. When I sit down for a half hour of meditation, I have to separate from selves a thousand times. Or more. Over and over, I bring my attention to just watching my breath, without comment, without emotion, without distraction or avoidance, without desire or resentment, just watching. With every returning to my breath, I groom my capacity to just watch. I discover Awareness, which is omnipresent although not often consciously experienced due to the almost ceaseless possessions of the ego. Again and again, I intend to watch my breath and over time and practice, I become more attuned to the experience of empty awareness, and what clouds it over.
Awareness doesn't do anything, and so we cannot 'aware our way through life'. We must engage with life, make choices and live with the consequences. Voice Dialogue, a psycho-spiritual discipline shares the stance taken by Buddhism that we can train ourselves to recognize ego states (sub-personalities, inner selves, 'parts', individualized archetypal patterns) as states, not what-I-am, once we are aware. We call this the 'aware ego process'. From there, we can begin to live life with choice, compassion, engagement and non-attachment. Through awareness, we recognize the existence of these selves while remembering and experiencing them as means of being; they are not our essential being. Our essential being is paradoxically full of every creative possibility, indelibly unique, and empty of anything in permanence.
Our closest common experience of awareness is with an inner part I'll call the Inner Critic. While witnessing Awareness is non-judgmental and has no agenda, the Inner Critic also perceives everything, but with negative judgment. When bringing our Awareness to the Inner Critic, we can perceive that it has an agenda - to change our behavior in order to protect vulnerability. Awareness of the basic nature of the Inner Critic can transform our relationship with the Inner Critic. We can pay attention to what it's trying to orient us to ~ our vulnerability, and when we start becoming relating to our vulnerability with Awareness, the Inner Critic calms down. Now we are no longer victim to the Inner Critic, nor trying to change or repress it. We accept it.
Meditation is a practice, it is an exercise, a discipline to potentiate a direct experience of Awareness. Any given time we settle down to meditate, we may or may not have much direct experience of Awareness. Or we may. We practice meditation, not so much so that we have awareness experience while meditating, but that our practice of meditation provides us with more Awareness experience in everyday life, on and off the proverbial meditation cushion. In fact the more we try to have an Awareness experience, the less we'll have one, since we're fixedly in a self that has an agenda.
The same goes for Voice Dialogue facilitation (a kind of engaged, two person practice of meditating). We may, or may not, have a big 'aha!' during the facilitation experience, in fact, it often comes afterwards, and more quietly. Because of Voice Dialogue facilitation, we simply see more clearly and immediately when we are in the throes of an inner self, and we can recognize it as such: ah, a self! There's a choice now, and we're more aware of it. We perceive that choice with less, or no judgments. We may still have to wrestle ourselves from the habit of our old patterns, but this is very similar to wrestling our attention away from passing thoughts, feelings, and sensations while meditating.
In everyday life, the practice of meditation conditions us to a return to the fleeting, yet expansive moment. Here I am now, and I have options. In meditation, our option is to return to our breath. That's our intention, our practice. In everyday life, our intention is to return to the present, to complexity, to paradox, to include more of how we can be, given the actual conditions of the moment.
Without the Aware Ego Process, we live by habitual patterns, we live through projections on the world, we live identified with some ways of being and by disowning others, we live by 'right' and 'wrong': judgment, we live through memories and fantasies, without relating much to what actually is, right now. Meditation and Voice Dialogue are like twin practices, complementing each other. Either one by itself is helpful; together, our direct experience of Awareness, and the Aware Ego Process is more probable.
For more Voice Dialogue tips and information, visit http://www.bodymindinformation.com
2. Become a WRITER: Learn the Art and Craft of Story and Screenwriting
The most highly paid profession and most rewarding career!
2. from Michael Domeyko Rowland,
presenter, director and writer of the Voice Dialogue Series.
Writing is an incredibly fulfilling activity and probably the most creative outlet for anyone interested in the personality and exploring the deeper parts of the mind. You will reveal your own inner being and discover all sorts of things about yourself that you would never find in any other way. Writing for the screen or the page is a fascinating and amazing experience, when approached in the right way. It is also the fastest way to generate a very large income, with royalties that can pay off for the rest of your life.
Most people make the mistake of writing from the conscious mind. The conscious mind can only ever come up with clichés, because it is not the source of originality and creativity. It is vital for editing, but not for creation. Many also make the mistake of not understanding the true function of story for an audience.
