Ten Students...Fifteen Languages!

Last evening I taught a combined lecture class of doctoral and bachelor level students.  Ten in total.  Here are the languages they speak:

German
French
Dutch
Spanish
Portuguese
Russian
Kurdish
Farsi
Arabic
Mandarin
Canton
Taiwanese
Indonesian
Vietnamese
...and...English

Actually English unites us all.
A CIBU class is like an international airport.
All these students have different starting points and ending points, but we all spend this time...
....together....like brothers and sisters....of the same one family...right here for now....

Look to your left...look to your right....
Say "hi" to your family....
And, for now and forever,
Be as great as you might....

What We Believe....

We have come to believe...

1.  Our World   The world of the 21st Century is complex, and provides constant choices for us all.  It gets tougher and less certain all the time...

2.  Search for Meaning   Most of us seek meaning in our lives... which involves family, friends, and work.  The search is deep and for some very conscious...

3.  The Gift of Friends   Friendship of those around us, those far away, and those departed is precious and all we really have in the here and now to give us strength and faith for the future.

4.  What We Have Today   Most of us must live in the moment and hope for the best tomorrow, and yet learn as best we can from the past.  If we do not grab the moment, it will fly away with the wind...

5.  Our Human Best   Most of us do the best we can every day, in every way.

6.  Requiring Action   We can maintain friendship in our mind, and deep in our heart, but it requires real action and love to be real and enrich our lives. Action is sometimes instinct, sometimes no choice....

7.  The Strongest Bond   When we love and extend our heart in friendship, we are vulnerable, but also so strong that a bond is created.  When we express such love and friendship, the bond is made for all time.

8.  We Are Different   Friends can disagree and are separate hearts and souls.  True friends know this and accept it and appreciate the differences.  The differences give us depth and a chance for humility, and extending more friendship and love.

9.  Not Alone   We all agree that we are not alone, we came from somewhere and we are going somewhere.

10.  One Family   We share this time together in friendship to give each other the most real and true life and love we could ever wish to have as brothers and sisters of one family.

People with these beliefs meet from time to time in groups to share their stories and joy.  They are lifted, and gifted by this experience.  Most want to share, and once they do share, they want to help others to do so and to share even more.

We do all, in this way, build our "Ship of Friends".  It is one of the most important things we will ever do.  It is our life mission to complete and to make the world better.

One family, one unbroken promise.....that a life that love knows and that knows love is the only life to live. 

The Torch Is Passed....Graduation

This magical morning....frozen in time...
Families....generations....whole countries.....
The bridges are built by education....
....between nations....histories....clans....souls....

When time stands still for these moments...we have peace and...
....the best moments of our lives...

Coffee this morning?  Welcome to this day!!!

Quality of Light....Summer

Did you ever notice the quality of blue...
In the sky for me and you....

When you rise, when you surmise...
The early evening is alive....with something new...

I think the difference is there...
These days and in betweens...
With the what, who, when and where....
In our bones and in our genes....

See it now...
Take a second and notice that every day the shade of blue...
Gets deeper for me and you...

It is summer!

Creating Distance

Do you realize why we do this....create distance even with those whom we love deepest on this planet?
Because..
    ...we fear being close because maybe we cannot handle it...or maybe they cannot...
    ...we fear hurting the other if we gesture love but cannot fulfill their hopes and dreams...
    ...we fear being hurt ourselves....
    ...we are not sure of ourselves and our future...
    ...we fear being totally honest....because we might be wrong what we think...
    ...we fear total trust and surrender....it makes us look weak, when we think we should look strong.

When we truly say, "I love you"...it surrenders all.
There is no more fear....

In this cold, digitally pure and so politically correct world....
If it came to a moment of our death or life...on a given morning or evening...
....or an accident that brought the screeching halt to our life....
.....in those icy cold, super hot moments....we sometimes can be frigidly cold or dazzlingly hot....
.......and surrender to total honesty...ultimate honesty and say....

.....something from our soul that may be heard forever....
........for us and for those whom we care most deeply about....

We live in our memory for the golden moments with those we love...
Those are the times of our Ship of Friends....

Yet we have every day here and now...every moment and with each one that escapes to the clock...
.....and the calendar....we are lost...

So, tomorrow, I vow, to not create distance, but to create the opposite....
....how I can do that in this world....will be a gift I ask for each day.....

It must be my actions, not thoughts, my touch, not my wish for touch...
...It is in creating space and close, warm space that I must do and share with...
.....those who have been given to me and those who stand out and wish to join.....
......the Ship of Friends.....all we ever have and had here with us....

I create distance with my environment...with my hands and heart, I make distance...
...become nothing.

June...Welcome to Winter! Taste the Warm Wind...

It was almost two years ago.  I wrote about "psychological geography"...
It had been my first time in Australia...Sydney...five days, five nights, then back.
It was nice weather in Sydney in Winter...crystal clear, warm in winter...their "winter"..
Then the long, long flight home back to California and the summer sun...
I can taste that moment again...no jet lag...sitting at my home....
In Southern California, with the warm, sweet wind of the summer night, it seemed...
So far away the day before in Sydney "winter"....the Australian sun was so warm...

Flying back into California summer was like crawling into a warm bed....
After a long, wonderful day in the great outdoors....

We are never far away.
Yet sometimes the farther away we are, sometimes, yes, some times...
It is home so sweet, and home where we are....
Sometimes so far away....sometimes as near as the warm wind.
When I go there in my memory,  I can taste the wind.