Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Just Say No to George the Terrible Starfish, Please remember a few things: Both average & median income in the U.S. has gone down each of the last 3 years. Those tax cuts really were for the rich.  The gap between the top & bottom in our country continues to widen rapdily. No president has spent more recklessly, and these deficits are built into the future, way into the future--just when we need to be dealing with a huge increase in elderly retired people. The U.S. should be best place in the world to do business?  Come on!  How about being the best place to live? No president should inflict their religious views on everyone else like this president has.  For starters, consider stem cell research.... There is no choice in November.  No Democrat could be worse. Clearwater 6:13:49 AM    comment []

	Monday, September 06, 2004

Decision in November   Dear Clearwater,   Who will you vote for as president in November?   I am trying to be rational--so I swing back and forth.   I am tempted to vote for Kerry--just to punish Bush for being so cavalier about starting a war.  He brings the world to the brink of destruction, when most people in this world just want to have a good life with friends and family.   Yet I know the fate of the Greeks who ruled their world in ancient times.  They refused to fight and lost all to those who would.   Did our actions in warfare cause Libya to ask for peace?    What is the positive and negative fallout of our actions in war?   Does it make a difference who is in power?  Does it make a difference who I vote for?   The political strategists say that 1) If the focus is on Kerry, Kerry will lose.  2) If the focus is on Bush, he could lose.   Odd but true, neither man is perfect.  The flaws show up in the light.  But why can't we have a through analysis and comparison of each?  Perhaps it's available and we don't even know.   Perhaps the greatest benefit of this whole election process is that each citizen is allowed the right to vote-- thus setting an expectation that we "can make a difference."   Note I said, "expectation"--it's our choice whether to make that a reality or keep it "just an expectation."   --Starfish 10:26:46 AM    comment []

	Sunday, August 22, 2004

You are spirtitual   Have you ever heard the old saying?  "People who are really spiritual, don't act the way you would expect."    In other words, they don't act like religious people.  They don't act like ordinary people we know.  They don't even act like us!   Don't you believe it!  Spiritual people are people who are full of good spirit.  Everyone has that spirit in them.  It's how much of it they use and share with others.  We admire those who do more with the spirit they have.   Bringing that spirit out seems simple enough in theory, but takes a lot of practice in reality.   Bringing that spirit out means finding your passions and your talents.  Developing both so they contribute to your life and to the lives of those you touch each day.   The catch phrase now is "centers of excellence"--what kind of center of excellence will you be?   Creating excellence is only possible if you start with your inner spirit.  They each day, you choose.  You are the only one who can because you are unique.  So you choose.  Choose for your passions.  Choose to grow your talents.  Choose to help those around you.  Life is just that simple.  Life is just that beautiful, if we want to see.    I don't say it was easy--choosing all day to develop yourself and others can be tiring.  I didn't say happy, but beautiful is achievable.  Life can be simple and beautiful and productive.   As Stephen Covey says:  "Live, Love,and Leave a Legacy."  Start today. 12:59:50 PM    comment []

	Sunday, August 15, 2004

If the spirit....   If the Spirit moves you...   Remember that old-fashioned phrase?   Well, my dear Clearwater (or C.W. for short)   I think it's becoming fashionable again. And well it should be--as we boomers move though our 40's and 50's, we can look back and see that the Spirit in us has always been ready to guide us.  It's just been waiting until we were ready to listen.   As we discussed on Saturday, whatever the Holy Spirit suggests that you do, Do It.   It will turn into a wonderful series of events for all.  Sometimes it doesn't seem so.  But after a lot of practice, I am beginning to see that every event in our life and every choice we make results in some benefits.  This excludes the choices where we deliberately hurt someone, which is is mostly bad, but even then a learning occurs if only we let it.    Excluding the deliberate ones, even if an event doesn't seem good for me at the moment, I CAN learn something and move on.  Then sometime, I trust, it becomes a good lesson for someone else and can produce positive ripples in others lives--even after 10-20 years.    That is called FAITH.  It's a KNOWING that comes after years of living and wondering.  But it's also a wonderful way to live.   "How's the world treating you?" my hair stylist asked me last week.    "Don't Know.  But I do know that it does not matter.  What matters is how I see the world, and it looks great to me now.  I just focus on living each moment fully, so I can accomplish my purpose in life, no matter how the world is treating me."     I was amazed it came out of my mouth.  But it was the absolute truth as I said it!    Plus, it's the first time I have summarized it that way.  I have spent so many of my younger years, trying to please others, trying to get ahead, wondering what I really wanted in life, how I could plan it better.  I never stopped to enjoy the moment.  When I began to practice this, I had more time to listen to my Spirit and realize what a wonderful guide I had right inside.  I move through life with more joy.  Each moment is richer with awareness and each event is much more efficient and effective because I trust in my guide to help me make the right choices.   It's a great way to live.     Being in the flow... Try it and let me know what you think!   Your friend, Starfish 12:16:00 PM    comment []

The first act...   I have read so many books about how to be a good manager that the messages have started repeating themselves.    I have worked hard, gone inward, and have built from the inside out some clear principles and sound foundations which I use to make decisions, to treat others with respect, and to lead.   I could write a book on how to do it. I could write a monthly column. I could be the Dear Abby of ex-IT managers.   It's time to Act!  Don't you think?   How many more of us are out there? We will never know until we start The First Act.   12:11:02 PM    comment []

