Think....and then act.

It is not as though when we are reminded of the numerous weather related disasters on the rise around the world that we should expect a seismic mental shift in the modern thought construct. Folks are simply trying to get to the next weekend, like a safe zone in a children’s yard game. It is enough that we need to absorb the realities around us, but we need to also simply concentrate on our own drama. Are we losing patience with the larger picture? Understandably so.

When governments fail to anticipate and protect, private industry displays what we knew a long, that the profit motive generates plenty of very private motives. The jobs leave and the cohesion a community relied upon for a half a century has loosened, shifted, or evaporated altogether. The old heroes are dead or dying and the “we want to-be heroes” prove simply not to be. Understandably so.

The question moving about is asking what we can do to save our planet, build back up the pride of citizenship (both globally and from sea to shining sea), generate a sustainable living, and live a meaningful existence while we inhabit this space. He's thinking that beyond our sense of survivorship playing out currently, that most have these deeper questions weaving through the background. Understandably so.

His father used to say, “Think first, think again, then act.” This proves useful considering our developing circumstances. Before we can really commit to the changes that may eventually be required, we need to make a conscious shift to acknowledge a “limited” life. By limited he refers to the un-American concept of restricting our consumption, and accepting the reality that we live in a resource fixed planet. We cannot, and should not, “have it all.” This will become a reality one way or another. Our acceptance of this reality will be the beginning of the reconstruction. Understandably so.

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Winds.....and little changed.

The wind was weaving through the trees creating a rhythmic strumming that seemed to propel him at a swifter gate than normal. Those that know had advertised gale force winds for this day and he wanted to experience it firsthand. Walking along one of the higher ridges in the county he could see for miles and still could not see the wind. However, the invisible air was forcing the saplings sideways and their sources to sway. The gray sky hinted rain, but the wind was actually in control of this play.

This was certainly a unique piece of land. Unique now, though typical before, the land was a splendid example of northern Illinois at the turn of the last century. One of the reasons the tribes stayed here so long was the navigable waterways, boundless prairies, rolling hillsides staging countless oak trees, and the abundant game. This area had been preserved and looked as it did hundreds of years earlier. The moraines and kettles, roller coasting through the woodlands had been left by the scathing glaciers many thousands of year’s earlier. This he found very pleasing.

Stopping momentarily, he considers the comparison of this balanced system sustaining itself for so many years, and the interior of his own body. Both systems give and take requiring relatively little maintenance to sustain life. Yet, what makes each stand out is the spirit which flows through. A spirit, though difficult to describe, becomes so apparent when observed carefully at any given moment. The wind has lifted his spirit on this afternoon and he feels light, loose, and alive.

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Anticipation......

Anticipate. Making an attempt to live more fully in the moment seems to provide a greater ability to anticipate future actions.

This, he’s thinking, would not fall into the category of expectations, but rather say, anticipating that the next wet rock in the stream may have a slippery coating of moss, and with our anticipation we can avert a wet spill by our adjustment.

Seldom are moments more pleasing than those times when we can anticipate and chose our actions accordingly, stepping into the next moment more gracefully, and often with outcomes more in alignment with ….er…..the intention of the moment. By intention, it is meant to describe the natural flow of the living world around us.

We clearly have a role to play. It should not be assumed that we should simply “accept the moment.” He is thinking this as he watches squirrels fighting over the acorns, and deer pawing in the lawn to dig out the grub below the surface. Does the grub not have a destiny? Well of course, the natural order is unfolding as it must, you must be thinking. And you are correct.

However it is no different with our species. We have the uncanny ability to see events unfolding and to step in and divert pain and suffering in others, help others sidestep hardship, and steer joy. This seems to be most obvious when you are paying attention to the movements around as opposed to concentrating on your own needs.

It is understood that with your own needs ripe and vulnerable, it is useless to expect to be engaged enough in the world to really be able to “see” clearly. By either reducing your needs or stepping up your concentration level can bring you to the point where calm, competent, and anticipating clarity can emerge within.

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In the moment.....

A little stunned, but he remained calm, quiet, and still. She crept forward in steps, pausing between each as she surveyed the ground at her feet.

He had simply been walking for miles until the intensity of the rain moved him in under the natural umbrella of a leather leaf tree. He was reading….er….listening to a book read on his ipod and somewhat oblivious to sound, yet very aware of the rain, the woods, and the moment.

As he slumped down at the dry base of the tree his eyes became aware of the life occurring low and close to the ground. Everything around him seemed to be reacting favorably to the rain storm. Insects, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, and birds all scurried about attempting to make the most of the moisture.

