man-o-pause

Center4Humanity

There's no better cause today than the fight for human rights. Today, we stand at the cusp of global change. The deepening world crisis, on all levels, calls upon each and every one of us to focus on the purpose of humanity.

Compatriots of mine are launching a Web site that intends to meet the needs of humanity worldwide. It's called simply, The Center For Humanity. It's goal is to match human need with available resources. The watchword going forward is "sharing."

If you'd like to be notified when the site launches, just follow the Center 4 Humanity link, and add your email address.

In the meantime, Support Human Rights in any way you can. Even a simple act of kindness is registered by Cosmic Law.

Giving Purpose To Life: Imagine Peace

Forty years ago, John Lennon invited Yoko Ono to tell him more about a light house she had conceptualized. Today, the Imagine Peace Tower is a reality in Reykjavik, Iceland dedicated on October 9, 2007 - a day when John would have been 67 years old. His light shines on in this image and in his words.

Here's Yoko's story on YouTube with John Lennon singing "Imagine".

All we are saying is give peace a chance.
John Lennon, 1968

ImaginePeace.com

Let us wake up, come together,
and work on cleaning and healing our planet,
instead of further destroying it.
Let's not waste one more day in creating a machinery of destruction.
Give us a chance.
On behalf of ourselves and all species on Earth.
We can do it.
We must.

Yoko Ono
Address to the United Nations, 2005

What Can I Do To Help Humanity?

At this time of year, many of us feel depressed, disillusioned, dissatisfied, disengaged and, even, desperate. And we don't know why. These feelings run counter to the joy and celebration surrounding us.

We can look to the stars for one explanation. Astronomically, the sun is at its lowest point in the sky. The days are shorter; the nights are longer. Symbolically, this represents a time of inner reflection and contact with the spiritual side of one's nature. One can take the initial steps toward finding life purpose. Let this prayer be your guide.

Mantram of Unification

The sons of men are one and I am one with them. I seek to love, not hate.I seek to serve and not exact due service. I seek to heal, not hurt. Let pain bring due reward of light and love. Let the Soul control the outer form and life and all events, and bring to light the love which underlies the happenings of the time. Let vision come and insight. Let the future stand revealed. Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone. Let love prevail. Let all men love.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

Defining One's Life Purpose

If you're looking to overcome the mid-life transition with purpose and meaning, I encourage you to visit CivicVentures.org.

Every year Civic Ventures recognizes individuals over 60 who are using their talents to enhance the Greater Good by awarding The Purpose Prize –– five $100,000 and ten $10,000 investments. Nominations are now being accepted for 2008.

To nominate someone you know or to apply yourself, visit PurposePrize.Org. The application deadline is March 1, 2008. Prizes will be announced in the fall of 2008.

"Aging Boomers should be encouraged not only to continue contributing, but to rethink the purpose of that work—in short, to dust off their idealism of the ’60s and ’70s, and get to work making the world a better place."

As Marc Freedman, Founder and CEO, said, "It is the perfect opportunity for the generation that set out to change the world and got lost along the way." If you want to embrace the second half of life, read on.

A special thanks to Ode Magazine and their Encore Forum.

Unhappiness In Men

Are men less happy than women? Is the midlife crisis a marker event that defines you or expands you?

This week LifeTwo.com dedicates the week to improved happiness inspired by Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar and his book Happier. Thirty years ago, Dr. Leo Busgalia became famous as the "Love" doctor teaching college courses and holding seminars broadcast during PBS fundraisers. Today, we have websites, blogs and podcasts devoted to helping people live happier more productive lives.

Happiness, love, and contentment are all part of a continuum toward personal growth. You can always be happier. Therefore, as recommended by Ben-Shahar, the question should not be whether you are happy but what you can do to become happier. Better yet, ask yourself, "How can I be happier now and in the future?" Figuring out the answer to this last question and then doing something about it is the goal of LifeTwo's "How To Be Happy" week.

For me, it's been a lifelong pursuit, and I think now that I may have finally found an avenue to financial freedom I'll gladly let go the struggle. While it's been said that money can't make you happy, it sure helps.

Finding a Purpose In Life

Each of us were born with a unique purpose in life. Along the road to becoming, we may stumble and fall, but the quest for true meaning guides us.

In Life On Purpose: Six Passage to an Inspired Life by Brad Swift, DVM, the author advocates "transforming the world from one that's off purpose to one on purpose, one person at a time."

As the saying goes, it's simple but not easy.

In reality your Purpose already exists. One must first learn how to labor, then develop skills, goals, a plan and then strive toward the Purpose. Often people want to reach the summit before they develop skills.

I remember an employer saying, "You have to walk before you can run." I didn't like this advice one bit, but looking back I realized that I needed to develop muscles (skills) in order to reach my goals and to create a plan for my life.

Dr. Swift outlines a proven, systematic, spirutally based, and practical approach to begin to live a life at cause including a number of exercises to clarify your unique and "purposeful path."

Some confuse the means or the process to be an end in itself. Working to make money is not your Purpose, for example. Work is what we do on the way to Becoming. With a false purpose you eventually reach a dead-end street. I think this is at the root of why men in midlife question their choices.

A purposeless life is a confused life. In a family unit, if everyone is allowed to do their own thing, the family degenerates. If they don't work together, play together, plan together, they are like an instrument out of tune. When a parent gives a child a goal, he helps to integrate that child to a larger purpose, even if is only to clean his room. A synchronized family is a harmonious family.

And that's how we begin to transform the world, one person at a time.

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Additional references: The Purpose of Life, Torkom Saraydarian, p. 20.

ODE TO A NEW WORLD

I'm a magazine junkie and somehow I missed the socially conscious ODE Magazine until now. Since 1995 it has been giving Europeans a rich diet of real-life stories about positive change. Since 2003, Ode's been doing the same for Americans and the rest of the world with its international, English-language edition.

Ode brings you the cutting edge of positive changes from all over the planet featuring some of the most progressive and inclusive thinkers of our time including Jon Kabat-Zinn, Paul Hawkin, Dr. Andrew Weil and HRH The Prince of Wales, to name a few.

Ode is THE global news magazine that focuses on solutions, not just problems. The mainstream media has long focused on flashy, over-the-top, if it "bleeds it leads" style journalism while few report truthful, accurate, socially conscious stories. Ode dares to fill this void.

The magazine is an ode to new thoughts and courageous visions that look at familiar issues with a new perspective.

If you want

• a truly independent and global perspective,


• to read about solutions to problems,


• to connect to a network of positive change,


• to help change the world,

then I encourage you to subscribe to Ode Magazine. If you need further incentive, your new subscription includes "Touching the Earth" meditation and relaxation CD and a tree planted on your behalf!

The Tao of Midlife Crisis

I've written on this topic, as regular readers know, but today found an articulate, focused, elegant, and uplifting website created by Casey Kochmer called PersonalTao.com.

The truth, he writes, is that "Midlife Crisis is really a midlife transformation."

An excerpt: "....Midlife Crisis represents a deeper possibility for a person to become their dreams. However, those dreams are hard to realize within an unsupportive society and without clear personal understanding of the actual experience. People often end up hurting themselves in the process of trying to change. A person's life carries a lot of momentum from the past that tumbles them about heedlessly upon trying to change to be something new.

Midlife Crisis is an unfortunate label applied to those working through these transitional times of their life. So the first step to understanding this process is to understand what crisis is: Crisis is a turning point when change must happen to prevent the break down of the former order of things. Crisis is not a time of trouble: unless doing (sic) nothing. Crisis is a time for transformation and opportunity."

He offers a free online book or download for those interested in experiencing the Tao Way.