Deep within your mind you have an unlimited resource, a realm of undiscovered selves, which only the greatest writers know about. This resource I have called the Mythopoetica. It is the realm of the superconscious. It holds the ability to create any story whatsoever. This is the part of your mind that creates all your dreams. It is also the part of your mind that will bring into your consciousness the most inspiring, interesting and amazing stories you can imagine.
If you are interested in discovering the complete structural system, used by the world's finest story and screenwriters to guarantee that they have a professional and saleable story, as well as how to write directly from your superconscious, then please email me and I will send you a free ebrochure about a web based writing course I am offering. It is available for a limited time only.
The integration of classic structure and the superconscious is what makes this course unique. Email to: info@lifeact.com and put ‘Writing' in the subject line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Send these Voice Dialogue Tips to Friends:
If you would like to send these tips on to any of your friends, please forward them by email. You can also advise your friends at http://www.bodymindinformation.com/tell-a-friend.php If you are able to help us do this, we would like to thank you by sending you a FREE REPORT titled: Voice Dialogue: A Guide To Great Relationships.
They can also register to receive future copies on our web site, which has a subscriber's panel, or they can email jcoroneos@bigpond.com directly. We will not be giving any of the addresses we receive to anyone else or any other organization. At any point you can stop receiving them - just click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.
How To Change Your Email details:
If you need to change your email address, the quickest and surest way is this: click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this page. Then go to the web site http://www.bodymindinformation.com and resubscribe with your new address. If you find your name spelt incorrectly, or have no name mentioned at the beginning of this letter, then email us on jcoroneos@bigpond.com and we will change it.
Warmly,
Dr John Coroneos
Medical Doctor
Producer of The Voice Dialogue Series
Copyright Wiseone Edutainment P/L
No part of Hal and Sidra's Voice Dialogue tips may be reproduced, in any form, without the written permission of Drs Hal and Sidra Stone except for forwarding an issue, in its entirety and complete with copyright information, to a friend.
12 November 2008
More Simon's Reflections
: Today’s Reflection is about being in, and with, Nature. Something that
: many of us, city dwellers, have forgotten.
It was late, dark, and raining here in Vancouver. And the world was beckoning me to come and visit and wander the streets. I felt the need to answer the call...
A dark, quiet, windless, and rain-ful night, as Tobi and I were wandering through the neighbourhood. The rain called me out, out of the comfort of my cozy and warm home, to come and join Nature and inhale the fresh air and feel the rain drops on my clothes. Shining tiny diamond-like drops of water on the edges of pine needles, shimmering in the street lights. Feeling the gratitude for the eternal and mysterious self-sustaining ways of Nature was a beautiful thing to notice and feel. Inhaling the fresh air was a gift. The human-made world was mostly asleep, yet Nature did not stop her endless magic of sustaining and creating life. Seeing many naked trees getting ready for a long hibernation made me think about the importance of taking time-out, to sustain and rejuvenate my own well-being.
Even though I was outside the “comfort” of my home, I felt comfortable, at peace, belonging, and connected with the world around me.
:: “Human behavior is rooted most deeply in nature’s intentions
:: and desire. The rhythms of nature underlie all of human
:: interaction: religious traditions, economic systems, cultural
:: and political organization. When these human forms betray the
:: natural psychic pulse, people and societies get sick, nature
:: is exploited and entire species are threatened.”
:: - Stephen Aizenstat
And then, when I came back home, I stumbled upon the following piece, by John Milton, and it suddenly made a lot more sense.
“The profound healing power of Nature. This healing power comes directly and naturally, without any artifice or complicated treatments, prayers, rituals or ceremonies.
All that is required is a commitment to come alone to Nature’s heart, to relax into the silence, and to trust. In living closely and alone with Nature for the first time, most people’s initial experiences are of radical slowing down... and of silence. Both are powerful healers. Modern technocratic culture is characterized by ever-increasing pressures for speed, and by almost continuous noise - inner and outer. In our contemporary cultural frenzy to boost our economies, we produce increasingly processed products; we consume increasingly greater quantities of these goods and energy, hoping to fill the gnawing void within we fear to meet. As we feed this growing industrial/technocratic mesh, our natural world is systematically replaced by an artificial one. And in this artificial world, the values of silence and slow, organic rhythms are rarely encountered.
