Happy Soul Food Friday!

Happy Soul Food Friday!

Here is to your independent thinking, while recognizing our collective interdependence this week.

“If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking”- Benjamin Franklin

“Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.”- John Adams

“Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind.”– John Milton

“Thought is free.”- William Shakespeare

 Ok after all those heavy hitters, let’s loosen things up with some titillating punography:

·  I tried to catch some fog.  I mist.

·  When chemists die, they barium.

·  Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

·  A soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

·  I know a guy who’s addicted to brake fluid.  He says he can stop any time.

·  How does Moses make his tea?  Hebrews it.

·  I stayed up all night to see where the sun went.  Then it dawned on me.

·  This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club,  but I’d never met herbivore.

·  I’m reading a book about anti-gravity.  I can’t put it down.

·  I did a theatrical performance about puns.  It was a play on words .

·  They told me I had type A blood, but it was a type-O.

·  This dyslexic man walks into a bra .

·  I didn’t like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.

·  A cross-eyed teacher lost her job because she couldn’t control her pupils?

·  When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.

·  What does a clock do when it’s hungry?  It goes back four seconds..

·  I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me!

·  Broken pencils are pointless.

·  What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary?  A thesaurus.

·  England has no Kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool .

·  I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.

·  I dropped out of communism class because of lousy Marx.

·  All the toilets in London police stations have been stolen. Police say they have nothing to go on.

·  I took the job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.

·  Velcro – what a rip off!

·  Cartoonist found dead in home.  Details are sketchy.

“If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.”–Henry Ford

As a social scientist I remain committed to the importance of the Liberal Arts and Humanities as part of a well-rounded Higher Education to cultivate our reserve of knowledge, depth of experience, and hone our abilities:

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever”, said Mahatma Gandhi.

Education and inevitably self-education  provide the most treasured gift of discovering our personhood. Nowhere has this been more true than in the “ivy-walled university” experience where those of us blessed to have this were literally free to find ourselves, and enjoy some “development time” without the rules and regulations of living in our parents homes- on one side of the time continuum, or having to deal with the daily grind and responsibilities of the working world on the other. This rightly experienced is the liberating part of a liberal arts education.

Are we liberating young people through a whole person educational experience that teaches them how to develop and grow their social capital and cultural intelligence, or are we narrowly shackling them to an academic schedule and performance-driven, over-achievement based life experience, that they will more than likely inherit soon enough from their founding fathers and mothers?

With that sort of restrictive myopic mindset on the role and value of education, why not start indentured servitude at 13- surely that will foster a strong work ethic and bring out the best in our youth?

Last time I checked, we did away with leeches and bloodletting.

Legislation like No Child Left Behind- run its unnatural course will lead to NO CHILD LEFT.

We must preserve access, affordability and quality in the educational experience for future generations, and remain open to transforming the educational experience if it is not working- after all the root of the word education is educare to look at things from diverse points of view…

This article validates the importance not just of the physical and life sciences but the humanities and social sciences as vital to the future, especially in the context of independence and interdependence.

Click here!

Charitable Giving: The Only Things we Keep in Life, are the Things That we Give Away:

Overall Americans gave $316 Billion to Charity and, Re-Balanced their Philanthropic Portfolio…

Click this!

Freeing Up Some Time for Summer?

If you are committed to cultivating a world view and cultural Immersion, consider a Pivot to Asia
Whether you are traveling near or far, I am not sure if many of us will make it all the way across the globe, so instead enjoy these pictures from China without the jet lag and travel woes…

Open this

Thanks this week to the inestimable Larry H and all of you who invest positive energy back into our communities!

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.
None but ourselves can free our minds.” –Bob Marley

May you have a liberating week…

Love,

Neville

“Independence?

That’s middle class blasphemy.

We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.”

-George Bernard Shaw

“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future;
it is something you design for the present.”— Jim Rohn

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

How can you apply design thinking to create a happier, more fulfilling, soul-filled life?

What is design thinking?

Design thinking is an analytic and creative process that engages individuals and teams in opportunities to experiment, create, and prototype models, gather feedback and redesign.

By definition design thinking is iterative, so rather than try to get it perfectly right the first time (as you will read below, “perfectionism can be a form of self-abuse”) you iterate, and by successive approximation do get there one iteration at a time.

In this model, there is no failure only feedback and no long planning/production cycle.

Cultivating the mindset of design thinking requires:
Empathy– Imagining from multiple perspectives with a “Person First” approach

Integrative Thinking– Embracing all salient features including seemingly contradictory ideas

Experimentalism– Trying new approaches and processes by prototyping

Interdependence– A team and integrated systems perspective

Optimism– A belief that THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY to make it better!

Taking the first letter of each of these and Old MacDonald had it right, “EIEIO”!

If you are committed to designing a better life here is some soul fodder…

1. The first set of pictures will expand your sense of what is possible

2. If design in the right blend of aesthetics and functionality, the second item will help us redefine beauty.

3. Beauty is indeed within as is happiness. The third submission is about debunking the myths of happiness from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley

4. Lastly, enjoy a dog story that will confirm the mind is not in here and the world out there, but the world is in here and the mind out there!

Love,
Neville

First: Click here for some fantastic photos.

