Category: Uncategorized

Happy Soul Food Friday

This Week, we wax whimsically with:

• Witticisms & Wisdom
• Wabi Sabi Love
• A cool history of Wrock and Wroll
• Women in the Military- one shining star
• and a Winter Wonderland in Quebec

Enjoy!
Wove,
Neville

Wabi Sabi Love

What if we could reframe life and see the beauty and perfection in our own imperfection (and relationships)? Check out this sampling of Wabi Sabi love, predicated on the Japanese aesthetic courtesy that I heard about through my friend and collegue Dr. Ken Druck

http://www.wabisabilove.com/gifts/v1.html

History of Rock and Roll

“I know… it’s only rock and roll but I like it, I like it, yes I do!”

Enjoy this thoughtful sampler of the art form by long time music critic Steve Morse, starting with its seminal beginnings and roots to predictions about the future and the next branches of rock and roll. While you can’t get the whole enchilada from the Berklee College of Music unless you sign up for the online course, this appetizer is great for any of you Rock and Roll lovers, and now you can understand Rock’s place in a historical context. Crank it up!

“The amateur borrows, and the professional steals…”

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/01/14/rock-history-online

Witticisms- SOME WORDS OF WISDOM:

While I don’t agree with all of them I certainly admire their way with words!

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.– John Adams

2. If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. — Mark Twain

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. — Mark Twain

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. —Winston Churchill

5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. – George Bernard Shaw

6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. — G. Gordon Liddy

7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. —James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.  — Douglas Case, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University.

9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. — P.J. O’Rourke, Civil Libertarian

10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. – Frederic Bastiat, French economist(1801-1850)

11. Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving,  subsidize it. —Ronald Reagan (1986)

12. I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. — Will Rogers

13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free! — P. J. O’Rourke

14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. —Voltaire (1764)

15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you! — Pericles (430 B.C.)

16. No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. — Mark Twain (1866)

17. Talk is cheap, except when Congress does it. – Anonymous

18. The government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. — Ronald Reagan

19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. — Winston Churchill

20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. — Mark Twain

21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. — Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

22. There is no distinctly Native American criminal class, save Congress. — Mark Twain

23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians —Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)

24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. — Thomas Jefferson

25. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop

FIVE BEST SENTENCES

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work, because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation!

Women in the Military

Bet you didn’t know this story…

Martha Raye endured less comfort and more danger than any other Vietnam entertainer.

The most unforgivable oversight of TV is that her shows were not taped.

Most are unaware of her credentials or where she is buried.

Somehow I can’t see this generation of entertainers doing what this woman (and the other USO women, including Ann Margaret & Joey Heatherton) did for our troops in past wars.

Most of the old time entertainers were made of a lot sterner stuff than today’s crop, with some notable exceptions.

The following is from an Army Aviator who takes a trip down memory lane:

“It was just before Thanksgiving ’67 and we were ferrying dead and wounded from a large GRF west of Pleiku. We had run out of body bags by noon, so the Hook (CH-47 CHINOOK) was pretty rough in the back.

All of a sudden, we heard a ‘take-charge’ woman’s voice in the rear.

There was the singer and actress, Martha Raye, with a SF (Special Forces) beret and jungle fatigues, with subdued markings, helping the wounded into the Chinook, and carrying the dead aboard.

‘Maggie’ had been visiting her SF ‘heroes’ out ‘west’.

We took off, short of fuel, and headed to the USAF hospital pad at Pleiku.

As we all started unloading our sad pax’s, a ‘Smart Mouth’ USAF Captain said to Martha…. “Ms Raye, with all these dead and wounded to process, there would not be time for your show!”

To all of our surprise, she pulled on her right collar and said ……”Captain, see this eagle? I am a full ‘Bird’ in the US Army Reserve, and on this is a ‘Caduceus’ which means I am a Nurse, with a surgical specialty….now, take me to your wounded!”

He said, “Yes ma’am…. follow me.”

Several times at the Army Field Hospital in Pleiku, she would ‘cover’ a surgical shift, giving a nurse a well-deserved break.

Martha is the only woman buried in the SF (Special Forces) cemetery at Ft Bragg.

Salute!

 

Finally, enjoy this amazing Winter Wonderland at the Quebec Ice festival : 2012

Please give it a few moments to load…

Click here!

Thanks this week to Larry H., Dr. Ken D. & KPBS

Pay it Forward People!
Love,
Neville

“All joy in this world comes from wanting others to be happy,
and all suffering in this world comes from wanting only oneself to be happy”
– Shantideva

Happy Soul Friday!

Hope your 2013 is off to a good start.

This week’s nuggets are designed to fortify you for another trip around the sun…

“All’s well that ends well” and “Practice makes perfect” are misnomers.

All’s well that BEGINS well. Your imagination is a preview of coming attractions.

Practice makes PERMANENT. Perfect practice makes perfect. What you do you become.

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And You Thought Paying it Forward was Wishful Thinking and Wouldn’t Go Anywhere?

Check out this story where a chain reaction had people paying it forward for 3 hours and 228 orders!

http://consumerist.com/2013/01/02/tim-hortons-customer-pays-for-strangers-coffee-others-pay-it-forward-for-228-orders/

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Are You Lucky?

They say, “luck is when preparation meets opportunity” and they are right!

