The municipality stripped bare of color, even...
Showing posts with label building. Show all posts
Showing posts with label building. Show all posts
3/28/15
8/23/14
8/20/14
4/30/13
4/4/13
9/8/12
6/12/12
4/11/12
1/4/12
2012 Social, Economic, Political
Lay a foundation of inner strength for the long haul...
This past year was one that I certainly cannot say "it went by so fast" since for me it didn't. It was a dramatic year of magnificent highs and lows, replete with drama resolved, that I fully lived every day of. Snitching a phrase it was "a time for every season" and a cliche it was a "passage of life" with the conundrum puzzled out. What I learned in the past year, after figuring out I didn't know as much as I thought, provided guide stones for what will certainly be a tumultuous year for our country and world. Going through and beyond personal milestones and stumbling blocks provided a solid foundation to allow me to personally cope with a globe going out of control that I can do little about. I learned that the external social disruption, economic disaster and political turmoil of the past few years cannot derail me and that I have the internal will to survive what may come.
This year the change in society will become evident to everyone and few will be able to live in denial. The economic crackup that seemingly took a brief holiday last year will return full force and cause social, economic and political realms to change. We are in for a tough year when the recognition that the quick fixes didn't work will out of necessity fade into settling in for a long haul of change and restoration. It is the end of the world as we knew it but not the end of the world, rather the aurora of a new period in history. People will stumble and fall as well as survive and thrive. Our goal is through skills of inner strength overcome and creatively rise above the fray relatively unscathed. We are of little use to others if we are not capable of keeping ourselves tethered to the shore.
When the world around us is spinning off its axis it's critical to remind ourselves we have no control over it. While external events may affect us how we respond and cope with them is what matters. A great thing about getting older truly is getting wiser. To gain wisdom we must learn from our past mistakes and victories so we may burrow a strong foothold on the spinning top of earth and keep our feet planted in the ground so as not to fly off.
The easy road to problems and difficulties is avoidance and procrastination except that actually results in multiplying into more bad situations. Painful and demanding is the road that leads to breaking through hard times but the by-product is not only resolutions but also acquiring new coping skills. It is these skills that we build an inherent infrastructure to keep us rooted on terra firma to avoid being blown away by extraneous gales and headwinds. If you haven't already, start laying your foundation of readiness to calmly live through the tempest. If you already have then keep building.
This past year was one that I certainly cannot say "it went by so fast" since for me it didn't. It was a dramatic year of magnificent highs and lows, replete with drama resolved, that I fully lived every day of. Snitching a phrase it was "a time for every season" and a cliche it was a "passage of life" with the conundrum puzzled out. What I learned in the past year, after figuring out I didn't know as much as I thought, provided guide stones for what will certainly be a tumultuous year for our country and world. Going through and beyond personal milestones and stumbling blocks provided a solid foundation to allow me to personally cope with a globe going out of control that I can do little about. I learned that the external social disruption, economic disaster and political turmoil of the past few years cannot derail me and that I have the internal will to survive what may come.
The easy road to problems and difficulties is avoidance and procrastination except that actually results in multiplying into more bad situations. Painful and demanding is the road that leads to breaking through hard times but the by-product is not only resolutions but also acquiring new coping skills. It is these skills that we build an inherent infrastructure to keep us rooted on terra firma to avoid being blown away by extraneous gales and headwinds. If you haven't already, start laying your foundation of readiness to calmly live through the tempest. If you already have then keep building.
12/14/11
11/22/11
Some Days
You just feel tired...
Revival depends on you since your survival depends on it.
Yesterday was one of those rare Mondays that recalled The Boomtown Rats song "I Don't Like Mondays." It started with a few little missteps at five in the morning, followed by arriving at work to find no one and nothing prepared and ended in feeling a little worn from the humdrum.
You could say by day's end I was feeling more than a little uninspired. In those situations the best thing to do is keep in mind that a new day begins only one nighttime away. One of my methods to end the day on a good note is to kick the poetic tires and dig through my catalog of photographs to find what seems mundane and make something fresh out of them. Doing so gives a sense of appreciation for the ordinary and the challenge of making it more interesting recharges more than my creative energy. It reboots my soul and keeps at bay the sense of losing a day.
So today, this day, is another day to take and make the most of and double up for one that didn't go so well. Each day is to be embraced and won, not to be wasted on "would have, should have, could have." The previous evenings energizing pursuits prepare the next day to be without remnants of wear and tear from the prior one. There is only mediocrity in life if you choose to view it that way rather than turning it into something more interesting.
