Look for Yourself

The Intention Experiment starting 9/11

Here is some true Monkey Business - a global intention experiment that needs some action on your part - from home or work - using meditative time each day. Said to be the biggest global intention experiment toward world peace ever attempted. See what it's all about HERE

One mind - one heart

Check it out.

Astrology Points the Way if We Listen

Personal growth = planetary health


Like astrology, we are connected to more than the eye can see. Just because we can't see a blockage that stands in our way doesn't mean it isn't there (as we have learned throughout history over and over again.)

So...it is time.

Astrology Points the Way if We Listen

The Address We All Need To Hear

Hello fellow Monkeys!

This is the most awe-inspiring speech I have read in a long time.  Not since Randy Pausch's Last Lecture have I been so moved to share...this is a snippet from Paul Hawken as he addressed the graduates of 2009 at The University of Portland:

"You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send 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 planetsaving 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 the 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."

From The Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009

Take a moment and a deep breath, or make yourself a cup of tea and click on to read the rest of his words.  An inspiring call to action.  An awesome recognition of potential.

You can also joinWiser Earth, the organization he co-founded and get in on more of the conversation.  I did.

 
The Social Network for Sustainability

Blessed be.
Gael

Photo by Bob Alba

Community Building. It's Party Time!

I subscribe to a site called Daily OM.  Sound soulful advise.  See for yourself.

This week a post about community caught my eye and fit into the Hundredth Monkey Effect perfectly...

 

Communities thrive on the talents of their members...consider what you have to offer and find ways to bring that into your community. 

Anything we do on a small level will automatically ripple out into the larger system. If you have a special gift when it comes to bringing people together...find ways to bring that into your community.

You might agree to throw a party or event once a year that includes the whole community. Even a small open house in an apartment building can accomplish a lot in terms of making people feel more connected and comfortable with each other.

Becoming the Hundredth Monkey is joyful stuff.  Have fun with it!!  A party sure sounds good... Feel free to invite neighbors you know and more neighbors you don't and share the love :)

 Namaste 

It's Monkeytime!

This post is my invitation to you.

That's right! You you you :)

What do you see, hear, and feel connected to that improves the world?

What makes your heart sing, your energy perk, your faith in humanity grow?

There is so much!

Music - dance - activism - service - stories - community - communication - new ideas - sacred vision - the neighbor's good deed - the silent hero.  What can you bring our collective attention to? What makes your heart sing "oh oh oh I want to share!"

We totally want your perspective.  We absolutely need your contribution. The world improves one smile at a time.


Spread the love and let us know!  What's your smile about?

Do you know where food comes from?

Blue sky...children in the distance...birds singing...the land is flush with good living.  How can one actually desire to get immersed in news that will rock the foundation of your world when the world seems so at peace, and so many other things are so pressing - at least in your own neck of the woods.

I credit Steven Covey with saying we so often opt for handling the immediate in lieu of the important...

This is a deep challenge and a quandary that drives to the heart of what our resistance is all about - the resistance we so often have to rattle the cage of comfort. Such is the importance of a sense of security even when the security is false.  Will the world need your social security check when the issue at hand is global water shortage? Will your 401K matter when the evidence of Monsanto and others like them will have their way with your food?  Will we ever be able to say we have done our best when our best is hidden from view?

We will seek change when it hits home.  We will seek change when our level of discomfort is too great for the challenge of staying put.  We will seek change when it is personal.  We will seek change when we are in danger.  Any other reasons? There are many and you will know some of them for yourself if you just think for a moment...

This blog is about seeing what is good in the world and making it known.  The Hundredth Monkey shares a change in consciousness one step at a time - one person at a time.

Sometimes the need for change comes from adversity.  The monkeys who first washed their sweet potatoes (see the initial post to this blog) did so out of the adversity of being cut off from their preferred food source.

Could this be happening to us? Must we wait until we get thoroughly trounced before we vote for better ways
to handle our resourses today?

We are in a time of change now that some say can be reversed - or stayed at the least - and others would say has no turning back and we have no choice but to watch the fall...again and again and again.

The Hundredth Monkey votes for clarity - honesty - and full awareness of the choices he makes in order to thrive.

It is in the spirit of knowing that I offer you the opportunity to educate yourself as much as you can about our global actions with regard to our most intimate currencies - food and water.

Perhaps the Hundredth Monkey can then make the personal choice that will tip the scales away from such disaster.  Will it be you? 

Watch FLOW: for the Love of Water available from Twilight Earth. Click here.

Watch The World According to Monsanto. Click here.

May we all grow in abundance and caring for our planet Earth and for each other.

Namaste

Could your neighbor be starving?

Today I am reading a blog called Take Part - Inspiration to Action and it stated that 49 million people in the US lack access to nutritious food. 

I've been taken with our food challenges in many different ways recently (read previous posts on GMOs and other unsavory threats to our wellbeing) but this one just got me.  I could say the topic is so depressingly sobering that rolling up in a ball and moaning is a possibility.  I also highlight the name of the blog as it includes the phrase "inspiration to ACTION!"

The article offers additional information and links, but mostly I like the simple ending advise... 


"take action - find a food bank event near you"

Simple.  Sometimes it takes a simple shift to make big headway.

Click the link.  It is what any of us can do right now.

Grab a neighbor or tell a friend...you can be one of the ones who tip the scale.

namaste

One Man's Journey

">WOW! Click here for Inspiration plus...