	Sunday, July 11, 2004

So I write about work   Watched an interview with Studs Terkel on PBS.   He was blacklisted.  Which kept him out of TV, but kept him in radio--WFMT--for 45 years.   In this interview he says: "There are two driving forces in the human being - sex and work.  There are far too many books written about sex, so I write about work." 9:30:58 PM    comment []

Prepared   Your friends bring you peace and joy. Your enemies make you strong.   The more challenges, The more prepared For your destiny. 9:29:01 PM    comment []

Synchronicity Yesterday was the low point in my struggle to support Ben in his efforts to heal his kidneys.  I had been ever thankful that his first reaction to the bad news was proactive.  He exuded a powerful, positive energy to heal, not just slow the deterioration, of his kidneys. But two years had passed.  We had spent thousands of dollars and two 6-months periods apart, as he pursued alternative medicine in Hong Kong.  That medicine improved his diabetes, but not his kidneys.  The kidneys had not deteriorated, but Ben had not been cured, as the Hong Kong doctor had promised.   So back in the US, Ben had begun to explore faith healing.  His former professor and pastor from Bolivar, Missouri, Dr. Jerry Horner is a faith healer now.  A quiet man, Dr. Horner consulted with other pastors, preaching and healing when the spirit moved.   And when the spirit moved, I could feel a tremendous energy from Dr. Horner.  But Ben was not healed during our visit to Atlanta.  Now Ben attended the Benny Hinn healing services in Chicago.  But Ben was not healed.   Yesterday, Ben was feeling tired, sad and negative.  I had begun to lose hope.  Today, participating in Sunday School and  hurch was a partial relief for this heavy burden.   As church ended and people were leaving, I was playing the postlude, when Tom walked up and starting asking me questions even as I was playing.  Luckily I could slow the pace of the music and talk at the same time.   I knew Tom 10 years ago when he worked in my company.  He had left and started his own company.   He was only at our church because he mother-in-law preferred a church like ours.  This was his second time to attend.  That friendly but pushy style was still Tom.  He's a teller and not much of a listener.  But this time, his story brought the hope back into my heart.   In short, Tom had been diagnosed with a bad heart disease.  In his church, he was anointed with oil and prayer, and he was healed.  This happened two years ago.  He wants to have coffee with Ben, if Ben is interested.   Oddly, enough--Ben's favorite restaurant was also Tom's.  I knew this because Tom's photo is in the restaurant's photos of friends and supporters in the Garden of Paradise.   I suggested that they meet at the Garden of Paradise.  He laughed and said that he had just made up with the owner.  They had disagreed on some issue and his wife asked when he was going to make up.  He had visited the restaurant on Friday (two days ago) to get an address and the owner was there.  They are now friends again.   Synchronicity?  Such a long string of coincidences or God's plan?  Ben has never met a person who was healed this way.   It is his decision whether to meet with Tom.  I will ask him.  With his decision, Ben will take the next step on his journey and I on mine.   9:06:10 PM    comment []

Each human being is a story   I love hearing a person telling a story about their life.  When did you meet your spouse?  What's your most vivid family memory?  When did you realize what your life's passion was?  When were you first afraid?   I love to ask a question: then quietly sit back in rapt attention at the wonderful or amazing or tragic events that this human being has lived through.  What is in the memory of that person sitting in front of me?  It's those memories that travel forward with each of us.   I picture the events as the person talks.  I can see, and will forever see, that person as the child, the teen-aged girl, the young man as they move through those moments that shaped them.   It's 100% better than reality TV--because it is reality.  I know one person better.  I am closer to another human.  And we are stronger in the sharing.   Why don't we do that more?  Too much work?  Too much TV?  Too many family commitments?  No time to relax?   For us baby boomers, the time has come.  Each year that passes frees more of us from work via retirement, from TV by the poor programming, from families by graduations away from the core family.   It is time to relax and turn our focus to our own story.  To understand ourselves inside out.   And to gird ourselves to write "the rest of our story"--through our decisions, through our actions.   After all, we are a human being--and the stories we share are only a chapter of the story we are writing each moment of the day.   We, as individuals, and baby boomers, as the most influential age group in the US, have a charge, a right, and a responsibility to create a good ending to our life's story.   We owe it to ourselves, our parents and our children, and to the societies of the world.  If we get our personal stories straight.  If we unite in one story for the good of the world.  We can have an impact.  We can leave a legacy of powerful stories, powerful events, and legends (yes, even legends) that can inspire future generations to doing what is good and right for our world.  8:56:04 PM    comment []

	Sunday, May 23, 2004

Kindness changes the world   When you are kind to others, it not only changes you, it changes the world."                                                                                    --Harold Kushner   If the young European artist, Adolf Hitler, had been treated kindly about his art, what would he have done differently in his later life? 11:09:15 AM    comment []

	Sunday, May 02, 2004

A solution comes   In my life's journey, I experienced months or years when I have felt trapped, sad, no solution in sight.  Yet, always, a solution comes to me.   Sometimes, I've had to be pried away from the problem before I recognize the solution in front of me.   Now, I have faith that some solution always comes.  It may not be the one I imagined, but I have faith that it will be the right one.   It helps that I practice seeing "my darkest hours" differently.  When I see a dark hour coming (yes, I still have them) I remind myself that it is only dark to me inside my situation.  Beyond my view, outside my situation, is a world of light (and dark) brimming with events.  At some point, the right event will intersect my dark hour and bring light.   I must watch and be ready to act, to choose when that moment happens.  In your darkest hour, be ready.   And the saving grace--if you are not ready or if you chose the second best solution--there will always be another chance: another dark hour, another solution.   Such is life's journey. 11:17:48 AM    comment []

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