2012 – The year of new beginnings -What are your feelings about next year?

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The new year, 2012, is a year of endings and new beginnings.  Many people are having scattered feelings about what may come about in the world around us.  Fear, anxiety, anger and hope are a few of those feelings.  How will the world look by the end of 2012?  Only time will tell.  How will you change in 2012?  And, how are these intertwined or distinctly different?

You can google search the internet for so many views on what will happen as the Mayan calendar ends in 2012.  Natural disasters, social unrest and the collapse of all political systems as we now know them are speculations.  Interesting, what will happen if that day comes and goes?  Will you be disappointed or happy?

Many preparations are now underway for the end of the world or end of ‘things as they are now’.  We would encourage you to possibly look at this year as an ending to your beliefs, the way you think about people and things, and a clean slat to create what you would love.  Sounds interesting?  We think so.

The year 2011 had an increase in natural disasters and economic despair.  While there are volunteers and FEMA to clean up the pieces and make you ‘whole’, these same people may not be there in 2012 when you need them.

As the beginning of this year approaches, take time to see what is important to you.  People, places, or things may be of no value to all as they too transform or fall away.  It is very important to begin to focus a moment of each day on you.  While this very much can seem foreign to some, remember, we came into this world and will leave this world, as ourself. 

When disasters occur, people that you thought would be there for you, tend to disappear with storm fatigue or they have issues of their own.  When the money dries up, the need for material goods can yank at your heart strings.  When you are left with less or are at the door of change, it again will be just you taking that step through the door. 

Start each new day, close your eyes for three seconds and proclaim:

I start today anew.  As I step through the door, I pray for the inspiring to find me and I leave behind that which no longer works for me. 

Then, open your eyes, shake like a dog shaking off bugs, and put on smile.  Experiences await, you just never know!  By years end, you will have 365 beginnings and endings!  See, no fears, you are still here!

When is it time to start new cities or communities? Post a natural disaster? Can you really go ‘home’?

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Can ever really go home?  Would you want to?  Why?  What if you were roused from your home?  What if home was no longer there?  What really is ‘home’?

After natural disasters, home becomes discussions about the ‘house’ and the state it may be in.  The family may be disoriented and feel shockingly disconnected to the stability they had previously created. Continue reading »

City of issues? Social challenges rising in communities

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Today, we received many postcards in our mailbox giving details of sex offenders living in our neighborhood. As I sat reading this, there was an ice cream truck going around the block with its old fashioned voice calling the kids and saying hello in a female voice. It was a strange type of calling. This is all happening after two weeks of intense violence within families, cultures and drug related murders in our area. Continue reading »

Know Everything Where You Live

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Copyright 2010 The Rose Project All Rights Reserved

About ten years ago, I was looking to relocate to the North east. Since I was limited on time for my trip, I planned to visit several cities and see several homes with realtors. My daughter and I were driving into a city late one night and noticed a stench in the air of chemicals and sewer rot. When we asked the real estate agent the next day about the smell she responded with a whole-hearted laugh, “Oh, yes, but we got rid of most of the poisonous toxins from the city, they buried them from the paint plant with tons of soil a few years ago. That smell won’t kill you, it is only at night.”

Just like this pipe that is running water into this canal, it looks ok and you would think nothing of it unless it started to foam, right? This water came from a chemical runoff plant and coal area. It passes through animal and food farms. It runs into seafood beds. It enters water supply areas.

What do you think it does? What do you think it has in it? What do you think it can affect? What harm can it do? How is it tested? What is it tested for? What is it not tested for? How do you think about it? How do you ignore it?

We welcome positive comments and thoughts only………

The view of a ghost like ship sent off with fanfare and hearts in New Orleans today

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Ship in Fog, USA flag in foreground

Copyright 2010 The Rose Project All Rights Reserved

Today, at 5 am, we got up and were heading to downtown New Orleans Moonwalk in the French Quarter on the Mississippi River. We wanted to watch a ship pass by that was just completed at Avondale Shipyards just a few miles up river from us.

The most important thing about this, it was a ship that is made from 7.5 tons of metal from the 911 wreckage. It is named the ‘we will never forget’ ship. It was completely built here at this shipyard from scratch to completion. Today, it is done, the final paint was put on, the crew on board and the sailing plan set for Virginia and then on to New York City in the next several months.

While this is a monumental feat at best to take a significant loss and create from the ashes and metal, what also took place today was a beautiful candle on the cake. Thousands of people lined the levee, that is the bank of the river, from Avondale to the mouth of the river to send this grand ship off in all spectacle, but bigger still, to let the ship know, the people support it, the people feel it, the people believed in America and the strength was felt on all levels.

We all waited for the ship to come round the bend under the Mississippi River bridge, (yes, the same one that people were not allowed to cross in Katrina, when the city was flooded and Gretna on the other side was high and dry and never even lost power or people or had serious effects), but the fog rolled in and we could not even see the middle of the river, let alone any ship traffic.

We waited, people came, people left, but the crowd waited, just like waiting for a Mardi Gras parade, for when it comes, in New Orleans time, it will come when it comes. It was expected for 8:30, but did not round the bend until almost going for ten. But, the fog was so thick, we waited for the river to ripple, we waited for the fog horns to blare, or the bands to play, but waiting and hoping for a big metal ghost to come out of the f og came slow and quick with such a filtered glimpse, that those who blinked may have missed it.

Copyright 2010 The Rose Project All Rights Reserved

It made this seem grander to all senses, as we listened to the loud horn of the ship, then the calliope of the River Queen paddle boat started to play ‘New York, New York’ , and the ghost of the river drifted past, with push boats and tug boats, all shooting up their water spouts like whales, and the people all yelling ‘USA” and waving their free flags all along the banks of the river. We waved, yelled, sought with ours eyes, listened with our ears and remembered with our minds.

All attempts to ‘get pictures’ showed only an outline in the distance, but the people will remember, the ship we will not forget, we were there, if only for those two minutes for the ship to enter our sight, to drift out of our sight, that is how we will remember.

There are so many things to worry about, to say is wrong, right, or good or bad, this just was, it happened, it was created. Not just with metal, or loss or money, it was the people who were remembered, the people who built it, the people who came to send it off. People make the world a better place, be present.


Copyright – Written by: Jeanette Gallagher Oct. 13th 2009