Is This a Financial Crisis?

The title of this article gives rise to the possibility that many more things are in the picture along with what is being called a financial meltdown. Finances are simply finances, the movement and flow of currency. It appears that something has entered the picture of late that has impeded the flow of currency. It is not as though there is suddenly no currency, in fact quite the contrary is true. It is a fact that the flow of it has slowed to a trickle. Like a game of musical chairs with the people moving around the circle to the music representing banks, and the chairs, representing currency. Suddenly the music stops, there is a scramble for the remaining chairs, but now there is one chair less (a bunch of currency has been declared bad). With no chair there is no bank, one player will leave to game. A level of fear has consumed the banking community worldwide where no one wants to dance to the music for fear that if the music stops, they might be the one holding the worst of the paper at the worst time. Trust has dissolved.

What is money? Even in circles of economists, this topic is not as clear as you or I might assume. You can go far back in history to times when paper money was issued as a convenient means of exchange for goods or services, and that paper represented a measure of some kind of redeemable commodity. Grain, olive oil, salt, beads, blankets shells, gold and silver all come to mind as tangibles that were used to form the basis for exchange at one time or another. Money can be described as whatever the majority of people agree to represent the particular commodity that was accepted as having measurable value. Paper money and coins were convenient representations of commodities as they were easy to conceal and easy to transport if large amounts were needed for a transaction.

In today’s world, money no longer represents anything tangible. Money is created out of debt. A government issues a bond to raise money. Which came first, the bond or the money? Here is where banks come into the picture. It does not matter which came first. Banks have been given permission to create money out of nothing, out of debt. A corporate bond, municipal bonds, car loans, mortgage loans, any kind of promise to pay allows banks to create more promises to pay. Once you sign that “promise to pay” the bank turns that loan into an asset, and can now make a new loan based on that previous loan. A concept for our minds to grasp is that if everyone, everywhere paid back their loans and all government, and corporations did the same, there would be no currency, no money. The system we live in depends upon debt and that debt, that promise to pay back the loan is dependant upon something even more valuable ……. Trust.

So what is this crisis really about? The erosion of trust between countries and Int’l banks has reached a critical mass. The agreed-to system of world finance has handled many abuses and can handle many abuses and still survive. What has happened in these days is a critical point has been breeched where finally greed and corruption became the order of the day. Unfettered, unregulated and unmitigated greed is what is now unwinding before our very eyes. The greed has given way to fear.

This is a crisis of values and character. It is unfortunate that world financial systems require regulations and laws. These requirements indicate a propensity of human behavior toward excess. Value has been placed on having money and things rather than value based on character and integrity. Each of us is presented with opportunities in every moment of our lives to demonstrate where our interests and passions lie. There is no getting around it. We are what we do, what we think, how we treat others and how we treat ourselves.

The crisis such as the one on the world stage right now will not be solved by putting more money on the table, tax rebates, lower mortgage payments etc. Healing will only come when new (old) values come to the forefront, not only on the financial stage, but in our very lives. Until we demand that sound values and character are the most important elements for a stable and thriving society, a cloud of uncertainty will continue to be present.

There are hard times ahead for all of us. This will be a challenge we will all be living through together. It is best resolved by helping each other and restoring trust and integrity between each of us. Trust restored.

2Bornot2B

My interest in Life Coaching, while providing good service to those whom I have worked with over the last 6 years, led me on a deeper exploration of why and how it is possible for people (including myself) to manifest / create new circumstances and realities simply by making the decision and commitment to do so. Could it be that simple?

Yes, it is that simple. We have all been practicing the art of manifestation in our lives. We do it every day, every moment. It appears that some people are better at manifestation than others, but I have come to realize this is not true. It only appears that way. What “appears” to us is that someone “over there” has manifested something that we have always desired. We want that too! Because someone else manufactures what we secretly desire for ourselves does not make them a better creator. The fact is we are all creating, all the time. We cannot do otherwise. What you have in your life right now is the expression of all the choices you have made to this point. That is why it is good to take a close look at what you have and how it got there. Is this what you really want? You are the only one who could have made what you now have possible. How could it be any other way? The difference between you and the person who has manifested something that you desire is that they made a decision and a commitment specifically to bring it about. Full commitment.