True Beauty by Pam Thomas

Have you ever known someone who was absolutely stunning on the outside, but the minute they opened their mouth they became the most unattractive person ever?
There’s a reason for that.

And while I am not a psychologist, I’d be willing to bet you dollars to donuts, that regardless of their outward appearance, jealousy and insecurities, the need for constant validation, etc. where most likely running rampant internally. Sadly, those qualities and characteristics often lead to not-so beautiful outward behavior, i.e. cattiness, gossip, “It’s all about me” tendencies, negativity, as well as neediness … hence the diminishing attractiveness.

My friends, here’s the straight skinny… True beauty radiates from the inside outward. It is not defined by having flawless skin, wearing size 2 jeans, sporting cellulite free legs or a toned butt.

True Beauty …

.. is the person who shares a smile with a perfect stranger, lends a helping hand to someone in need, listens open-heartedly to a friend in pain, gives love unconditionally, or finds the joy in the small things. And it is my hope that you begin to recognize your true beauty which comes from your heart.

While I have given some examples of what true beauty is, I think it’s also very important to mention, that beauty is subjective. It’s not about comparisons, but rather recognizing and creating our own true definition of beauty.

So, how do we define beauty within ourselves?

The first step is taking responsibility for ourselves. What does that mean? Well, that means knowing that what you think about you, how you feel about you, what you say about you (and even about others), and how you show up each day is down to you. You are in the driver’s seat. You have choices and options, but in order to see those choices and options you have to create some awareness. As I mentioned in this week’s audio message awareness is critical to creating change and to not only radiating beauty from the inside out, but attracting good things to you. There is beauty in taking responsibility for ourselves.

Next, it’s being committed to being our most authentic selves. It is all too easy to try and conform, conform to societal expectations or other people’s opinions. This only serves to diminish and overshadow our true beauty and it sends a message not only to the world, but to ourselves that who we are just isn’t beautiful enough and NOTHING could be farther from the truth. When we can be who we are and know that it is enough, that’s when we begin to share our inner beauty.

It’s also about realizing that there is no such thing as perfect so it’s time to release the pressure and stop striving for perfection. I once had a student share a quote with me that really hit home; “Perfection is just a form of self-abuse.” Hearing that completely rocked my world, especially since I will admit that I am a recovered perfectionista of the highest order. Striving for perfection really equates to (yet again) telling yourself that you aren’t good enough as you are. That’s not only degrading, but it’s deprecating, and it truly stifles your own inner beauty.

And lastly, it’s being willing to be vulnerable. What does it mean to be vulnerable?

First and foremost, it means accepting that you are amazing, imperfections and all.

It means knowing that you are more than enough now and that you always have been. It means being open to sharing with your whole heart regardless of what others say, do, think or feel.

While it may be scary and while vulnerability gets a bad rap, it’s actually a beautiful place to come from. As difficult as it may be, when we are vulnerable we are able to reach out to others for support and assistance without feeling guilty, and most importantly, we come from our hearts rather than our heads where ego lives.

Please know something, being vulnerable does not mean becoming a doormat or being perceived as weak. As a matter of fact, to be vulnerable requires strength and the internal fortitude to stand strong in your own beliefs and in who you are.

Debunking the Myths of Happiness

http://www.dailygood.org/story/453/debunking-the-myths-of-happiness-jason-marsh/

Dog For Sale:

A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: ‘Talking Dog For Sale ‘He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard.

The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.

‘You talk?’ he asks.

‘Yep,’ the Lab replies.

After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says ‘So, what’s your story?’

The Lab looks up and says, ‘Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so… I told the CIA.

In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.’

‘I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running…

But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.’

‘I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I’m just retired.’

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.

‘Ten dollars,’ the guy says.

‘Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?’

‘Because he’s a Liar.  He’s never been out of the yard’

Thanks this week go to Alan D, The Daily Good, Larry H, and the unconditional love of dogs everywhere!

Pay it forward…

Love,
Neville

“You see things; and you say Why?
But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?”— George Bernard Shaw

Some content on this page was disabled on October 12, 2021 as a result of a DMCA takedown notice from Mystical Life Publications. You can learn more about the DMCA here:

https://wordpress.com/support/copyright-and-the-dmca/

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This Father’s Day Weekend: Touch and be touched by these inter faces…

Time travel back into the past with the images and faces-iconic photos both soul-filled and heart-breaking that irrevocably defined a generation

Time travel forward into tomorrow with futuristic advances in the present that will change the next generation

Finally, in tribute to father’s everywhere, Give the Gift of Time, as well as Finally Learn What a Father Really Wishes for on Father’s Day!

If this doesn’t float your boat, check for a spirit leak…

This deck of remarkable black and what photos, defined the 20^th Century:

Click here

Super-Natural Technology Inter Faces:

By now we’ve gotten used to touch interfaces in our daily lives – from smartphones and tablets to kitchen appliances – and it’s clear that there’s something more natural, and more direct about interacting with technology this way.  But if we’ve learned anything about technology lately, it’s that things move fast and the next innovation is just around the corner.  Here are three examples that will take our interfacing with technology in entirely new directions:

Leap Motion – https://www.leapmotion.com This small device turns any desktop or laptop into a finger-aware computer that supports fluid, precise drawing and gestural interactions just by placing your hands in front of the screen.

