exceptional speech. read the whole thing. bravo Paul.

Inspiring words from one of our time’s true heroes
Subject: Paul Hawken Commencement address

“You are brilliant, and the earth is hiring.”

The Unforgettable Commencement Address to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009
By Paul Hawken

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.

But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating.

Kind of a mind-boggling situation - but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken.

Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food - but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING.

The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint.

And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data

But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.

What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.

The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.”

There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more.

This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power.

Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force.

It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true.

Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider.

“One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots.

Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown - Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood - and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved.

Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty.

But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit..

And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non-governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.

The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart.

What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy.

We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets.

Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant.

We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet.

At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it.

We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering.

Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono.

We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells.

Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours.

Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it.

In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe - exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”

So I have two questions for you all:

First, ..can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end.

Second question:

Who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party.

Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature.

What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God.

Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years.

Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation.

You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation.

The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence.

Nature beckons you to be on her side
You couldn’t ask for a better boss.

The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer.

Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming.

He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May, when he delivered this superb speech. .

Tanya Jones MD
Revolutionary Healing
New World Visions International
789 Hammond Drive Park Towers II # 610
Atlanta, Ga 30328
404-943-1701 404-895-9552 (cell)

http://www.worldpuja.org/home.php “Full Spectrum Healing”

Body Statistics
> It takes your food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach.
> One human hair can support 3 kg (6.6 lb).
> The average man’s penis is two times the length of his thumb.
> Human thighbones are stronger than concrete.
> A woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s.
> There are about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.
> Women blink twice as often as men.
> The average person’s skin weighs twice as much as the brain.
> Your body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when you are standing still.
> If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it.
> Women reading this will be finished now.
> Men are still busy checking their thumbs.

In a telephone interview with Dr. Pedersen on Tuesday, April 28th, he stated that his recommendation for the Swine Flu, and all other types of flu outbreaks was very simple. In addition, he stated that the following information being provided is the exact same as he is recommending to the Government Agencies, Homeland Security, Governors, Senators, and even to CNN.

Recommendations from Dr. Gordon Pedersen 2 teaspoons Silver Sol (10 ml) twice daily Silver Sol Gel in nostrils and on hands twice daily Repeat Silver Sol Gel as necessary Use Nebulized Silver Sol if individual develops flu In addition to balancing pH, diet, exercise, etc. “POINT BLANK…This is all that one needs to do so DO NOT PANIC!” Dr. Gordon Pedersen

Dr. Gordon Pedersen is an International Authority on bacteria, viruses, fungi, mold, etc. as well as being renowned as a global expert in the area of “Super-bugs!” According to Pedersen, the above Silver Sol Regimen should be your “FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE!”  Silver Sol Liquid      Silver Sol Gel

Simply become a member of NSP and you too can get wholesale prices. The membership fee is $40 but when you place an order of $40 or more, the fee is waived.  These high quality products will be delivered right to your door.

 

Begin by calling :  1 800 453-1422, give them my name, Cathy Bliss, as your sponsor and my member number 1884472-2 prior to placing your order.  You will get your own member number and can now proceed to place your order.  It’s that easy!

 

Cathy Bliss, CBT,QBS  (619) 419-8031            www.healingcard.com 

 

Specials this week at NSP: consider the silver shield and the VS-C in bulk for your family and for friends.   NEROLI OIL 20% OFF JASMINE OIL 20% OFF
ROSE OIL 20% OFF
SILVER SHIELD (18 PPM) (4 FL OZ) BUY 4 GET 1 FREE
SILVER SHIELD (18 PPM) BUY 8 GET 3 FREE
SILVER SHIELD (18PPM) $2 OFF
SILVER SHIELD GEL $2 OFF
SILVER SHIELD GEL BUY 4 GET 1 FREE
SILVER SHIELD GEL BUY 8 GET 3 FREE
SUPER TRIO BUY 3 SAVE $6
URINARY MAINTENANCE $1 OFF
URINARY MAINTENANCE BUY 4 GET 1 FREE
VS-C TCM CONC (30) $2 OFF
VS-C TCM CONC (30) BUY 4 GET 1 FREE   This is info for your education only. I am not recommending or prescribing anything.   Economical Package – Silver Shield – a little on fingers, in nose, and taken internally when around lots of people. Having a few bottles at a time is good so take advantage of the special VS-C – creates environment unhealthy for viruses, again a few bottles per person Zinc Lozenges – the zinc and vitamin C are needed by the body

 

Enjoy walks in the sunshine – the exercise is great – moves the lymph and makes immune system active, the sun provides vitamin D3 and enjoying the sights and sounds relaxes and releases stress.

 

Blessings

Cathy Bliss

Jasmine and Bramble the roe deer

This is the story of a dog so saintly, birds perch on her nose.

In 2003, police in Warwickshire, England, opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog. It had been locked in the shed and abandoned. It was dirty and malnourished, and had clearly been abused.