Consider how many millions of years it has taken for our current interconnected web of body, mind and emotions to evolve. And consider what kind of environment supported this evolution, and coevolved with us. The environments were natural ones, where organic rhythms of day/night, moon cycle, solar cycle, constellation cycles were part of us; and we were part of them. Trees, flowers, streams, lakes, ocean shorelines, mountains, rocks, sky, clouds - all of these elements of Nature have been companions in our journey into our contemporary embodiment, and influenced our growth. Now, in a few generations, we have leapt into incredibly new processed environments. Plastics, millions of new chemical compounds, air-conditioned air, fluorescent lighting, artificial food, powerful drugs, glass/steel/plastic housing and transportation units, alien electromagnetic fields, intense performance stress, speed, environmental pollution of every imaginable kind, breakdown of community/extended fami
A sunny week to you all, inside and out.
:: Simon’s Reflections newsletter is published on a
:: bi-weekly basis and contains writings that touch
:: the heart, provoke the mind, and inspire action.
:: And I do welcome your thoughts and comments.
Simon
About: http://www.SimonGoland.com
Blog: http://www.SimonGoland.com/news
Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SimonsReflectionsList
__._,_.___
: many of us, city dwellers, have forgotten.
It was late, dark, and raining here in Vancouver. And the world was beckoning me to come and visit and wander the streets. I felt the need to answer the call...
A dark, quiet, windless, and rain-ful night, as Tobi and I were wandering through the neighbourhood. The rain called me out, out of the comfort of my cozy and warm home, to come and join Nature and inhale the fresh air and feel the rain drops on my clothes. Shining tiny diamond-like drops of water on the edges of pine needles, shimmering in the street lights. Feeling the gratitude for the eternal and mysterious self-sustaining ways of Nature was a beautiful thing to notice and feel. Inhaling the fresh air was a gift. The human-made world was mostly asleep, yet Nature did not stop her endless magic of sustaining and creating life. Seeing many naked trees getting ready for a long hibernation made me think about the importance of taking time-out, to sustain and rejuvenate my own well-being.
Even though I was outside the “comfort” of my home, I felt comfortable, at peace, belonging, and connected with the world around me.
:: “Human behavior is rooted most deeply in nature’s intentions
:: and desire. The rhythms of nature underlie all of human
:: interaction: religious traditions, economic systems, cultural
:: and political organization. When these human forms betray the
:: natural psychic pulse, people and societies get sick, nature
:: is exploited and entire species are threatened.”
:: - Stephen Aizenstat
And then, when I came back home, I stumbled upon the following piece, by John Milton, and it suddenly made a lot more sense.
“The profound healing power of Nature. This healing power comes directly and naturally, without any artifice or complicated treatments, prayers, rituals or ceremonies.
All that is required is a commitment to come alone to Nature’s heart, to relax into the silence, and to trust. In living closely and alone with Nature for the first time, most people’s initial experiences are of radical slowing down... and of silence. Both are powerful healers. Modern technocratic culture is characterized by ever-increasing pressures for speed, and by almost continuous noise - inner and outer. In our contemporary cultural frenzy to boost our economies, we produce increasingly processed products; we consume increasingly greater quantities of these goods and energy, hoping to fill the gnawing void within we fear to meet. As we feed this growing industrial/technocratic mesh, our natural world is systematically replaced by an artificial one. And in this artificial world, the values of silence and slow, organic rhythms are rarely encountered.
Consider how many millions of years it has taken for our current interconnected web of body, mind and emotions to evolve. And consider what kind of environment supported this evolution, and coevolved with us. The environments were natural ones, where organic rhythms of day/night, moon cycle, solar cycle, constellation cycles were part of us; and we were part of them. Trees, flowers, streams, lakes, ocean shorelines, mountains, rocks, sky, clouds - all of these elements of Nature have been companions in our journey into our contemporary embodiment, and influenced our growth. Now, in a few generations, we have leapt into incredibly new processed environments. Plastics, millions of new chemical compounds, air-conditioned air, fluorescent lighting, artificial food, powerful drugs, glass/steel/plastic housing and transportation units, alien electromagnetic fields, intense performance stress, speed, environmental pollution of every imaginable kind, breakdown of community/extended fami
A sunny week to you all, inside and out.
:: Simon’s Reflections newsletter is published on a
:: bi-weekly basis and contains writings that touch
:: the heart, provoke the mind, and inspire action.
:: And I do welcome your thoughts and comments.
Simon
About: http://www.SimonGoland.com
Blog: http://www.SimonGoland.com/news
Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SimonsReflectionsList
__._,_.___
22 October 2008
Simon's Reflections
Today’s Reflection is not about any one specific topic.