Many people enter the adult period of their lives with a blueprint that evolved out of their childhood experiences of family and peers. For me, that blueprint was quite a hodge-podge that I managed to survive in spite of; but the “education” through childhood certainly gave no training or map on how to flesh out my deep sense of mission and purpose and make that manifest. I was driven to find all this out as a pre-requisite to getting on with my life and career. In my early 20’s I started a business selling snack food from a basket door to door to businesses. After a number of months one of my regular customers asked me what I would do if this business didn’t make it. In that moment I realized I had never considered the idea that it might not be successful. It was never part of my paradigm. Oh yes there were difficult challenges getting a startup business going, but the thought that it might not work was never an option. That kind of commitment in anything one undertakes will produce the desired result. Without fail. I thank that customer for asking the question because it made me realize a key component that manifestation rests upon; commitment. At the time I was still working on mission and purpose in my life. Ultimately this business was sold so I could move more specifically toward my sense of purpose, but an important aspect of life was revealed to me by reason of that experience.

What I have come to notice through all the trainings, seminars and my coaching work, is that there are certain people who, upon coming to the understanding that they actually do create their reality, want to understand consciously the laws they have been putting to use which, up to that moment has been unconscious. We cannot be free from the laws of manifestation, we cannot be free from creating our reality, but most of us are not actually aware of how to be aligned and conscious of the laws and how they have been working in our lives already. Those who “wake up” so to speak to these fundamental laws change their lives through practice. Why? Because they already understand that what they have achieved in their lives to that point, has been a result of practicing manifestation without clear understanding of the process, thereby yielding unfulfilling results. Results are only unfulfilling when they are out of alignment with our sense of purpose. Of course if the purpose is unclear and unarticulated, finding fulfillment becomes a game taking place in the dark.

The essence of my brand of coaching is based upon understanding oneself in several key areas. Those who have come on board to work with me have changed their lives to one degree or another, depending upon their commitment and understanding as to how they “tick” and re-training their capacities to manifest a life that is truly congruent to who they are and why they came here!

I’ve written these thoughts as an invitation for people who may be in transition, a tight spot, unsure of direction or generally confused about what is next in some portion of their lives. The invitation is to go deeper within the context of your current life, and work in an intensely creative container to uncover and develop a new blueprint for yourself. The invitation is to be congruent with who you inherently are, and allow the world you inhabit to be a reflection of that deep sense of knowing that resides inside you.

What is the quality of “you”? How do you care for the things you love and want to see grow? The exploration “TO BE” is really the only game in town. Everything undertaken without this fundamental experience in place is an effort to fill that place with substitutes. Most people use possessions, habits and a plethora of activities to mask the deep sense that something is missing. Many stay busy trying to fill this place that can only be filled with conscious understanding of purpose and mission.

Every human being has a mission and purpose. For those who believe in a higher power, how could it be any other way? Would a greater Intelligence manifest this experience we call life without a purpose? We are all part of that purpose! For those who do not resonate with the “Higher Power concept” might be forced to admit that there is some kind of order or laws present that allows molecules to organize themselves into what we are clearly witnessing all around us. Seems to me there is intelligence at work of one kind or another round about. There is greater purpose (at least an organizing purpose) and as a direct result of that, we, by default are included within that context.

Human beings have a hard time coming to grips with the fact that there is purpose to this whole grand scheme of things and that they too have a purpose within that context, and further, each person can actually be conscious of the part they are here to play. How could anyone possibly be brought into form here on earth; going through the process of incarnation, all taking place within a context of purpose and not have access to the blueprint required for getting here? The blueprint is us! It is our very substance of animation. Purpose and meaning for anyone is literally within each person’s grasp. There is nowhere to go to find it. If it seems hard for you, the reader, to find, sometimes all it takes is someone who has made the journey already, to lend a hand.
This is not about religion or joining anything other than the exploration “TO BE”. The exploration that ends with the discovery of what wholeness is for you, which is unique to you!

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do …….. do it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!” Goethe

Best of health and may the abundance you create be abundance you enjoy!

To be or not to be? That is the question.

Wars of Ideas

“Obviously the present crisis throughout the world is exceptional, without precedent. There have been crisis of varying types at different periods throughout history--- social, national, political. Crisis come and go; economic recessions, depressions, come, get mollified, and continue in a different form. We know that; we are familiar with that process. Surely the present crisis is different is it not? It is different first because we are dealing not with money nor with tangible things but with ideas. The crisis is exceptional because it is in the field of ideation. We are quarrelling with ideas, we are justifying murder; everywhere in the world we are justifying murder as a means to a righteous end, which in itself is unprecedented. Before, evil was recognized to be evil, murder was recognized to be murder, but now murder is a means to achieve a noble result. Murder, whether of one person or a group of people, is justified, because the murderer, or the group that the murderer represents, justifies it as a means of achieving a result that will be beneficial to man. Therefore, the implication is that a wrong means will produce a right end and you justify the wrong means through ideation……. We have a magnificent structure of ideas to justify evil and surely that is unprecedented. Evil is evil; it cannot bring about good. War is not a means to peace.”