The Luck Factor shows you that lucky people actually create their own luck and that you can actually grow your own luck using four principles;

• creating and noticing chance opportunities
• making “lucky” decisions by listening to your own intuition
• creating self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations
• and adopting a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good

Click here

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Unsticking In the New Year Is Not Easily Done

Here is some help from Robin Sharma with my favorites bolded

62 Fast Tips to Get UnStuck
By Robin Sharma
Author of the #1 Bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title”

1. Believe in your vision and gifts when no one else believes in your vision and gifts.
2. Start your day with 20 minutes of exercise.
3. Make excellence your way of being (versus a once in a while event).
4. Be on time (bonus points: be early).
5. Be a celebrator of other’s talents versus a critic.
6. Stop watching TV. (Bonus points: sell your tv and invest the cash in learning and self-education).
7. Finish what you start.
8. Remember that your diet affects your moods so eat like an athlete.
9. Spend an hour a day without stimulation (no phone+no FaceBook+no noise).
10. Release the energy vampires from your life. They are destroying your performance.
11. Write in a journal every morning. And record gratitude every night.
12. Do work that scares you (if you’re not uncomfortable often, you’re not growing very much).
13. Make the choice to let go of your past. It’s dusty history. And polluting your future.
14. Commit to being “Mozart-Level Good” at your work.
15. Smile more (and tell your face).
16. Do a collage filled with images of your ideal life. Look at it once a day for focus and inspiration.
17. Plan your week on a schedule (clarity is the DNA of mastery).
18. Stop gossiping (average people love gossip; exceptional people adore ideas).
19. Read “As You Think”.
20. Read “The Go-Getter”.
21. Don’t just parent your kids–develop them.
22. Remember that victims are frightened by change. And leaders grow inspired by it.
23. Start taking daily supplements to stay in peak health.
24. Clean out any form of “victimspeak” in your vocabulary and start running the language of leadership and possibility.
25. Do a nature walk at least once a week. It’s renew you (you can’t inspire others if you’re depleted yourself).
26. Take on projects no one else will take on. Set goals no one else will do.
27. Do something that makes you feel uncomfortable at least once every 7 days.
28. Say “sorry” when you know you should say “sorry”.
29. Say “please” and “thank you” a lot.
30. Remember that to double your income, triple your investment in learning, coaching and self-education.
31. Dream big but start now.
32. Achieve 5 little goals each day (“The Daily 5 Concept” I shared in “The Leader Who Had No Title” that has transformed the lives of so many). In 12 months this habit will produce 1850 little goals–which will amount to a massive transformation.
33. Write handwritten thank you notes to your customers, teammates and family members.
34. Be slow to criticize and fast to praise.
35. Read Walter Isaacson’s amazing biography on Steve Jobs.
36. Give your customers 10X the value they pay for (“The 10X Value Obsession”).
37. Use the first 90 minutes of your work day only on value-creating activities (versus checking email or surfing the Net).
38. Breathe.
39. Keep your promises.
40. Remember that ordinary people talk about their goals. Leaders get them done. With speed.
41. Watch the inspirational documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”.
42. Know that a problem only becomes a problem when you choose to see it as a problem.
43. Brain tattoo the fact that all work is a chance to change the world.
44. Watch the amazing movie “The Intouchables”.
45. Remember that every person you meet has a story to tell, a lesson to teach and a dream to do.
46. Risk being rejected. All of the great ones do.
47. Spend more time in art galleries. Art inspires, stimulates creativity and pushes boundaries.
48. Read a book a week, invest in a course every month and attend a workshop every quarter.
49. Remember that you empower what you complain about.
50. Get to know yourself. The main reason we procrastinate on our goals is not because of external conditions; we procrastinate due to our internal beliefs. And the thing is they are stuck so deep that we don’t even know they exist. But once you do, everything changes.
51. Read “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”.
52. Know your values. And then have the guts to live them–no matter what the crowd thinks and how the herd lives.
53. Become the fittest person you know.
54. Become the strongest person you know.
55. Become the kindest person you know.
56. Know your “Big 5″–the 5 goals you absolutely must achieve by December 31 to make this year your best yet (I teach my entire goal-achieving process, my advanced techniques on unleashing confidence and how to go from being stuck to living a life you adore in my online program “Your Absolute Best Year Yet”).
57. Know that potential unexpressed turns to pain.
58. Build a strong family foundation while you grow your ideal career.
59. Stop being selfish.
60. Give your life to a project bigger than yourself.
61. Be thankful for your talents.
62. Stand for iconic. Go for legendary. And make history.

This is YOUR time. Now’s YOUR moment. Let’s do this! 🙂

Your fan,

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Thoughts from a Good Guy with a Gun

I couldn’t agree more…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dani-meier/school-shootings-guns_b_2411441.html

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Life with No Regret-A Nurse reveals the Top 5 Regrets people make on their Deathbed:

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared.
I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learnt never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them……………..

When questioned about ANY REGRETS they had or anything they would do differently, Common Themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five REGRETS :

1. I wish I’d had the Courage to Live a Life True to Myself, NOT THE LIFE OTHERS EXPECTED OF ME.
This was The MOST COMMON Regret of All. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had Not Honored even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.
It is very important to try and honor at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard. 
This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence. By SIMPLIFYING YOUR LIFESTYLE INTO LIVING NON-MATERIALISTIC LIFESTYLES, and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the Income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new Simple Lifestyle.

3. I wish I’d had the Courage to Express My TRUE Feelings.
Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became WHO they were Truly Capable of Becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result. We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by Speaking Honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my True Friends.
Often they would not truly realize the full benefits of their old TRUE Friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let Golden Friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their Really TRUE friends when they are dying. It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let REAL friendships slip.. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to Love and REAL Relationships in the end.
That is all that remains in the final weeks, True love and REAL TRUE Relationships.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
This is a surprisingly common one.
Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in Old Patterns and Habits…….. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of Change had them Pretending to others, and to their OWN Selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again. When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying. Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose Consciously, choose Wisely, choose Honestly. Choose happiness that gives YOU CONTENTMENT & PEACE OF MIND ON A DAILY BASIS

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A Mother’s Love Comes in Many Flavors and Sizes

Enjoy this lighter fare and photographic journey…

Click here!

