There is Good Here

Take a minute and watch the video, and when your heart is moved to help build a school in Cambodia, help out. It feels good and I am glad to be a part of it. Spread the joy and love to these children. Proceeds from the sale of the download for the CD go to help the children of Cambodia. The download is 99 cents.
Here's the direct link for the download. Every one helps! http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/DavidAult

Dare to Dream

I learned this, at least, by my experiment;
that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
from the "Conclusion" to Walden by Henry David Thoreau

For several years in talking to my sons, I have talked about pursuing their dreams, and yet found myself unable to take the risk for myself. The weekend of Nov 13, 2008, at a retreat in Northern Minnesota on Gull Lake the idea and dream surfaced and an active discussion followed. This time, it went further than dreams and idle talk, but actually moved into a mind mapping of the idea, and before long we had on paper given some hard reasons to follow the dream.

We listed the advantages and disadvantages to pursuing the venture of building small houses, tiny cabins, tiny homes, and tiny houses. The experience side started with the ability to design small house plans and cabin plans, then use those small house plans to build the actual small house and tiny green cabins.

For Experience; I do have 35 years of carpentry and management experience in building small and large houses of all types and styles; managing crews, design teams, manufacturing departments, and improvement teams for businesses.

Another advantage is the location of property that is owned on a busy highway, along with a large shop building to build small houses and tiny cabins, and a display area on highway 61 for showing off the completed tiny cabins. The highway has a traffic count of 10,000 hits a day and projected to 25,000 within 5 years. The potential is there for a lot of growth.

The downside of all the advantages is the state of the economy, locally and nationally. And if a business makes it in this environment, it will definitely be strategically ready when the business climate recovers. And it will recover!

Part of the planning of the business, besides drawing small house plans, and building a model of a tiny cabin, is having a network of support in the venture, be it financial, emotional or mentoring. Rev. Nancy Herrick from Our Spiritual Center , Elizabeth Traff, Carol Austin from Cross Dental Care, Daisy Mckinley, Jerry Wescott, and Bill Schmidt along with many others provided emotional support, guidance, and a open forum to bounce ideas around with. I thank each of these special friends for being along with me on this journey.

This blog, will follow that dream, and currently, I am in the stage of writing the business plan and laying out the website. Thinking funding would be limited, there was a concern, until a friend who believed in the dream offered hard cash as an investor. I know this dream is taking hold and all I need to do is follow the steps of the dream and hold onto the trolley strap for the ride. Italics from Wayne Dyers book, "Power of Intention"

Here's Thoreau's cabin:

This Thing Called You

From This Thing Called YOU by Ernest Holmes
Chapter 1, pg 13

The barriers between you and your greater good are not barriers in themselves. They are things of thought. It is because of this that all things are possible to faith. Jesus summed up the whole proposition when he said, "It is done unto you as you believe." In interpreting this saying, however, you must pause after the word as. Think about its meaning and you will discover that he was saying that life not only responds to your belief, it responds after the manner of your believing, as you believe. It is like a mirror reflecting the image of your belief.

While the laws of mind, like all laws of nature, are neutral, good must finally overcome evil. Evil is a negation. Good is positive. Like light and darkness - darkness cannot overcome light, but light can neutralize darkness. This is why Jesus said if you seek the Kingdom first "everything else" is included all things in this life that make for full livingness and joy, peace and happiness, health and harmony, and the success that rightfully belongs to a Divine Being.

The only warning Jesus made against the use of this highest law of your being was that it should not be used destructively. "...for all they take the sword shall perish with the sword." The Kingdom of God contains everything that is or could be disirable. This everything already exists as a potential something to be drawn upon. You may use this potential for any good purpose, not only with certainty of success but with safety. It is only when we use natural forces wrongly that they can destroy, and it is ordained that this destruction be of a temporary nature.

You wish to use the laws of your being in such a way that they cannot bring evil to yourself or others. Therefore, you must be certain that your desire is toward more life for everyone, including yourself. If you follow this rule you cannot use the law wrongly.

There is a law of faith and belief which is just as definite as any other law in nature. This law utilizes the Creative Principle of Life in such a way that all lesser uses of It become submerged. This is the triumphof Spirit.

BLESSING:

There is a Power for good in the universe, available to everyone, part of
each soul's journey, and I can learn to use it wonderfully. This power is my
Power of attention, for what I contemplate, I become. This is the eternal
spiritual law, and nothing can stop it. I can rail against it, complain
about it, or whimper about life not being fair. But ultimately, it is done
unto me as I believe.

I know that in truth, life is just. My habits of attention and perception
literally create the experience I have in the world. I choose to pay
attention to that which is life-supporting, that which nurtures and
encourages. I choose to place my attention on that which draws out of me a
greater Self, a stronger identification with The Self. This isn't about
ego-boosting; it's about Soul-freeing! I see the world as the play of
Spirit, unfolding from unseen substance. I see the actions and choices of
others as Spirit's action through the form of others. There's nothing to
fear here, for we're all part of the same great Soul, all on the same team.
I refuse to think in terms of separation or duality, and because I think in
terms of Unity and Wholeness, that's what I experience.

Because I discover the purity and the beauty and the grace even in the
middle of absolute chaos, I find an unshakable order within. Nothing can
get a rise out of me, for I am rooted deeply in spirit. And for this I am
grateful. And so it is.

Seeds for Thought

"Where love is present, miracles happen. Where the consciousness of God is present - the desire and willingness to love - there God is, for He is invoked through our willingness to serve His children. Commitment to love produces expanded possibilities."
Marianne Williamson

"A still mind is inherently tolerant. Because minds are already joined, only a busy mind can block communication. The ability to see another person clearly springs from gentle tolerance, not from scrutiny. Tolerance is the child of stillness."
Hugh Prather

"Your ego can blame as many people as you want for the choices you make, but at the end of the day, your conscience - your soul - does not assign blame."
Carolyn Myss

"The ego doesn't know that your only opportunity for being at peace is now. Or maybe it does know, and it is afraid that you might this out. Peace, after all, is the end of the ego."
Eckhart Tolle

Seeds for Thought

"Asking the Holy Spirit to heal us when we are sick means asking him to heal the thoughts within us that give rise to sickness." ~ Marianne Williamson

"Commitment does not preclude peace, and peace does not preclude commitment. Most of us think we are in situations we should not have to accept and around people we should not have to endure. Yet the life of every saint, prophet, and master is a story of acceptance that endures and endurance that accepts." ~ Hugh Prather

"You can tell yourself that you do indeed trust in this God, but do you really believe that your basic needs will be met in life? Do you require order in your physical world to feel safe? What do you pray for? How many prayers do you offer for safety? For protection? How many prayers do you make that stem from your desire to survive? How many prayers do you offer in surrender? How much do you fear that if you surrender, God will reduce you to poverty? Do you still need a reason for even one experience or trauma that happened to you? Do you still question why chaos swept through your life and reordered the plans you had?" ~ Carolyn Myss

"Negativity is not intelligent. It is always of the ego. The ego may be clever, but it is not intelligent. Cleverness pursues its own little aims. Intelligence sees the larger whole in which all things are connected. Cleverness is motivated by self-interest, and it is extremely short-sighted. Most politicians and businesspeople are clever. Very few are intelligent. Whatever is attained through cleverness is short-lived and always turns out to be eventually self-defeating. Cleverness divides; intelligence includes." ~ Eckhart Tolle