Table Drum – http://www.tabledrum.com

Table Drum is an app that turns your table-top tapping into real drum kit sounds.  Just teach the app what kind of tap should make what sound and you can start rocking the kick drum and high hat wherever you are.

Grab Magic

This interesting hack shows the potential of combining multiple devices – an Xbox Kinect and a smartphone, in this case – to pull off some some real magic and computer interactions typically reserved for Hollywood Sci-Fi movies.

Father’s Day Tributes:

Love = Time:

In the faint light of the attic, an old man, tall and stooped, bent his great frame and made his way to a stack of boxes that sat near one of the little half-windows.

Brushing aside a wisp of cobwebs, he tilted the top box toward the light and began to carefully lift out one old photograph album after another.

Eyes once bright but now dim searched longingly for the source that had drawn him here.

It began with the fond recollection of the love of his life, long gone, and somewhere in these albums was a photo of her he hoped to rediscover. Silent as a mouse, he patiently opened the long buried treasures and soon was lost in a sea of memories. Although his world had not stopped spinning when his wife left it, the past was more alive in his heart than his present aloneness.

Setting aside one of the dusty albums, he pulled from the box what appeared to be a journal from his grown son’s childhood. He could not recall ever having seen it before, or that his son had ever kept a journal. Why did Elizabeth always save the children’s old junk? he wondered, shaking his white head.

Opening the yellowed pages, he glanced over a short reading, and his lips curved in an unconscious smile. Even his eyes brightened as he read the words that spoke clear and sweet to his soul. It was the voice of the little boy who had grown up far too fast in this very house, and whose voice had grown fainter and fainter over the years. In the utter silence of the attic, the words of a guileless six-year-old worked their magic and carried the old man back to a time almost totally forgotten.

Entry after entry stirred a sentimental hunger in his heart like the longing a gardener feels in the winter for the fragrance of spring flowers. But it was accompanied by the painful memory that his son’s simple recollections of those days were far different from his own. But how different?

Reminded that he had kept a daily journal of his business activities over the years, he closed his son’s journal and turned to leave, having forgotten the cherished photo that originally triggered his search. Hunched over to keep from bumping his head on the rafters, the old man stepped to the wooden stairway and made his descent, then headed down a carpeted stairway that led to the den.

Opening a glass cabinet door, he reached in and pulled out an old business journal. Turning, he sat down at his desk and placed the two journals beside each other. His was leather-bound and engraved neatly with his name in gold, while his son’s was tattered and the name “Jimmy” had been nearly scuffed from its surface. He ran a long skinny finger over the letters, as though he could restore what had been worn away with time and use.

As he opened his journal, the old man’s eyes fell upon an inscription that stood out because it was so brief in comparison to other days. In his own neat handwriting were these words:

Wasted the whole day fishing with Jimmy. Didn’t catch a thing.

With a deep sigh and a shaking hand, he took Jimmy’s journal and found the boy’s entry for the same day, June 4. Large scrawling letters, pressed deeply into the paper, read:

Went fishing with my Dad. Best day of my life.

~~~~~~

What a father really wishes for on Father’s Day

Each year, this holiday set aside to commemorate fatherhood brings me a remarkable gift that, for reasons too deep to explain, we fathers never tell you that we crave deep in our hearts. You, our children, give us your full attention in a spirit of appreciation and gratitude.

In the past, I feel like I’ve never managed to take full advantage of the moment. So I want to make up for it here, and to share with you, the children who have given me so much happiness and satisfaction over the years, the things that I truly want, not just today, but for the rest of our time together in this difficult and complicated world.

As I make my requests, please know that I am grateful for the cards and gifts I’ve received over the years. But I think the purest essence of fatherhood is to cherish the many intangible things that perhaps you, my children, don’t even realize that you bring to my life.

So here are my deepest wishes for a happy father’s day—and also for a truly happy fatherhood experience.

I wish, first and foremost, for your happiness and fulfillment as you travel through life. If I could choose one gift, and one gift only, it would be for you to cherish yourself as I cherish you.

I wish for you to set high expectations for yourself as you discover who you are and your role in the universe. I wish you to be bold in seizing opportunities for accomplishment, to consciously define what you want most out of life and go for it without fear or reservation.

I wish you to know that there will be setbacks in all of life’s endeavors, and in those times when you feel discouraged, to recognize, as I do, that you have more than enough personal resources to overcome anything you are likely to face.

I also wish you to allow me to be a resource to help you along your chosen path. As you go forward, I wish you would ignore and forgive the times when I interfere, and embrace the times when I encourage.

Whenever we gather together, whenever we connect (and be it often, regardless of the many distractions in our lives), I wish for my adult children to see yourselves and each other with the same unconditional love that mists across my eyes whenever I look at you.

I wish you to know that your love for each other is the greatest and most treasured expression of your love for me.

I wish that the children of my children will experience love, happiness and fun whenever we gather together as an extended family, so that the young members of our brood will grow up to associate, at a very deep level, their extended family with feelings of comfort and joy.

I wish for a gift almost beyond imagining: that my children will forgive the many regrettable times when I was unfair, impatient and so very far from perfect, the times when you were hurt by my words and actions, even though you did not deserve to be. Please know, even if I have not told you before, that I carry those memories as my greatest burden in life.

I wish you would remember, and preserve, and cherish the many times when we were joyful together, those times when I found a way to contribute to your happiness.

On this day set aside for honoring fathers, I wish that you would also honor your mother in the same spirit that you honor me, and recognize that she gave you more than I will ever be able to give you: she gave you life itself, in addition to her love.

I wish for more than these things, even though I feel like I have asked for so much already.

If you have any more capacity to give, then please know that I love you with a depth and power that I have never been able to express to you. It is possible that there are no words to describe this love; if there are, I haven’t seen them or heard them, and now, at this moment, on this special day, I feel like I haven’t searched diligently enough.

Know that I understand how poorly I have communicated this love over our years together. But what you have not heard nearly often enough, with nearly enough eloquence, is deeply and profoundly felt in my heart and in my soul.

If you can, recognize the truth of this one remarkable thing: I would not give up your presence in my life, the connection I share with you, for anything that anyone could offer me.

Think of all the precious things in the world. Imagine them piled up in front of you as high as the sky itself, and know that you are more precious to me than all of them.

These are gifts almost too great to ask for, even on this day set aside for me and for fathers everywhere. But if, somehow, I could receive these things that I have never before had the courage to speak of, you would give me a blessing as great as any in the eons-long history of fatherhood.

And finally, thank you for this wonderful necktie.

-From Bob Veres, Conversations With My Daughter

THE EGG

Nasruddin earned his living selling eggs. Someone came to his shop one day and said, “Guess what I have in my hand.”

“Give me a clue,” said Nasruddin.

“I shall give you several: It has the shape of an egg, the size of an egg. It looks like an egg, tastes like an egg and smells like an egg. Inside it is yellow and white. It is liquid before it is cooked, becomes thick when heated. It was, moreover laid by a hen…”

“Aha! I know!” said Nasruddin. “It is some kind of cake!”

The expert misses the obvious! Stay open my friends…

Thanks this week to Larry, Robin, Hillel, Marlaine, Moms and Dads Everywhere!

Love is ALL you need…

Neville

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children.
One is roots. The other is wings.
~Hodding Carter, Jr.

Happy Soul Food Friday!

“We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.”—H. G. Wells 

Future–Proofing for Tomorrow– There is a Vast Difference between Financial Riches and Wealth

What is future proofing?

It is the process of trying to anticipate future developments, so that action can be taken now to minimize possible negative consequences, and to maximize opportunities.

It is about building a strong enough foundation to ensure long term, sustainable success.

Here are some future proofing factoids:

If you are working, your job is your #1 investment. Your education is your second most important investment.

Spend more time building a legacy than an inheritance. If you cultivate the proper work ethic and relentless passion for lifelong learning, and cultivate generators of value not just extractors of value, the next generation will produce their own annuity.

Money doesn’t cause problems, your relationship to money causes problems.

Most of us have a lousy relationship with money.

The same sadly is even truer with time.

Most of us have a lousy relationship with time.

How do I know? Well, we kill time, we waste time, and we spend time but rarely invest time.

Lousy relationships with both money and time cause a lot of problems both in the present and by extension in the future…

Maybe it’s time to revisit our relationship with time and money.

Interestingly, if you think about it, time is more valuable than money. You can lose all your money and earn it back but you never get the time back.

