Hopi Nation’s Message

This message is beautiful and powerful.

In the Grand Scheme of Things…

Why are we in a certain place at a certain time? Why are we offered one thing and not another? Who knows what your place in history will be? Creator? How are you working with Creator to create your place in history? Is what you do today random, or part of a bigger plan? Pa’Ris’Ha Taylor says “everything has a purpose”, even when we can’t see the full picture and understand the rhyme and reason of what seems without reason. I just read this blog post, Confessions of an Aging Trekkie, and followed the link to this story about Nichelle Nichols, Lieutenant Uhura from the original Star Trek. She had a groundbreaking role on a groundbreaking show. She almost quit, until she met a huge fan of the show, Rev. Martin Luther King, who convinced her otherwise.
I too am a Trekkie, and followed Star Trek through most of its incarnations and movies.
(pic from this site)

I didn’t fully realize my deep emotional connection to the show till one day when I was working at a call center, a lady called in, and her last name was Doohan. I had to ask, “Are you related to James Doohan, Scotty, of Star Trek?” “Yes,” she said. It was his ex-wife. He was just recently deceased at this point, and I became choked up as I mentioned how much the show meant to me and how much I appreciated what her husband had done as part of the show. She said his ashes were going to be scattered in space, and I thought how perfect.
I loved that Star Trek gave us hope for the future. People and creatures of all colors, creeds, and types (animal, vegetable, mineral, mist or non-physical) could find a way to peacefully coexist or at least come to terms. Gene Roddenberry knew the future he wanted to have happen, and he created it for us all to watch. We watched, and believed it was possible. From that show, so much of today has come about. Don’t believe me?
Watch this video clip on youtube, better yet, rent it somewhere!
How William Shatner Changed the World
So what you do today has effects, it affects the next 7 generations. How are you doing your part to change your world for the better? What is your part in the bigger picture? Do you know yet?

Quality in every dimple

“God is in the details.”
-Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Speaking about restraint in design, the New York Herald Tribune, 28 Jun 1959.
(German-American architect. He was commonly referred to and addressed by his surname, Mies, by his colleagues, students, writers, and others. Along with Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, he is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of Modern architecture. (March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969)

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort.”
-John Ruskin

“There is nothing in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and he who considers price only is that man’s lawful prey.” -John Ruskin (English Writer and Critic of art, architecture, and society, 1819-1900)

“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” -Henry Ford (American industrialist and pioneer of the assembly-line production method, 1863-1947)

“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.”
        Oprah Winfrey

You may not think about the everyday things around you very often. Simple things like napkins, toilet paper and paper towels. These things, like so many things we buy, have been made by someone in a business or factory somewhere. And these people usually have to make things to certain quality standards. Sometimes because their company contracted to do certain work, and it must meet specifications. Other times because they are making something that will not sell or will not continue to sell well if it is of low quality. I recently learned some of the exacting details that people examine to make paper towels.

I saw a worker looking closely at the texture on a paper towel, and asked, “What are you looking at, what is it you are inspecting?” He explained that he was looking at a tiny dimple in the texture of the toweling. “What does that tell you?” He explained that the round roller plate that embosses the texture created the tiny dimple. But when the tension of the paper running through the machine is just a little too strong, the tension pulls the embossing texture back out of the paper; it sort of flattens it out again. So he saw a dimple with a reverse dimple in it. This meant that the tension needed to be adjusted and many rolls of paper towel rejected.

They also looked for how well the two layers laminated together, what was the distance between the perforations, did the perforations tear neatly, what was the circumference of the finished roll, was the end of the roll glued down well, and many other things. The whole process involved a lot of starting and stopping the machinery and minute adjustments to attain the desired level of quality.

I’ve heard Pa’Ris’Ha Taylor say that every blade of grass is named by Creator. Creator watches over the details to that extent and even microscopically. If you think of things from a perspective of chemistry, being off or different by one molecule makes one thing be something else entirely. When you next dry your hands or wipe something down with a paper towel, realize that you hold in your hands the attempt of several people working together to make something beautiful in God’s eyes. Even down to the tiniest dimple.

Sign of love part 2

I read the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. He barely survived a failed attempt at climbing K2, the second highest mountain in the world, and on his way down, sick and disoriented, he made a ‘wrong’ turn and landed in the town of Korfe in Pakistan, where the villagers rescued him and nursed him back to health. He noticed the children outside, squatting in the dirt, scratching on slates in cold weather. He discovered that this was their ‘school’. He saw how dedicated the children were to getting educated, and decided to repay the villagers’ kindness by building a school. He founded the Central Asia Institute which now builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, working to end terrorism through education, primarily of girls.
(check out their websites.)
What brought all this reminiscing to mind? In the most recent Readers Digest story I read, a young couple went hiking and climbing up to the top of a waterfall; the boy slipped on mossy wet rocks and fell into the pool below the falls. This 115 pound girl jumped into the pool, pulled him out of the water, and carried her unconscious bleeding 160 pound boyfriend on her back down a steep rocky face in order to get him to help. At first he was unconscious, and then regained consciousness, and then he started displaying symptoms of head trauma (anger and disorientation). Once they got him to the hospital, she stayed by his side as he recovered. At one point, he was unable to speak, but he signaled to her that he was ok and that he loved her. He lifted fingers, 1-4-3, “I l-o-v-e y-o-u”. There it was again, one day after the first time that I heard of this. As Pa’Ris’Ha Taylor said, there is purpose to all things, not only for this couple to have this accident; also for me to learn of this method of sharing a silent message of love.