Revival depends on you since your survival depends on it.
Yesterday was one of those rare Mondays that recalled The Boomtown Rats song "I Don't Like Mondays." It started with a few little missteps at five in the morning, followed by arriving at work to find no one and nothing prepared and ended in feeling a little worn from the humdrum.
11/4/11
9/6/11
9/5/11
Working for The Man
Working in the fields you get your facts learned...
and I got my facts learned real good.
This economic climate is like the weather, we have no control over it. The storm is gusting winds, huffing and puffing and blowing houses down, rain is flooding the basements and lower floors and no amount of sandbagging is going to stop it. Politicians and bureaucrats egos may lead them to believe they can do something about it but most of the population has figured out that we're in a disruptive contraction that will run it's own course.
Personally I don't believe the unemployment figure is going to remain stagnant and only go up or down a notch or two as the so-called experts predict. It's widely agreed that unemployment is going to be a problem for a long time and it is my opinion it is going to go higher. Already it is higher than official numbers reflect. The broken record is that this is an economic contraction due to overleveraging of debt by individuals and government. If people are not employed they cannot pay debt or taxes. That is a fact.
Our country has created people with a mindset of a job or career working for a large or medium sized employer with an implied contract of benefits and a pension. The Man. No longer is he willing to carry the contract though. This administration has also done everything it can to kill many of the remaining average micro entrepreneurial enterprises as well as small businesses out there that might have employed a few people or kept a family going. A "jobs program?" Really? My additional thought is there is no point in retraining or educating for careers unlikely to exist in the coming years. Working for The Man is past tense. Small businesses must rework their way around the obstructions. Thinking otherwise is a delusion.
Individuals work in the present to plan for a different future.
The people who are thriving and will thrive are those who are thinking creatively while looking down the road and taking control now of what they can. They aren't putting themselves into debt or deficit spending and if they are in that position they are digging their way out of it. The Americans who are making it are those who are achievement oriented, still have a sense of reward for hard work and self-reliance, cutting a swath for their own path. Perhaps that means working at a job now as a means to an end but the end game is not to work for someone else in the sense we have been. The primary intention at this juncture is a future forward assessment of skills that are of value and develop them alongside additional ones.
What a thinking ahead person is doing in one way or another is fashioning tools in every moment of spare time. They're figuring out how to make a living or already are in the coming new period and create a different way of life. In stormy weather they're holding fast to values in order to rebuild lives above the flood line. There is not a politician or bureaucrat that can provide the ingredients necessary to prepare and act to accomplish the reconstruction required. While this economic contraction is running its course simultaneously individuals and communities are reinventing themselves on their own. People are or will be working for themselves, either in their own enterprises or as free agents for another enterprise by choice. The government can't machinate that. Only individuals and communities can engineer the kind of renovation our economy needs for our country to fully function again.
(With apologies to Springsteen on this Labor Day.)
and I got my facts learned real good.
This economic climate is like the weather, we have no control over it. The storm is gusting winds, huffing and puffing and blowing houses down, rain is flooding the basements and lower floors and no amount of sandbagging is going to stop it. Politicians and bureaucrats egos may lead them to believe they can do something about it but most of the population has figured out that we're in a disruptive contraction that will run it's own course.
Personally I don't believe the unemployment figure is going to remain stagnant and only go up or down a notch or two as the so-called experts predict. It's widely agreed that unemployment is going to be a problem for a long time and it is my opinion it is going to go higher. Already it is higher than official numbers reflect. The broken record is that this is an economic contraction due to overleveraging of debt by individuals and government. If people are not employed they cannot pay debt or taxes. That is a fact.
Individuals work in the present to plan for a different future.
The people who are thriving and will thrive are those who are thinking creatively while looking down the road and taking control now of what they can. They aren't putting themselves into debt or deficit spending and if they are in that position they are digging their way out of it. The Americans who are making it are those who are achievement oriented, still have a sense of reward for hard work and self-reliance, cutting a swath for their own path. Perhaps that means working at a job now as a means to an end but the end game is not to work for someone else in the sense we have been. The primary intention at this juncture is a future forward assessment of skills that are of value and develop them alongside additional ones.
(With apologies to Springsteen on this Labor Day.)
8/30/11
7/27/11
5/8/11
3/2/11
Arizona Landscape
The Onion Dome...
JM Evans House: The Arizona State Archives and Public Records Building
photo by Zeff Nelson
JM Evans House: The Arizona State Archives and Public Records Building
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