Sowing Seeds of Purpose

WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THE HONEYBEES?

I've been following stories in the news recently about the disappearance of the world's honeybees. After seeing a story in the local news this past week, I realized that I had been a little behind on this information, so I decided to search the New York Times archives to up-date myself.

I was astounded, to say the least. According to the one article in the Times, honeybees are responsible for pollinating some $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States alone.

What scientists find alarming, is that millions of these honeybees are just disappearing without a trace.

The cause for this tragedy is not known, but theories suggest that it could be pesticides, viruses, fungus, poor bee nutrition, stress or maybe even confusion caused by cell phone waves.

For those unaware of the importance of our honeybees, you must understand that they are responsible for the pollination of our fruits and vegetables. Remember, humans AND livestock depend on fruits and vegetables in some way or another eventually.

For those of you who might suggest that our advanced technology will save us, think again. It is my understanding that we have tried artificial pollination and have yet to be successful.

I share this information for the simple reason that some of you may not be aware of the urgency of this matter and it has been my experience that sometimes an answer can come from a source we least expect. In other words, one of you reading this post may find the solution.

In studying this story, I couldn't help but find a similarity between real honeybees and the other ones that affect our lives.

We work to sow our seeds of prosperity, good health, love, friendship and abundance and too often, we forget how important the honeybees are to our success. The honeybees I'm referring to, are those people in our lives that have the ability to pollinate our seeds.

These people may be friends, family or acquaintances in our network, that can help take us to the next level and help us realize our dreams and goals.

These people may be teachers and masters that we have never met, that we may have access to through their books, audios or classes, such as, Anthony Robbins, Joe Vitale, Jack Canfield, Joel Olsteen, Norman Vincent Peale, etc...

After you have done your due-diligence, I urge you to make the comparison between the literal honeybees and the people who are, in a sense, honeybees in your life. Both are important to your survival.

It's been quite a while since I read this quote, so forgive me if it is not exactly word for word, but Albert Einstein once said:

"If all the honeybees were to suddenly disappear from the earth, Mankind would begin to disappear as well and would eventually cease to exist as a result."

Gift:

"Treat every person you know or meet as if your dreams, goals and even your very existence depends on them and you will never regret over-looking the one or ones who could've been instrumental in your success or survival."

Elbert West

God bless

GOD BLESS THOSE SUFFERING AT VIRGINIA TECH

Like a lot of you, my heart has absolutely been broken by this horrific waste of life.

In light of this terrible tragedy, I want to say what a blessing it is to see that so many of these young men and women interviewed over the past few days, have handled themselves with such strength and dignity.

The students, their families and the faculty of this great institution should serve as an example to us all, as I have seen and heard more than just a few of these individuals talk about their expectation of something positive coming from this unfortunate event.

I won't spend time discussing the details of this event or analyzing the shooter. There are countless blogs and news stories you can visit to learn the details. Here, we are just going to focus on healing.

There are 32 dead (33 counting the shooter), 15 injured and many more close to these people and around the country who will be heart-broken for a long time.

I would like to ask that all of you take moment in silence to remember these souls and those affected by their passing. Pray for healing and comfort.

For those of you who would like to find out more information and how you might get involved and be of help, you can go to Virginia Tech's website.

Gift:

Never allow your own sorrow to absorb you, but seek out another to console, and you will find consolation.

J. C. Macaulay

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are sheared with scars.

E. H. Chapin

God Bless

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM DON IMUS?

I would like to believe that Mr. Don Imus did not intend malice when making his comments about the ladies of the Rutgers basketball team. At the end of the day, only he knows his heart.

What I do think, is that many Americans today who truly have no racist feelings at all, have simply allowed themselves to become too relaxed in conversation where race is concerned.

You turn on the television to African Americans demeaning other African Americans through song and comedy and after a while, a few white Americans begin to feel comfortable doing the same.

Believe me, I am aware that there are still plenty of individuals both black and white who are true racists.

Maybe there will come a day when these nicknames will carry no weight or meaning to either sides of the races, or they will simply be eliminated from humanity's vocabulary. For now, we must understand that these jokes or slurs do matter and do cause hurt and resentment.

We need to remember that you don't just erase the feelings embedded in another person's heart. Whether it be love or hate, it is up to the person who owns these feelings to come to terms with them.

So, where do we begin?

Well, to begin with, my wife and I have chosen to at least make a contribution to the future.

We have chosen to sow the seeds of equality in our children.

Both my wife and I, grew up in the south where racial slurs were as common place as "howdy y'all" among some of our adult relatives. Though, for the most part, I don't recall a family member of mine being cruel or malicious to any person of a different race or ethnic background.

As I became an adult, I learned to detest racial jokes and slurs. After growing up impoverished, I recall the hurt and shame I felt when others looked upon my family differently because of how and where we lived.

As a lot of you probably know, children can sometimes be quite cruel when you are a child who looks or lives differently than the majority. Going through adolescence was tough enough without being ridiculed for the clothes we wore or the fact that we had to accept free school lunches.

We may not be able to absolutely change the hearts and minds of the adults who feel differently toward others of another race, but if you are a person who is not a racist and wants to make a difference, a good place to start is with your children.