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul
than the way in which it treats its children.” – Nelson Mandela

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Educating Hearts

Thanks this week go to Ron A, Eva M, Mohit, Pat D/A, and Mama Marlaine

Stay Curious and oh yeah, Pay it Forward!
Love,
Neville

“I am larger, better than I thought,
I did not know I held so much goodness”
–Walt Whitman, ‘Song of the Open Road’

Happy Soul Food Friday!

They say life is what happens when you make other plans…
Sadly, my Dad had open heart surgery and our trip to India had to be postponed.
Dad is improving very slowly, but moving in the right direction
Thanks to all of you for your thoughts, support, prayers and love!

Is a Weekly Dose of Soul Food Meaningful?
Heidi, who helps me with the administration of the Soul Food Friday WordPress blog got this at the end of 2012:

• 600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,400 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 11 years to get that many views.
• In 2012, there were 49 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 65 posts. There were 111 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 173 MB. That’s about 2 pictures per week.
• The busiest day of the year was January 6th with 160 views. The most popular post that day was The First Soul Food Friday of 2012.

Thanks for your engagement in making this happen!

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What is in Your Cone?

We get what we put into it…

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Fantastic Photos to Start Your Year!

Click here!

There Comes a Point in Your Life when You Realize:

Who matters, 
Who never did,
Who won’t anymore…
And who always will.

***** Peace on Earth *****

Best wishes for a very Happy New Year!
Thanks this week go to Heidi, Larry, Bob and Manvinder
Pay it forward!

Love,
Neville

Happy Soul Food Friday!

As this is my final Soul Food for 2012, here are 12 Stories, one for each month of the year:

It is so hard to not to have your soul hurt deeply from the tragedy in Sandy Hook last week…

While the country reels from the event and hopefully makes systemic changes for the future as President Obama’s speech on Wednesday passionately portends, here are some resources to help us get through this enormously difficult time:

How to talk to youth about the shooting in Connecticut

By way of Margaret Iwanaga-Penrose, President & CEO of Union of Pan Asian Communities (UPAC) and a fellow member of the San Diego Non Profits Board

We have assembled a brief listing of excellent resources you can use to help in your efforts to talk with youth and families about the shooting that took place in Connecticut on Friday. Special thanks to the following people for rallying quickly and consulting with experts to identify a few key resources (There are a multitude of resources available but we think at this point in time less is more).

• Our gratitude to Alfredo Aguirre, Director of Mental Health Services, San Diego County & Network Advisory Council Member, Wayne Lindstrom, President & CEO, Mental Health America, and Robert Abramovitz, Co-Director National Center for Social Work, Trauma Education and Workforce Development, Hunter College.
• Review the resources and download what is most applicable to your needs.

Scott Bryant-Comstock
President & CEO
http://cmhnetwork.org

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10 Tips for Helping Children Cope:

Dear Supporter of Save the Children,

Following yesterday’s tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, the thoughts of all of us at Save the Children are with our neighbors in this community that is only about 20 miles from our headquarters.

Even as adults try to come to terms with this unspeakable tragedy, we know many parents, teachers, grandparents and caregivers are concerned about how the media’s dramatic images and heartbreaking stories might affect the emotional well-being of the children in their lives.

To help you know what to say and do to support children at this difficult time, we want to share 10 tips for helping children cope, suggestions based on our extensive experience working with children in times of crises.

1. Limit television time.
2. Listen to your children carefully.
3. Give reassurance.
4. Be alert for significant changes in behavior.
5. Understand children’s unique needs.
6. Give your children extra time and attention.
7. Be a model for your children — they will learn from your behavior.
8. Watch your own behavior and make a point of being sensitive to the crisis.
9. Help children return to a normal routine.
10. Encourage volunteer work — doing something for others.

If you know anyone who might be helped by these tips, I urge you to please share the link www.savethechildren.org/cope.

As for our own efforts to be of service, we have already established a Child Friendly Space in a Newtown middle school — a safe haven where children can play, socialize with their peers and regain a sense of normalcy. We will, of course, offer any help we can in the weeks to come.

As I hugged my own 11-year-old daughter last night, I realized that the most important thing for all of us right now is to remember that children of any age can be affected by a disaster — and that they look to us to provide them with love, understanding and support.

Carolyn Miles
President & CEO

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While Gun Laws are one thing, our entire approach to and support for treating Mental Illness in this country is quite another.

With No Child Left Behind and Budget cuts, socialization skills as a core output of an excellent educational system, and social services as a necessary ingredient in the school team composition have taken a back seat to scores and grades.

Here is one article on what mental illness looks like from the parents point of view?

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/15/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother

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On Perspective

This deck certainly provides some…

Click here

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Whew…

Now for some lighter fare

Hard to believe that since Soul Food Friday’s inception there have been more than 60 blogs on this site and nearly a year’s worth prior to that via direct emails that eventually got too cumbersome to manage through large email attachments.

I do hope at least a few of them touched your soul…

As I leave on vacation today, this will be my last eMissive until the New Year which technically by nature’s calendar would be today on the Winter Solstice, after which the days get longer…

The Gift of Friendship:
If holiday season is about gift giving, one of the greatest gifts I received this year was the gift of support getting a travel Visa for India. After being shocked and devastated for being denied for an India Visa because I could not procure my Naturalization Certificate from 24 years ago- even though I have a US Passport and have travelled on that to India several times since- I called on my social network and asked for help. The outpouring of help from people that in some cases I have had virtually no contact with since I was 15 years old was inspiring & heartwarming. I thanked and salute them through a redux of our school song for the Cathedral and John Connon school- one of the oldest schools in India.

This tells the story in verse…

Prima in Indis Redux
Prima in Indis, Gateway of India
Door of the East with its face to the West,
Here is San Diego my Indian Visa I was yearning
So I called on my network to help with this test
 

Friends forged on maidans playing hockey or cricket
Throwing spit balls, in drama, or hiding my pen
Came to the rescue with contacts galore that
Lent me a hand; both women and men

School School Play up School
I found where my lot has been cast
Family first, Friends next, Self last.