Today is unprecedented. Today is unrepeatable.

We never get today back to invest it wisely.

Do give BACK! Giving back is highly correlated with healthier and happier people.

“Gratitude is the ultimate antidote for materialism” We ARE spirits in a material world as the Police remind us…

This week:

Givers and Takers:

Financial Literacy and the Fact$ of Life:

I learned about Mind Treasures recently and got very inspired!

In Our Minds:

But first some Homographs & Heteronyms: English is such a Crazy Language we should be all committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

Homographs are words of like spelling but with more than one meaning. A homograph that is also pronounced differently is a heteronym.

You think English is easy?? Watch your language!

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.4) We must polish the Polish furniture..5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig..

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’ ?

Lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is ‘UP.’

It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends.
And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP,
for now my time is UP,
so…….it is time to shut UP!
Now it’s UP to you what you do with this…

The Power of Giving:

Givers and Takers:

http://news.yahoo.com/secret-success-giving-not-taking-103000667.html 

Financial Literacy and the Fact$ of Life:

Glenda and Hillel have been working together on an idea/project to help parents discuss the sensitive issue of money/finance with their kids with “The Fact$ of Life: Teaching Children about Dollar$ and Sense”.  The reality is that kids are exposed to sex on the internet/TV etc. and they know more about sex than fiscal responsibility at an impressionable age.  Yet, few parents teach their kids the FACT$ OF LIFE.  So, where and how will your kids learn to navigate the world of “Money”? 

Glenda raised two daughters as a single mother.  She accumulated practical ideas and useful tidbits to share with parents who are hungry for fun ways to communicate effectively about this topic with their kids.  She has worked at nonprofit organizations for over 20 years and is an excellent organizer.

Hillel is a financial life planner.  Over the past 23 years he has had numerous conversations with clients about engaging their families in the conversation about:  allowance, saving, college, investing etc.  He founded a not-for-profit called: “Our Little Blue Box” dedicated to respectful family communication.

Their passion for helping bridge the gap of financial and money conversations is a driving force.

They would like to introduce this presentation to you, with the hope that you may consider us bringing it to your organization/family/school.

You are invited to attend their premier presentation – The Fact$ of Life: Teaching Children about Dollar$ and Sense:

WHEN:  Tuesday June 18^th, 2013 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm

WHERE:  4330 La Jolla Ville Drive, Suite 330, San Diego, CA 92122 (conference room)

RSVP at your earliest convenience (seating is limited):

To Register, please click: www.hkfinancial.com/future then click on Fact$ of Life

Refreshments will be served. There is no cost to attend.

With our kindest and best regards,

Glenda Sacks Jaffe                                                          Hillel Katzeff

858-546-8505                                                                     858-550-0425

Glenda.jaffe@sbcglobal.net                                       HillKat18@gmail.com

I learned about Mind Treasures recently and got very inspired!

Financial Literacy must be taught at elementary schools

In November of 2011, Education Secretary — Arne Duncan — urged the Advisory Council on Financial Capability to the White House to begin teaching financial literacy starting with kindergarten students.

Budgeting, along with other aspects of finances, may seem like complicated subjects for children as early as kindergarten. The secret to developing healthy financial habits, from early ages, lays in a unique approach to discover and develop hidden treasures of patience, moderation, responsibility, accountability, thankfulness, respect, generosity, truthfulness, and many other virtues.

By developing these hidden muscles we can raise a generation that will obtain, manage, and utilize various forms of wealth (knowledge, expertise, time, and money as well as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual powers) to build stronger and healthier families, communities, and whole a new world.

Check this out:

—

In Our Minds: From a post in Last Week’s Daily Kabbalah

Things often seem more daunting and difficult in our minds than they actually are.

In our minds, we make mountains out of molehills; we create big dramas out of tiny conflicts, and we see the work we need to do as insurmountable.

The good news is that you can always change your mind.

Spark Awesomeness!

Thanks this week to Arman, Michael J, Hillel, Alex, and Elisa.

Pay it forward…
Love,
Neville

“Be realistic. Plan for a miracle.”—Osho

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week two main themes to juxtapose- Martial & Artist

Both are often misunderstood and wrongly considered…

Here is to cultivating Artists of Life, because when you have the most important things in life – like love, faith, and family – there is nothing you own that you can’t give away.
First Two Tributes to Members of the Armed Services who Sacrifice so Much for Us:

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him,
but because he loves what is behind him.”

http://www.usba.com/memorialday

After being appropriately serious here is some humor to lighten our mood…

A woman received a call that her daughter was sick.  She stopped by the pharmacy to get medication, got back to her car and found that she had locked her keys inside.  The woman found an old rusty coat hanger left on the ground.   She looked at it and said “I don’t know how to use this.”  She bowed her head and asked God to send her HELP.
Within 5 minutes a beat up old motorcycle pulled up. The driver was a bearded man who was wearing an old biker skull rag.
The man got off of his cycle and asked if he could help. She said: “Yes, my daughter is sick. I’ve locked my keys in my car. I must get home.

Please, can you use this hanger to unlock my car?”

He said, “Sure.” He walked over to the car, and in less than a minute the car was open.

She hugged the man and through tears said, “Thank You SO Much! You are a very nice man.

The man replied, “Lady, I am NOT a nice man. I just got out of PRISON yesterday. I was in prison for car theft.”
The woman hugged the man again sobbing, “Oh, thank you God! You even sent me a Professional!”

Rightly or Wrongly, Business is a Combination of War and Sport; part Must Win, part Playing by the Rules

Here is an example of applying martial arts principles in the world of business:

http://www.researchworks.com/blog/item/43-leaning-into-what-is-business-wisdom-from-aikido

Artistry: With Rembrandt

The Rijksmuseum museum in Holland had an idea: Let’s bring the art to the people and then, hopefully, they will come to see more – at the museum.

