February 2007

I remember one day at United I was in a staff meeting and I shared what one customer shared with me. This customer was happy with my service and said it was people like me that made United the second best airline in the world. I asked, "Who is number one?" He said, "Singapore Airlines." After I asked what set Singapore apart from the rest of the pack. He told me this: "In the East, people know that it is an honor to serve someone. That consciousness doesn't exist in America." Thinking I could build some enthusiasm in the staff meeting, I shared the comment from the customer, as I found it helpful. Only one person made a response, "That's a bunch of horse shit," she said.
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Kindness -- The Antidote for 100 Million Deaths
February 2, 2007

Kindness is to life is as color is to a painter. Both are used for the creation of beauty. Both are used as acknowledgements of life. Mark Joiner of Simpleology sent out this e-mail to his subscribers today and he asked that everyone send it out to five other people. I like it so much I decided to put it on my blog. It's from Amelia Earhart: "No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves."
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AGLOCO -- A Global Community
Making You Money
February 3, 2007

Here is some refreshing news. AGLOCO. A global community business where the management cannot own the company stock, the company is 100% member owned, and you make money as a shareholder without paying a dime. The amount of shares you own is based on how many members you refer. How hard can it be to refer people to a money making venture where it doesn't cost a dime to join? The business model is sound and the potential for everyone is tremendous. A fair share for everyone in the world sounds holistic to me.
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Fear of Death
February 5, 2007

Fear of death is a problem for a lot of people but the root of the problem stems from ignorance, an ignorance of who we are. We are not just a pile of flesh and bones. We are consciousness endeavoring to know ourselves as nothing but consciousness. But we get disoriented and confuse our physical state of being for what we really are. When our identity is wrapped up with a physical form that suffers illness and disease and ultimately death, it is easy to get frightened.
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Giving Up Power
February 6, 2007

Giving up power to other people in how we live our lives seems like a universal truism. I heard a joke the other night that underscores it perfectly. The joke was about a very elderly Jewish couple-both 95 years old. They go to the court house to get a divorce. The judge, in a state of disbelief, asks them what on Earth prompted them to get a divorce at this age. They tell him they had to wait for the last of their children to die.
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Patience
February 7, 2007

Patience is the attribute of the mind that enables one to have clarity, awareness, poise, relaxation, happiness, and purpose. Impatience, on the other hand, leads to frustration, reactivity, stress, fear, panic and confusion. Thus, patience is of extreme importance if we seek success in our lives. Like most people, I experience both of these states--patience and impatience. I realize I have not given patience and impatience enough conscious thought. When I do use consciousness, I have more of a choice in whether to be patient or not.
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Prevalence of Autism Still on the Rise
February 9, 2007

What is going on with autism? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data from 2002 (don't ask me why it's five years old) showing that autism rates have climbed again, now up to a prevalence of about 1 in 150 American children. The most recent data put the figure at 1 in 166. How high will it have to get before this country stops pouring mercury into our skies and into our bodies? It's a known brain poison. If it doesn't get you during childhood it still may get you in your golden years as it is also implicated in Alzheimer's Disease.
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AGLOCO Revolution
February 10, 2007

If you are wondering what I am doing promoting the AGLOCO revolution on a blog about holistic personal development, I have an answer for you: It's holistic to be compensated for what you do rather than be exploited. Or put another way, it is not fair to help build a $1.6 billion company and not see a penny of its profits. That is what happened (or didn't happen) to the users who made Utube such a success. The art of allowing is a holistic principle. It is holistic to be liberated from a dead-end job or a job that doesn't utilize your talents adequately. It is holistic to be free from worrying about money. It's holistic to help other people find happiness. And it is holistic to be able to spend more time with your family.
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Fear of Success
February 11, 2007

Try this experiment. Say yes to every request and every invitation you receive in the next 24 hours that is conducive to life and is legal. If someone at a bar asks you to dance, say yes. If someone invites you to give a talk at his or her son's high school about your career, say yes. If someone asks you to marry him or her, say yes. If someone invites you to march for peace, say yes. You get the idea.
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People Who Make a Difference
February 12, 2007

What people make a difference in your life? The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just read the text straight through, and you'll get the point. 1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world. 2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners. 3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America title. 4. Name ten people who have won either the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. 5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress. 6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners. How did you do?
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Laughter is Good for Health
February 14, 2007

The more you laugh the better. But how often do you laugh in the course of a day? We are told we need to sleep eight hours a day, drink eight glasses a water a day, eat three square meals a day, but nobody ever told us how often we need to laugh a day. William Fry, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Stanford University Medical School and expert on health and laughter, reports the average kindergarten student laughs 300 times a day. Yet, adults average just 17 laughs a day.
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Self-Esteem
February 18, 2007

In that approach, we emphasize the external situations, such as career, status, money, how others view us, what type of house we live in, what type of car we drive, and what type of education we have. And if these areas are lacking, the approach seems to focus on potential.
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Happiness and the Flu
February 21, 2007

Can happiness and the flu coexist? I'm trying to figure that out, because now, after many years, I have the flu and I'm not having fun. What a nuisance! That's why you haven't seen much writing from me over the last week. I hope the worst of it's over. The most unpleasant part of this flu has been the chills and the fever and then at night, the cough when I try to sleep. The bottom line for me is that when I feel this lousy, the biggest challenge is to smile and be happy.
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Concern about CFL Bulbs
February 23, 2007

Why do I have concern about CFL bulbs? Even if they didn't give me headaches, I think there must be better solutions. I'm all for anything that can reduce greenhouse emissions and reduce global warming. So the new hoopla about Compact Florescent Lighting (CFL) bulbs and all the carbon dioxide they we reduce from the atmosphere is welcome news. But they contain 4 mg of mercury, which means they need to be recycled. But most recycling facilities don't accept them.
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Unlimited Potential
February 24, 2007

Unlimited potential is our birthright. For we are sons and daughters of the infinite and our true essence is consciousness. Our only limitation can come from our thinking. Look at Helen Keller. She was as wild as any animal in the Amazon rainforest before Anne Sullivan was able to help her make the association of water with the word, water. That was the beginning for her of language and rational thought. That was the beginning of a whole new world of possibilities.
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The Final Account
February 26, 2007

I came across these words of Meher Baba today, which serves as a meditation, putting everything about life, and all of its complexities into perspective. It's a passage from Life at its Best called The Final Account. "When the goal of life is attained, one achieves the reparation of all wrongs, the healing of all wounds, the righting of all failures, the sweetening of all sufferings, the relaxation of all strivings, the harmonizing of all strife, the unraveling of all enigmas, and the real and full meaning of all life--past, present and future."
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Who You Really Are
February 27, 2007

Do you know who you really are? Have you ever had an identity shift take place in a crisis? I remember years ago rafting down some white-water rapids and being thrown from the raft. There was no chance to get out of the water. There was no chance to be pulled back into the raft. All I could do was go with the flow. I didn't have a chance to complain, or be afraid. I remember the swift current carrying me across boulder after boulder. I used my hands and feet to guide myself around and over the boulders that were in my path.
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The Last Day of Your Life
February 28, 2007

Have you ever imagined the last day of your life? I find it to be a helpful exercise. It seems the wisest people alive are the ones that are so close to death. They experience a peace that seems so elusive to everybody else. I once lived through a night when I was convinced I would not see the sunrise the next morning. It was a night of sweet surrender. It was a night of letting go. It was a night of transcending form and connecting with the formless. It was a night of bliss.
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