Taking control of our life

Allow me to share with you a story about ripples.

One day a young man with a troubled look on his face approached the Master.

"On such a beautiful day, it must be difficult to stay so serious," the Master said.

"Is it? I hadn’t noticed," the young man abruptly replied.

"Please sit," the Master invited, patting the ground next to him. Looking carefully before sitting, the young man brushed the ground to clear a space for himself.

"Now, find a stone and throw it into the pond," said the Master.

The young man grabbed a pebble and threw it into the water.

"Tell me what you see," the Master instructed.

"I see ripples."

"From where did the ripples come?"

"From the pebble I threw into the pond, Master"

"Please reach your hand into the water and stop the ripples," the Master requested.

Not understanding, the young man stuck his hand into the water as a ripple neared, only to cause more ripples. The young man was completely baffled. Where was this going?

"Were you able to stop the ripples?" the Master asked.

"No, of course not, I only caused more ripples."

"What if you had stopped the pebble from entering the water to begin with?" the Master asked with such a beautiful smile the young man could not be upset. "Next time you are unhappy with your life, catch the stone before it enters the water. Don’t spend time trying to undo what you have done. Rather, change what you’re going to do before you do it."

The Master looked kindly upon the young man.

"But Master, how will I know what I’m going to do before I do it?"

"Take the responsibility for living your own life. If you’re working with a doctor to treat an illness, then ask the doctor to help you understand what caused the illness. This way you will be able to avoid a recurrence. Do not just treat the ripples. Keep asking questions."

The young man stopped, his mind reeling. "But I came to you to ask you for answers. Are you saying that I know the answers?"

"You may not know the answers right now, but if you ask the right questions, then you shall discover the answers."

"But what are the right questions, Master?"

"There are no wrong questions, only unasked ones. We must ask, for without asking we cannot receive answers. It is our responsibility to ask. No one else can do that for us."

Author Unknown

Cirque de Soleil Owner Heads to Moon in Support of Water

Image from the Toronto Star

from TreeHugger.com
by Bonnie Alter, London



The Canadian founder of the Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberté, having created a world-famous circus, is now heading for the moon. What else can you do when you have played every other stage in the world? He will be Canada's first space tourist, for $35 million, blasting off for 12 days aboard a Russian Soyuz.

He's calling the flight a " Poetic Social Mission, Moving Stars and Earth for Water." Linked up with this will be a series of performances in 14 cities in support of water conservation--tied in with his One Drop foundation. The link to space isn't that clear but why complain when Al Gore, David Suzuki, Shakira and U2 will be part of the show, opening in Montreal.

read more...

Water Fountains on Canadian Campuses: Where Have They Gone?

OTTAWA, Sept. 3 /Canada NewsWire Telbec/ - Water fountains are disappearing on university and college campuses across Canada according to a new Polaris Institute report.

The report, "Campus Water Fountains: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," uncovers a series of trends related to public drinking water access at Canadian universities and colleges:

- The Good - assesses the kind of reinvestment in public tap water
infrastructure currently happening on campuses.

- The Bad - four Canadian Universities were found to have either no
fountains in new buildings or very limited access.

- The Ugly - buildings codes across Canada allow universities to
design and construct institutions without water fountains.

The full report is available online at
www.insidethebottle.org

Mankind Aims for World Peace Through One Minute of Silence

Global Campaign Wants to Attract Millions of People

NIJMEGEN, The Netherlands, Aug. 25, 2009 /Canada NewsWire/ - Millions, if not billions, of people throughout the world will hold still for one minute on Saturday November 28th, at exactly 15:00 hours GMT, for world peace.

This is the goal of the Dutch organisation Minute-of-World-Peace, which launches a campaign in
133 countries today to ask for people's attention for world peace.

It must set-off a chain reaction, persuading as many people in as many countries as possible to participate. Its first aim is to create awareness.

"If world peace is to be created in the future, it is important that people think about it. If this minute can catch people's thoughts, it will have its effect in the future," initiator Hans Brugeman explains.

Another goal is to actually create a minute of world peace. "The strength lies in the simplicity, because it is easy to participate. Suppose everybody knows about it and holds still for one minute, if even soldiers remove their finger from the trigger for one minute. Then there actually would be world peace, for almost the entire population of earth for the first time," Brugeman
states.

Despite all armed conflicts in the past decades, people still aim for world peace, a survey among 1100 visitors of the minuteofworldpeace.org website shows. 96% of people place world peace in their top ten greatest wishes.

The first press release is distributed to 250,000 journalists and 4,000 news websites in 133 countries. Furthermore, all the people who receive the message are asked to send it through to their family and friends. The organisation seeks ambassadors who want to coordinate and stimulate the campaign in their own countries. Also, people are asked to organise events in
their own countries, like placing stones with a message of peace. These piles could be monuments of peace for people to gather at on Saturday November 28th.

This date is chosen on purpose. It is shortly after the world commemorates the fall of the Berlin Wall. The organisation hopes to give all participants the same feeling of freedom and peace that was aroused by that moment.

More information: minuteofworldpeace.org

Hurricane Katrina Anniversary

from Change.org

This weekend marks the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and the devastation that the storm wrought on the Gulf Coast. There's a clamor underway among poverty activists to get President Obama to mark this anniversary with a renewed pledge to fight for equitable recovery of the Gulf Coast. It's too bad, according to Poverty in America blogger Leigh Graham, that these calls are falling on deaf ears at the White House. If we learned anything from Hurricane Katrina, it's that we need an inclusive framework for fighting poverty and inequality. (Read more)

Tracking the progress of H1N1 swine flu

FluTracker - H1N1 Swine Flu and Influenza Outbreak

Provides a world map showing reported cases, compiled using data from official sources, news reports and user-contributions. These maps and the data behind them were compiled by Dr. Henry Niman, a biomedical researcher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, using technology provided by Rhiza Labs and Google. The maps are compiled using data from official sources, news reports and user-contributions and updated multiple times per day.

Visit FluTracker

Bag Pools: Couldn't We All Just Share?

by Sami Grover, TreeHugger.com

I went to the co-op the other day, and once again forgot my reusable bags. It's one of my bad eco-habits - along with dragging my feet over putting up a clothes line. But as I filled my plastic bag in shame (I REALLY don't need any more reusable bags at home!), I was reminded of a comment on a previous post, where someone (whose comment I can no longer find) informed us that their grocery store has a "bag pool" - where you can bring in your old bags, and exchange them for new ones - free of charge. Read the full story on TreeHugger