The past few weeks have been full of many events, activities, challenges, and even victories. It feels as though there are too many thoughts and ideas in my head and heart right now, which makes it challenging to pick any one theme to zoom in on. Hence, I am going to let it all go, and instead, share with you various quotes, passages, and stories that have been collecting the metaphorical techno-dust in my computer.
"Divine chaos is a course corrector, a way of bringing down the systems that distraction built in order that they can be replaced with systems or structures designed with conscious thought." - Caroline Myss
“Legacies aren't the result of wishful thinking. They're the result of determined doing. The legacy you leave is the life you lead. We lead our lives daily. We leave our legacy daily. The people you see, the decisions you make, the actions you take- they are what tell your story. It's the sum of everything you do that matters, not one large bequest at the end of your tenure. Despite all out talk about leaders' needing to be concerned about the future, the most important leadership actions are the ones you take today. You just never know whose life you might touch. You just never know what change you might initiate and what impact you might have. You just never know when that critical moment might come. What you do know is that you can make a difference. You can leave this world better than you found it.” - anonymous
“I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.” - Kahlil Gibran
"Human behavior is rooted most deeply in nature's intentions and desire. The rhythms of nature underlie all of human interaction: religious traditions, economic systems, cultural and political organization. When these human forms betray the natural psychic pulse, people and societies get sick, nature is exploited and entire species are threatened."- Stephen Aizenstat
"Nature exults in abounding radicality, extremism, anarchy. If we were to judge nature by its common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed. In nature, improbabilities are the one stock in trade. The whole creation is one lunatic fringe... No claims of any and all revelations could be so far-fetched as a single giraffe." --Annie Dillard
“When you lose your sense of humour, things just aren’t funny anymore.” - Philip Clement
A sunny week to you all, inside and out.
:: Simon’s Reflections newsletter is published on a
:: bi-weekly basis and contains writings that touch
:: the heart, provoke the mind, and inspire action.
:: And I do welcome your thoughts and comments.
Simon
About: http://www.SimonGoland.com
Blog: http://www.SimonGoland.com/news
Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SimonsReflectionsList
__._,_.___
The past few weeks have been full of many events, activities, challenges, and even victories. It feels as though there are too many thoughts and ideas in my head and heart right now, which makes it challenging to pick any one theme to zoom in on. Hence, I am going to let it all go, and instead, share with you various quotes, passages, and stories that have been collecting the metaphorical techno-dust in my computer.
"Divine chaos is a course corrector, a way of bringing down the systems that distraction built in order that they can be replaced with systems or structures designed with conscious thought." - Caroline Myss
“Legacies aren't the result of wishful thinking. They're the result of determined doing. The legacy you leave is the life you lead. We lead our lives daily. We leave our legacy daily. The people you see, the decisions you make, the actions you take- they are what tell your story. It's the sum of everything you do that matters, not one large bequest at the end of your tenure. Despite all out talk about leaders' needing to be concerned about the future, the most important leadership actions are the ones you take today. You just never know whose life you might touch. You just never know what change you might initiate and what impact you might have. You just never know when that critical moment might come. What you do know is that you can make a difference. You can leave this world better than you found it.” - anonymous
“I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.” - Kahlil Gibran
"Human behavior is rooted most deeply in nature's intentions and desire. The rhythms of nature underlie all of human interaction: religious traditions, economic systems, cultural and political organization. When these human forms betray the natural psychic pulse, people and societies get sick, nature is exploited and entire species are threatened."- Stephen Aizenstat
"Nature exults in abounding radicality, extremism, anarchy. If we were to judge nature by its common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed. In nature, improbabilities are the one stock in trade. The whole creation is one lunatic fringe... No claims of any and all revelations could be so far-fetched as a single giraffe." --Annie Dillard
“When you lose your sense of humour, things just aren’t funny anymore.” - Philip Clement
A sunny week to you all, inside and out.
:: Simon’s Reflections newsletter is published on a
:: bi-weekly basis and contains writings that touch
:: the heart, provoke the mind, and inspire action.
:: And I do welcome your thoughts and comments.
Simon
About: http://www.SimonGoland.com
Blog: http://www.SimonGoland.com/news
Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SimonsReflectionsList
__._,_.___
02 October 2008
More of Simon's reflections
Today’s Reflection is about an interesting time in North America -
: the time of elections, and what the future might look like.