External Affair Ministers, Ambassadors, Diplomats
Military Attaché’s and Staff on the scene
All were extracted, contacted, exacted
All were so sweet not a one was a mean

None of these knew me from Adam or Evie
But they knew You, and you knew them
Next thing I know, just missing one paper
No longer meant that my holiday was kutumb

Geographic distance or time filled spaces
Seemed not to matter to these Cathedralites
They’d trained and they’d strengthen that which really mattered
And for a friend they would put up a fight!

Now as I plan my family trip to Mumbai
They’ve taught me what matters, after all through I’ve been
Friends are our greatest gift, ours to defend them
Ours now to follow these heroes that seem
To have learned and practiced, not taken for gratis
That which is most important in life
It’s People that Matter, Living your Values, Lending a Hand with Other Folk’s Lives

I am no poet but I am so grateful
I hope that I see you when I am in town
If you’re around at the Club or at Sea Lounge
Take a few moments and do come on down

Now as our lives and the palm shadows lengthen
I know what it means to re-echo that old stirring cry
PLAY UP SCHOOL! Let it rip! Let it thunder!
Let it resound to the whole dunya’s sky
School School Play up School
I found where my lot has been cast
Family first, friends next, self last.

Love,
Neville

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While there is a lot of negativity in the News today, here is a striking counterexample, along with another uplifting story and innovative idea I thought you’d appreciate.

http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2013/dec/mercy-cards-121312.html

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Music is the language of the Soul and this link will resonate on the soul food frequency

The Landfill Harmonic

http://vimeo.com/52711779

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Security Cameras can help keep us safe, but sometimes they capture stuff you don’t expect:
Give a little bit…

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As we wind up the year, do PACE yourself over the holidays…

Pace =

Pleasure
Accomplishment
Contentment
Enthusiasm

Some like it fast- check out this link

Others souls are lifted when they take it slow…

S L O W   D A N C E

Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round
Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down
Don’t dance so fast
Time is short
The music won’t last

Do you run through each day on the fly
When you ask “How are you?”
do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores running through your head?

You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast
Time is short
The music won’t last

Ever told your child,
We’ll do it tomorrow
And in your haste, not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
‘Cause you never had time to call and say “Hi”?

You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast
Time is short
The music won’t last

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift….

Thrown away…
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

– Author Unknown

Bear Necessities:

Click here

Happy Holidays from Mission Fed!
https://www.missionfed.com/HolidayCard2012

Special thanks to all this Year’s contributors including this week’s that include: Margaret, the Cathedralites, Dana, Janet, Arman, Larry, Robin, Heidi and the Mission Fed team.

Blessings for the Holidays, and Love to you and Yours!

Love,
Neville

“LOVE is our Soul Purpose”

“Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do…
But how much love we put in that action”
–Mother Teresa

Happy Soul Food Friday!

As I reflect back on the year and look forward to new beginnings on this unique day 12/12/12,  three emerging topics continue to rise to the surface; Leadership, Happiness and Resilience.

I am not sure where you stand on these, but for me growth in all three seem to call me and might actually shape the next leg of my life ad venture.

Why these three?

• Leadership because without it most groups, organizations, communities and cultures cannot actualize their true potential
• Happiness because without it why are we working and growing and yearning and earning so hard?
• Resilience because this competency rightly understood and well-practiced can help us survive and even thrive when life throws us a curveball

In the last week, I had the privilege to engage with the Vista Unified School District and all its entire Leadership team engaging in the important work of building a framework for the future as they shape their vision, mission and values.

Their Superintendent Devin defined them as:

Vision: Where do we want to go? Vision is Aspirational

Mission: What is our purpose? Mission is Inspirational

Values: What are our commitments? Values are “Perspirational”
Our work together was about the perspirational aspect of identifying what operationalizing our values looks like so we can behave into them and make them part of our organizational DNA.

Coincidentally, we are working on the same essential topics at Mission Fed as well, and it is always interesting to separate core or noble values from competencies…

At a recent high level belt test in our karate group, one of our Sensei Charles shared this example which I thought was exemplary:

“Integrity First, Service before Self, Excellence in all we do”- United States Air Force Core Values

This classic First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy, that Devin shared with the Vista team, and that I was first introduced to by Jack Abbott and Sonia Rhodes of TEDx San Diego and TEDx Youth,  might change your perspective on Leadership and who is the most important person…

What are Your Noble Values?

How do you operationalize them for yourself and build a culture where you and those around you can behave into them?

If Happiness is a key outcome you might want to check out:

Happier at Home by Grethen Ruben, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307886786

Or The TRUE Happiness Recipe coming out soon by Will Marre http://www.thoughtrocket.com/the-true-happiness-recipe/

More on resilience in a subsequent post…

—

Lighter Fare:

The Unusual Pairing touched my heart. Enjoy Tara and Bella

—

Went Fishing, Caught 4 Deer:

Interspecies Kindness continues…

A once in the history of mankind kind of thing.

The Best Day Of Fishing Ever!

Some fishing stories are a little hard to believe, but this guy has pictures to prove his story…

I’ve heard of salmon jumping into boats, but never anything quite like this… Tom Satre told the Sitka Gazette that he was out with a charter group on his 62-foot fishing vessel when four juvenile black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat.

“Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed. I opened up my back gate and we helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat. In all my years fishing, I’ve never seen anything quite like it! Once onboard, they collapsed with exhaustion, shivering.”

“This is a picture I took of the rescued bucks on the back of my boat, the Alaska Quest.  We headed for Taku Harbour . Once we reached the dock, the first buck that we had been pulled from the water hopped onto the dock, looked back as if to say ‘thank you’ and disappeared into the forest. After a bit of prodding and assistance, two more followed, but the smallest deer needed a little more help.”

