Lessons From Sandhill Cranes

This morning as I lay in bed reading, I heard in the far-off distance, the unmistakable enchanting sounds of Sandhill Cranes in flight.

I turned over to look out the window at the head of my bed and kept my gaze steady on the sky. I heard them getting closer, but since I didn't know from which direction they were flying, I didn't know where they'd appear.

Instead of getting out of bed to look from my two other bedroom windows, and thereby risk seeing them at all, I remained where I was. I heard them getting closer and louder still! And after a few minutes of waiting and listening and looking, I didn't see them at all, but instead heard them growing further away.

As I continued to focus my attention out through the window, listening to the Sandhill Cranes becoming ever faint, I smiled.

I smiled because I had heard them.

I also smiled because it dawned on me that it was enough for me just to hear them. I didn't need to see them in order for my joy to be complete. My joy was complete because I wasn't attached to the outcome that i HAD to see them.

This morning, I heard the beautiful Sandhill Cranes as they flew over my wooded sanctuary. Simply hearing them was joy enough for me :)

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If you've never heard the beautiful Sandhill Cranes, here is video/audio I shot on March 21, 2011:

(r)Evolution

Revolutions are nothing new. Revolutions are the ONLY way, the ONLY power of The People, to rein in and disarm a runaway government. Past revolutions were fought with swords & guns on battle fields, they were fought only by the physically strong, and they were were often times fought in disproportionately small numbers to the governing armies. Revolutions of today are fought with our voice, with information, with our vote, our petitions, protests & pencils. The internet is allowing these revolutions to occur with disproportionately larger numbers of people than ever before!! A gathering storm of change, of turning, of (r)evolution is brewing in Michigan, in the U.S. & Globally!! 

From The People of King George III's England, to King Louis XVI's France of 1789, to Hitler's Germany, to Mubarak's Egypt, Gadahfi's Libya, Walker's Wisconsin, Snyder's Michigan, just to name a few, etc....people have reached/are reaching a boiling point of saying ENOUGH!!

WE the People no longer endorse or agree to the abuse of power, collapse of the economic system, and imbalance of equality. The People have and are rising up and firing governments which have not only failed their people, but have created a system of government which exploits the working class as slaves to the elite. I heard a quote a few months ago that sums it well, "If we the people, take care of we the people, we the people will put the government out of business."

My Dad is a fervent supporter of Unions. And yet he says a business which needs a Union, deserves a Union. What he means is that a business which cannot self regulate itself with equality and maintain decency within its workforce, deserves the governing policies which help keep it accountable and transparent. A government should be no less accountable and transparent. And we should be no more deserving of the checks and balances which need to be actively and diligently monitored. The People are a built-in regulating body to any government, particularly to a government running amok.

Our Forefathers in their wisdom, enacted rights allowing us the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. It is no coincidence that they built in these safety measures into the new evolving form of government. They recognized that one day, the same "weapons" which enabled them to revolt against a tyrannical government then, would be the same "weapons" which enable us today to revolt against a tyrannical government today.

If you're not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. This isn't about Republican vs. Democrat, Conservatives vs. Liberals, etc. This is about decency, fairness, equality and humanity. We've been set up, distracted and pitted against one another for so many years that we've lost sight of the driving force behind the scene. Now that we are not fighting amongst ourselves quite so much, we can see more clearly who is the "enemy". The government is not a faceless entity. The government is us. We allowed this to happen out of complacency, ignorance, apathy, and inaction. There IS going to be a revolution. Where and how that revolution is up to us.

How to empower yourself:

1. Become informed! Research, read, listen, learn, talk with others. Think for yourself! 
2. Get involved! Connect with Facebook groups such as "Recall Rick Snyder for Michigan". Volunteer with petition drives. Vote!!
3. Protest! Write letters and make phone calls to Congress people. Boycott companies who support maligned leaders. Sign petitions. 
4. Spread the word! Talk with your friends, family and neighbors. 
5. Prepare for the worst! Learn how to be self-sufficient just "in case". Combine local resources.

