Reflection: A Water Story

Life follows water

Where there is water there is life, and where there is life there is water. The two are inseparable. This simple realization is imperative to the survival of our species. As humans, we have systematically destroyed an innumerable number of natural ecosystems around the world. These are ecosystems that regulate the transfer of oxygen and carbon, maintain the temperature of the planet, and create the conditions for life as we know it. These are like the organs of the body: when treated properly, they support the life of the whole. When treated improperly, other organs begin to compensate and pick up the slack until they exceed their capacity, after which the health of the whole becomes increasingly compromised.

The structures that we are replacing these ecosystems with (think jungles, savannahs, etc.) are often cities, suburbs, or agricultural lands. Currently, our design of cities, suburbs, and agricultural lands is profoundly linear, extractive, and disconnected from the natural cycles of an ecosystem. Water runs right off the top of these landscapes carrying all of the pollutants that it picks up in the process to the sea. There is no root structure to attract and retain water in these landscapes, and there are hardly any life forms to build and benefit the soil health.

Source: Reflection: A Water Story. | elephant journal

A gathering of robots!

AI is getting an IQ

Source: The Joy of Tech comic… A gathering of robots!

This 4th of July, Save the Sausages

Remember, grills kill!

Momma rat rescues baby from snake

A mother’s protective instinct is strong across all species. Watch this rat fight off a snake that’s kidnapped (or rat-napped?) its baby.

Source: Momma rat rescues baby from snake – Holy Kaw!

How to be a Canadian

Thinking about moving to Canada after the election? This may help…

The Enoch Factor

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ToddLohenryProfile/posts/HFz8vSNMNr1

The Fascinating Evolution of Beer

Think you know your beer? Take a walk through the rich and detailed evolution of beer with this interesting infographic.

Source: The Fascinating Evolution of Beer

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The Worst Kind of Betrayal

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“When we think about betrayal in terms of the marble jar metaphor [you’ll have to go to the source at the bottom if you want to understand the metaphor], most of us think of someone we trust doing something so terrible that it forces us to grab the jar and dump out every single marble. What’s the worst betrayal of trust? He sleeps with my best friends. She lies about where the money went. He/she chooses someone over me. Someone uses my vulnerability against me [an act of emotional treason that causes most of us to slam the entire jar to the ground rather than just dumping out the marbles]. All terrible betrayals, definitely, but there is a particular sort of betrayal that is more insidious and equally corrosive to trust.In fact, this betrayal usually happens long before the other ones. I’m talking about the betrayal of disengagement. Of not caring. Of letting the connection go. Of not being willing to devote time and effort to the relationship. The word betrayal evokes experiences of cheating, lying, breaking a confidence, failing to defend us to someone else who’s gossiping about us, and not choosing us over other people. These behaviors are certainly betrayals, but they’re not the only form of betrayal. If I had to choose the form of betrayal that emerged most frequently from my research and that was the most dangerous in terms of corroding the trust connection, I would say disengagement.When the people we love or with whom we have a deep connection stop caring, stop paying attention, stop investing and fighting for the relationship, trust begins to slip away and hurt starts seeping in. Disengagement triggers shame and our greatest fears—the fears of being abandoned, unworthy, and unlovable. What can make this covert betrayal so much more dangerous than something like a lie or an affair is that we can’t point to the source of our pain—there’s no event, no obvious evidence of brokenness. It can feel crazy-making.”

Go to the source: The Worst Kind of Betrayal « Positively Positive

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Rebellion

Check out “Rebellion” on Netflix
http://www.netflix.com/title/80094273?source=android

How? via Live & Learn

 

True…

This morning it rained. This afternoon it is sunny. How is that not like the mind? ~ Michael Kewley, May all beings be happy Sources: Quote – Some of my best friends are birds. Photo: Your Eyes Blaze Out

via How? — Live & Learn

Be More Confident and Less Critical of Yourself

Here’s another excellent podcast from author Christine Hassler. I encourage you to subscribe if you like this one…

Insecurity can be painful and it blinds us from seeing who we truly are. We are not born insecure, we become that way. It’s a feeling we have based on the beliefs we accumulate when people are critical of us or we feel judged in some way. The problem is, we live in a world…

via EP 41: Be More Confident and Less Critical of Yourself — Christine Hassler

How to set boundaries…

Thankful Thursday…

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” ~ John F. Kennedy Life’s Adversities

via Thankful Thursday — Simply Etta D.

Happy Bird Father’s Day (Miracle, all of it)

Great post about a good article…

Live & Learn's avatarLive & Learn

bird-father-feed-nature

Excerpts from Jennifer Ackerman‘s: Why Bird Fathers Are Superior:

They are attentive parents, building nests, feeding chicks and even showing their young how to sing.

Tally up the good dads and the bad dads in the animal world, and mammals come up surprisingly short. Males provide direct care of their young in less than 5% of mammal species. Some mammals, like grizzly bears, are notoriously bad dads, known to kill their own cubs…most mammal fathers are deadbeats with a “love ’em and leave ’em” approach, sticking around only to mate.

Then there are birds. For our avian friends, attentive care of the young by both males and females is the norm. True, females shoulder the full parenting load in a few avian families, such as hummingbirds. But in some 90% of bird species, the males stay around to help: They share the duties of nest-building, incubate eggs, feed…

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“Someone once told me, no one wakes up in the morning and says, “I think I’m going to be a jerk today.” Most of us do the best we can with the resources we have at the moment.” http://bit.ly/1XiTpA0
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Inspiration and Reality

Inspiration 1987

Reality 2016

What a great age in which we live…

Tara Brach meditation

http://pca.st/XNVq

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