[Ailist] RE: Positive Core of America: responsibility

[Olen Jones]

One of Bill Clinton's best lines ever was, "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed by what is right with America."

Olen Jones, Community Relations
National Community Renaissance 
National CORE
9065 Haven Avenue, Suite 100
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 
(909) 483-2444 Ext. 122
(909) 483-2448 Fax
ojones at nationalcore.org 


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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Positive Core of America: responsibility (Mary-Alice Arthur)


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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:01:46 +1300
From: Mary-Alice Arthur <mary-alice at getsoaring.com>
Subject: Re: [Ailist] Positive Core of America: responsibility
To: Robyn Stratton-Berkessel <robyn at litglobal.com>,	Leif Josefsson
	<leif.josefsson at gmail.com>
Cc: AI Listserve <ailist at lists.business.utah.edu>,	Madelyn Blair
	<pelerei at mac.com>
Message-ID: <C5DFED9A.1B1A7%mary-alice at getsoaring.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="ISO-8859-1"

Robyn

Thanks for the conversation you are continuing to create and respond to.  I, like you, am a transplant to the land I call home.  That gives me the outside perspective and a curiosity about why things are the way they are (here, but also everywhere!).  I think something very interesting happens when you uproot yourself from your home culture and take yourself 'on the road' in whatever way you do that.

What I am grateful for is your curiosity to pursue the question about what would make the place you live in, perhaps love, shine.  I have been holding a similar question about New Zealand.

What would it take to help people recognise that what *is*, is a result of all our thoughts about it?  We could focus on what we most love and appreciate and choose to have more of it.  We could turn away from a focus on what's broken and choose to cherish who we are at our best.  We could stand in gratitude at what each different component of the collective brings to our strength and beauty. Such a small-- and radical -- thing!

If that's true, then each contribution to the conversation is the most valuable one.  And really, it doesn't matter where you choose to focus, when you bring the light into the corner where you are, it cannot be contained there, it spills out into the rest of the room.

Long ago I worked with someone who was a very good trainer.  She said to me, of herself:  "I am a seed planter.  I look for any arable ground.  And when the flower opens in front of me in my training room, I know it wasn't my doing, I honour the one who planted the seed and allowed me to see it come to fruition."  In the work I do as a facilitator, it has been valuable to remind myself of this, especially when the gardening work seems tough and unseen.

> I¹ll conclude by restating that I think  the greatest opportunity for 
> America is a mindset shift from fear to love and a shift from "I" to 
> "we".
> 
> And the invitation still stands, "Imagine the World"!  Who's in?
> 

I'm imagining the world in every conversation I have.  And, oh, is it an interesting place!

Mary Alice



Mary-Alice Arthur
SOAR
PO Box 10-868
Wellington
New Zealand
mobile:  +64-21-687-627
email:  mary-alice at getsoaring.com
web:  http://www.getsoaring.com






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End of Ailist Digest, Vol 72, Issue 12
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