In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a greyhound bitch, to the nearby Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, run by a man named Geoff Grewcock and known as a willing haven for animals abandoned, orphaned or otherwise in need.

Geoff Grewcock and the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims: to restore the dog to full health, and to win her trust… It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved.

They named her Jasmine, and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home.

The dog had other ideas. No-one remembers now how it began, but Jasmine started welcoming all animal arrivals at the sanctuary. It wouldn’t matter if it was a puppy, a fox cub, a rabbit or, probably, a rhinoceros, Jasmine would peer into the box or cage and, where possible, deliver a welcoming lick.

Geoff Grewcock relates one of the early incidents. “We had two puppies that had been abandoned by a nearby railway line. One was a Lakeland Terrier cross and another was a Jack Russell Doberman cross. They were tiny when they arrived at the centre and Jasmine approached them and grabbed one by the scruff of the neck in her mouth and put him on the settee. Then she fetched the other one and sat down with them, cuddling them.”

“But she is like that with all of our animals, even the rabbits. She takes all the stress out of them and it helps them to not only feel close to her but to settle into their new surroundings.

“She has done the same with the fox and badger cubs, she licks the rabbits and guinea pigs and even lets the birds perch on the bridge of her nose.”

Jasmine, the timid, abused, deserted waif, became the animal sanctuary’s resident surrogate mother, a role for which she might have been born. The list of orphaned and abandoned youngsters she has cared for comprises five fox cubs, four badger cubs, 15 chicks, eight guinea pigs, two stray puppies and 15 rabbits.

And one roe deer fawn. Tiny Bramble, 11 weeks old, was found semi-conscious in a field. Upon arrival at the sanctuary, Jasmine cuddled up to her to keep her warm, and then went into the full foster mum role. Jasmine the greyhound showers Bramble the roe deer with affection and makes sure nothing is matted in her fur.

“They are inseparable,” says Geoff Grewcock. “Bramble walks between her legs and they keep kissing each other. They walk together round the sanctuary. It’s a real treat to see them.”

Jasmine will continue to care for Bramble until she is old enough to be returned to woodland life. When that happens, Jasmine will not be lonely. She will be too busy showering love and affection on the next orphan or victim of abuse.

Doing what she does best, being a mother.

www.dailymail.co..uk; images: Caters News Agency Ltd

From left, Toby, a stray Lakeland dog; Bramble, an orphaned roe deer;

Buster, a stray Jack Russell; a dumped rabbit; Sky, an injured barn owl; and Jasmine

note from Cathy - I had a rescued Greyhound for 11 years and they are the sweetest most loving and mellow dogs. The other day my hubby and I went out to Operation Greyhound in El Cajon where they have many greyhounds rescued from the racetrack. We walked some of the beautiful dogs. If you can,  consider adopting one. Go to www.operationgreyhound.com

Body Statistics

> It takes your food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach.
> One human hair can support 3 kg (6.6 lb).
> The average man’s penis is two times the length of his thumb.
> Human thighbones are stronger than concrete.
> A woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s.
> There are about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.
> Women blink twice as often as men.
> The average person’s skin weighs twice as much as the brain.
> Your body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when you are standing still.
> If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it.
> Women reading this will be finished now.
> Men are still busy checking their thumbs.

Thank you Dirk for sending this. I am still LOL

Please enjoy these beautiful words and thoughts written by Daniel Schmachtenberger

Daniel can be reached at geosol114@yahoo.com

Freedom

 

Our past sets up predispositions. For most people, those predispositions determine much of their life forever. A key to freedom is understanding that predisposition does not equal predetermination. The difference is your conscious choice, your will.

Even how you think about that is likely colored by past programming…which you can change if you want to.

 

Remember this: the Truth does not cause pain. If you have a belief or perception that causes you to feel hopeless, angry, sad, etc, those feelings are the clear indication that that belief or perception is off.

The Universe actually works…and with such an intricate, unerring order, that it’s almost unfathomable….governed by Truth (natural law). When you understand what is True, and think in ways that are true, your life will work with such an order.

“Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.” JC

 

If someone comes to your door selling vacuums, you don’t have to buy. No matter how convincing their sales pitch. That’s your choice. When a pattern of thought comes knocking at your minds door, wanting to sell you a load of pain…no matter how buyable the pitch is, how many times you have bought in the past…you don’t have to go with it. (You may want to unsubscribe from their auto-ship program.) 

You can remember that Truth empowers and misinformation (which misaligns you with the reality of Life) disempowers…and feeling the disempowerment of the thought, your clear understanding can recognize “That thought isn’t True. It only seems true because it matches my programming, but it actually isn’t. And as I don’t buy it, and instead refocus on a perspective that empowers me, Ill have a better life and even the programming will change.”

 

If you claim the issues you get to keep them. Why do that? Your words have power and influence reality. Every word you speak has an effect that either blesses or hurts your life. So why speak words that aren’t a blessing to you. You don’t have to.
Pay attention to the patterns of predisposition that have been running you. The key is being conscious…the conscious direction of your life, your creative force, for the life-experience you actually want. Before acting, before speaking, even when thoughts come up…remember what you really want, take full responsibility for your life, and direct yourself accordingly.