Sign of love part 1

Love as a message in times of trouble can be an important message to pass on. Today I read in Readers Digest a story of survival against incredible odds. Readers Digest does this so well, the Drama in Real Life section. I’ve been reading Readers Digest for years, since I was a young teen, and I have read many stories of people overcoming incredible situations. The stories teach you that if you hang on, if you act, if you persevere, good outcomes are possible no matter what you are facing. They teach that angels surround you masquerading as human beings, and they are there in the right place at the right time to help you pull through. That everyone has within them an ability to do superhuman feats; such as lifting cars off small children, frail women carrying much larger men up, down, across difficult landscapes. We all have the ability to survive despite overwhelming odds; it depends on our spirit and our mind and our determination to do so. A man fell 22,500 feet without a parachute and survived. Planes crash and people survive cold and lack of food and water and walk great distances to find civilization and assistance. Some planes crash and all are killed except for one tiny child. People fall overboard and survive clinging to small chunks of wood, or in small life rafts for days and more. People wonder “why me?”, and have survivors guilt if others fail to survive. I remember Pa’Ris’Ha Taylor saying that “there is a purpose to all things.” In these situations, maybe Creator is just not done with them yet. Their purpose in life has not been fulfilled or completed. For some people, after such an ordeal they are changed. They become more aware of what they want to do with their life or where they want or need to be. They look at their life with new eyes, and make new decisions. And through it all, love carries them. Love, caring, kindness of the strangers/angels around them at the time of hardship, and of course, the love of friends and family, but most of all, Creator’s love.

Let me count the ways

I met a woman today who in the course of our conversation, mentioned that her father had recently died. After acknowledging her loss, we got around to discussing some other aspects of her parents’ relationship. She shared how her parents were very busy because she was from a large family. So with all the pulls and tugs on time that so many children were, in amongst making a living, and just day-to-day life, her parents had developed a shorthand way of communicating. She only caught on to this in the last few months of her parents’ life together. Her parents would share a look and say “One four three”(1-4-3). She said she had finally figured out that this stood for the number of letters in the words of the message “I love you”. Toward the end, when her dad didn’t have a lot of energy, he would signal her mom to come close and he’d say, “one four three”. I shared with her that I had read this really cool book called We Are Their Heaven by Allison Dubois. Allison is the real life medium on which the TV show Medium is based.
This book tells how our family and friends who have passed over stick around, not because they have to, but because our successes bring them happiness. They (the deceased) continue to send us (the living) messages and signs that let us know we are loved. The messages come in things that are unique to the person and the relationship that was shared between the living and the dead. I suggested she keep an eye out for the numbers 1-4-3 appearing in her life, perhaps in unexpected places. She said she would look for the book and the signs.
We had a wonderful connection, and it made me think of something that Pa’Ris’Ha Taylor has taught me; that it is good to live each day complete, as if it is your last. In each day, do work, do play, do exercise, do learning, do prayer, share time with loved ones, meet new people, appreciate beauty. So no matter how busy you may be, tell your loved ones that you love them. 1-4-3.

Women beyond the stereotypes

I remember getting a letter before I got into college. It was a letter from the Army. The letter said that our mother’s generation were moms and kept house or were secretaries, and the Army was offering a broader horizon for women. They must have forgotten all about ‘Rosie the Riveter’. I thought that was a funny stereotype; that wasn’t true in my family. My mom was a nurse, who did quit nursing to be a full time mom. Her mom was also a nurse. My grandmother was a character. She left home around 18 and traveled across the country. She worked in several factories, including a type foundry and a mattress factory. Those also presented a lesson in seeing beyond stereotypes and looking at things from several perspectives. In history classes, I read of women working in factories and sweat shop labor. But from my grandmother’s perspective, factory work was freedom. She could work, and make good money. Maybe it wasn’t what a man would be paid, but she felt it was good. She even got promoted to supervisor. When she worked in the type foundry, she got lead poisoning from handling the type and got lockjaw. She survived. She also was in the first big flood in Galveston, Texas and survived by floating on a piano. She went on to marry and have a child, my mom, and then was a single mom 4 years later. She cleaned houses and went to school for nursing late in life and became a nurse. She also liked to build things. She’d buy 2 x 4’s and made chairs, tables, and a porch swing. She even made a wooden baby swing seat for a swing set for me and my brother. And she painted everything she made green. At the age of 70, we came by one day to find she had fallen off a ladder; she had been out painting her house. All of this reminds me of something Pa’Ris’Ha Taylor had mentioned long ago. That we determine what we want and get out of life; we need to not let ourselves be limited by stereotypes, such as because we are women we will be paid less. Not so. We need not be limited by a belief that certain jobs are only for men or for women. All things are possible. We just need to be strong in our decisions of how we want things to be.