I am not much into politics. Never have been, really. Yet, I am beginning to see and realize, more and more, that everything is ultimately political (or, at least, is impacted by it). From business, religion, education, health care, media, economy, and most of the aspects of our lives – all areas are impacted by our political systems. And one of the ways to shape my own future is to cast my vote towards what is important for me. Learning to vote with my money is one way I can make a difference; voting in the upcoming elections is another.
:: “All great truths begin as blasphemies.” - George Bernard Shaw
For the Canadians among us, the following is an excerpt from The Harper Record ( http://www.policyalternatives.ca/Reports/2008/09/HarperRecord/index.cfm) which, I think, is a must-read before the coming elections for every Canadian:
“In the 32 months that the Conservative minority government was in power between 2006 and 2008, the people of Canada faced significant challenges because of the substance of what the Harper government achieved and because of the anti-democratic way in which he went about it. What becomes clear from the Harper Record is that the Conservatives are as committed to a market-driven world economy as the Liberals were, but that Harper is not committed to national democratic or multilateral institutions in the same way. For Harper, the only international relationship that matters is the one between Canada and the United States. He does not criticize the Bush administration for its ineptitude in living up to its own conservative commitments. Nor does Harper shine a bright light on a tattered U.S. hegemony. Rather, he reflects to the world an enhanced image of conservative unity in North America and a resolute commitment to market forces that is undeterred by the noisy democratic rabble.
Civil society organizations must become quite the opposite of what Harper has offered up as the model of leadership in a “turbulent” time. In these times we need a strategic sense of how to affirm a broad and diverse range of possibilities. It is through openness and not closure that our own deeply felt convictions that another world is possible can be articulated. It is this collective capacity we must seek to strengthen as we face the political power of CEOs as embodied in ruling parties, whether in the majority or minority. Indeed, before the next government takes shape, we will need to remember what happened during the last and reassert what it is we are prepared to commit to from now on.”
Another source of information is the Vote for Environment website ( http://www.voteforenvironment.ca/ ). This initiative was designed by Canadians who believe what the vast majority of the world’s scientists have told us. That we are out of time and we must start to reduce our fossil fuel pollution now to save the planet from dangerous climate change.
And if you are curious about the US elections, then Michael Moore’s “Slacker Uprising” movie ( http://slackeruprising.com/ ) is a must-see for you.
:: “If we do not know what port we're steering for, no wind is favorable.” - Seneca
A sunny week to you all, inside and out.
:: From The Four Corners
:: This is a new section of the newsletter, featuring news, ideas,
:: moments of inspiration of something someone somewhere is doing
:: that is making a difference in the world.
I am starting a little experiment, by setting up a blog on my website: http://www.SimonGoland.com/news . Looking for ways to hear your thoughts, engage in conversations, and share our perspectives and opinions. Drop by and let me/us know.
:: Simon’s Reflections newsletter is published on a
:: bi-weekly basis and contains writings that touch
:: the heart, provoke the mind, and inspire action.
:: And I do welcome your thoughts and comments.
Simon
: the time of elections, and what the future might look like.
I am not much into politics. Never have been, really. Yet, I am beginning to see and realize, more and more, that everything is ultimately political (or, at least, is impacted by it). From business, religion, education, health care, media, economy, and most of the aspects of our lives – all areas are impacted by our political systems. And one of the ways to shape my own future is to cast my vote towards what is important for me. Learning to vote with my money is one way I can make a difference; voting in the upcoming elections is another.
:: “All great truths begin as blasphemies.” - George Bernard Shaw
For the Canadians among us, the following is an excerpt from The Harper Record ( http://www.policyalternatives.ca/Reports/2008/09/HarperRecord/index.cfm) which, I think, is a must-read before the coming elections for every Canadian:
“In the 32 months that the Conservative minority government was in power between 2006 and 2008, the people of Canada faced significant challenges because of the substance of what the Harper government achieved and because of the anti-democratic way in which he went about it. What becomes clear from the Harper Record is that the Conservatives are as committed to a market-driven world economy as the Liberals were, but that Harper is not committed to national democratic or multilateral institutions in the same way. For Harper, the only international relationship that matters is the one between Canada and the United States. He does not criticize the Bush administration for its ineptitude in living up to its own conservative commitments. Nor does Harper shine a bright light on a tattered U.S. hegemony. Rather, he reflects to the world an enhanced image of conservative unity in North America and a resolute commitment to market forces that is undeterred by the noisy democratic rabble.
