November 2008

WHAT WE ARE THANKFUL FOR bRINGS PEACE!

Posted by Doug on November 28, 2008

First and foremost that our parents as instruments of the Creator bore and nurtured us. That we have been made to the image and likeness of our Creator, human beings with a diversity of creative gifts & talents. That we are one global human family that has the opportunity to create unity because of the new consciousness sweeping our planet.  That many of us have been blessed with a wonderful faithful wife and partner and have given birth to unique, special gifted children who often have blessed us with a second parenting opportunity, producing creative grandchildren.  We will sooner than we think hand over the reigns of this world to these children and grand children.  Being fortunate many have an immediate extended family that is creatively shaping the basic ingredients of life that enhance understanding, peace and world unity among this rich diversity of people who inhabit our planet. This process of gratitude indeed rings true as we are challenged to continue this work.

Sharing our Blessings for Peace

Posted by Doug on November 24, 2008

Let us not be stopped by that which divides us, but look for that which unites us.

If we could reduce the world’s population to a village of precisely 100 people,
with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the demographics would look something like this:

60 Asians

12 Europeans

5 US Americans
& Canadians

8 Latin Americans

14 Africans



49 would be female 51 would be male



  82 would be
non-white 		18 white



89 heterosexual 11 homosexual



33 would be Christian. 67 would be non-Christian.



5 would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth, and all of them would be US
citizens.

80 would live in substandard housing.

24 would not have any electricity
(And of the 76% that do have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)

67 would be unable to read.

1 (only one) would have a college education.

50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation.

33 would be without access to a safe water supply.

1 would have HIV.

1 near death

1 near birth

7 people would have access to the Internet.

If you take a look at the world from this condensed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes evident

Think of it!

If you woke up this morning with more health than sickness, you are luckier than the million that will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced a war,

a loneliness of an imprisonment,

an agony of tortures

or a famine…

…you are happier
than 500 million persons in this world.

If you are able
to go to church, mosque or synagogue without fear of harassment, arrest, torture
or death, you are happier, than 3 billion persons in this world.

If there is a meal in your refrigerator,

if you are dressed and have got shoes,

if you have a bed and a roof above your head,

you are better off, than 75% of people in this world.

If your parents are still alive and still married,
then you are a rarity.

If you have a bank account,

money
in your purse,

and there is some trifle in your coin box,

you belong to 8% of well-provided people in this world.

If you’re reading this text, you are blessed three times as much, because:

Someone
has thought of you,

you
do not belong to those 2 billion people who cannot read,

and… you have your computer!


Someone once said:

Work like you don’t need money,

Love like you’ve never been hurt,

Dance like nobody’s watching,

Sing like nobody’s listening,

Be surprised, like you were born yesterday,

Tell the truth and you don’t have to remember anything,

Live like it’s Heaven on Earth.

This is your World!

And you are able to make changes!

Hasten to do good works!

Think of it!


CARL SAGAN, PALE BLUE DOT, 1994 – RINGS A BELL FOR PEACE!

Posted by Doug on November 10, 2008

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever know n.  Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

Watch the Video …. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmMUuR–Qvo

PEACE IS TO BE FOUND

Posted by Doug on November 9, 2008

Peace is to be found in the beauty of SILENCE & STILLNESS.  This strength of true silence and stillness will awaken in us the beauty within knowing we are  made to the image and likness of an eternal Creator. Our being, our destiny, is eternity. Try and live more each day in this presence, that you are already there, in the arms and spirit of a Loving God, in mystical awe,  where SILENCE & STILLNESS reside.

A DEFINING MOMENT RINGS IN…..YES WE CAN!

Posted by Doug on November 6, 2008

“An American with the name Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a white woman and a black man he barely knew, raised by his grandparents far outside the stream of American power and wealth, has been elected the 44th president of the United States.”

In the relative blink of an eye, Martin Luther King’s dream has finally been realized. Many decades of prejudice that began in the post-Civil War era are rapidly evaporating as Americans make a paradigm shift in their awareness and consciousness about the need to treat people of color with fairness, justice and equality.

With the election of President-elect Obama, we can only hope that rhetoric turns into action and more people take part. Freedom is not a Spectator Sport! Like a resounding Freedom Bell, that principle resonated on election day, USA 11/04/08. I think Obama needs to keep the creative tension of sacrifice and working together in people’s minds on an ongoing basis….we have moved beyond 1968 and the challenges, like going to the moon, are beyond words . We met those serious challenges before and we need to do it again but this time doing it with each other (culture, races, young and old, taking on personal responsibility) along with our interdependent global community. As Pat Buchanan brought up…he is the first Post Baby Boomer President. ….YES WE CAN!

U.S. ELECTION RINGS A BELL FOR FREEDOM & PEACE!

Posted by Doug on November 4, 2008

A watershed election is taking place and whoever becomes President of The United States significant changes will be made. Time will only tell whether these changes are truly positive but a new direction is certainly needed. One thing is clear, more people have participated in this democratic process than ever before and the Internet is becoming a driving force in shaping and moving all facets of culture both for good and not so good. In the case of this election it has been truly a positive instrument of fund raising millions of dollars, little buy little, from the common man. The Internet has been an active participatory forum for truth, half truth, lies and catching those who promote prejudice and hate but it seems like the positive truth will prevail as it usually does. So lets stay the course as Americans in a country like no other where we have and continue to Ring in Truth, Freedom and Peace. By doing so we can and will show the world what a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people is really all about. God has Blessed America!