This is me carrying the little guy.

My daughter, Anna, and son, Tim, helped the last buck to its feet. We didn’t know how long they had been in the icy waters or if there had been others who did not survive. My daughter later told me that the experience was something  that she would never forget, and I suspect the deer felt the same way as well!” I told you! Awesome… huh?

Thanks this week go to Vista USD, Charles, Jack, Sonia, Will and Larry.

Pay it forward… You can’t take it with you!

LOVE is all you need, while my sitar gently weeps…

We will miss you Ravi Shankar!

Neville

“Kindness is the language
the blind can see
and the deaf can hear.”
– Mark Twain

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week…

ON Happiness by Will Marre:

PONDER THIS: It turns out that money does really buy happiness…but not in the way you might think!

RESEARCH SAYS: Charitable giving is scientifically proven to benefit the giver as much as the receiver.

It works just like a positive feedback loop: giving makes people happier, and happier people give more. And it’s not just about money. Any time you give—whether it’s your time, your affection, or your creative resources—your brain rewards you with a shot of feel-good hormones, and a bright new outlook on life and love.

YOUR CHALLENGE: Think about what your greatest talent is. Do you excel at a particular skill—creative, athletic, mental, relational?

Identify a person or group who could really use the resource you have to give. Give it and tell us how you feel and what you learned.

Share your results here or on our Facebook page

Did someone forward you this email? Want to receive tips like this and other great content directly in your inbox? Then sign up here to join our email list.

Past Tips:

#9 – Laugh It All Up

#10 – Practice Freedom of Expression

#11 – Create Your Own Ripples

(Thanks Will)

Motivational Moments with Zig Ziglar from Nightingale/Conant:

“It’s not what you’ve got,  it’s what you use that makes a difference.”

—Zig Ziglar (1926-2012):Esteemed author and beloved motivational speaker

Happy Post-Thanksgiving Week!

I do love the JFK quote: “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

It reminds me that love and gratitude are verbs and constant and repeated practice means “behaving into them” regularly so they become habits not just fleeting feelings or seasonal rituals.

Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect as my karate teacher used to love to say…

This week’s posts share some common themes:

• The law of reciprocity– where largesse begets largesse
• The abundance principle which contradicts the scarcity principle and trusts there is enough for everyone
• Attention as the currency of the new economy
• The Law of Concentrated Attention– where what you focus on manifests
• It is Better to Give than to Receive-The only things you keep in life are the things you give away

Post-Thanksgiving thanks giving…

First, my friend and bestselling author Steve Farber is doing something outrageously cool. He is sharing his greatest gift.

Steve’s bestselling book has inspired leaders, business people and educators alike.

Here is what one kindred spirit had to say about it. “The power of the principles within LEAP to change lives, organizations and communities is irrefutable. These principles are timeless and will work in any situation where hearts and minds are willing and unselfish. They will continue to transform me, my building and my community.” –David Pinter, Principal, Ft Caroline Elementary School, Jacksonville, Florida

I was with Steve recently at the California School Library Association’s Annual Conference Leadership Day in San Jose, where Steve generously offered a digital copy of this bestselling book FREE to every educator in the United States!

Here is what he has to say…

Personally, I’m deeply thankful for the educators in our world–those teachers, principals, superintendents, admins, librarians, and support staff who every day devote themselves to the nurturing and development of our next generations of leaders. I believe that’s what educators really do; they’re leadership developers in the most profound way. That’s why I’m happy to announce that my publisher and I have made my book, The Radical Leap Re-Energized, free to any and all educators. Some of my biz associates think this is…um…unwise–they can’t see the “business validation” in my doing such a thing. But that’s never stopped me before 🙂 So…If you’re an educator, or if you know an educator (you MUST fit in one of those categories, right?) please go and/or send your educator friends to www.LeapForEducation.com to download a free copy of the book. We have around 5 million K-12 educators to reach here in the US alone (Audacity!), so I invite you to spread the word far and wide.  Until next time with Love, Energy, Audacity, and Proof. Steve Farber

In the same spirit, can you help me spread the word and get this into the hands of as many educators as you care about?

If it is easy to do, it is easy not to do so don’t wait- ADVOCATE!

—

There are No Coincidences- New Discoveries About Happiness

Ok as I am writing this, I get the following message from Will Marre who graciously keynoted at our Annual Martial Arts Mini-Camp at UCSD earlier this month…

New discoveries about the nature of happiness tell us that happiness is not just the pleasant outcomes of fortunate circumstances. Indeed, we can all create deeper and longer lasting feelings of happiness whenever we want to. In fact our actual circumstances have a much smaller impact on our sense of well-being than our inner life and our outer actions. Happiness is actually something to be directly pursued rather than something to wait for. Here are the three top ways science says make us feel happy.

1. Thanksgiving, or actually gratitude: We can learn to be world class at feeling grateful for good things in our lives. This is not as easy as it sounds. Our default thinking takes the good things of our lives for granted while we focus our attention on what’s unpleasant. A tip to increase your feelings of gratitude is to focus on one specific thing at a time. You could focus on your health and energy, your children, a warm home, a loving friend, or a comfortable pair of shoes or the taste of chocolate. Whatever it is, you only feel grateful when you focus on that one thing. Now imagine your life without it. The contrast of feeling loss deepens our appreciation for what we have right now. Next, tell someone what you’re grateful for and why. Going public with inner feelings increases positive brain chemicals and brightens happy emotions.

2. Give: We now can observe brain activity of givers and receivers and it’s clear that it is the giver who feels more happiness through giving than the “getter.” I remember at age 5 receiving a red fire engine for Christmas. I wanted this fire engine so badly that I begged Santa for it. Repeatedly. Endlessly. Sixty years later my mother told me she still remembered that Christmas because I had been so elated. She told me I could not have possibly been happier in receiving the fire engine than the joy she felt giving it. Turns out that science backs her up. Givers have more positive brain activity than receivers.

