If you read the front page story of the SF Chronicle on Thursday,  Dec. 14, 2005, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines.  She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and (more…)

Remember the day I borrowed your brand new car and I dented it?
I thought you’d kill me, but you didn’t.
And remember the time I dragged you to the beach, and you said it would rain, and it did?
I thought you’d say, “I told you so.” But you didn’t.
Do you remember the time I flirted with all the guys to make you jealous, and you were?
I thought you’d leave me, but you didn’t.
Do you remember the time I spilled strawberry pie all over your car rug?
I thought you’d hit me, but you didn’t.
And remember the time I forgot to tell you the dance was formal and you showed up in jeans?
I thought you’d drop me, but you didn’t.
Yes, there were lots of things you didn’t do.
But you put up with me, and you loved me, and you protected me.
There were lots of things I wanted to make up to you when you returned from Viet Nam.
But you didn’t. (LIVING, LOVING & LEARNING by Leo F. Buscaglia, p 76-8)

DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE – SHOW GRATITUDE TO YOUR LOVED ONES NOW!

Being sensitive means, surely, to have a tender feeling for things: to see an animal suffering and do something about it, to remove a stone from the path because so many bare feet walk there, to pick up a nail on the road because somebody’s car might get a puncture. To be sensitive is to feel for people, for birds, for flowers, for trees – not because they are yours, but just because you are awake to the extraordinary beauty of things. And how is this sensitivity to be brought about?

The moment you are deeply sensitive you naturally do not pluck the flowers; there is a spontaneous desire not to destroy things, not to hurt people, which means having real respect, love. To love is the most important thing in life. But what do we mean by love? (more…)

If we are truly moved by the beauty of the world around us, we would honor the earth in a profound way. We would understand immediately and turn away with a certain horror from all those activities that violate the integrity of the planet. That we have not done so revels that a disturbance exists a more basic level of consciousness and on a greater order of magnitude than we dare admit to ourselves or even thing about. This unprecedented pathology is not merely in those more immediate forms of economic activity that have done such damage; it is even more deeply imbedded in our cultural traditions, in our religious traditions, in our very language, in our entire value system….

This reenchantment with the earth as a living reality is (more…)

Sin is when you turn away from God – or, in the other language, alienation occurs when the ego, that erratic, unreliable driver of the personality, temporarily turns aside from the great quest for integration with the inner self, the self that’s authentic, the self that contains the potential to be fully human, fully fulfilled and fully alive. You don’t become fully human by exploiting others; you don’t realise your full potential by being insensitive and uncaring. You miss the mark. You fall short of bringing to life your unique personality blueprint designed by the living God who dwells as a spark in the very core of it. The quest for integration – for self-realisation – for the start of what religious language calls eternal life – has been thwarted. Sin/alienation is psychological disease which if unhealed can lead to the living hell of lost hopes and blighted lives. (From the book “Mystical Paths” by Susan Howrath, page 224)

Today’s social standard is one of mediocrity. The status quo rarely challenges our individual creative power.

Create a brand new world for yourself, one that meets your deepest needs. By doing so, you will help raise the quality of consciousness of the entire world. Use your imagination! Sing your own song!

“Success means (more…)

Like all repressed memories, repressed wildness continues to haunt our “civilized” lives. As these energies accumulate, they may eventually produce wild, irrational, and often violently destructive mental processes or behavior. This destructiveness may be turned inward on ourselves in masochism, irrational (perhaps psychotic ideation, or potentially suicidal depression. Or the repressed wild energies may be directed outward at civilized society, at those perceived as wild energies may be directed outward at civilized society, at those perceived as wild or simply different, or directed at wilderness preservation. If we get to know and befriend this wild side of our mind-body-spirit organism and integrate it into our overall self-identity, this wasted repressed energy becomes available for playfulness, adventure, constructive relating and creativity in all areas of our lives. (From the book Ecotherapy by Howard Clinebell. page 30)