Whales around us

Some days ago I went to take a training on Helping and Organizational Change at the Cape Cod Institute. The whole experience was great. I had the opportunity to enjoy vacation, meet new and old friends, explore new places and think about new concepts; but the most incredible experience was to watch the whales.

I don't have words to explain what it feels to be in front of such huge animals, amazing, intelligent and friendly. I just can feel shame that we're ending with this incredible form of life. I think that the best way to save our world and ourselves is learning to love and admire the beauty and grace on it. Please, help us to make a better world sharing this love.







Hace unos días fui a tomar un curso sobre Ayuda y Cambio organizacional en el Instituto Cape Cod. La experiencia entera fue grandiosa. Tuve la oportunidad de disfrutar unas vacaciones, encontrarme con nuevos y antiguos amigos, explorar lugares nuevos y reflexionar sobre nuevos conceptos, pero lo más increíble fue observar a las ballenas.

Es indescriptible la sensación de estar frente a un animal tan grande, majestuoso, inteligente y amistoso. Solo puedo sentir pena por que estamos acabando con estas formas de vida. Creo que la mejor forma de salvar al mundo y a nosotros mismos es aprender a amar la belleza y gracia que posee. Ayúdanos compartiendo este amor.

Foto tomada por Rosy Chavarría.

Saving the World

de Sharon Mehdi

On a buffety, blustery early summer day, when the news was bad and the sky turned yellow, a strange thing happened in the town where I live. That morning, two grandmothers who had never met, not even by accident, put on their summer Sunday clothes, their most comfortable shoes, their favorite sun hats, and walked to the park in the center of town. Now that, of course, wasn’t the strange part because lots of people walk to the park, especially in summer. It’s what the grandmothers did after they got there that set the whole town on its collective ear. What, you ask, could two grandmothers do that would cause such a buzz on a buffety, blustery early summer day? Well, just wait till you hear.

The grandmothers who had never met, not even by accident, walked past the river and past the rose garden and past the playground to the center of the big grassy area that faces the town square. And there they stood. Not speaking. Not looking at squirrels. Not munching on coconut candy. In actual point of fact, not anything at all.

Ryan Reilly was the first to notice. He’s the busboy at Beever Brothers Café that overlooks the park. Every time he cleared coffee cups and water glasses from the table by the window, he saw the grandmothers. “What do you think they’re doing?” he asked Willie and Erma Beans, who always sit at the table by the window. “Dunno,” said Willie. “Maybe they’re waiting for someone,” Erma offered. “Mighty long wait,” said Ryan. Robin the waitress bustled by with a coffeepot. “Maybe they’re pretending to be statues,” she said. “People do that, you know.” Sue Ann Renfrew got up and looked out the window. “Maybe it’s a meditation exercise.” “Well, if that’s exercise, it’s the kind I could get into,” said Leslie Plunkett, who, with her five-year-old daughter, Polly, joined Sue Ann at the window.

For several minutes everyone in Beever Brothers Café watched the grandmothers stand in the center of the big grassy area facing the town square. No one could come up with a reasonable explanation for their behavior. No one, that is, until a very little voice said, “I know what they’re doing.” Leslie looked down at her topsy-haired daughter. “You do?” said Willie and Erma and Su Ann and Leslie and Ryan Reilly and Robin the waitress. “Yes,” she said, suddenly shy from all the attention. “Well then tell us,” said Ryan Reilly. Polly took a gulpy breath and announced quite matter-of-factly, “They’re saving the world.”

For exactly two-point-five seconds, no one said a word. Then they all laughed. Leslie scooped up her daughter and everyone went back to their tables, and that was that. Except it wasn’t. When Ryan Reilly got off work that afternoon, he cut through the park on his way home like he always does, and the grandmothers were still there. They had been standing in the middle of the big grassy area the whole day long. Ryan was puzzled, perplexed and more than a little perturbed. The world was already askew and getting askewer every day. If grandmothers started doing unpredictably curious things, there was no telling where it might end. At that very moment, more than anything, Ryan needed to know why the grandmothers were standing in the park. So he did the only thing he could think of—he asked. The two grandmothers, whose glistening faces were as pink as watermelon flesh, smiled weary smiles.

And with just a hint of sadness, mixed with just a hint of hope, they said almost in unison: “We’re saving the world.”

De este maravilloso libro: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Silent-Grandmother-Gathering-Anyone/dp/0718148738

La crisis que cambiará el mundo

Cada vez se hace más evidente que el mundo necesita un cambio de paradigma. Lo que, como sociedad hemos pensado que funcionaría, evidentemente no lo hace. Las profundas desigualdades en nuestra forma de vivir, la injusticia, la falta de amor por nosotros y por los demás, la avaricia y la permisividad de los que vemos y no estamos de acuerdo, nos están llevando a tocar fondo.

Lamentablemente esto que estamos viendo es sólo el principio. Esta crisis económica traerá consigo otros tipos de crisis que harán imperante la necesidad que tenemos como humanos de trabajar en equipo y apoyarnos mutuamente. Me parece un maravilloso momento para comenzar (si no lo hemos hecho antes) a preocuparnos por los demás.

¿Y tú, que estás haciendo por tu mundo?

El poder de uno

A veces me pregunto cuánta gente hace falta para cambiar el mundo. Hoy me di cuenta de que: Con uno es suficiente.

Arreglar el mundo

Creo que hoy, más que nunca, hace falta que nos pongamos a hacer algo para mejorar nuestro mundo.

Imagina

"Imagine what would happen if families,
and places of worship and schools - joined
by television writers and radio talk show
hosts, recording artists, athletes, movie
stars, business executives and politicians -
all would agree to teach children,
by both word and example, honesty,
respect, responsibility, compassion,
self-discipline, perseverance and giving.

What if all the adults, who seem so upset
about the troubled lives of children,
would indeed create a climate in which
these core virtues would become,
for all of us, a way of life?"

Ernest Boyer, The Basic School