I Am Project - Conscious

As Stephen Harper fights a Federal Court judge’s ruling that he must “comply with a principle of fundamental justice” and press the United States for the return of Omar Khadr to Canada from Guantanamo Bay, I am left flabbergasted by many Canadians’ reactions and in many cases, lack of reactions. It is a dangerous path we tread if we allow our Prime Minister to decide which of his citizens deserve the rights guaranteed by their passport and which do not. Even if you ignore the fact that Omar Khadr would be considered a child soldier VICTIM in any other war, allowing him to remain beyond the seven years he has already been held without a trial should be something every Canadian should oppose with all their might. What have all our soldiers died for in Afghanistan if not for our freedoms and rights? What about the torture that has allegedly been inflicted upon a fellow Canadian citizen? When we start ignoring our rights and values in a war that is supposedly being justified in the name of those rights and values, have we not lost our way?

I often wonder if our leaders are even conscious of what the wars are really about. At times it feels like the post 911 conflicts are more about revenge and testosterone fueled posturing than the protection of freedoms and homeland security. From my perspective Canada is much less secure since we became involved in Afghanistan than before. At the end of the day does anyone really think invading someone else’s homeland is going promote long lasting friendship between two nations? Do we really not think the hatred we are currently creating is not going to be passed from father to son and mother to daughter for many generations to come? We are quite possibly creating the foundation for a future retaliation against our citizens who are yet to be born. They literally will be inheriting a conflict whose initiators will have long since passed on. When is it going to stop?

By staying conscious of the diversity that exists between two cultures, perhaps we can learn to reflect as opposed to react and quite possibly learn that the gap between two points of view is only reduced through communication, not a bullet.

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." - Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)

I Am Project - Resourceful

While the world continues to react to the global financial crisis, I can’t help but notice the incredibly improvident decisions our leaders continue to make in shortsighted attempts to stimulate the economy while limiting their deficits. Our society’s rate of consumption has been at a completely unsustainable level for years while our environment has been continually raped to fuel yet more economic growth. So many of us were oblivious to what was happening as long as we were making a buck. Now that reality has set in and this house of cards our whole economic system has been based upon has collapsed, we seem determined to reestablish this illusion of prosperity rather than learning from our mistakes. We need leaders with vision who are resourceful enough to use this crisis as an opportunity to retool and rebuild our economic strategy into something sane and sustainable that ensures our species is viable over the long term.

So much has happened over the past couple of years that has convinced me that Ed Stelmach and his provincial government is totally clueless as to how to proceed. On one hand they have been completely uninterested in addressing the ecological disaster perpetuated in the oil sands because of the revenue these projects generate, and on the other hand they are frantically spending money and effort in an attempt to convince the Americans that our oil is not dirty and that we care about the environment.

It is projected that by 2030, between 32 and 86 percent of the Alberta government’s income will be dedicated to funding healthcare. It is a proven fact that prevention is much more economical than treatment so you would think promoting a healthy lifestyle would be a strategy the government should invest in. Yet when this economic crisis hit, after the ruling party gave itself a 30% pay increase, Ed Stelmach has cut back chiropractic funding and is talking about cutbacks to healthcare wages. The biggest cost in healthcare is salaries and the biggest cost in salaries is sick time and overtime. Wouldn’t it be more resourceful of the government to actually increase funding for chiropractic and other preventative treatments so that sick time is reduced in the work force and thus so is overtime?

I have found that when I am resourceful, I see opportunity within crisis and am able to grow and evolve even in the most challenging of situations.

“The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life” - Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)

I Am Project - Quiet

The past few months have been interesting, eventful, and never boring. The stresses of my personal, professional, and business lives have all converged to form the perfect storm. The racket of the franticness that has surrounded me has been building into a cacophonous symphony of agitation.

I recognize the need to quiet down this growing frenzy. If I can quiet the noise that is pulling me in every direction at once, I can focus on the tasks necessary to permanently reduce the commotion that is surrounding me. When I am quiet I can see things for what they are and recognize that there are some I cannot change. Rather than continuing to try and control these things, I must eliminate their influence.

“A quiet mind cureth all.” - Robert Burton (1577 - 1640)

I Am Project - Unencumbered

Change is blowing in the wind. Several directions are being travelled at the same time and the time has come to evaluate where I am, what I want, and how I am going to proceed. I, and those around me, have sacrificed and compromised so much to achieve my goals such that I have allowed guilt and my sense of responsibility to dictate my life for as long as I can remember. I find myself asking - Is a life of compromise a life well lived? Obviously if I am asking such a question . .

A life without encumbrance is a life of simplicity and balance. When I am unencumbered my decisions are sound and not influenced by manipulation and deceit. To do what one believes as opposed to what one feels is expected is the purest form of freedom and integrity. Paths converge and diverge, this is life and must be accepted. An unencumbered mind accepts this and knows when to fight and when to move on. If I am unencumbered I am assured that my wants are only dictated by my needs and thus my thoughts and words are perfectly mirrored by my actions.

The Eightfold Path continues to elude me. I have almost fully grasped the wisdom and ethical conduct aspects of this philosophy but the mental development portion is lacking. When I am truly unencumbered my cup will be empty and I will have a chance of mastering right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

“One should rather die than be betrayed. There is no deceit in death. It delivers precisely what it has promised. Betrayal, though - betrayal is the willful slaughter of hope.” - Steven Deitz (b. 1958)