3. Growth: Our sense of our personal power arises when we are confident we can select meaningful goals and achieve them. This is called self-effectiveness or self-efficacy. Self-effectiveness gives us confidence and generates self-respect which are directly associated with happiness. If you can imagine being a better, more capable person, take steps to advance yourself. Just starting on a more positive course will trigger optimism, inner resolve, and confidence — all happiness builders.

So now you have three things you can do intentionally to increase your happiness; gratitude, giving, and growth are the rocket fuel that launches us into a higher orbit of joy. These three actions are the core habits of happiness and life satisfaction. That’s why Thanksgiving is such a potent holiday. It’s a day to reflect on the large and small sources of joy. It’s a time to pitch in and help at whatever needs to be done. Don’t let the lower emotions of Black Friday bargain hunting become your theme music for the holiday. Rather mindfully promote gratitude, giving, and growth and see how you feel.

Being happy is something you create. Something you can do. Happy is a verb!
Will
—

Intrigued by Reciprocation and What it Fosters?

This happened to be in the news this week…

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/26/165570502/give-and-take-how-the-rule-of-reciprocation-binds-us

—

So Many Verbivores So Little Time…

Since so often we are time starved, let’s make the most of every moment…

It only takes one smile to offer welcome…
and blessed be the person who will share it.

It only takes one moment to be helpful…
and blessed be the person who will spare it.

It only takes one joy to lift a spirit…
and blessed be the person who will give it.

It only takes one life to make a difference…
and blessed be the person who will live it.

by BJ Gallagher

Finally, a Musical Leaf?

This is pretty cool…

Click here: YouTube – ??Musical leaf-Whispering Hope

Thanks this week to Steve, Will and Larry

Stay grateful not hateful and musical not whimsical…

Love,
Neville

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit.
Genius hits a target no one else can see.”

–Arthur Schopenhauer

Happy Soul Food Friday for Thanksgiving Week!

My heartfelt aspiration for you is that you have many things to be grateful for this holiday season, and that we all take a moment to share that attitude of gratitude with the people that matter most to us in our lives.

As the perfect antidote for the typical holiday season fervor of material spending and crazy consumerism, that begins with Black Friday and continues through Cyber Monday and now Mobile Tuesday, here are some soul food gifts to share with your loved ones. They cost nothing but are indeed priceless, validating that Einstein knew what he was talking about when he said, “Not everything that can be counted, counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” :

First the gift of humor (and lateral thinking):

The following short quiz consists of 4 questions and will tell you whether you are qualified to be a professional. Scroll down for each answer.

The questions are NOT that difficult. But don’t scroll down UNTIL you have answered each question!

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator?

Wrong Answer.

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend…except one.
Which animal does not attend?

Correct Answer: The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there. This tests your memory.

Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer: You jump into the river and swim across. Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong, but many preschoolers got several correct answers.

Anderson Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of a four-year-old.

—

Now for some other meaningful thanksgiving holiday gifts.

*** The FIRST gift is the gift of time.

“Just being with someone can be of great comfort to that person”.

*** The SECOND gift is the gift of good example.

Most people learn fundamental attitudes by observing other people.

*** The THIRD gift is the gift of acceptance.

People often begin to change when they realize they’re being accepted for what they are.

*** The FOURTH gift idea for those who are so often busy and distracted these days is the gift of privacy – that is, time of one’s own.

Too often, we smother people with questions and demands on them and their time.

*** The FIFTH is the gift of seeing the best in people.

“How can you see a ‘fine’ picture of someone close to you – when that person doesn’t always seem to be so fine?
*** The SIXTH gift is the gift of self-esteem

Not crippling others by nagging or criticizing – especially those we love. That’s particularly a tough one for millions of people every day.

*** The SEVENTH gift,  might be the giving up a bad habit.

*** Number EIGHT is the gift of self-disclosure.

Bottling up feelings and resentments deprives the other person of truly knowing who you are.

*** The NINTH gift idea is the gift of helping someone learn something new.

It is an investment in their future happiness.

*** The TENTH gift is the gift of really listening.

“Few of us know how to listen in an effective manner”.

*** The ELEVENTH is the gift of fun!

It’s important to help those close to you to find the fun in ordinary, small events.

*** Finally, the TWELFTH gift is letting others give to us.

“When we let others give to us”, “and when we can accept their gifts in a gracious and mature manner, we may be giving them one of the most important gifts of all.”

—

A Thankless Profession? We can change that!

As we extend that attitude of gratitude to those that touch our lives most meaningfully, please let’s not forget our teachers who give so much, and get thanked so little. Take a moment right now to thank a teacher for their hard work, dedication, enthusiasm and willingness to go the extra mile for our students and their families. In addition to your priceless gratitude, Mission Fed will serve to memorialize their service and esteem them for their great work! It is easy, just click here: https://www.missionfed.com/im-thankful

—

We’ve highlighted Dogs and Cats but let’s not forget the Birds:

Enjoy these glorious pictures

Click here!

Thanks this week to Debra S., Larry H. and all the teachers that inspire me and make me a better person!

An abundance of blessings for you and yours as we enter the Holiday Season.

Pay it forward, you can’t take it with you…

Love,

Neville

“The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of

immortality.” –John Quincy Adams

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

Musings from DreamForce 2012: The Largest Technology Conference on the Planet

Recently, I was afforded the opportunity to attend DreamForce 2012 the largest technology conference on the planet, which was held in San Francisco with over 95,000 registered guests and 950 breakout sessions. DreamForce completely blanketed downtown San Francisco including the Moscone Center and all the adjacent hotels and featured notable keynotes by the likes of General Colin Powell, Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin companies, Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, Mark Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, Dr. Dean Ornish and Tony Robbins to mention a few.