Civil society organizations must become quite the opposite of what Harper has offered up as the model of leadership in a “turbulent” time. In these times we need a strategic sense of how to affirm a broad and diverse range of possibilities. It is through openness and not closure that our own deeply felt convictions that another world is possible can be articulated. It is this collective capacity we must seek to strengthen as we face the political power of CEOs as embodied in ruling parties, whether in the majority or minority. Indeed, before the next government takes shape, we will need to remember what happened during the last and reassert what it is we are prepared to commit to from now on.”
Another source of information is the Vote for Environment website ( http://www.voteforenvironment.ca/ ). This initiative was designed by Canadians who believe what the vast majority of the world’s scientists have told us. That we are out of time and we must start to reduce our fossil fuel pollution now to save the planet from dangerous climate change.
And if you are curious about the US elections, then Michael Moore’s “Slacker Uprising” movie ( http://slackeruprising.com/ ) is a must-see for you.
:: “If we do not know what port we're steering for, no wind is favorable.” - Seneca
A sunny week to you all, inside and out.
:: From The Four Corners
:: This is a new section of the newsletter, featuring news, ideas,
:: moments of inspiration of something someone somewhere is doing
:: that is making a difference in the world.
I am starting a little experiment, by setting up a blog on my website: http://www.SimonGoland.com/news . Looking for ways to hear your thoughts, engage in conversations, and share our perspectives and opinions. Drop by and let me/us know.
:: Simon’s Reflections newsletter is published on a
:: bi-weekly basis and contains writings that touch
:: the heart, provoke the mind, and inspire action.
:: And I do welcome your thoughts and comments.
Simon
12 September 2008
Simon's reflections
: Today’s Reflection is about a myth I recently read.
Just imagine a child asking you all kinds of deep and profound questions, like “Where did the world come from?” or “Why did God make the world?” or perhaps “Where was I before I was born?” Personally, I am very happy Tobi does not ask me such questions; if he did, I would probably reply with the following myth, which is how Alan Watts answers them.
:: "The range of what we think and do is limited by what
:: we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that
:: we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change,
:: until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts
:: and deeds" - anonymous
There was never a time when the world began, because it goes round and round like a circle, and there is no place on a circle where it begins. Just like on a wrist-watch, which tells the time; it goes round, and so the world repeats itself again and again. But just as the hour hand of the watch goes up and to 12 and down to 6, so, too, there is day and night, walking and sleeping, living and dying, summer and winter. You can’t have any one of these without the other, because you wouldn’t be able to know what black is unless you had seen it side-by-side with white, or white unless side-by-side with black.
In the same way, there are times when the world is, and times when it isn’t, for if the world went on and on without rest forever and ever, it would get horribly tired of itself. It comes and goes. Now you see it; now you don’t. So because it doesn’t get tired of itself, it always comes back again after it disappears. It’s like your breath: it goes in and out, in and out, and if you try to hold it in all the time you feel terrible. It’s also like the game of hide-and-seek, because it’s always fun to find new ways of hiding, and to seek for someone who doesn’t always hide in the same place.
God also likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside God, he has no one but himself to play with. But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself. He pretends that he is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, all the planets, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear.
Now, when God plays hide and pretends that he is you and I, he does it so well that it takes him a long time to remember where and how he hid himself. But that’s the whole fun of it – just what he wanted to do. He doesn’t want to find himself too quickly, for that would spoil the game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be himself. But when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self – the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever.
Of course, you must remember that God isn’t shaped like a person. People have skins and there is always something outside our skins. If there weren’t, we wouldn’t know the difference between what is inside and outside our bodies. But God has no skin and no shape because there isn’t any outside to him (much like in a Mobius Strip). The inside and outside of God are the same. And though the myth relates to God as a ‘he’ and not a ‘she,’ God is not a man or a woman. Still, saying ‘it’ doesn’t work either, because we use it for things that aren’t alive.
God is the Self of the world, but you can’t see God for the same reason that, without a mirror, you can’t see your own eyes, and you certainly can’t bite your own teeth or look inside your head. Your self is that cleverly hidden because it is God hiding.
