Another Day of Life Abundant !

High School Tests & GED Tests (Standards)

2010-03-11T02:55:00.000-08:00

When I was in high school (some 30-years-ago) tests were well-written and easy to comprehend. They had the ability to actually and accurately assess a student's knowledge of the subject or subjects on which they were given. Now, it seems like the sole mission of those who prepare tests is to sabotoge the student and doom them to failure!

Yesterday I was online checking out (and taking) some GED practice tests in order to see what my 17-year-old daughter was going to have to experience when she takes hers. I figured I'd start with my strong-suit, which is English. First off, I was appalled at the spelling and grammatical errors; but what really got me was how poorly each article was written. From run-on sentences, to college-level references and verbiage that caused one's head to spin, the articles were incredibly hard to comprehend. My reading skills are excellent and I test out at upper college-level, but I found it extremely challenging to figure out the talking points of these articles.

I kept thinking, 'Gosh, these tests are so different from what I did in high school!' The standards have changed so radically that high school standards now are what used to be college standards 30-years-ago. I don't think the human mind has changed that much, and since the drop-out rates per year in the U.S. are well over 6 million students, I think we can conclude that whatever the public school system is doing, it's failing miserably.

Since my daughter has been home schooled, she didn't have to jump through a lot of the academic hoops that many kids do. I took a very relaxed approach to her education and let her learn what she was interested in learning. I never looked at her as some container to be stuffed with useless information...I wanted her to have a joy about learning things. Since she was slightly dyslexic it also changed my approach. That, and the fact that she leaned far more in the direction of creativity versus academics, caused me to greatly alter how I educated her.

If she'd been in the "system" all those years, I'm sure she would have been held back several grades and received the message that she was stupid. Oh how wrong they would have been! She is a brilliant girl with a multitude of talents and a good head on her shoulders. She studies Japanese and has a gift for the language, is a self-taught Anime/Manga artist whose art is already selling, and has an incredible flair for doing business and is already learning how to market herself online. Her reasoning ability is off-the-charts scary, and she frequently opens my eyes to things to where I go, "Wow, how did you figure that out?"

I have to wonder if the standards that we are placing on kids is way beyond attainable. I think back to an episode of Little House on the Prairie, where Laurie Ingalls takes her teaching exam. It was a 2-page exam! Imagine that, in order to be a credentialed teacher in the 20th century you merely had to take a 2-page exam! Since the drop-out rate in this nation is well over 16%, maybe we should assess those standards and question whether they are correct or not.

Am I the only one who thinks that the standards are too high? I'd love to hear some opinions.

Use Your Words to Create a Better Life

2008-10-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

If you want a better life the first thing you'll have to do is change your "confession." You may ask, "What do you mean change my confession?" Well, what you speak about your life is your confession and your life will come into alignment with what speak. It's not something that you can quantify so much, but you can definitely verify it through action.

What do you talk about most of the time? Are you positive or negative? Do you frequently say things like this?

"I'm always broke."
"I'll never have a good job."
"I'm not smart enough."
"I'm not pretty/handsome enough."
"It won't work out."

Stop! Right now. Today. Don't let one more day pass using this kind of dialogue. Break the mind set and rise above it. It may take some time to retrain your mind and mouth, but it can be done. How? Through the power of the three Ds:

A) the decision to change
B) the desire to change
C) the determination to change

For awhile it will be a task that is minute-to-minute, and it will require accountability to someone else, as well as the mindset of not being easy on yourself. As you endeavor this you should know that it will seem like there are "forces" working against you, trying to make you think it doesn't matter. It does matter! Because good words magnetize positive things towards you and bad words do just the opposite.

The bottom line is this, anything worth having is worth working for. No investment--no return! Do you want a better life? Be willing to police yourself and not go easy on yourself. You'll reap benefits body, soul and spirit. Blessings will start to pour into your life as a result. So watch, speak, and see!!

Are we still seekers of beauty?

2008-10-08T07:47:00.002-07:00

Beauty can affect us! When we expose ourselves to beautiful songs, art, nature, and writing we place ourselves in a position for change.

The "arts" used to have great value placed upon them. Historically speaking, people were considered peasants if they were not exposed to the arts or trained in the arts. In more recent times towns were considered "small potatoes" if they didn't have some type of concert hall or artistic center. There was a loftier more stringent standard regarding focus upon the arts. Now you have to look harder to find the arts. In fact, you almost have to go on a "beauty quest."

So here's a question. Are we still seekers of beauty? Do we still long for creative, artistic connections? Are we still hungry to look and see and feel through exposure to the arts? Or has this technological age rubbed our human gears the wrong way? Can we live as technically savvy people and artistically enlightened people simultaneously? I believe we can.

I'm sure we've all noticed the difference between a well-crafted website and a shoddy one. We've also noticed the colors and artwork on sites--whether they please the eye or not. And of course we're all completely torqued by pop-ups and flashing graphics. We also notice when sites have misspelled words or the writing itself is clumsy. The bottom line is this: we are still sensitive to the arts and to how things are put together!