It was then he saw her standing just across the trail and staring right at him. She was a beautiful white-tail that stood proudly and strangely calm as well. Almost intuitively he recalled his experiences hunting such an animal.. He tried to remain still, considering the wind direction and avoiding direct eye contact. Soon he realized that she was not frightened of him and for some unusual reason appeared to accept his place in the woods. She continued to eat the ground flora and stare at him curiously.

“Why not” he pondered. Why should he not be as much a part of this ecosystem as she is? This exchange went on far longer than can be expressed here. Eventually he rose; they bid their farewells and walked away in opposite directions. The rain had stopped and he could see streaks of sun piercing through the clouds and stabbing through the openings in the trees. He walked slower now and felt a little more connected.

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Creating value.....

What we do each day is attempt to create value. Value is defined here as an improvement: actions that increase the meaning or usefulness of a system, commodity, or resource. Value can also be discovered and increased in relationships, art, education, and personal development. Value can be collectively and objectively agreed upon as in a monetary appropriation, but ultimately resides in the subjective needs and desires of the individual.

For example, each morning we rise and tend to our needs and the needs of others. Typically we agree to perform certain tasks in exchange for a monetary denomination that we than can exchange for the things we need to sustain us (food, shelter, transportation, education, and in many cases love and intimacy). The motive behind this exchange often has more to do with accumulating the dollars than the original intention of creating value. We may have drifted away from the creation of intrinsic value, and shifted into an unconscious fear of not having enough dollars to provide our needs years from now. How did that happen? What of value are we still creating?

It has been discussed commonly over the last decade that our economy has shifted from a manufacturing (one of creation of goods) base, to a more service (providing convenience, organization, and expediency) economy. Most of what we need to sustain ourselves is created somewhere else, in another state, region or country.

One thought he has been mulling about in conjunction with locally produced products and services, as well as reducing the sense of “limitlessness” that we have grown accustomed to in the last few decades, is a way that we can once again begin to create value. However, the only stipulation in his thinking is that this value has to be completely created and utilized without the additional printing of more dollars (debt). That’s right……creating something without using dollars and being compensated fairly without using dollars. Just think of a day, week, or month where we do nothing but create value. Not dollars in our bank account, but rather actually create things that are perceived to have instant value, like a loaf of bread.

Suppose we create a local database of individuals. These individuals simply e-mail in their profession, and three skills they possess. The database is available to all on the internet. Services are exchanged, or bartered for (a very old but resilient concept), and as homes are painted and vegetable produce exchanged, as cars are fixed and homes are weatherized, as wood is split and stacked, and art is completed and books are written, and fitness is instructed and conflicts are resolved, as engineering is designed, and counseling provided, as bread is baked and plays are staged, no dollars are printed at the Treasury in Washington or exchanged. We will instantly begin to increase the value of our country and systematically reduce our debt.

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One moment at a time......

"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration; I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.
~ Goethe

Something about these words by Goethe both resonates and infuriate. On the one hand it makes one feel not only a significant contributor to everyday actions and reactions, part of the cause driving the effect, but also responsible for the same. It is if we are asked to recognize our mutual investment in any given moment……are we equally invested in the input of a given moment and then by logic an owner of the outcome? Or, is this chance, destiny, or fate thing so many speak of really writing the script and we are just playing out what ever role (mood) we happen to be in at that moment?

Please….read it again.

If it were true…..then perhaps the real difference in our direction as individuals and collectively is driven by the ability (and ability is emphasized here) to transcend only our emotional output (which can be selfish and needy) and combine it with some grit- something resembling intelligence, empathy, assertive reality sharing, and highest on the list- the true reflection of our values. These values are not the ones that get shoved aside when our needs are not met, but rather the ones we know are true but we fail to exercise because of fear of personal loss; be it financial (a big fear for this writer), social, or a combination of the two, which is to say, conformity. Fear of standing out…..on a limb so to speak.

Just what is he talking about? Agreed, it is certainly difficult to put truths into words as a result of the complexity of soulful, intellectual, emotional, and external realities. For example, why is it that so many in our culture believe (have faith) in a god (and all the power that goes with it) , yet so few really speak of the deity on a daily basis? Certainly they do so in other cultures. And why do we understand the concepts of “good” yet are so drawn to the dark? The answer has to be in our will….our choice. We have a choice as to how we will be in our minds, hearts, and in our exchange with the external world. We have a choice. That choice has power. Your next moment awaits your contribution to it.

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