It is purported that70% of businesses today are using social which in turn provides a $1.3B boost to the economy.

Social has become one of the two top ways to connect with customers, all made possible by the convergence of “cloud, social and mobile spheres”. Trust and transparency foster authentic connectedness and rightly applied the social revolution can become a TRUST Revolution as “what happens in Vegas ends up on Facebook.”

There are 6 ways to move the needle on your business imperatives using Social; Sell, Service, Market, Collaborate, Work, & Innovate- but they ALL begin with Listening. Sentiment Analysis, Crowd Sourcing, Collaborative Design & Intention Analysis all are made easier through the advent and application of social media. Brand is the sum of all these conversations. Today we call it Social Business but soon it will simply be referred to just business as usual…

DreamForce featured more than 75 sessions to choose from on the Marketing/Social Media track alone. Here I was forced to prioritize, schedule and then move maniacally like a presidential candidate from venue to venue in the final days of an election cycle- but it was totally worth it.

One of the most enlightening sessions was a session entitled Metrics that Matter in Social Business Innovation by John Hagel of Deloitte & JP Rangaswami Chief Scientist of SalesForce.

Here these two thought leaders helped me reframe Social not as an emerging fad but as the centerpiece of community in the digital age.  We are and have always been creatures of community. Eons ago, community occurred around the camp fire. Fast forward thousands of years and community was in the town square. Fast forward yet again, and community is engaging via social media. This is why if Facebook was a country, it would be the third most populated country on earth!

Social technology has brought a new age of interaction to the business world, turning nameless faceless data made up of social security, phone numbers and FICO scores into real people that demand to be treated as such.

The 4 ways to measure the true impact of social media include:

• Financial:Has revenue or profit increased or costs decreased?
• Digital: Has the company enhanced its owned and earned digital assets?
• Brand: Have consumer attitudes about the brand improved?
• Risk management: Is the organization better prepared to note and respond to attacks or problems that affect reputation?

The collaboration of shared knowledge, shared experiences, and shared content are the core of social business value. However, interactions in social media aren’t here today and gone tomorrow. They can remain in recorded history in perpetuity. Clearly, the expressed sentiment of customers and employees is critical to the successful design and implementation for any business. Social will provide new vistas of value in the future as well as open the organization to new risks.

Here are some interesting social media stats-

• More than 600 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each month with average user spending 20 minutes per visit & 23% of Facebook users checking their account five times or more every day
• 1 million accounts are added daily on Twitter & average time on site is 13 minutes
• Twitter handles more search queries per month than Bing & Yahoo combined – 32 billion
• Pinterest is the fastest growing social media platform to achieve 10 million unique visitors & average time on site is over 14 minutes
• LinkedIn gains two new members every second & average time on site is 8 minutes/session
• YouTube handles 20% of the entire internet’s traffic and has over 4 billion views per day

Side Note: “Four more years.” A short enough message, but one that has set Twitter’s record for the most new tweets-per-second record, reaching 327,000 a second at its peak. The message was sent from U.S. President Obama’s Twitter account at 4.16am GMT, once Obama’s re-election to the White House for another four years became certain.

Technology is a great servant but a horrible master. With smart phone adoption the fastest of any technology in human history, and today with more smart phones on the planet than toilets and toothbrushes, access to information (resources) is unprecedented. It is our resourcefulness in using these technologies to inform, educate and shape our workplaces, educational systems and customer experiences that becomes critical. To quote Rangaswami, “Health services will not get better if we design better thermometers.  Measures don’t work to make things better in Healthcare and Education. It’s how we do it that changes the quality of the outcomes.”

The more things change the more they stay the same…Human constants such as valuing trust as the basis of all real relationships, the importance of connectedness and community and the need to be heard & valued remain constants.

These constants however meet the dynamic and disruptive forces of globalization & emerging digital technologies at unprecedented rates of change that in turn are upending our business models, dis-intermediating conventional systems and processes, and creating new opportunities for innovation and value creation.

Brand no longer resides in the purview of one brand manager or brand champion, and now is shaped by thousands of customer encounters and experiences that good or bad will be shared across the digital community and ecosystem in a heartbeat. The best we can do is create the conditions for an authentic brand experience, then listen well and act quickly as the era of the connected, self-directed consumer and empowered citizen continue to build steam and shape our collective future, redefine the nature and contract of work, and add another step on the ladder of the history of that social, relational, communal being we call human.

Who Am I

Interesting what each of these young people turned into. See if you can guess the answers…

Click here!

15 characteristics of an excellent entrepreneur

Adapted from a recent blog written by Tim Bell

Kelly O’Neil, in his “The Secrets of Success” blog, outlined 15 characteristics of an excellent entrepreneur. This is a result of his association with extraordinary and successful entrepreneurs. In his blog, I learned that excellence is not inborn–it is something you have to work at. A high performing entrepreneur values his word and looks for ways to improve himself and his business. Unlike others who dwell on problems, he finds solutions to them. He learns from his mistakes, considers suggestions from others, and excels in his undertakings. He is willing to take risks and to do what needs to be done. These traits eliminate mediocrity. More specifically, O’Neil identifies these 15 traits as markers of true excellence. Great entrepreneurs…

-Aren’t just working for the money. They care about their company beyond the profits and take great pride in its performance, impact on society, and ability to help others through its offerings.
-Are truthful. They do what they say they are going to do, when they say they are going to do it.
-Embrace opportunities. They look for — and find — opportunities to improve themselves, their work, and their business.
-Are focused on solutions. They don’t bring problems to the table without recommending a solution.
-Focus on CAN. High performers focus on what they can do rather than what they can’t accomplish.
-Don’t blame. When they make a mistake they own it, fix it, and learn from it.
-Are busy, productive, and proactive. High performers are out there getting the job done.
-Are life-long learners. High performers constantly work at educating and improving themselves.
-Consistently do what they need to do. No matter how they feel or what curves life has thrown their way, they get it done.
-Have a desire to be exceptional. They will typically do things others won’t do.
-Accept feedback. High performers aren’t just open to feedback, they are more likely to act upon it.
-Set higher standards for themselves. The result? Greater commitment, more momentum, a better work ethic and (of course) better results.
-Are more interested in effective than easy. High performers look for the course of action that will produce the best results over the long term.
-Finish what they start. Even when it’s not fun.
-Are resourceful. They figure it out and get it done….

