Pilot Light Foundation Micro Finance

We received this email today, if you are passionate about micro finance and would like to help out read on...

I am pleased to announce that the Pilot Light Foundation, in partnership with the Sudan Self Help Foundation, is supporting a Micro-Credit Project in Juba, Southern Sudan. I hope you will take a moment to visit the website (link is below) to learn about this exciting new project and will also consider making a donation. Micro-credit loans empower people to improve the quality of their own lives and to sustain that quality of life without further aid. Over 2,000,000 refugees from Darfur are currently living in Southern Sudan in extreme poverty conditions.

Thank you , in advance, for your time!Pilot Light Foundation click here

Four Things To Learn

Four Things to Learn

I have four things to learn in life:
to think clearly without hurry or confusion;
to love everybody sincerely;
to act in everything with the highest motives;
to trust in God unhesitatingly.
Albert Schweitzer

Lucky Albert, I think I have a lot more than four things to learn, what about you?

Do You Have a Secret Place?

From Val's Art Diary.com

In case you are chased by a bear

Drop Bear at Frangipani House

Bear Warning
=============

Due to the frequency of human-bear encounters, the Fish and Wildlife Department is advising hikers, hunters, fishermen, and any persons that use the out of doors in a recreational or work related function to take extra precautions while in the field.

We advise the outdoorsman to wear little noisy bells on clothing so as to give advanced warning to any bears that might be close by so you don't take them by surprise.

We also advise anyone using the out of doors to carry "Pepper Spray" with them in case of an encounter with a bear, also spray yourself with human urine prior to leaving, to put them off.

Outdoorsmen should also be on the watch for fresh bear activity, and be able to tell the difference between black bear faeces, grizzly bear faeces and drop bear faeces.

Drop bear faeces have small seeds in it, hair, brains, and it smells like eucalyptus.

Black bear faeces are smaller and contains berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear faeces have bells in it and smell like pepper.



Additionally, if you find yourself being pursued by a bear, you must be able to identify the bear to determine how much danger you are in.

To do this, we suggest you climb a tree. If the bear chases you
up the tree, it's a black bear.

If the bear knocks the tree down, it's a grizzly bear.

If the bear drops down on you from the tree, it's a drop bear.
It will eat your brains, slowly.

11.11.

Lest We Forget...
In Remembrance of my 2 great Uncles, who rest in peace in France.

Argentine Tango on a rock...

Our dance teacher in Port Macquarie is always telling us that you should be able to dance in a very small space... We were delighted to receive an email from Moti Buchboot and Gabrielle Stein showing a video on utube, doing just that...

Dance Argentine Tango to improve mental health

Tango is one of our passions in life. It has come to the attention of mental health professionals all over the world, and is now being used to help in the treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, as well as to assist in Couples Counselling.

The following excerpt from an article by Luis Andres Henao was recently published on Reuters ...

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 31 (Reuters Life!) - On the fourth floor of Buenos Aires' largest psychiatric hospital, patients dance the tango with doctors and nurses.

A few months ago some were too shy to talk and others could barely keep their balance when they walked. Today, they embrace their partners cheek-to-cheek, gliding and pausing across the floor to the mournful chords of a traditional accordion.

Doctors as far afield as Italy and Australia are using Argentina's world famous tango to treat problems ranging from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease to phobias and marital breakdowns.

"Treatment is not just about therapy and drugs, it's about giving them a nice time to enjoy themselves," said Trinidad Cocha, a psychologist who teaches a weekly tango therapy class at the Borda Hospital in Buenos Aires.

"They relax and all the labels disappear. We're not doctors, nurses, musicians or patients. We're just tango dancers," she said as couples danced across the hospital's makeshift dancehall.


TIGHT EMBRACE

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine found the when patients with Parkinson's took tango lessons their balance improved.

Its intricate steps helped to improve the memory of Alzheimer's patients in Britain. In Italy the trust needed for the tango's tight embrace and its backward walk are used in couple's counseling.

"With tango, you have the advantage of having many different styles of dancing to fit each specific patient," said Martin Sotelano, chairman of the Wales-based International Association of Tango Therapy.

