My other blog, ECO-Tours of Wisconsin(ecotoursofwisconsin.blogspot.com) has surpassed eleven thousand views. Although it is still far less than this blog has had, those views represent eleven thousand chances to reach out to others and teach them about a new way of looking at the world, a new way of valuing things around them, a new way to step into the world as an active agent of positive change. In many ways, I try to stretch and massage the limits of how we take stock of the world around us, so that we can see more clearly how we fit in. Like a poorly placed bumpersticker, there will always be air bubbles to work out, tiny wrinkles that could use a little more attention. The same thing happens in our building mental maps that help us take on the daily challenges in life. I want to help everyone to understand, we may not be able to get to perfection, but we can ge to much better places using the tools we have available. When there are uncomfortable situations or daunting challenges, I try to help people to understand; is it us? or is it the workings of a highly mal-adaptive environment that we find ourselves in?
Discovering what is at the source of our discomfort often leads us to start finding solutions (soulutions). Determining where our heart is, with regard to the matter at hand, where we would like to end up and what kind of legacy we want to leave behind are all part of reckoning with the environment we find ourselves in and where we would prefer to go with all that we have learned and accumulated so far. It is...can be...hard to meet every challenge with our best foot forward, especially the past two years. I'm sure we have all been caught out of stride more often than not by changing conditions and new awarenesses. If my words can help just one person think more quickly on their feet or more deeply about issues in each moment, these words will not have been for nothing. Sometimes, just the calm that comes over us when we understand that we are not alone helps us to make better choices or attend to impotant details that lead to better outcomes. One of my associates chided me today, he asked, "But how many of those readers put your words into action?" So, I posted this response.
Education cannot be concerned with follow through. That is the student's personal responsibility. What knowledge and information do is to move your base of operations to new territory. Often, it takes several doses of information, for some several hundred, but when there are multiple points of contact with the world that reinforce the learning, it changes us. Occasionally just one teachable moment changes us for good.
How we think, how we interact with the world and what information we can see and understand changes over time. The goal of ECO-Tours of Wisconsin has been to help heal the rift between human-kind and nature. You cannot do that with a single application of fact. Recovering our relationship with the natural world is a daunting task, but being reminded that there are still reasons to prioritize that, above all else, that there are still people who are making it a priority and that one is not alone in the struggle to create positive change can heal people mentally, spiritually and physically.
Some teachers never get 11,000 chances to make a difference. This one has.
Not every teacher can have tens of thousands of teachable moments. I am honored to have had many more than that. People are coming to the understanding that all of the things we have do not make us valuable. Nothing that we own or desire makes us who we are. Not one thing we have invested in or devised can keep us alive beyond our expiration date. Not one of our commodities can be as valuable as the accepting look of a trusted friend. I know that it is difficult to understand, but I love all of you. That is why I write. The ideas I try to share have all helped me to overcome challenges, informed positive actions and led to an amazing abundance in my life. This is just a tiny part of how I give back. The thousands of hours I have put into research alone has led me to grow and understand far more than I ever thought possible, but offering those insights to others feels like the responsible thing to do, not just for me, but for everyone. I would never lie to my readers because that's not who I am. I would never try to shame anyone but if they enguage in shameful behavior, I won't ignore that either. I think that in all the years of writing and even in my fanzines dating all the way back to the Eighties, I have only had to retract two or three statements. I have met my pledge to be truthful, continued to care and always tried to offer options when I come across something that is out of balance or not working.
If you have any specific questions or issues that you would like me to include in any of my posts, feel free to contact me. If you appreciate my writng and want ot support it, please share my blogs with others or send me some "coin of the realm". My paypal account is the same as my e-mail, tnsaladino42@hotmail.com
If you would rather use Zelle, you can use the email: biocharmaster@gmail.com that will send money directly to ECO-Tours of Wisconsin, Inc.
