Make a Personal Peace Impact!

Create & spread peace yourself, today, right from your computer. Please join me in impacting the lives of thousands with just a few clicks of your mouse.

You can literally impact the lives of thousands with just a few clicks of your mouse. Help create a more beautiful and peaceful world working side-by-side with some of the world’s top peace-makers.

For the first time in history you can directly help fix global problems! You won’t wait for governments, or hope the next election will bring leaders who’ll take more positive healing actions.

This powerful combination will deliver you and your family a more meaningful, abundant, and happier life, while creating a more peaceful world for countless others. And while you’ll soon see the effects of your peace-making on your Personal Peace Impact Meter™, your instant and most touching reward is knowing you’re healing lives and giving hope.

On the way to your Personal Peace Impact Meter, you’ll see a page about how the donations, collected by 10 Million Clicks For Peace, are used to assist war refugees recover from the devastating effects of war, and how funds are also used for peace education to prevent future wars and violence to keep our children (and future generations) safe from those tragedies.

You’re under no obligation to donate, but do listen to the audio message and help us send out kind thoughts and prayers to these distressed people. (Building a field of compassion into your daily life is a powerful method for creating peace.)

www.tenmillionclicksforpeace.org

Live in Joy!

Lilly

You Never Know

You never know when someone
might catch a dream from you.
Or something you say may
open up the windows
of a mind that seeks light;
The way you live may not matter at all,
But you never know, it might.
And just in case it could be
that another’s life, through you,
might possibly change for the better
with a better and brighter view,
it seems it might be worth a try
at pointing the way to the right;
Of course, it may not matter at all,
but then again, it might.

By Helen L. Marshall

Inspiration Cafe

Restaurant-style meals for the homeless served with dignity and respect. One of my favorite places to volunteer in Chicago! Located in Uptown on Chicago’s north side, Inspiration Cafe provides restaurant-style meals, case management, support groups, life-skills training, financial assistance and other services to homeless men and women in a therapeutic community that promotes dignity and respect.

Guests of the Cafe have access to the full range of Inspiration Corporation’s programs, including employment training and career services, voice mail, and subsidized housing. Inspiration Cafe’s goal is to help men and women overcome the causes of their homelessness and find stability by securing income and affordable housing.

Inspiration Cafe was founded in 1989 by Lisa Nigro, a Chicago police officer who began searching for a personal response to the homelessness she encountered in Uptown. She began by loading up a red wagon with sandwiches and coffee to distribute to homeless individuals on the streets.

http://inspirationcorp.org/

Choosing Pets Over Shelter

How do you choose between shelter and a best friend? This is the impossible decision pet-lovers face when losing their homes. Since most shelters don’t allow animals, homeless people with pets often elect to stay on the streets rather than part with their four-legged companion… a decision that can be dangerous when the elements become harsh.

Indeed, pets can be a key reason that homeless people choose living on the streets over shelters. The National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that between five and ten percent of homeless people have an animal companion (although this has never been formally surveyed). Yet, only two (yes, just 2!) pet-friendly homeless shelters exist in the United States (in Florida and California).

The benefits of having a pet are significant, particularly for homeless people. Pets are non-judgmental and loyal, almost to a fault. They may serve as additional security and protection on the dangerous streets. And studies show that they contribute to the healing process for people with mental or physical illness. According to one expert:

In this very busy twentieth century, man is a lonely creature. There are too many alienated individuals who lack human companionship. They lack purpose and productivity. A simple addition to these lonely lives can sometimes accomplish major changes. The possession of a pet, who eagerly awaits one and responds to one’s care and attention, may mean the difference between maintaining contact with reality or almost total withdrawal into fantasy. Literally, a pet can occasionally represent the difference between life and death.

One organization, Feeding Pets of the Homeless, takes a different approach to this issue. Their take? “Pets of the homeless and disadvantaged do not choose their owners.” To ensure that pets of the homeless receive care and nourishment, they have established a coalition of food banks and veterinarians specifically for pets of the homeless. (Find out if your community is connected.)

Certainly, it’s important to ensure that the pets of homeless people receive adequate care. However, it is even more crucial to recognize that four-legged companions are a key part of a homeless person’s life, but may also create an impermeable barrier for the delivery of life-saving services to homeless people.

Sadly, it is unlikely that more pet-friendly shelters will materialize in the near future, given that many organizations are already struggling to meet the needs of homeless humans (although, Vancouver, BC is the proud new owner of such a shelter).