They took one Rembrandt painting from 1642, “Guards of the Night” and brought to life the characters in it, placed them in a busy mall and the rest you can see for yourself!

Onze helden zijn terug!

 So what is an Artist Anyway? Here Neil Gaiman talks about becoming one…

http://www.upworthy.com/6-ways-to-make-sure-you-dont-hate-your-life-and-actually-enjoy-it-and-stuff-5

If you want to Cultivate Artists of Life, this is a Fine Place to Start:

http://www.dailygood.org/story/434/holding-a-piece-of-the-pain-rachel-stafford/

Thanks this week to Larry, Moshe and Rex

Pay it forward and remember those that have gone before…

Love,

Neville

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him,
but because he loves what is behind him.”

Happy Soul Food Friday
This week enjoy the Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and some bonus tracks to keep you bopping!

First the Ugly:
Don’t Blow It ….. Good Planets Are Hard To Find
This animation created in flash and after effects, looks at (hu)man’s relationship with the natural world, and is set to “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg.
http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/videos/ufosinterdimensionalultraterrestrials/man.html

Next, the Bad:
The Story of Stuff
If you haven’t seen this video it is worth the watch…

The good:
The Miracle of Evolution:
Experience courtship at its best and unlike anything you have ever seen on earth with this remarkable filming!

Bonus Tracks:
Please Don’t Give $ to Your Children. It is counter-intuitive but here is why this makes good dollars and sense…
http://willmarre.com/blog/money-to-your-children/

Finally this Track is Beyond Good!
Enjoy percussion at its best…

Thanks this week go to Mohit, Amon, Larry H., Will, Jeff, Arman and Barb
Pay it Forward!
Love,
Neville

“Simple kindness to one’s self
and all that lives is the most powerful transformational force of all.”
–David Hawkins

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

• I Drive Your Truck: A Songwriter and an Army Dad Share the Consummate Serendipitous Soul Food Story
• The Most Simple and Elegant Explanation on the Real Value of Education
• The Changing Lives of Women (and Men)
• 10 Best Personal Development Books by Robin Sharma
• A Touching Cover of “Space Oddity” Actually Recorded in SPACE on the International Space Station
• Experience Two Things that are Hard to Believe

But first some humor to reset your state…

Retired Husband

After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to Target. Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out.  Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women – she loves to browse. Yesterday my dear wife received the following letter from the local Target:

Dear Mrs. Johnson,

Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both of you from the store.

Our complaints against your husband are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras:

1. June 15: He took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other people’s carts when they weren’t looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in House wares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: He made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women’s restroom.

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, “Code 3 in Housewares.  Get on it right away.”  This caused the employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from her Supervisor that in turn resulted with a union grievance, causing management to lose time and costing the company money. We don’t have a Code 3.

5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layaway.

6. August 14: Moved a “CAUTION – WET FLOOR” sign to a carpeted area.

7. August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the children shoppers he’d invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department to which twenty children obliged.

8. August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him, he began crying and screamed, “Why can’t you people just leave me alone?”  EMTs were called.

9. September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror while he picked his nose.

10. September 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, he asked the clerk where the antidepressants were.

11. October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the Mission Impossible theme.

12. October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his “Madonna look” using different sizes of funnels.

13. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled “PICK ME!  PICK ME!”

14. October 22: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed a fetal position and screamed “OH, NO!  IT’S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!”

15. Took a box of condoms to the checkout clerk and asked where the fitting room is.

And last, but not least:

16. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, and then yelled very loudly, “Hey!  There’s no toilet paper in here.”  One of the clerks passed out.

—

I Drive Your Truck: A Songwriter and an Army Dad Share the Consummate Serendipitous Soul Food Story

This one had me crying too…

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=184246172&m=184272739

http://www.npr.org/2013/05/15/184246172/a-songwriter-and-an-army-dad-share-one-touching-story

—

This is Water: An excerpt from and address to the graduating class of Kenyon College by David Foster Wallace

The resulting speech didn’t become widely known until 3 years after his tragic death. It is, some of the best life advice we’ve ever come across, and perhaps the most simple and elegant explanation of the real value of education.

http://vimeo.com/65576562

—

The Changing Lives of Women (and Men):

A thoughtful revisit of our changing roles and need to refresh our societal expectations…

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=180300236&m=184132937

10 Best Personal Development books by Robin Sharma

If you are a lifelong learner, you will recognize some of these and need to explore some of the others…

http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/05/the-10-best-personal-development-books/

—

Your Only Chance to Hear a “Space Oddity” Cover Recorded in SPACE on the International Space Station:

ISS Commander and mustachioed Canadian Chris Hadfield has given us no end of joy during his current five-month stint floating above our blue orb. But perhaps none of them is as touching—and just downright incredible—as his sendoff cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” Enjoy this strangely moving intersection of technology and feeling… with appropriately stunning video.

http://gizmodo.com/chris-hadfield-space-oddity-503869116?autoplay=1

What’s that on the dam wall?

Look closely ! It’s one of those things you have to see to believe !

This is the Diga del Cingino dam in Italy – can you see the little dots on the wall ? You’ll never guess what they are…

You’ve got to be ‘kid’-ding !