 

You can witness your thoughts, your beliefs, your moods and emotions…which means you are not any of those things. You are the witness, which is also the chooser when you remember. Your sovereignty comes from existence itself “Made in the image and likeness of God…”  Nothing has the power to take that away (though it can be forgotten).

When you are not conscious, clearly your consciousness—You—are not directing the show. So the patterns of the past play auto-pilot based on what they have learned (doing the best they can actually).

(Here is a tip: anytime you think, say, or do anything that is not in your highest good, there is some degree of unconsciousness at work. In a truly clear space, no one ever consciously chooses pain…for themselves or others.)

 

There are things you can control and things you can’t. Focusing on what you can’t control disempowers you. Consciously moving your attention to what you can control in every situation will empower you. Ask “what can I do about this?” and do it. Don’t blame yourself, don’t blame others, and don’t indulge negativities that won’t benefit you…just ask what you can do that is positive and do it. And go neutral to the rest (since that’s all you can do). This is a recipe for freedom.

 

When you become aware in a moment that you were being directed by an old pattern (worrying, judging, despairing, etc), be glad that you realized it because now you can shift. If frustration, self-judgment, impatience come up, i.e. “Why am I still doing that, I know better…am I ever going to get it?”…realize that is just another layer of patterning and don’t indulge it. It won’t help. Just recognize that the patterning was established over time and it may require some time and consistency to fully transform it…be glad that you recognized it, and simply shift. No drama needed.

Right now, reading these words, there may even be a pattern coming up saying “I can’t do that, its too hard…its not that simple…I don’t have the energy, etc”. That also, is just a pattern, programmed in the past, not even by you. It’s ok that it comes up. Just recognize it as a programmed reaction…you can even anticipate when it will likely come up…but recognize that it’s not advantaging you, and ultimately not True…and don’t buy into it. And redirect your thinking and perceiving in a manner that better produces what you want. That’s all. It’s actually simple.

 

Easy and hard are states of mind about energy application. All shifts require energy application. That does not have to be subjectively related to as hard. Calling what needs to be done hard, is just another unconscious pattern of thought that will not benefit you. “See the job, do the job, and stay out of the misery.” Maharishi

And enjoy your life. It’s a beautiful gift. Attune your awareness to the beauty of life. What you put your attention on grows.

 

Got it?

 

I know you are capable. I hope you let yourself discover that as well.

 

Peace and blessings to you.

 

Daniel

 

 

P.S. To make shifting (and staying there) easier, you can dissipate the energy out of the old patterns so their pull is progressively less. The first part of doing that we have already discussed: simply noticing them when they arise, and recognizing them as conditioned patterns that are ultimately not True. Awareness alone transforms a lot.

In addition, you can look at the events and conditions from your life that contributed to the development of those patterns and do two things:

1. Make peace around all the hurts that occurred so you don’t carry them with you (you can go to www.howardwills.com for a great resource for peace-making).

2. Look at how you perceived those events and conditions and what meanings you may have given them…and reassess them now with a wider and deeper understanding and more compassion (for yourself and others)…find the gifts and positive lessons…and a meaning for all of it that empowers you.

 

You can e-mail Daniel at geosol114@yahoo.com

 

Bill had his hip replaced on Dec 22 2008. Two and a half weeks later we walked up and down the beach and he wasn’t using the walker or even a cane. Here he is in Bird Bliss. Billy was feeding the pigeons and even after running out of food they were communing together. He was enjoying ‘being present’.

Thank you for being in my life……

There comes a point in your life when you realize

who matters,

who never did,

who won’t anymore…

and who always will.

So, don’t worry about people from your past,

there’s a reason why they didn’t make it to your future.

Give this heart to everyone you don’t want to lose in 2009,

‘Be kinder than necessary
because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.’

Beautiful……
FALL AT BUTCHART GARDENS, VICTORIA, B. C., CANADA -

IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE ANYTHING COULD BE THIS BEAUTIFUL…

Mr Emoto proved that our thoughts and emotions are powerful and can be seen through his great pictures of water crystals viewed thru the microscope.It is so easy to write LOVE and GRATITUDE on a post-it and affix it to a glass jar and fill it with water and let it sit for awhile. You can also say, ‘Thank you’ and other blessings to the water. Then when you drink the water you are taking in beautiful vibrations and again be mindful and grateful. Mr Emoto has given humanity a wonderful gift and a great perspective.

For Children: a fun activity - have child draw a picture that contains the word LOVE. Take this and get it laminated and then you can use it as a placemat for a glass bottle of water. The Love will be imparted into the water. Great Prayer activity for children.

Teens - when a person sees the impact of music on water and plants then they are more apt to choose health producing music. Mr. Emoto shows the effect that different music has on the water - google this or get his book.

Love and Gratitude - print off this picture of the Love and Gratitude water crystal.

In gratitude,

Cathy