[Picture:  Homeless man with dog from Feeding Pets of the Homeless.]

I Am Never Upset For The Reason I Think

Most people’s lives are cluttered up with things: material things, things to do, things to think about. Their lives are like the history of humanity, which Winston Churchill defined as “one damn thing after another.” Their minds are filled up with the clutter of thoughts, one thought after another. This is the dimension of object consciousness that is many people’s predominant reality, and that is why their lives are so out of balance. Object consciousness needs to be balanced by space consciousness for sanity to return to our planet and for humanity to fulfill its destiny. The arising of space consciousness is the next stage in the evolution of humanity.

Space consciousness means that in addition to being conscious of things – which always comes down to sense perceptions, thoughts, and emotions – there is an under-current of awareness. Awareness implies that you are not only conscious of things (objects), but you are also conscious of being conscious. If you can sense an alert inner stillness in the background while things happen i the foreground – that’s it! This dimension is there in everyone, but most people are completely unaware of it. Sometimes I point to it by saying, “Can you feel your own Presence?”

Space consciousness represents not only freedom from ego, but also from dependency on the things of this world, from materialism and materiality. it is the spiritual dimension which alone can give transcendent and true meaning to this world.Whenever you are upset about an event, a person, or a situation, the real cause is not the event, person, or situation but a loss of true perspective that only space can provide. You are trapped in object consciousness itself. The words “this too, will pass” when used as a pointer can restore awareness of that dimension to you.

Another pointer to the truth in you is contained in the following statement:

“I am never upset for the reason I think.”

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

Soul Perspectives On The New Spirituality

There is a new spirituality unfolding, dictated by universal need and the cycles of necessity. Evidenced by its absence as destruction and disregard for human life and environmental sensitivity, this new Spirit of the times is enticing our consciousness to become increasingly inclusive and responsible.

The new Spirit of the times creates a necessity for spiritual dimensions and psychological dimensions to meet in the center of our being. Where they merge, the infinite and finite become one, creating soul and expanding consciousness. In the spiritual dimensions we embrace the universal realities. In the psychological dimensions we encounter the personal human realities. Living the two dimensions simultaneously is Soul Life and it is what the New Spirituality is all about. The manifestation of this enlightened consciousness in practical living brings about the beneficial changes needed for the well- being of humanity and the planet.

Turn your life around 180 degrees with soul-based psychology! Soul-based psychology is the basis of the New Spirituality. It is a radical re-visioning. Learn to see beyond the surface appearance of things and know what’s really happening. Understand how all experiences are really Love’s manifestations.

The foundation of the New Spirituality is intelligent understanding. Through understanding, love and empowerment become real. Through understanding comes transformation.

The New Spirituality that is emerging from the depths of humanity’s soul is demanding new responses from each individual. Most people do not recognize what the demands of this spirituality are, and do not therefore respond appropriately, thereby living in disharmony. The prevalent idea of the spiritual path is the religious attitude of believing and doing good works, while others who may be more contemporary say we only need to manifest ‘Spirit into matter’ without knowing how to do that, except to exercise a great deal of willpower and positive thinking. However, belief can be blind, good works can be highly subjective rather than a response to need, willpower can be heartless, and positive thinking can create denial and repression. Obviously these are not the primary elements of the New Spirituality.

These approaches do not meet the essential requirements of the new spirituality that involves a necessary transformation of consciousness. Many who understand that a consciousness change is required still confuse personality awareness with soul consciousness, and use personality effort to try to bring about the necessary changes.

Dealing with mundane, existential conditions is not an obligation imposed by an other-world view of spirituality, but an essential characteristic of the New Spirituality. For example, if one were financially irresponsible one would not be embodying the new spirituality. Ignorance of financial matters is no excuse. Ignorance is an impediment to the new spirituality.

Religion is often more focused on the transcendent, while the New Spirituality seeks to relate to both the transcendent and the immanent, seeking to bring the two together in consciousness. The New Spirituality seeks to bring the respect and devotion to the highest into practical demonstration of love for all beings, meeting practical needs as they exist.

THE BRICK

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.

The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, ‘What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?’

The young boy was apologetic. ‘Please, mister…. please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do,’ He pleaded. ‘I threw the brick because no one else would stop…’ With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. ‘It’s my brother, ‘he said ‘He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.” Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, ‘Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.’

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat.. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. ‘Thank you and may God bless you,’ the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message:

‘Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!’ God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It’s our choice to listen or not.

~ Author Unknown ~