They are European Ibex and they like to eat the moss and lichen growing on the wall. They also are licking the salt off the stone. Isn’t it incredible they can stand at that angle ? Just when you think you’ve seen everything!

Found that impossible? Well, then can you explain how this can happen?

http://biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=40360

Stay Wonder-filled!

Thanks this week go to Marianne H, Robin M, Robin S and Larry H.

Love,

Neville

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”– Albert Einstein

“So act a goat, climb your mountain and be yourself!”- Neville

Happy Soul Food Friday and Mother’s Day Weekend!

I think it is true when they say, “adversity doesn’t breed character, it reveals it!”

This week experience broken aspects of our humanity, personhood, & businesses, yet stay inspired by how ordinary people are rising to extra-ordinary levels to meet these challenges head on with courage and consideration.

Here’s to motherhood everywhere!

Is Humanity Broken?

One True Indian Hero, feeding the hungry, nourishing the soul. Food is one part, love is another part…

“You laugh because you think I am different. I laugh because you are all the same”

Is Your Heart Broken?

“I will love myself despite the ease with which I lean towards the opposite”

Defining Ourselves- What is it like to be young… and different. Experience: To this Day- for the Bullied and the Beautiful

http://www.ted.com/talks/shane_koyczan_to_this_day_for_the_bullied_and_beautiful.html

Is Capitalism Broken?

The very purpose of capitalism and meeting societies needs is under scrutiny and deservedly so.

Isn’t creating shared value an idea that is essential to our very success and future?

Amazingly, in the US, the corporate sector is ten times larger than the nonprofit sector but provides no more than 1% of the contribution to the greater good. What’s up with that?

http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2011/01/how-to-fix-capitalism.html

In the past week I attended the Business4Better conference in Anaheim, http://www.business4better.org/conference/ a two-day conference designed specifically for individuals from midsized enterprises responsible for social responsibility, community outreach and corporate volunteer programs. The conference was geared toward helping businesses develop the knowledge, competencies and contacts to partner with nonprofits in ways that make a substantive impact on societal causes. Here we heard from inspired leaders and organizations, discussed the redefinitions of the historic black and white divisions of business pursuit of profit and nonprofits pursuit of their mission, the confluence of forces changing this model and the new re-districting and reframing underfoot with the rise of for benefit, social entrepreneurs, encore careers, etc.

Much is being learned and applied about empathy (I love it when science validates the obvious). Here a personal practice of mindfulness, being present and rightly understanding self, supports organizational practices of re-visioning their reason for being as both Purpose & Profit driven.

We all understand the place of technology, but technology must also be put in its place. Technology will not replace relationships but can enable them as move through the era of connecting devices to the authentic reconnecting with people!

Your higher calling is calling… Are you answering? Don’t leave that call to voice mail.

Keep looking for ways to unleash your unique superpower, I beg you!

Is Philanthropy, Charity and Volunteerism broken?

As much as the nonprofit sector does, there seems so much more to do to assuage societal plights.

Volunteering, in spite of many new ways to innovate engagement remains flat. This means we either need new people and groups engaging and/or we need existing volunteers to engage more effectively for the greater good. Skills based volunteering- where we match our passion and purpose is one solution. This article on the subject by Bea who I met at B4B entitled, “The End of Employee Volunteering” is excellent!

Click here!

At B4B, I had a chance to meet both the founder of Kiva, Premal and Karen. We hit it off and are now talking about local opportunities here in San Diego.

If you don’t know Kiva, check them out at http://www.kiva.org/

This article in Tech Crunch speaks to one way this amazing organization is making our world a better place!

http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/04/kiva-tripadvisor/

Give Something Back is another organization that got my attention at the conference, and I had a chance to chat with Mike, their fearless leaders, who I found out later is also a UCSD alum.

If you don’t know them, Give Something Back stocks over 40,000 business products for next day delivery with prices lower than the superstores.  Give Something Back has grown to be the largest independent business products dealer in the West by working with companies like Whole Foods Markets, the U.S. Navy, and the SDSU Foundation to help them streamline their order process and contain costs.

The reason for their unique name is that they donate their profits to local non-profits.  To date they have donated over $5.5 million.  You can find more information on them and their commitment to a socially responsible business model at www.givesomethingback.com.

Are you Glasses broken?

Speaking of technology sometimes I feel like I really need augmented reality

Last but not Least, Consider this Unique Mother’s Day Option:

How would you like to join families in over 83 countries celebrating Mother’s Day this weekend by donating $4 to the Fifth Annual Mother’s Day Fancy Dress Swim as part of their festivities.

Photo by John Koster, North County Times (May 2012)

You can get more info at: http://www.WorldSwimAgainstMalaria.com/FancyDress2013

Thanks this week to Arman, Robin, B4B, Bea, Premal and Karen, Mike and Ed, Marlaine, and Moms everywhere!

Live, Love, Learn and Leave a Legacy!

Love,
Neville

“It is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on Earth at a standard of living higher than any have ever known. 
It no longer has to be you or me.  
Selfishness is unnecessary. 
War is obsolete.
It is a matter of converting our high technology from weaponry to livingry.”
— Buckminster Fuller

Happy Soul Food Friday! 

I was sitting there at the bar staring at my drink when a large, trouble-making biker steps up next to me, grabs my drink and gulps it down in one swig.
“Well, whatcha’ gonna do about it?” He says menacingly, as I burst into tears.
“This is the worst day of my life,” I say.
“I’m a complete failure. I was late to a meeting, and my boss fired me.
When I went to the parking lot, I found my car had been stolen, and I don’t have any insurance.
I left my wallet in the cab I took home.
I found my wife with another man… and then my dog bit me.
So I came to this bar to work up the courage to put an end to it all…..
I buy a drink, I drop a cyanide capsule in, and I sit here watching the poison dissolve………and then you show up and drink the whole damn thing!
…..But hell, enough about me, how’s your day going”?

 This week:

“When words fail… music speaks”

Celebrating Life:

This last weekend, we had a memorial camp in tribute to the life, love and legacy of one of our martial arts mentors, Sensei Robert “Lucky” Leong who passed away on New Year’s day at the age of 89. Sensei Leong was a treasure who modeled  authentic leadership and worked ceaselessly to bring out the best in everyone. Let’s not mistake kindness for weakness, and remember that luck is when preparation meets opportunity- which means we can create our own luck!

In celebrating his life, words alone could not capture his spirit so I used the power of music to get a little bit closer to expressing  what was in my heart. If you know James Taylor’s Fire and Rain then you know the song. If not there is a link to it below.

We love you Sensei Leong!

Sensei Leong Tribute- Fire and Rain 2013

This New Year’s morning,

They let me know you were gone,
Sensei that fateful day put an end to you.
I sat up this morning and I borrowed this song,
Music’s my deepest way to remember you
You brought fire and you brought rain
You took heat, that, I thought would never end
You were lonely but, you grew to find some friends,
And I always thought that I’d see you again

When you look down upon me, Sensei
I’m gonna try to make a stand,
Wait, try & impossible are for another day
Your body’s ached and your time was at hand
Yet you over-rode it, almost every way

Oh, I’ve shared fire and you shared rain
You gave heat and yelled,

Like I thought would never end
Our best interest was your only best intend
And I always welcomed seeing you again..

Been walking my mind to that real fun time,

when you smile lit up like the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it can turn your head around
Well spent time on the telephone line talking about things to come.,tai chi, wellness ki and martial artists on the ground

OH, You stoked fire and you poured rain
You made sunny days that I prayed would never end
You were lonely but your students were your friend
And I hope to serve you Sensei, one more time again, now

Want to serve you one more time again
There’s so many things coming our way this time around, now
Want to thank you, once again, Sensei Leong, now…

Art is never finished, only abandoned.
– Leonardo da Vinci

Celebrating Kindness with the Kindness Vest:

If you haven’t seen it already, this will touch your heart!

Speaking of Music, this is a nice rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow which has special meaning for many of us…

Celebrating Art:

The importance of Art in our community and society-Mission Fed ArtWalk 2013 

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody  has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.”— Jonathan Swift  

Mission Federal ArtWalk 2013: The Power and Importance of Supporting Art in our Community

In the past week, I was afforded the privilege of addressing the attendees at the VIP Reception for ArtWalk.  Here is a synthesis of my remarks for those of us who are committed to art as a critical element in our community and society…

If you pull out a dollar and I pull out a dollar, and we exchange dollars, we are at the same place we started. But if you share the power of a meaningful idea and I share the power of an inspiring idea we are both far richer in the bargain. This is the power of art- to help us experience and exchange ideas of the most profound kind. At the risk of bad humor, I call this “Show me the Monet”. I know, I know, “I-Ma tisse.” What can I say…

Seriously though, we so often go through our days in a form of automaton-like social hypnosis with habituated actions and reactions to life. Red or White? Fries or Salad? Math and Science or Art? Compound this with our language reinforcing stereotypes, with pejorative phrases like “starving” artists and it gets worse by the second.

In this age of science, art and artists are poorly understood! Recently, I heard a report suggesting that art education did nothing to improve math and science scores. Math and science scores? Teaching art to improve math and science is missing the whole point! We need art in schools not to improve math and science scores, but to foster creativity, innovation, expression, individuation and a host of other dimensions of the human experience that are being left by the wayside in our often well-intentioned but myopic and black and white attempts to advance society.

Our world desperately needs more artists and more color. Last Monday was Earth Day, when among other things to preserve and protect our planet, we ‘plant trees’ as an antidote to deforestation and climate change issues. Today I suggest we ‘bud artists’ as an antidote to a the ‘de-naturalization’ and internal climate change issues bereft in modern civilization- alienation, isolation, depression- that left unchecked lead to a world gone mad. Artists “starve” so we can be full. They take the road less traveled and stay the course of asking the fundamental human questions:

Who am I?
Why am I here?
What do I really want?

While we pay our bills and dues, artists pay ATTENTION. They see things differently. They express ideas that transcend words. Today more than ever we need art “walks” instead of science “runs”. We need to slow down, pay attention, be mindful, connect, feel, be…

A great artist is always before his time or behind it. 
~ George Edward Moore

There are three things that artists of life bring to bear:

Intention: Evoking Spirit. As DaVinci said, “Where there is no spirit, there is no art”
Attention: Seeking and seeing things differently. Discovery is seeing with a new pair of eyes.
Attitude: Addressing matters of the heart and getting us to feel more fully.

In a world hell bent on IQ, and if we are lucky EQ, artists color our world with CQ- Cultural Intelligence.

I am not just speaking of geographic and ethnic forms of knowing how low to bow, which fork to use, or how close to stand based on regional differences, but that cultural intelligence that informs and energizes our culture and climate in our communities, our cities and our organizations.  We all feel the energy of an organization’s culture whether it is cold and impersonal or positive, humanizing and energizing. We ARE indeed judged by the company we keep…

To manifest our destiny in San Diego and live up to our moniker of “America’s Finest City” we critically need that art and culture piece.

You get it.

Now we need the rest of our respective communities to get it.

From my perspective, art education in the schools is more mission critical than ever. We need to support art, teach art, be artists of life in our own right.

What is your medium?
Do you express energy and evoke inspiration?
There is only one you- all others are taken.
Pay attention. It is the currency of influence.
Set intention. It is a powerful force of good.
Ensure your attitude is infectious, worth catching and goes viral.

On behalf of artists everywhere and Mission Fed Artwalk 2013 thank you.

Here’s to the masterpiece that is YOU!

Love,

Neville

“I don’t paint things. 
I only paint the difference between things.”
– Henri Matisse

 

Feeling Wistful?

Here is wisteria at its best capturing the Japanese aesthetic of Isagi Yoku- pure clean spirit…

Click here!

They grow up so fast!