Saving our Oceans

 

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after taking last week off and I’m glad I did. I’ve got a full plate with my writing and I’m hoping these new revisions do the trick. 🙂

 

We shall see. I’ll keep you posted.

 

The other day, on social media there was a video floating around showing a diver in the middle of the ocean with miles of plastic bags and garbage around her. She was imploring all of us to take better care of our oceans.

 

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This is a global problem that requires a global solution. We can pass all kinds of laws and create a million procedures in the USA, but it won’t do a shred of good if there isn’t global compliance.

Remember we only have one planet. In order for our planet to survive we need to keep the oceans alive and healthy. The oceans help distribute excess heat around our planet. They help regulate the CO2 in our atmosphere. Global warming would be an even bigger issue if it weren’t for our oceans.

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 We need other countries to be on board with saving our bodies of water. If we’re doing everything we can to keep them free of pollution while across the pond, China’s over there dumping all their garbage into the waters well you can see that our efforts are fruitless.

Why don’t we task the United Nations with coming up with a global environmental plan? Isn’t that what they’ve been organized to do? Create a world we can all live in. I know it’s not as sexy as stopping a third world war, but our species will survive longer because of it.

Photo credit: United Nations Photo on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-ND

I would love to see a global task force set up to take care of the oceans. A representative from all the continents would meet and weigh in on the way we should do it. I have all kinds of ideas on how we can do it. All they have to do is ask. 😉

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 I want to leave a healthy planet for our future generations. Don’ you? Do you have any ideas on ways we could do this? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

 

Living Your Best Life

Hello everyone. I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a hectic week of work, kid appointments, and other important shenanigans.  I’ve reached 63,647 words in my manuscript and I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. This is the rough draft and it is rough, but I’m almost there.  🙂

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Anyway, enough about that. Today I’d like to talk about a phrase I heard  over the holidays. It intrigued me when I heard it and I thought I’d share it with all of you. “Live your best Life.”

That’s a worthy goal, don’t you think?

But what exactly does that mean?

The answer will be different for everyone. Because, you know, we’re all unique little snowflakes, right?

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Right. We’re all unique and beautiful.  Don’t you forget it. (Wags finger at the non-believers).

Not one person’s brain is wired exactly like another’s so living your best life will be different from one person to the next. How’s that for stating the obvious?

Sorry. I got off track there.

Anyway, I feel we should all strive to live our best lives. I know what you’re thinking, what is my best life? This is where it gets hard. Because our best lives will look different when we’re in twenties than when we’re in our thirties and forties, and well, when you’re in your fifties, it’s going to change again.

Living your best life is a fluid goal and it changes as we grow and evolve. We humans go through phases and sometimes those phases can be painful.

So what does living your best life mean?

It means getting in touch with your inner voice. You know, the voice in your head that’s telling you you’re making a mistake? Or the one that’s telling you to go for it when you hang back afraid.

It means getting in touch with that voice and actually listening to it.

It means choosing a path and sticking with that path because it resonates with you. You can always tell when you’ve taken the wrong path because you’ll be uncomfortable. It won’t feel right and deep inside you’ll know it. You’ll feel like you’re faking it. When you’re on the path you’re supposed to be on, you’ll feel like your true self and you’ll be happy.  Life won’t stress you out as much. You’ll take setbacks and obstacles in stride.

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So how do we get in touch with that wise inner voice?

Again, it’s going to be different for everyone. Some people use meditation and that’s a healthy way to do it. Meditation is a stress reliever, and it’s good for your body and your mind.

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I usually go for a walk in the woods. Walking is a great exercise and striding through nature is a stress reliever as well. There’s actual scientific proof that hiking in the woods is beneficial for your health. For more info go to this link and check it out. The Benefits of Forest-Bathing

But I digress. Sorry. I love forest bathing. I’m a tree hugger. What can I say?

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Anyway, back to my topic. I have a point. I promise. 🙂

When you’re in line with your inner voice and working toward the goal that resonates with you, you’re going to be less stressed and won’t play the comparison game with your friends and co-workers because you’ll be too busy living your authentic life.

That’s what’s wrong with the world today. Many people have lost touch with their inner voice, and because of that, they’re pursuing the wrong goals. They play the comparison game, and end up losing because they try to emulate someone else instead of forging their own path.

Don’t get me wrong, finding a mentor is a golden nugget in life, but only if that person helps you pursue a goal that resonates you.

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So to live your best life, you need to get in touch with that inner voice and listen to it. Let it guide you to the place you need to go. You’ll get there when you’re supposed to and not one minute before. So enjoy the journey.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post! How do you feel about Living your Best Life? Do you have any tips you’d like to offer readers? Leave a comment. I love hearing from you!

