WOW! WHAT A "COINCIDENCE" THAT I CAME TO THIS PAGE RIGHT AFTER READING THIS QUOTE: "You are not succeeding because you are THINKING too much about what you should do instead of doing it!" ~David Vallieres

I can offer everyone in the GAIA community (so, the world, basically!) a FREE Introduction via SKYPE or phone or in your area, if possible, that will help them change/develop any situation that they'd like to get resolved once and for all in their life! Take me up on this offer, 'cause this is what I am committing myself to doing right now to make a very positive difference, to move consciousness forward right here, right now, by adding to the amount of awareness on any topic you come up with to work on. Here's the link for you to take action on my action: http://createwhatyouwant.webs.com/freephonelocalintros.htm

I look forward to you doing the work with me that will make a positive difference in everyone's life that you affect (which, if you think about it, is everyone existing now).

Love you, Gaia, Thanks for making Me DO! And I look forward to hearing from and meeting you!

Katrina Naugle

<p align="center"><img src="http://www.flarn.com/~warlock/tarot/winged/8.jpg"></p>
<h2 align="center"><font face="Verdana"><b>You are Strength</b></font></h2>
<p align="center"><font face="Verdana">Courage, strength, fortitude. Power not arrested in the act of judgement, but passing on to further action, sometimes obstinacy.</font></P>
<p align="center"><font face="Verdana">This is a card of courage and energy. It represents both the Lion's hot, roaring energy, and the Maiden's steadfast will. The innocent Maiden is unafraid, undaunted, and indomitable. In some cards she opens the lion's mouth, in others she shuts it. Either way, she proves that inner strength is more powerful than raw physical strength. That forces can be controlled and used to score a victory is very close to the message of the Chariot, which might be why, in some decks, it is Justice that is card 8 instead of Strength. With strength you can control not only the situation, but yourself. It is a card about anger and impulse management, about creative answers, leadership and maintaining one's personal honor. It can also stand for a steadfast friend.</font></p>
<p align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana"><b>What Tarot Card are You?</b><br><a href="http://www.flarn.com/~warlock/tarot">Take the Test to Find Out.</a></font></p>

November 13, 2007, my twenty-third birthday, at about 6 in the morning, out in my gorgeous back yard, which I then named "Japan," due to the tinkling, drifting, falling, beauty of autumn-colored, orange leaves falling on my green grass - which has nothing to do with Japan, except that it reminded me of the gorgeous scene from the move, "The Last Samurai," where Katsumoto says, "Perfect...They are all...perfect," speaking, while he's dying, of the cherry blossoms, which earlier in the movie, he had said, "The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life." That entire day, I understood everything lucidly, and all I have to do to get back to that place is remember: 11-13-07, and I feel wise and ready to learn.

1 day later martha said  

I didn't understand your poem either, Donny. Thanks for explaining it. This is such a powerful discussion! I remember during the early '80s working as a secretary in the Computer Science Dept. at ASU. People were very aware of the possibility of receiving one of Ted's random bombs, and we were required to refrain from opening any box we received until security cleared it. I thought at the time that it was so very, very strange that a human being could think that they would stand to gain anything at all by blowing up random innocent people, just because their job had something to do with technology. But all that, of course, pales when one thinks of the horror of what is being done in Iraq today-just about any place you can name that is currently being savaged so that someone can get the upper hand for awhile.

People who create angry, violent demonstrations for peace fall into this whole abyss too, and with the best of intentions. Only loving, kindly motivated actions can bring about true change. It is as the ancient Buddhist law says: Only love can conquer hatred. Whenever a person tries to right a wrong using violence, that action is mistaken action. Further, nonviolent action doesn't result from some restrained action that I take while in my heart I'm feeling angry. This is one reason why Christ said, "Love your enemy." That's the only place from which you can take action to actually change things.

Our choice, as I'm sure we have all thought about, is to choose to see the person -about whom we feel anger- as a person, a human being, with good points and bad points just like anyone else. In this state of mind, we can find something to love about this person.

And the reason I'm writing all of this here-for surely we've all thought these thoughts before- is to link this train of thought with the problem about people who want to see the world as a basically good place-as you said above, looking at "the good of being human, the intelligence, the art, the creative use of industry for good, and you ask "Why can't life just be that way?" Well, for me it's not going to BE that way so much, as I'm looking to, through my attitude, create a space for myself to live in-that space from which I can do the work of continuing to see people as people, instead of objects, as much as possible. It's not about ignoring evil or pretending that it doesn't exist. Love is the only thing that can minimize evil. Love is the only thing that really exists, and evil is the unfortunate chaotic outlier, the devastation that results from a lack of love.

Actions motivated by desire for power, vengence, domination, without love, always need to be justified. The people who do them create a justification as they do the actions. The justification is part of the violent action. As you say, "They dehumanize their victims and tell themselves, "Those people deserve it" or "It's for a greater good." So, I want to stay in a psychological space where I'm not feeling a need to justify my actions, not needing to see others as less than human beings in the same sense that I, myself am fully human. This is what I need in order to be a citizen in the world.

Everything.

I am so grateful for following my bliss.

"What I know for sure is that you really don't become what you want. You become what you believe."  --Oprah Winfrey
Then she went on to explain that if you take the time to find things about yourself (your body, mind, and personality) that you believe you love, then you'll start to find others, and probably the courage to love things about yourself that you've never thought of loving before, from my own personal experience. It's very powerful to recognize what we love about ourselves - it gives me inspiration every time, and makes me a thousand times more confident that I am able and willing to find or create new things to love about me. The automatic result, also, is that when you're focused on the things you love about yourself, you're able to focus on the things you love about others, whereas if you were focused on what you needed to change about you, what you don't like about yourself, you know you're going to be able to point out all the annoyances in other people. Or, worse yet, you may be the type of person who berates yourself and points out how everyone else around you is better in some way than you. It's a life of misery, and death-wishing. To truly live, you gotta love, each and every moment.

Avatar! 

This moment is
Inspiration to do
To change and become.

To recharge, I read something inspiring. It always works to motivate me to keep living presently, enjoying life fully by being a learning sponge.