"You focus on the embrace and the communication for couples counseling; the eight basic steps of tango for Alzheimer's; and the tango walk, that requires so much grace and rigidity, can help a patient with Parkinson's."

Read the full article here... Reuters ...

Argentine Tango in Port Macquarie

Baby Pelicans

As we sat watching some pelican's in the river at Port Macquarie last night, my mum asked, "Why don't you ever see baby pelican's? You see ducks with their babies, and all sorts of animals with their babies, but I've never seen a baby pelican."

Well that made us all stop and think, I know-I know the cogs are a bit rusty - and none of us had ever seen a baby pelican either, so of course this morning I Googled the answer, which I found at Sea Bird Rescue

Photography fun site...

Just stumbled across a really interesting website on photography...

I've been playing there for ages, click on one of the photos... then click outside the photo to move around the page...

Matthew Mahon

Argentine Tango Link

"It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer"

Here's a lovely Argentine Tango link of Natacha Poberaj & Jesús Velazquez on UTube that a friend just emailed us... click here

maybe if I keep practising...

Contemporary Frangipani

Did you know that if you take a picture of a frangipani such as the one below... then open accessories, then open paint, then open your picture, then save it as a 16 color bitmap, that you end up with a frangipani that looks like this one above?



That's what I learned when learning about favicons... the things that you come across while learning through Google!

Looking in a new way...

Today I have a challenge for you, I want you to focus on good things that are happening all around you, and write them down. Little things such as... my husband made me a cup of tea and brought it into bed for me. Or... the rain makes these little drops on the bamboo in the pot in my garden, and if I look closely, then I can see our house reflected in the water.

What water dragon?

What water dragon?

Yesterday I started a photography course. Gee it was fun, yesterday's class started on the fundamentals of looking after your camera, and information on apertures and lenses and tripods. But then at the end of the class we went walking in the bush, and started to get down to the good stuff... taking pictures.

"Here you are, take one of the water dragon" Russell said... 'what water dragon?" I thought, as much as I looked I couldn't see it. In the end I had to ask him to point it out to me. And sure enough there it was at the end of an old log. It made me realise that our photography class is going to be so much more than learning about photography, in addition to all the new technical info, I can already see that it's about learning to look in a new way.



Russell's Garden Above... forget the stair master walk up and down here a few times a day!

Creating Your Life

After working in Welfare for a while, it really came home to me how we can either stay stuck in a situation or decide to make a change and go for what we want in life. Watching other people stuck in certain areas, made me question, what areas in my life I needed to move in. It was quite a gift working in Welfare, as it has totally changed my outlook on life. It made me realise that all of us... no matter how bad a situation may look, can dig deep into our inner well of creativity and better our lives.

One way to start is to start searching the internet for newsletters and articles on how to live your life effectively. I regularly receive an email newsletter from the Pacific Institute, and this morning's newsletter is a fantastic one, you may wish to add their newsletter to your list... www.The Pacific Institute.com


Winner's Circle Network with Lou Tice - 11/3/09 - "Creating Your Own Reality"



Do you believe that you create your own reality? Or do you believe that reality is something "out there" over which you have no control?



As adults, we generate our experiences in life. While we can't control everything that happens to us, we can control how we respond. We can take responsibility for the results we experience in life. And when we do this, we grow enormously.



Television newsperson Dan Rather once said that John Kennedy became a true leader when he stood before the American people and said that the Bay of Pigs was an atrocity that never should have happened, and then took full responsibility for it. He was transformed from a promising young politician into a great leader.



The same is true for you and me. If we take responsibility for our lives - our reality - then we are in power. If we avoid it, then we have lost that power.



Who is responsible for the quality of your life? If you say someone else, you are trapped unless, or until, circumstances change. If you say, "I am," you give yourself the power to change things, if you choose to do so.



You see, the power to change resides where it has always resided - inside you. Take charge of your life, and you give yourself direction and purpose that has probably been missing. Will you be taking risks? Yes, you will, and you will probably make some mistakes. But show me a person who has never made a mistake, and I'll show you someone who hasn't lived.



Life is yours to be lived. Live it fully!



Lou Tice

The Pacific Institute

The Pacific Institute