 

Should Humans Hibernate?

 

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a busy week of Christmas shopping, Christmas concerts, writing, and working. It feels good to sit down and catch my breath. I love the Christmas season, but it does wear me out.

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One day while I was standing in one of the many lines waiting to check out, my mind began to wander and this question floated to the surface of my brain: Are humans supposed to hibernate?

As I slowly moved forward, the wheels in my brain started to turn. I don’t know about you but when winter hits, it’s harder for me to get up in the morning and I want to go to bed earlier at night.

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This increased need for sleep has me thinking that us humans may be fighting our natural instinct to hibernate in the winter like so many animals do. Not only animals but plants, too. Many of them become dormant in the winter and start growing again in the spring.

It makes me wonder if the world would be a better place if we all just slowed down and took a long winter’s nap. Maybe that’s the natural order of things, and we’re going against the grain. That’s why everyone’s so grumpy. It’s possible, don’t you think?

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 A winter’s nap would cure many things. For example, road rage. If we hibernate in the winter everyone would be getting enough sleep. People would be less likely to fly off the handle when they’re on the road.

It would be the cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder. This disorder is a form of depression that’s triggered by the changing seasons. Mainly winter. Maybe we’re getting depressed because we’re supposed to be sleeping during this time instead of slogging around in the slush and snow.

I wonder how it would affect our economy if we were to sleep during the long winter months. I know my first thought is it would hurt us. It makes sense if we weren’t producing we wouldn’t have any product to sell, but on closer inspection I think it would actually help us.

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Why? Because we’d have to work with our competitors. After all, every continent experiences winter at a different time. While one is sleeping the other could be going into high production mode and produce goods and services for the one continent that’s in hibernation mode.

We’d have to communicate and rely on our fellow earth dwellers. We’d have to cooperate, eliminating competition. Global cooperation. Now that’s a goal worth striving for, don’t you think?

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I know what you’re thinking, what about those countries that don’t have winter? It’s true some don’t have quite as dramatic changes in season as others, but they all experience times when days are shorter than others. So, they are affected as well, just not to the same degree as other continents. So, it could still work.

 

Hibernation. Maybe those wild woodland animals are on to something. Could it really be that simple?

 

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. What do you think? Could hibernation be the answer to our global unrest? Leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you!

 

What does our Future Hold?

 

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Hello everyone. I hope all is well with you. I’m back today and I’ve been working hard on my current WIP. I’ve restarted it twice. I know. Crazy. But what can you do when you come up with a better beginning, right? Anyway, I have about 24,000 words into it and I feel good about them. They’re solid.

Anyway enough about that. Today I’m talking about the future for our kids. I just read an article that paints a dismal picture. Click the link to read: You Will Lose your Job to Robots

According to the article, the majority of the jobs we do will eventually be taken over by robots. This will result in mass unemployment for many people. The article focused on truck drivers and how we’ll soon have automatic pilots for our vehicles like many planes do.

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I’ve also heard jobs like Insurance agents and travel agents will be a thing of the past as well. Even doctors are going to be feeling the heat. Has anyone seen the movie, Big Hero Six? We’re going to have robots handling our health care. Robots will be asking, “On a scale of one to ten, how do you rate your pain?” Then administering medication for us.

 

So this leads me to the question. How do I guide my children to a career that will support them and their families when they get older?

Are we destined for a future like the movie Walle?

Where all the humans are overweight and all they do is eat and ride around on motorized chairs? I sure hope not.

 

I’ve heard  Intellectual Capitalism will be where the jobs are. Check out this post: Intellectual Capitalism

Writers, artists, and creators will be in demand, but the first article tells a different story. That author feels that Artificial Intelligence will become better and better surpassing its human counterparts as fast as 2045.

Yikes! That sounds scary to me. Technology has grown by leaps and bounds. It changes so fast we can’t keep up. What does the future hold for the next generation? How can we prepare our kids for the future?

Should I be steering them toward a career in Artificial Intelligence Mechanics? After all, someone’s got to keep those robots running.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. How do you feel about the future? Optimistic? Or do you feel as if we’re putting ourselves out of business fast? Leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you!

What Should We be Teaching our Future Generations?

 

Hello everyone. I hope all is well with you. I’m back today and I’m talking about some vital skills our future generations will need to survive on our planet.

 

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Our kids are going to inherit this messed up world we inhabit and they’ll inherit all the problems our greedy society has created in our quest for more. More money. More possessions. More power. More. More. More.