Inspiration Quotes:

• ‎"It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do." ~ Edmund Burke, Second Speech on Conciliation, 1775

• "I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do." ~ Robert A. Heinlein

• "If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law." ~ Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, 1849

• ‎"Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. ... Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice." ~ Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, 1849

• ‎"We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was 'legal' and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was 'illegal'." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Why We Can't Wait, 1963

• ‎"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." ~ Bishop Desmond Tutu

Life and Love: The Treasures of Time

A friend of mine is suffering from severe health complications related to a failed kidney (diagnosis update 3/9). I'm filled with grief, sorrow and dread as I watch/wait helplessly from the sidelines as her strength, vitality and body is stolen. She is normally a very healthy, vibrant, strong, athletic woman. It IS possible that she may fully recover, but there are no guarantees...

Daily I meet and talk with people who are so filled with fear, allowing fear of so many "what ifs" hold them back in life and love...from pursuing dreams and reaching goals. I constantly meet people who say, "There's always time tomorrow". 

What if there were no tomorrow? 

Imagine what kind of world this would be if any explorer had been held back in fear. What if Columbus had chosen to stay home safely nestled in his bed instead of venturing across unknown waters of the Atlantic? 

Fear is nothing compared to love! If you have love today, grab hold with all your might right NOW, because tomorrow may be too late!! All we have is right here, right now, this moment. Nothing we do will increase time. With each passing moment, we spend an ever decreasing precious commodity. 

The following 86,400 second meditation has circulated on the internet for a long time. I've found it posted verbatim on several sites without attributing author and in so, implying ownership and/or authorship. I did not write this, I don't know who did. I'm posting here for the importance of emphasizing living life to the fullest! Carpe diem! Seize the day! What are you waiting for? What is holding you back?

Imagine that in your life, there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. Now, it carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening, it automatically deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day – and you can’t get that money back, at any point. So what would you do? Of course you would draw out every dollar of it, every single day!

If you haven’t guessed already, each of us already has such a bank in our lives; except, instead of money that we are credited each day, the asset is time. Every morning your bank credits you with 86,400 seconds with which you can do whatever you choose. You can be as productive, functional, driven, and focused as you choose to be with each one of those 86,400 seconds.

And similarly, every night it writes off as lost assets whatever part of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance; it allows no overdraft, and it immediately takes away every dollar as you fail to properly or productively invest every day.

Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the previous day — no matter how badly you may want it, it’s something you will never get back. If you fail to use that day’s gift of deposits, the loss is yours, and the blame falls on you.

There is no going back to a previous day for a “do-over”. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow”. You must live in the present on today’s deposits, and you cannot be guaranteed anything but what you currently have. After all, tomorrow is not promised…

Invest it wisely every single day, so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success. Invest it poorly, and it is time wasted, time lost, experiences missed, and possibly – regrets felt. The clock is running…

• To realize the value of one year, ask a repentant prisoner about his time lost in jail, away from his family and his passions.
• To realize the value of one month, ask a mother who gave birth to a pre-mature baby how much that extra month of nourishment would have changed both of their lives.
•  To realize the value of one day, ask a daily wage laborer with kids to feed, who relies on the hope of new work every single morning to support his family.
•  To realize the value of one second, ask a person who was just involved in a serious accident – and was not lucky enough to miss it by a second.
•  To realize the value of one milli-second, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics. After working hard, day-in and day-out, for four years (or more), to miss out on a life dream by one milli-second is heartbreaking — and quite the reality check.

Treasure every moment that you have! Find the beauty and purpose in life with every activity in which you engage. I know – it’s difficult when you’re in line at the DMV, shopping at the grocery store, or waiting in traffic. But what if that were your last moment? How would you want to spend it? Time 
waits for no one.