Our children have never heard racist remarks in our home and if a visitor were to attempt to talk in this manner, they would promptly be corrected.

If we teach our children to accept their peers as equals regardless of race, sex or financial status, then maybe we can raise a generation where situations like the one with Don Imus are a thing for the history books.

As far as those of us in the current adult world, I believe we should not accept this behavior or language from anyone white, black, oriental or otherwise.

If we wish our seeds of equality to develop strong roots, then we need to protest an African American's jokes and slurs with the same passion as we do a white person.

We can't erase what was said by Don Imus or the hurt caused by his remarks, but from all negatives, a positive can be found if we just look closely with an open heart.

The Civil Rights movement was littered with pain and sacrifice so that many freedoms could be experienced by future generations. It is my hope that we find a way from this current situation and others like it, to take yet another positive step forward.

Gift:

"Do unto others as you would have done unto you, or treat your neighbor the way you want to be treated, or... well, you know what hurts another person, so do the right thing and begin now sowing the seeds to make sure our children do not have to continue this dialog generations from now."

God bless

DR. GAIL SALTZ's ATTACK ON "THE SECRET"

As I rarely miss the Today Show, I just happened to be watching the morning Dr. Saltz made negative remarks about the book and movie "The Secret". I was tempted to go to her blog and post a comment in defense, but decided not to.

Being an author, life coach and teacher in the personal-growth industry ( Dr. Saltz and some others call it self-help), I must admit, I too can tend to get slightly offended when psychologists, medical doctors and scientists try to disqualify all individuals in my profession. Look, I'm not here to condemn Dr. Saltz or anyone else who shares their personal and/or professional opinions about the science of positive thinking or the power of positive living; I would just like to add a few thoughts of my own.

First of all, there are literally millions of people (myself included), who have been inspired by "The Secret". I think it is only natural that some people would feel slightly offended that Dr. Saltz or anyone else would just assume that we may be so backwards as to be harmed by positive suggestion. If anyone would care to do a little research, they might be surprised to find that quite a few of us so called, "self-helpers" are very educated AND successful. In fact, for a lot of us, the study of teachings by the likes of Norman Vincent Peale and Dale Carnegie, to name a couple, have been an overwhelming factor in our success and mental and spiritual well-being. I can assure you this has been the case for me.

I don't have the statistics to support this statement, but I'll bet that more people have experienced greater psychological and physical healing, experienced happier and healthier relationships with their spouses and children, achieved greater financial growth, donated more money and just made greater contributions in general, to the world we live in due to the teachings of people like Anthony Robbins, Joe Vitale, Bob Proctor, James Ray, Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale, Jack Canfield and Zig Zigglar, to name a very few.

In fact, it hasn't been that long ago that the medical profession prescribed treatments such as shock therapy for something as simple as depression.

I for one, am encouraged by the fact that we are becoming a more can-do, positively motivated society who seeks to self-help instead of lying on a couch for analytical therapy at the first sign of adversity.

There's nothing wrong with seeking the wisdom of those who have gone before you. It would seem like the wise thing to do.

As for Dr. Saltz and others who seem a little fearful of the personal growth industry; there are still those who do need true medical solutions. We're just helping those who can and want to help themselves.

God bless

BEING INDEPENDENT SHOULD BE A GOOD THING!?

You won't find me using this blog as a forum for commenting on my political position, but as someone who makes it a point of being well-informed where politics and current affairs are concerned, you will find me from time to time, sharing observations pertaining to what's going on in government from an independent point of view, providing it serves the overall purpose of enhancing our personal growth. So, let's talk about independence.

In most areas of life, it's usually a good thing to be independent. Unfortunately, we only respect other's independence so long as it doesn't challenge or threaten us or our beliefs in any way.

We respect and appreciate a person who garners the strength and confidence to stand on their own two feet (especially financially), so long as they don't stand in objection to us, our actions or our beliefs. We seem to feel threatened when a person stands for something that doesn't follow the majority; especially our majority.

We seem to appreciate independent thinkers, as we believe this is what we are. We teach our children to think for themselves and to not be persuaded by their peers, but in the matter of politics and religion, we insist that they must follow family tradition! This brings me to the current political environment and the great divide that seems to be widening in our country these days.

A large percentage of the American public will claim that they simply do not trust most politicians and yet, we seem to fall for the claims they make against each other. Why is this? Have we truly lost the ability to trust our own intuition and common sense?

I go back a few years to the last presidential election. A friend and I had developed the habit of ending our day by getting on the phone each night for the purpose of discussing either the music business (we worked together) or politics. He was and is a die-hard conservative Republican and I have always considered myself an Independent. I have never failed to vote in any election since coming of age and have voted in all three categories at one time or another. This is due to the fact that I choose to educate myself on the issues, as well as, the background and track records of the candidates. My position of being independent does not mean that I am a follower or supporter of the "Independent Party", it simply means that I think for myself and feel no obligation to vote within a particular party, due to family tradition, religion or personal financial status. My independent position did not sit well with my friend and he would at times, become quite abusive.

I recall an argument one night, where he