In summary, excellence is the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, skillful execution, and the vision to see obstacles as opportunities.

A Commercial On a Building in Berlin

Amazing

Click here!

More to Learn from Dogs and Cats

Click here

Thanks this week to DreamForce, and to the imitable Larry H for innumerable sharing and excellent pairings!

Pay it Forward…

Love,
Neville

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” – Nelson Mandela

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

Have You Checked Out BizTown?
This week, after a prideful morning exercising my civic duty and being grateful to be able to vote on election day, I had the further good fortune to join my daughter’s 5^th grade class at Junior Achievement’s BizTown in San Diego.

http://www.jasandiego.org/2012/educators/elem_biztown.php

If you have never hear of it or been there, it is quite the experience as these 10 and 11 year olds invest many weeks at their respective schools prepping for “a day in the life of work”, in a real setting with real jobs getting real checks that get deposited at real credit unions (and of course banks).

5 years ago I was at BizTown as a parent volunteer with my son Arman, as Mission Fed launched our first ever Thank A Teacher Campaign with Cox and JA.

Here we are 5 years later on the 5^th Anniversary of the hugely popular Thank a Teacher campaign, that has generated more than 25,000 thank you notes to thousands of teachers at hundreds of schools all over San Diego county, and now we have a gorgeous Mission Fed branch in BizTown, where half the 12,000 kids that attend BizTown every year do their banking and cash their paychecks all year long.

Here are some pictures memorializing and personalizing the occasion with our daughter Aysha:

• Working as a Nutritionist at Kaiser
• Hanging with her pals Marina and Trinity on lunch break

• With her 5^th grade teacher Sue Yant in front of the Mission Fed Thank a Teacher table
• Making her charitable contribution at the San Diego Foundation to help Animals 
• With Joanne Pastula the President/CEO of Junior Achievement, San Diego

(Thanks Mission Fed, BizTown and Ada Harris Elementary)

For more information, here is a recent media story on the feel-good Thank a Teacher Campaign:

Thank a Teacher:

http://lajolla.patch.com/articles/local-students-thank-their-teachers
Be sure to spread the word as we share the love with our teachers!

(Thanks JA, Cox and Mission Fed and EVERY Teacher out there!)

Coping with Natural Disasters and Stress by Will Marre:

Last week one of Will’s clients asked him to develop a quick guide to help their employees deal with stress caused by hurricane Sandy. I thought you might be interested in what he sent out as I was.

Natural disasters are usually sudden, shocking, and stressful.  You are normal if your feelings range from disbelief and anger to numbness so don’t get down on yourself for being human.

Symptoms of stress overload are:
Recurring feelings of fear, worry, and anxiety

Difficulty making decisions
Feeling powerless and depression
Achiness and stomach pain

If you are feeling this way, please consider some dos and don’ts.

First don’t:
Isolate yourself from others
Overeat, drink alcohol, or take drugs
Watch too much T.V. news about the disaster which may deepen your sense of helplessness and upset
(disturbing visual images are the most re-traumatizing)

Do:
Create a daily routine that includes 7-8 hours of sleep, light exercise, stretching, and healthy food.

Invest time with your friends, family, and co-workers.
Encourage people to share their stories and feelings but don’t dwell on them or repeat them over and over.
(Repeatedly retelling of terrible events causes your brain to create deeper, more disturbing memories.)

Encourage conversations about:
– What you’re grateful for in spite of the disaster
– Acts of service, help, and heroism
– Any positive things you’ve learned or will do differently

Watch (if you have power or internet access) humorous shows or movies that actually make you laugh.
Laughing creates feelings of optimism.

No matter how busy you are snatch 30 minute breaks to do something you enjoy—read an inspiring book, play a game, call friends who are out of the disaster oven and talk to them about the good things in yours and their lives.

Help others.  One of the most stress resilient activities you can do is help others using your strengths and gifts.
We are each wired to offer help in one of five ways:

Teach: Teach the people you can touch these stress tips, how to make sure their water is clean, how to get their power back on, or any other helpful information.

Take Charge: Organize people so they can use their strengths, knowhow and resources to do the most good.

Create: Create methods, processes, and tools to help people get their lives back to normal.

Help: Directly lend a hand in helping others clean up their property, get an insurance adjuster, or any other direct way.

Fun: Spread joy.  Encourage gathering, organize parties, be the activities director to get people re-engaged with their fun side.

So are you primarily a teacher, leader, creator, helper, or party planner?  If you take a minute, you’ll see your gift among these five.  It’s what you do well that brings you a great sense of satisfaction.  Give your gift.

Enrich your private life.  Take time to meditate on what you’re most grateful for now.  Tell others what you’re grateful for.  Stay fully present with others, hug, hold hands, enjoy moments of sacred silence where feelings of love are shared without words.

Every disaster is an opportunity to grow, serve, and love.  The quickest way to heal is to both give of yourself and take care of yourself.

We don’t need to wait for a natural disaster to engage on some of these life enriching activates. Any time your life feels overwhelming is a good time to recharge your personal vitality.

(Thanks Will)

 Finally, the Gift of Dog:

These quotes will touch your heart!

Click here

(Thanks Larry)

Stay Soul-Filled Everyone!

Love,
Neville

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. 

One is roots.  The other is wings.

~Hodding Carter, Jr.