Always look on the bright side

Dear Friends

A great number of people ring our office to ask advice about all sorts of health matters. That means I get to talk to most of the Dear Ones. The conversation most often goes past health matters and this is when I find that, most people interpret the 'news' differently to me.

They listen to the radio, read the papers, watch the news on television and find themselves despairing for the future of the world and the human race.

They witness atrocities. They note the cruel way some husbands still treat their wives. The ethnic cleansing still going on in what used to be Yugoslavia. And of course the tragedies of floods, earthquakes, storms, eruptions and other natural disasters taking countless lives all over the world. They have fear - induced by all the financial disasters happening the world over and by politicians and their proposed policies! [Do we still care about politics?] And so they despair. They get angry! They are depressed about the future.

Well, allow me to share my 'view on the world'. I also witness all of these things. I do not live with blinkers on. However, I choose to believe that those tragedies are getting smaller in numbers as well as less in intensity. I choose to rejoice in the good news, rather than despair over the bad. I believe that the natural disasters that have been and will keep on occurring, are much less intense than they could have been - would have been, except for our awakening, our raise in vibration, our becoming 'aware' of who we are.

So, Dear Friends, I do not allow these news to depress me in any way. Instead, I seem to find lots of news that make me rejoice. May I recommend that you also do the same?

I see corporations like Samsung spend almost half their profits [ $ 113 million in '97] on improving the quality of life of their employees all over the world and assisting them in all sorts of ways and doing the same in their community. I see other corporations, like Royal Dutch/Shell, launching 'social accountability' teams that are not simply window dressing, not just a PR exercise but a genuine discovery that profits and principles can go together and that social and environmental factors are influencing consumer decisions.

I rejoice to read about things like the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network. A small staff of six people, with a modest budget of $325,000 from the Canadian Government, foundations and individual sponsors, are actively helping in more than 100 countries with simple but effective farming techniques and strategies. Assisting developing countries in agriculture - the 'grass roots' type, regaining lost farming traditions, food preservation and public health.

What about the bank [yes, a bank!] that makes small, unsecured loans to people that would be knocked back by any other bank - to start a small business? They also exist and more, they find that they are making good business as well as creating small businesses that are becoming most important in developing countries. For example, these micro-entrepreneurs employ about 25% of the Chilean workforce. From the slums of Chicago, to Santiago and Uganda, people that were 'a banker's nightmare', turn into successful small businessmen, employing others, simply because of the attitude change from a bank.

What about the large host of individuals - like Rodrigo Gaggio, a young computer whiz kid that had the simple vision to "include the world's excluded" and started simple computer classes in the slums of his native Rio de Janeiro, that in 3 years has grown to around 80 schools. Now, with the help of UNESCO and others, he plans to spread as far afield as Kenya and the Philippines. UNESCO is so impressed they want to 'borrow' the idea and implement it in all it's 186 member nations. These classes are a way to end the vicious circle of lack of education, low wages and underemployment.

People like Joe Firmage, who has made two mega-fortunes as a computer pioneer. After having an encounter with a "remarkable being, clothed in brilliant light, ..." has quit his $2 billion dollar company over a year ago to investigate what he calls the most important news event in 2000 years - humanity's potential rendezvous with extraterrestrial life and their own higher being.

"There is truth to the UFO phenomenon that is undeniable. The evidence is overwhelming from around the globe," Firmage told Reuters in an interview. "To deny it is to simply stick your head in the sand."

Finally, do try to remember and see the true enormity of some of the things that have already happened in the last decade. It seems to me that so many seemingly impossible things have happened, yet our attitude appears to be 'ho-hum'!? Nelson Mendela becoming the President of the most regressive, oppressive apartheid nation? That's ho-hum? The Berlin wall coming down, Communism, Soviet Russia disintegrating, that's ho-hum? Peace becoming a reality between Israel and the PLO, in Ireland! The whole world working hard to bring peace to other troubled areas?

What about the genuine, worldwide outpouring of pure love we witnessed when Diana died? As the Cosmic Comic, the Swami Beyondananda put it, ". . millions of people all across the world parked their karmas for a few minutes and hopped on the mass transit called the Great Experiment. This worldwide meditation for peace had measurable results, as suffering on the planet actually decreased by some 50,000 megahurts!" Is that a reaction you would have considered 'normal' a scant 10 years ago?

The world has changed and is continuing to change. I urge you simply to look for the positive. Always look on the bright side of life.

Choose - to rejoice over the good news, rather that despair over any perceived or real not so good news.

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