So it looks like we humans continue to hunger for beauty! Yes, we still want our inner chambers fed by the arts; whether it be a poem, a song, a photograph, or a piece of original artwork. We still revel at nature's panorama when it's served up to us like a private screening--especially when our spirits are low. So let's expose ourselves to them once again, and more regularly. That way our inner chambers will be fed perpetually and beautifully!

With pencil in hand and words in my heart I try to weave "life messages" that will have an impact on people. I believe that words can transform your world and even frame your world. Through poetry, essays, and articles you can broaden your horizons or discover vistas within yourself that you didn't know were there. We each have a unique fingerprint and we each have a unique destiny to reach for. I've been told that the messages I impart through my writing are life changing. I hope that's true, because my greatest desire is to affect people for the positive. You can visit me at Art By / Words By

Poetry Is Still Powerful

2008-10-08T07:19:00.001-07:00

I believe in the power of poetry. I myself have experienced great transformation as a result of reading poetry that contains what I call "life messages." I have even come to believe that one of my purposes for being on earth is to change people's lives through the power of the words that I write.

Here's the beginning of a song I wrote:

"My obstacles abound like trees in dense forest.
My Amazons are wide and hard to cross.
But my mind exists to make a ridge,
And my hands were made to build myself a bridge.

So what if my life is an exhibition.
So what if my life is an exploration.
No one ever said that significance comes easy.
And no one ever said I'd find my place in the blink of an eye."

If you stop to think about it, words are the building blocks of everything we see. We have a thought which we bring into the tangible world through words. The words then provide us with all that we need to shape something into a reality.

Look at that story in Genesis 11 in the Bible about the tower the people were building (Tower of Babel). It says that God came down and said, "Look! The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! Come, let's go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won't be able to understand each other." He wanted to cool their jets because they were getting a little bit too big for their britches, so he altered language.

You see, nothing is impossible to us if we can convey our thoughts through words. We can envision, express, and create anything we can conceive and communicate about! Yes, I believe in the power of words and in the power of poetry!

I want a beautiful life!

2008-08-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

I want a beautiful life! I want to surround myself with the beauty of nature, ideas, and vision. I also want to be connected to people who possess, and express, a panorama of internal beauty. Life is much too short for mediocrity! I long for my life to reflect the higher things. As a writer of poetry, songs, and inspirations I hunger to "turn a phrase" in such a way that it turns someone's heart. I like to challenge myself and learn new things all the time ... it's what keeps life interesting and invigorating. One of my greatest thrills is learning French; which I've been studying for five years. I have a pen pal in Calais, France and she tells me that my progress in French is "formidable."

I was very fortunate to be raised in upstate New York (Lake George) by parents who were intent on doing their best for their children. My dad, in particular, always made me feel that I was worthy, accepted, and appreciated. He was a carpenter and landscaper always busy with something, and I was a daddy's girl who just wanted to "hang" with dad. He never made me feel that I was interrupting him ... in fact it was quite the opposite. He always looked up with eyes that said, "Oh, it's you, you're just the person I wanted to see."

Sometimes I wonder if “nurture” was more responsible for my molding versus “nature.” It’s said we’re a product of both, but I rather think that who I’ve become is far more attributable to my parents. Of course it didn’t hurt that I was raised in such an idyllic place during awesome decades (mid 50s to early 70s).

I hope I’m able to pass on the blessing and impart sweet and wonderful things to my daughter. I pour myself into it on a daily basis, and she tells me things that affirm me. She’s said some things through the years that have really impacted me. When she was about seven she said, “Mom, I just love how you are.” And just recently she boosted my ego with this little gem, “You know, mom, you’re a tough act to follow. My husband is going to have to really step up to the plate in order to keep my interest. I’ve been hanging around you for so long … and life’s never dull.”

Keeping life interesting … that’s what I like to do through my writing, and I’ve been writing since I was five years old. I even have a picture of me sitting on my grandma’s lap with paper and pencil in hand. I have it in a little frame on my bedside table—it’s a constant reminder that the gift has been at work for awhile. I hope I can impact people with my gift, as well as earning a sweet livelihood.

Oxygen, We Can’t Live Without It!

2008-08-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

The first thing you did when you came out of your mother’s womb was to take a breath, and the last thing you’ll do before bidding planet earth “adieu” is take a breath. Oxygen is requisite to living! Unfortunately most of us are shallow breathers nowadays, and even if we were breathing deeply, the air quality is not what it was even a mere 100 years ago.

It’s rather funny that the one thing we can’t do without on this planet is a thing that’s given very little thought. Why just three minutes without oxygen causes brain damage, and five minutes without it usually causes death. Short of miracle that is! Strange when you realize that the body can go for up to forty days without food and four days without water.

Every cell of our mortal bodies must have oxygen in order to function, and the more we take in, the better off we are. That’s one of the reasons that exercise is so good for us, it forces the body to inhale oxygen at a deeper, more rich level.

Many people don’t realize the role that breathing plays in regards to health. It’s actually quite amazing how many physical problems people have that might be eradicated if they got more oxygen. Lack of it can cause poor digestion, fatigue, circulation problems, memory malfunction, depression, etc.