Amazing video of what you can be - do - have with far less than you might think.  Check out the video above then go visit Nick Vujicic at his website. This guy IS a hundredth monkey for sure, and I am grateful to have a place to offer his message to you.

Namaste Monkeys
Shine-on :)

Communities and TED

Big time sharing is what I see here...

Excitement and vision and growth.

I have been intrigued with the concept of the TED talks - "ideas worth spreading" - for quite a while now, and perhaps I'm just late in noticing, but there seems to be an EXPLOSION of opportunity to share insight and opportunity across the globe through this venue.  Free access to videos, you tubes, blogs and written reports abound - AND - communities are stepping forward and hosting their own TEDx events  and more, like the one right here in my own community at the old historic Colonial Theater in Phoenixville, PA in September (take a look!)

I feel so proud, and so hopeful for our world when I see community action like this!  Soothes the soul I say...and the Hundredth Monkey gets closer and closer.

Could it be you? Please take the time to share what you see going on in your own space.  The more we see the more we share.

Blessings to all....

Who is The Hundredth Monkey?

The Hundredth Monkey

Just a little back-story - by Ken Keyes, Jr.

The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.
In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkeys liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.

An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists.
Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable.
Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes. Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes -- the exact number is not known.

Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them.
The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

But notice...
A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea --

Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes. Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.

Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.

But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!
 

From the book "The Hundredth Monkey" by Ken Keyes, Jr.

(THE FOLLOWING WAS TRANSCRIBED FROM A BOOK WITH COPYRIGHT INFORMATION AS FOLLOWS: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG NO. 81-70978 / ISBN 0-942024-01-X.) 

AUTHOR'S DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the Dinosaurs, who mutely warn us that a species which cannot adapt to changing conditions will become extinct. 

This book is not copyrighted. You are asked to reproduce it in whole or in part, to distribute it with or without charge, in as many languages as possible, to as many people as possible. The rapid alerting of all humankind to nuclear realities is supremely urgent. If we are wiped out by nuclear destruction in the next few years, how important are the things we are doing today? 

Download the entire book The Hundredth Monkey. It's a free gift to all who want it from Ken Keyes Jr.

Click here for your free download! 

A Hundredth Monkey in Wal-Mart

Perhaps you too have a story to share...a story that can help others see for themselves what it is to make that one simple shift ...

The Wal-Mart Occurrence

A True Story Nov 20, 2009 by Nancy L Wolf

As always I am in a race against time.. Squeezing in my “ things to do” in the time frame of when the aides are here and when do I have to be back home and all that stuff. I knew Wal-Mart would be busy but had to get a few things including a Rx, so I raced over and did my thing.

I always go in the garden entrance as its less chaotic parking and less crowded.

So with 15 minutes to spare I get in a short line (only 3 of us) and figure things will be okay. Then I see the lady next in line and her cart is overflowing to the brim with a mountain of items and thinking oh boy this is going to take forever. The line behind me starts to fill up and everyone is complaining and moaning over how they have to wait and how you are not supposed to have that much stuff in that garden section etc etc.

I was starting to get annoyed, but something inside me (my yoga teaching mostly) said to myself” who knows what is going on with her? Why does she have so much? Maybe she has no other time to come, or lots of things, so I slowed my mind down and just observed. As she hurriedly put her mountain of articles on the small space I saw she had a companion who was coming and getting the bags as they were full and taking them out to the car. I observed they both looked very somber and nervous. I finally could see half way down her basket and saw all the Xmas stuff and she had also purchased a pre lit tree that she needed help getting to the car.

By now the people behind me were in a fit.. Saying things out loud and leaving.. Cursing life and turning red. I thought ” I am not going to freak out. Something here is just not right …" but then I had to be home for my husband on hospice so I was a little worried about the time.

Suddenly she turned around when she heard someone’s comment and looked so upset. She then came over to me and the lady behind me..I had been talking to the lady behind me and saying I needed to get out on time as my husband was on hospice and she said "go in front of me don’t worry…" so there we were chatting and this stranger comes over to us… leaving her pile of items… and puts her hands to her face and says ”I’m so sorry.. I have to get all of this to the house right away.. My husband is on hospice and he is dying" (my legs got weak and my mouth dry) I couldn’t say the words as tears were streaming down my cheeks. The lady next to me looked at her and said ”so is her husband” we both just looked at each other and time stood still. All I could picture was her racing home to try and set everything up for him so he could ”see Xmas “ before he passes. She looked at me and then she took my hands. No words exchanged… just tears.

Suddenly the line got very quiet..it was like no one else was there… just me and this stranger both sharing this deep sadness at this time of year and understanding each other. She had to be around 75? But there was no age in that moment. She finally went back to her stuff and paid. And then she turned back to look at me one last time. I opened up my arms to her as a signal... and she came over. We stood and hugged each other for what seemed a long time… both of us crying… and then she left and I was up next.

Fighting back the tears… all I could think was of all the uptight people who had been so impatient and I was beginning to be like that… but I am so grateful I stopped myself and calmed and centered myself and observed.

You just never know why people do what they do… take time to observe and time to be grateful for those busy lives you have.. I will never forget that event… Be ever so grateful, not just at Xmas but always. For your lives and if you have the luxury of being able to not live you life in segments of time, and if your family and yourself is healthy… then next time you have to wait… remember this true story that happened to me this November of 2009.
Peace, Nan

"Lately it occurs to me... what a long strange trip it's been!"