|
|
 |
Dianne Eppler Adams Bringing Spirit into Everyday Life |
|
          |
SPIRIT IN MATTERS: Taking a Higher View of
Life on Earth
Where there is no vision, the people perish -- Proverbs 29:18
The value of living “in the moment” not withstanding, paradoxically it is also true that the very essence of life draws us forward into each succeeding moment and….without vision we may perish. By vision, I believe, is meant the ability to image a desirable future, one that encourages life forward toward something higher and better.
Last week my life events reminded me of the above scripture. My dear and only sister, who has struggled with the physical challenges of being a diabetic since childhood, is frequently hospitalized for any number of reasons. When I hear she's in the hospital, I expect her to spend a couple days and return home. But this was different; I received a call that she was in intensive care. I dropped everything and drove the 3-hours to New Jersey to be with her.
When I arrived she was very uncomfortable and despondent. I found myself doing everything I could to make her more comfortable, but more than that – I realized as I spoke about what's going on in my life and what I have coming up in the future that she lost the focus on her troubles and began thinking about other things, other possibilities ahead.
Then her beloved physician arrived with good
news that she was being moved out of intensive care. His last comment before he
left the room was, "I want you to start thinking about going home." The doctor
and I both were holding a positive vision when she was having trouble holding a
vision for herself.
Good leaders also offer this kind of hope for the future. Yet, inspiration for a future that works for everyone seems hard to find these days. Teachers can inspire their pupils to learn and grow, successful managers can encourage their subordinates to discover new skills, and our national leaders could inspire us to come together as a nation to address the challenges we face – terrorism, healthcare, economic uncertainty, etc. But do they?
What vision do you hold today? Is there someone in your life who needs you to share your vision as encouragement? Thoughts and images are creative. What you hold as a vision co-creates your future—and could help to create hope in others.
You never can tell what your thoughts will do
in bringing you hate or love,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OPPORTUNITIES TO HEAR DIANNE SPEAK…
Loving Me, Loving We: Transforming Relationships – Monday, Nov. 10, 7 pm at The Local, 201 King St, 2nd Flr, Old Town Alexandria, VA, free to members, non-members $20 individuals/$30 couples. Call (703) 518-8130.
Social Change Without Blame (co-presenting with Juanita Ruth One) – Saturday, Nov. 15, 7 pm, No. VA Chapter of Institute of Noetic Sciences. Call Barbara Moller at (703) 248-0257.
What Are the Stars Telling You? – Thursday,
Oct. 23, 7 pm at The Local, 201 King St, 2nd Flr, Old Town Alexandria, VA, free
to members, non-members $15. Call (703) 518-8130. [Dianne: Here’s another of those issues like FCC media consolidation that, having gathered significant bipartisan support, clearly points to core American values that need to be defended – basic Bill of Rights freedoms.]
The Greening of Capitalism By William Grieder http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9083
[Dianne: Fascinating what this article reveals about the positive economic results of environmentalism.]
For decades the environmental movement has been characterized as being at odds or out of touch with the bedrock assumptions of U.S. capitalism. According to the common view, investors will sacrifice returns if they allow social values such as clean air and clean water to influence their investment choices. Similarly, any strengthening of environmental protections by the government will add deadweight costs to a company's bottom line, thus undercutting efficiency and dragging down general prosperity. For these and other reasons, even the simplest environmental reforms are required to run a gauntlet of dense cost-benefit calculations to win approval as sound economics.
But what if this familiar lore turns out to be dead wrong? In the realm of abstract economic analysis, the conventional logic may seem unassailable. In reality, however, companies with superior performance on environmental matters (as well as other social concerns) are producing better returns in the stock market for shareholders, partly because those companies face fewer environmental risks to their future profitability. I am not simply talking about green startup companies on the leading edge of innovation—the ones designing new solar panels. I am talking about the largest industrial corporations, from DuPont to Intel, across virtually every sector, including those sectors that are typically notorious polluters. In the bowels of capitalism, it turns out, environmental values make good business sense.
New Plan: Kill Endangered Species to Save
Them Saturday 11 October 2003 http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/101303D.shtml
The Bush administration is proposing far-reaching changes to conservation policies that would allow hunters, circuses and the pet industry to kill, capture and import animals on the brink of extinction in other countries.
Giving Americans access to endangered animals, officials said, would both feed the gigantic U.S. demand for live animals, skins, parts and trophies, and generate profits that would allow poor nations to pay for conservation of the remaining animals and their habitats.
This and other proposals that pursue conservation through trade would, for example, open the door for American trophy hunters to kill the endangered straight- horned markhor in Pakistan; license the pet industry to import the blue-fronted Amazon parrot from Argentina; permit the capture of endangered Asian elephants for U.S. circuses and zoos; and partially resume the international trade in African ivory.
No U.S. endangered species would be affected.
Conservation groups counter that killing or capturing even a few animals is hardly the best way to protect endangered species, and say the policies cater to individuals and businesses that profit from animal exploitation.
Discovery may spur cheap solar power
Thursday, October 2, 2003 [Dianne: Remarkable news offering encouragement toward energy independence in the future using renewable solar energy. A counter balance to the alarming article that follows this! ]
Oil and gas running out much faster than
expected, says study
Terrorist Victim Launches Kindness Campaign
[Dianne: I’ve heard the expression, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” but this gives it new meaning!]
When a suicide bomber plowed into Sbarro in Jerusalem, killing Steven Greenbaum's wife and unborn child, he vowed to fight back. But he's not waging a battle with grenades or guns. Instead, the 40-year-old New Jersey resident is waging a kindness crusade. An idealist by nature, Greenbaum believes that ordinary citizens can destroy terrorism through extraordinary acts of goodness. His year-old organization, Partners in Kindness, encourages kindness through a plethora of e-mailings, lectures, posters, and contests. More than 5,000 members on six continents subscribe to Greenbaum's weekly "Kind Words" e-mails. His readers - some from as far away as Iran, Kuwait, and Japan - report their daily acts of kindness via e-mail to Greenbaum's Web site. Repeating stories of good deeds inspires others, says Greenbaum, adding, "It's pretty contagious."
…Greenbaum insists that his is not a courtesy campaign. "Courtesy is very different from kindness," Greenbaum says. "You can be very courteous but hateful. My objective is to teach people to care about each other."
(For more information, go to www.PartnersInKindness.org (Non-Sectarian) or www.TraditionOfKindness.org (Jewish). You may contact Shmuel (Steven) Greenbaum at Shmuel@PartnersInKindness.org.)
"For every advance made in the tools and skill of making war, we should demand an equal advance in the tools and skill of making peace."
---Walter Cronkite, speaking at Southern Illinois University (10/9/03)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
