What I do perceive is Davey sharing these things with us freely out of love and generosity of spirit. And I perceive people like Milo tearing Davey down. It serves no purpose, in my opinion. Sometimes I do forget that my opinion is only one perspective.

The only person you can change is yourself.

So the works begins right here, with me…
and with you.

Be well,

Go to iTunes and buy Hope for Haiti Now. I did, even though I don’t really care for most of the songs on that album. It was my way of helping from where I am.

I travel for pleasure a lot and I have to admit that feel I have to make up for it by doing things at home.

I love Dave, but sometimes he does pontificate. When you love people, you take the good and the ugly.

Milo, how’s your backyard looking?

For example, I’m from Canada. En route to a weekend in Chicago, I withdrew some money from an ATM in Detroit and forgot my card in the machine. The only way to get a new one was to cross back into Canada, go to my bank and have another one made. This would take a few hours and we did not have time. The bank would not – and indeed could not – open their ATM and get my card out.

I could easily have labeled this a problem. I would have had a miserable time in Chicago and I would have been completely pissed off at everyone and everything around me for not helping me to have things the way I wanted them to be (which is merely a story anyway – something I’d be telling myself so I didn’t have to take responsibility for my situation). I chose, instead, to be powerful and to accept that I didn’t have my debit card and I only had $100 cash for the weekend. I made it into an opportunity to be resourceful. I used credit where I could. Where I needed cash I borrowed it from people – even a couple people in our group who I had only just met. I was making requests of people that were bold and that I wouldn’t normally have made strictly to challenge myself to be powerful and resourceful. It worked.

This was, certainly, not a life-or-death issue. Take Haiti, for example. It seems they have quite an intractable problem on their hands, at present. We can’t do anything about the earthquake having happened. It did. That’s all there is to it. The only thing we can control is our response to the issue. Is it a problem? Or is it an opportunity to shine some light on the poorest nation in the western hemisphere? I say this is the wake-up call that we need to really see what’s happening down there – not just as a consequence of the earthquake but also day-to-day. Haiti is now fully in our spotlights and we cannot ignore it. It’s our opportunity – and our responsibility – to make a difference for these people and this nation. In a dark room, we have 2 choices: curse the darkness (because the darkness is a problem for us) or light a candle (because it’s not that tough and we can overcome the darkness with some effort).

If we look at something as a problem, it will certainly be one. But if we look at it from a more empowering perspective then we will be far more empowered to deal with the situation without worrying about all the ancillary ‘stories’ that come with problems.

I don’t believe it’s helpful in the least to deride people simply because we feel they don’t meet the proper standard. Clean up your own back yard before you start trying to clean others’. That’s part of the message in the video and something I think would be helpful for you to hear.

Have you ever been a aid worker abroad? Do you know what it’s like to be relied upon to help when resouces are non existant? Do you think you could endure the diseases and heat in a war torn country or state for 2-3 months?

If you ever do, as I have, you will discover that you wiil stop thinking about yourself and focus on the bigger problem that you wish to god you could find a solution.

Peace and let’s hope you don’t have someone waiting for you to make a mistake to be a form of entertainment for them.

Cheers!