Nowadays the marketplace is filled with products that are oxygen related: oxygen pills, laundry detergents, facials, food supplements. Science has revealed some mysteries to us regarding what our bodies do with oxygen. Heck, you can even buy oxygen online now!

Two things that opened my eyes to the wonders of oxygen were deep breathing exercises and colon cleansing through a product that’s oxygen based. I lost 30 pounds from the deep breathing exercises, and we won’t go into how much I lost from colon cleansing. (Too personal!)

Many have said that death begins in the colon. I think it could also be said that health can be increased from cleansing the colon. I even have to wonder if that’s why there’s so much colon cancer now … since most people DO NOT clean their colons. In fact, I think it’s pretty fair to say that we clean our cars and homes better than we do our bodies!

As the old adage goes: “out with the bad and in with the good.” I think I’m going to explore what other possibilities there are through the power of oxygen … I’m sure I can find even more ways for oxygen to bring me greater health. Join me, won’t you!

Want to know more about the colon cleanse product I used (Oxy-Powder) or other oxygen based products go online to Global Healing Center.

I desire weath, but ...

2008-08-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

I desire wealth, but I don't want to sell my soul to get it, and as far as I'm concerned, if I have to spend more than 60% of my time doing things that don't nourish who I am and how I'm rigged, then forget it! Pursuit of wealth should be a joyous journey--filled with God-vistas and victories. Not something you dread sitting down to do, or getting up to do.

I've come to this thought as a result of trying to learn more about making money on the Internet. My head has been swimming with terms and buzz words, and if I hear the phrase "it's simple" one more time, I think I'll scream. Because you know what? It's not simple! Sure, it may be for some people if that's how their minds work, but it's kind of like playing chess ... you have to think out many moves ahead. Unfortunately that's not me. I'm not a strategist, and chess has always been quite difficult for me. So I'm really not a great candidate to be an Internet marketing whiz.

I'm not sure what decision I've come to regarding how to move forward. I can certainly see that ecommerce is wide open with possibilities for profit. But my desire for wealth, I believe, is from a healthy perspective, not greedy. You see, I believe it's God's will for me to prosper in every way. (I don't want to earn a living. I want to earn a giving.) I know that I have an excellent work ethic, and I'm certainly not afraid to work hard, but most of all I want to work at what nourishes my soul. As a writer, I want to write and make money from it. I guess I'll just have to pray and rest while I await some solid direction. Surely the Lord can lead me to those things that will increase me financially, without me going bonkers in the process.

Maybe I can find "my place" in the Internet terrain. I just need to search for it, expect it, and not settle for less! Can anyone relate?

Easy Weight Loss Using the 80/20 Rule

2008-08-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

For years people have known about the 80/20 rule, which is also known as Pareto’s Principle. The application of this rule can vary, but for the purpose of this article it means that 80% of the results can come from 20% of the effort. (If you want to learn more about the 80/20 rule, simply do a search on the web for Pareto's Principle.)

What I wonder is this: What would happen if you apply the 80/20 rule to dieting, or the pursuit of a lifestyle change in order to improve your health? For instance, what if you drink (on average) 4 soda pops every day and you cut it down to 3 per day. You’ve only taken away 25%, but you’ve also taken away calories and caustic additives. Over a year’s time you’ll have consumed 365 less sodas. That’s pretty significant. If each soda were only 100 calories each, you’d have consumed 36,500 less calories per year, which would probably mean you’d dropped some pounds also. Not to mention the good it does for your teeth and overall, general health.

What would happen if you ate 20% less at each meal? I’m not even going to try to figure out how many calories you’d save each day and how many pounds that would equate to. It’s so easy, and yet it’s one of those things that very few people think of. Losing about a pound per week would be like a walk in the park … effortless!

Of course everything I’ve mentioned so far takes it from the negative becoming more positive. What if you took the positive things you do and increase them by 20%. Like drinking one more cup of water each day or eating one piece of fruit each day. Those types of changes are bound to have a positive effect.

It’s a natural propensity for us to be driven towards pleasure and away from pain. And sadly, we regard dieting as painful. But we can mentally trick ourselves using the 80/20 rule. This way we forge positive, healthy changes through the baby steps that the 80/20 rule provides.

Let’s say you’re a smoker and you’ve tried just about everything short of chopping off your fingers! The 80/20 principle can give you some inspiration without “cutting you off at the weeds (knees).” You can improve your health (and get your self respect back) without fear of failure. Do you smoke 20 cigarettes per day? Smoke four less per day by just cutting out one cigarette every four hours. What if you smoke 40 cigarettes per day? Smoke eight less per day by cutting out one every hour or so. That’s not much, is it?

I'm a firm believer in baby steps and a big fan of quotes. One of my favorites is, "Inch by inch, it's a cinch. By the mile, it's a trial." The 80/20 rule reduces the overwhelming task of changing your health habits by taking baby steps. Anyone can use this principal with success! Give it a try.

Need more inspiration? Visit Wacky for Walking .