You may ask why God sometimes hides in the form of horrible people, or pretends to be people who suffer great disease and pain. Remember, first, that he isn’t really doing this to anyone but himself. Remember, too, that in almost all the stories you enjoy, there have to be bad people as well as good people, for the thrill of the tale is to find out how the good people will get the better of the bad. It’s the same as when we play cards. At the beginning of the game we shuffle them all into a mess, which is like the bad things in the world, but the point of the game is to put the mess into good order, and the one who does it best is the winner. Then we shuffle the cards once more and play again, and so it goes with the world.
:: “There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its
:: hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.” - anonymous
A sunny week to you all, inside and out.
:: From The Four Corners
:: This is a new section of the newsletter, featuring news, ideas,
:: moments of inspiration of something someone somewhere is doing
:: that is making a difference in the world.
[This empty space is left as an exercise for the reader – to find something about someone, somewhere, doing something that makes a difference. Big or small.]
:: Simon’s Reflections newsletter is published on a
:: bi-weekly basis and contains writings that touch
:: the heart, provoke the mind, and inspire action.
:: And I do welcome your thoughts and comments.
Simon
Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SimonsReflectionsList
About Simon: http://www.SimonGoland.com
--
“Kiva lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world - empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.”
http://www.kiva.org/app.php
Just imagine a child asking you all kinds of deep and profound questions, like “Where did the world come from?” or “Why did God make the world?” or perhaps “Where was I before I was born?” Personally, I am very happy Tobi does not ask me such questions; if he did, I would probably reply with the following myth, which is how Alan Watts answers them.
:: "The range of what we think and do is limited by what
:: we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that
:: we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change,
:: until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts
:: and deeds" - anonymous
There was never a time when the world began, because it goes round and round like a circle, and there is no place on a circle where it begins. Just like on a wrist-watch, which tells the time; it goes round, and so the world repeats itself again and again. But just as the hour hand of the watch goes up and to 12 and down to 6, so, too, there is day and night, walking and sleeping, living and dying, summer and winter. You can’t have any one of these without the other, because you wouldn’t be able to know what black is unless you had seen it side-by-side with white, or white unless side-by-side with black.
In the same way, there are times when the world is, and times when it isn’t, for if the world went on and on without rest forever and ever, it would get horribly tired of itself. It comes and goes. Now you see it; now you don’t. So because it doesn’t get tired of itself, it always comes back again after it disappears. It’s like your breath: it goes in and out, in and out, and if you try to hold it in all the time you feel terrible. It’s also like the game of hide-and-seek, because it’s always fun to find new ways of hiding, and to seek for someone who doesn’t always hide in the same place.
God also likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside God, he has no one but himself to play with. But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself. He pretends that he is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, all the planets, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear.
Now, when God plays hide and pretends that he is you and I, he does it so well that it takes him a long time to remember where and how he hid himself. But that’s the whole fun of it – just what he wanted to do. He doesn’t want to find himself too quickly, for that would spoil the game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be himself. But when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self – the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever.
Of course, you must remember that God isn’t shaped like a person. People have skins and there is always something outside our skins. If there weren’t, we wouldn’t know the difference between what is inside and outside our bodies. But God has no skin and no shape because there isn’t any outside to him (much like in a Mobius Strip). The inside and outside of God are the same. And though the myth relates to God as a ‘he’ and not a ‘she,’ God is not a man or a woman. Still, saying ‘it’ doesn’t work either, because we use it for things that aren’t alive.
God is the Self of the world, but you can’t see God for the same reason that, without a mirror, you can’t see your own eyes, and you certainly can’t bite your own teeth or look inside your head. Your self is that cleverly hidden because it is God hiding.
You may ask why God sometimes hides in the form of horrible people, or pretends to be people who suffer great disease and pain. Remember, first, that he isn’t really doing this to anyone but himself. Remember, too, that in almost all the stories you enjoy, there have to be bad people as well as good people, for the thrill of the tale is to find out how the good people will get the better of the bad. It’s the same as when we play cards. At the beginning of the game we shuffle them all into a mess, which is like the bad things in the world, but the point of the game is to put the mess into good order, and the one who does it best is the winner. Then we shuffle the cards once more and play again, and so it goes with the world.
:: “There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its
:: hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.” - anonymous
A sunny week to you all, inside and out.
:: From The Four Corners
:: This is a new section of the newsletter, featuring news, ideas,
:: moments of inspiration of something someone somewhere is doing
:: that is making a difference in the world.
[This empty space is left as an exercise for the reader – to find something about someone, somewhere, doing something that makes a difference. Big or small.]
:: Simon’s Reflections newsletter is published on a
:: bi-weekly basis and contains writings that touch
:: the heart, provoke the mind, and inspire action.