These are words by Krishnamurti. I was moved to use them for this blog simply because they are true and are worth repeating.

Let’s explore a little bit. Let’s say that on 9/11/2001 radical Moslems masterminded the attacks on the World Trade Center in NYC. In the grand scheme of things, the numbers of people that were involved, and those behind the ones that carried out the act all added together are extremely small, likely to be in the thousands. They had no national identity as a group and were funded from a variety of sources who again, had no particular national identity. In fact while they had similar religious affiliation they were a small number within that context as well and did represent the greater numbers. Accusing all Moslems for the attack would be like accusing all of Judaism for the crucifixion of Christ.

As is stated above, if the means to produce a “noble” result is evil, no good can come as a result. Left on it’s own account, these attacks would have stood, through time, as a testimony to harsh brutality in the eyes our collective world. In fact, at the onset after the attacks, that is just exactly what occurred, world outpouring of grief and condemnation. The grief soon turned to anger and was amplified many fold as ideations began to flood with the possible responses. It is here at this point in the cycle lies world patterns. They are world patterns simply because enough individuals in the world have provided precedent in ways to respond to aggression similar to the 9/11 attacks. In each of our individual lives, how many times have we been “attacked” emotionally, verbally, mentally even physically and found that after a brief grieving period we got really angry and wanted revenge. Getting such revenge may provide some moments of resolution, but in the end what is perpetuated is the cycle of violence and the justification of all levels of violence.

I am sure there are those might read this and say “If we had turned the other cheek with the Nazis we would all be speaking German” or “With that type of reasoning Don, murderers would be walking the streets, there would be lawlessness, no one would be safe”. I would pose the question then, that each one of us look a little more deeply into our hearts and ask the question, and make the honest inquiry; Do you feel safe now? Have all the wars really provided the safety they intended? Is the price of evils cost worth the goods it returns? It’s return of course is more of the same. Brutality, like greed is magnified by its use. Similarly integrity, humility, connection, understanding, respect, honesty and truth finds itself in abundance when it is given expression.

If one wanted to make a collective evaluation of the state of mankind, who would take exception with the growing violence, greed and deception practically everywhere you take notice? Add to that the amplification of events by our “news” sources; our direction as a species is well defined.

No, I am not a pessimist. I would call myself a realist of sorts, because I understand that individuals are making choices in each and every moment creating the world’s that they inhabit. This understanding makes me an optimist. Why? Because the means to changing the world does not rely upon governments, corporations or churches. It relies solely and completely upon the choices each one of us makes. Here is real power. Each one of us, whether we choose to believe it or not, has created the world we inhabit. It has been created as a direct result of choices each one has made. There is no way around this fact. Struggle with this Truth and you struggle against the laws of the universe. I know the next round of queries to this line of thought is; “But Don, how can you say this? What about the innocent child that is abused, what about babies born with deformity? How did they create those worlds? How could they have been responsible for that?”

We, each one of us, enter this world on the invitation of the ones who brought us here, our families. Their individual worlds, a world created from their choices. We inherent something when we come here into this world; good, bad, ugly, beautiful. If we survive beyond our initial dependency, we find ourselves in the place of making choices, just like the ones who preceded us. Who among us is awake enough, alive enough and strong enough to make our journey here one of discovery and victory over limitations and primitive psychological urges? Who is capable of moving forward with a destiny that reaches beyond an eye for an eye mentality, and actually embraces understanding?

Consider the monetary costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Reaching into the hundreds of billions, what is there to show for it? This abundance is the abundance of our collective national identity. What is to show for it? Death and destruction, greed and malfeasance. There is nothing noble about the intention or the result of “justified” murder. Each one of us has a higher calling, a more noble purpose to apply our taxes to! Imagine the hundreds of billions that have been squandered being applied to achieve a noble healing, a deeper understanding of why the attacks took place on 9/11? Imagine the use of our collective resources directed toward reconciliation joining together in what binds us all.

I am not a blind optimist either by the way. Many do not want healing or reconciliation. Many want war and aggression. So I return to the message contained in this collection of thoughts. We each have the power to create our own experience. That is, in fact, all one can truly be responsible for or with. If you are deeply happy with your creation, there is no need to change. For the rest of us …………………………