 

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The thing is we’re teaching our kids that striving for more is the only way to be. It’s not.  We need to teach our kids the concept of enough and the concept of balance.

 

Why?

 

Because being in Striver mode all the time is not good for our health.  If we continue in Striver mode and we continue to reproduce at the rate we are, we’ll soon be fighting over smaller and smaller space. We’ll be producing more trash and our landfills will overflow. This is a problem. By any chance did you see the movie “Wallie?” The Trailer is below.

 

 

In the movie, humans have to leave earth and move out into space into a floating world because earth is no longer able to sustain life. It’s covered in garbage and all the humans are too heavy to move or exercise. It’s an awesome movie and I’d recommend watching it with your kids if you get the chance.

That’s where our society is headed if we don’t start taking care of our planet and each other. Haven’t you heard? Obesity is an epidemic.

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We need to teach our kids to slow down and take care of themselves.  Because we’re in Striver mode, we eat fast food and processed food. We do this because it takes less time to prepare and gives us more time to work. What happens when we reach that pinnacle of success? We have more money than we ever dreamed of, but we can’t enjoy it because we don’t have our health.

 

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Sad.

We need to slow down and teach our children to garden and how to cook for themselves so they can control what they put in their mouths. By doing this, they control their health.

 

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  We need to teach our kids to be fair. We can do this by teaching them to empathize with their fellow man. Empathy? How do you teach that?  By encouraging a love of reading.  By reading about different characters, our kids step into their worlds and learn about them.

 

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The more knowledge and tolerance they have for others, the better they’ll be at getting along with their peers. A vital skill when space is becoming smaller and smaller, wouldn’t you agree?

Reading you say? Yes reading. It’s also an awesome coping mechanism when you’re dealing with stress. Just an FYI. 🙂 Sadly, it isn’t a cure-all. We need to teach our kids how to communicate, using I messages so they can resolve conflict without a lot of negative feelings.

These Negotiation Skills will be in high demand in the future.

How can we teach this? By having our kids interact with their peers. Don’t let them play video games all day long. Don’t let them use their phones as their only means of communication.  Arrange play dates and get them outside, playing games, and solving their own conflicts.

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Last but not least. Teach them a love and respect for nature. Walking in nature is good for you. It’s called “Forest Bathing.” This practice originated in Japan, and there’s scientific proof it’s beneficial. Something I’ve known for a long time, but didn’t know there was actual proof of it.

 

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“A 2010 research review found that forest environments promoted lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than city environments. ^[6]

Forest environments have been found to be advantageous with respect to acute emotions, especially among those experiencing chronic stress.^”[7]

Nature isn’t just good for you, we as a species need the trees and the bees in order to survive. The bees are our biggest pollinators. Thirty percent of our food crop depend on them to grow and ninety percent of our wild plants depend on them to flourish. That’s a tall order for those tiny bees wouldn’t you agree?

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And trees? They provide oxygen. It takes TWENTY-TWO trees to provide enough oxygen for one person. There are 7.442 BILLION people on earth. That’s a lot of trees. Now do you see why it’s important to have a love and respect for nature?

 

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So there you have it.  My view on some of the essential skills our kids will need to survive on a shrinking planet. Are there any vital skills I’ve missed? Share your thoughts!  I’d love to hear from you!

 

 

 

Intellectual Capitalism

Hello everyone. I hope all is well with you. I’m back today and I’m talking about a term I heard this week. It’s called “Intellectual Capitalism.”

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What is intellectual capitalism? That is a very good question and below is the definition.

 

Intellectual capitalism (IC) can be interpreted as a convergence of a capitalist economy and a knowledge or information economy. It refers to an economic system with basic capitalist institutions in which productive assets and processes, as well as commercial transactions and products, are predominantly intellectual or non-material rather than physical in nature.

 

Watch the video below from BigThink.com. They explain it in layman’s terms.

 

https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom/videos/10154081233018527/

 

So what does this mean? It means intellectual capital is where the future is headed. Repetitive jobs are going to be wiped out, taken over by robots. But there are still some things robots can’t do, like interpret human behavior or analyze emotions. So there’s still hope for the human race!  My interpretation of this is any person who’s creative and has analytical skills will be in high demand. That’s where the jobs are going to be.  So the future looks bright for us writers and artists.  We’re creative and analytical, wouldn’t you agree?

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 So brush up on those writing skills my friends they’re going to be in high demand!

Thanks for stopping by this morning and reading my post. Sorry to say, but I had a birthday this week so my post is short and sweet. I’ll return next week with a longer post!

What do you think about the future? Do you agree? Let me know. Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!