:: And I do welcome your thoughts and comments.
Simon
Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SimonsReflectionsList
About Simon: http://www.SimonGoland.com
--
“Kiva lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world - empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.”
http://www.kiva.org/app.php
25 July 2008
Another one of Simon's Reflections
: Today’s Reflection is about a poem. No, not mine.Recently, a poem crossed my ears, eyes, heart and soul, and so I thought I’d share it with you.A Real Revolutionaryby Michael Lee Seliga (aka RandoMike, of www.eatyouryard.com)Just because you wear a Che shirt, or Travel around Latin America, does not make you a revolutionary.Just because you have political bumper stickers on your Toyota Prius, or your Bio-Diesel truck, does not make you a revolutionary.Just because you read or write zines, or install the Linux operating system on your computer, does not make you a revolutionary.Just because You’re a vegetarian, shop at the Co-op and reuse cloth bags, does not make you a revolutionary.Just because you ride a bike, dumpster dive, or do political theater, does not make you a revolutionary.Just because you rock climb, do Kung Fu, smoke herb, or get a vasectomy, does not make you a revolutionary.Just because you live in a Collective House, compost food scraps, and make your own tofu, does not make you a revolutionary.Just because you write poetry, play capoeira, or work on an organic farm, does not make you a revolutionary.Just because you listen to folk music and wear flip-flops, or hip hop and sport shell tops, or punk rock and have a Mohawk, or Reggae and got dreadlocks, does not make you a revolutionary.Just because you “damn the man”, fuck the system, capitalism, Bush, or War, does not make you a revolutionary.Don’t-get-me-wrong. I consider the above good and support you doing them. However, what is revolutionary to me…is if your toes are like roots of a mobile tree, which provide you balance, strength and patience; you walk with a WIRY resilience , wily resistance, and kick up dust with non complacence.Revolutionary to me is if your spine is built with of peace cranes, and your hips and legs are constructed out of titanium slinkys.Revolutionary to me is if you use one set of fingers as sculpting tools to facilitate people’s negative comments into positive thoughts; and with the other you drop literal and metaphorical seeds so you propagate life wherever you flow.Revolutionary to me is if your rib cage is not locked so your heart is free to inspire humble speech, which your lungs bellow, in addition to harmony and thunder, the one depending on the situation.Revolutionary to me is if you use your arms to bridge chasms previously thought impassable… if you’re comfortable in your skin, as well as with other people’s melanin, and your chin is stuck up but your nose is not.Revolutionary to me is if you are fluent in three-year-old, if truth emanates from your mouth constantly curled up; if your lips are puckered to deliver quick kisses or so you can whistle your theme song when having fun in the struggle.The shape and size of your ears don’t matter. What matters is whether you resist judgments and assumptions; whether you listen from your soul as intensely as a hummingbird flaps it’s wings because you know in the scraps of syllables and sounds is where aural nectar can be found.Revolutionary to me is if you can see color and be color-blind simultaneously, and although you have X-ray vision and can see sickness around you, you can also enjoy the beauty that surrounds you. What helps you do this is that, tattooed on the inside of your eyelids, is “there is hope” so even on the days when it’s hard to see, you still have visionary dreams.Revolutionary to me is if the glass on the windows [Eyes] to your soul is clear so when people look in they see fire. If the lobes of your brain are divided into self-respect and focus, and if you move as though you’re a piece of art with divine purpose.I am not trying to claim anything here. The above are only criteria of what I hold to be revolutionary, and allow me to move towards an ideal.Because, yeah: I too want to be a real revolutionary.:: “What we call the beginning if often the end. And to make an end is:: to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” - T. S. EliotA sunny week to you all, inside and out.:: From The Four Corners:: This is a new section of the newsletter, featuring news, ideas,:: moments of inspiration of something someone somewhere is doing:: that is making a difference in the world.Everything Green in one place. If you are ever hungry for Green News, and have them all be in one place, where you can quickly browse the top 5 green news bits from pretty much every online news source, go no further than http://green.alltop.com/ .:: Simon’s Reflections newsletter is published on a:: bi-weekly basis and contains writings that touch:: the heart, provoke the mind, and inspire action.:: And I do welcome your thoughts and comments.SimonArchives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SimonsReflectionsListAbout Simon: http://www.simongoland.com/-- “Kiva lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world - empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.”http://www.kiva.org/app.php
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