Nieuws

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http://www.bnctv.co.uk/crime-obi-the-brave-police-dog-to-go-to-the-house-of-lords/Three-year-old German Shepherd Obi, a police dog based at West Drayton Police Station in Middlesex, was on frontline duties alongside handler PC Phil Wells in Tottenham in August when they came under heavy bombardment from bottles, bricks, street furniture and petrol bombs thrown by rioters.

Obi was hit by a missile, thought to be a brick, above his left eye. After passing an initial check, he continued to work for several hours, but it later became clear he was injured when blood was noticed trickling from his left nostril. He was then taken to a vet for assessment and transferred to the Queen’s Veterinary Hospital in Cambridge where a CT scan revealed a fracture to his skull above the left eye socket.

After being signed off work to allow for a full recovery, Obi took a well-deserved rest at home before returning to lighter duties. Earlier this week, after a final check, he was cleared to return to full duties.

Robbie Marsland, UK Director of IFAW, said: “We are delighted to be able to highlight the amazing service given by police dogs such as Obi. We were relieved to hear he has made a good recovery and he is a truly rewarding winner of our special Animal Bravery Award.”

Obi will receive his award at IFAW’s prestigious Animal Action Awards ceremony, hosted by Baroness Gale, at the House of Lords on October 18. PC Wells will accompany Obi to the ceremony.

PC Wells (30), said: “It was quite humbling to hear that Obi was to receive this award, in the same way that the public responded in the aftermath of the riots and came out to thank us. It’s really nice to have the work recognised and while Obi received a lot of attention, we are just one of many dog teams who go out on the streets every day. Obi has been keen to get back to work; he didn’t like being left at home when I set off on my own as he loves it.”

Commander Simon Pountain, in overall charge of the dog section, said: “I am really pleased that one of our dog handlers and his dog have been honoured in this way. This is a wonderful accolade for all the dog section, and I am extremely proud of all the tremendous work they do.”

Obi has lived with PC Wells, his wife Laura and two children in Surrey since he was a puppy and will stay with them as a pet when his working life ends.

All eight police dogs working in his unit on the same night in Tottenham High Road suffered some degree of injury, from cut paw pads from broken glass and debris, to cuts to the body and broken teeth.

Bron : http://www.bnctv.co.uk/crime-obi-the-brave-police-dog-to-go-to-the-house-of-lords/

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Tengevolge van de aardbeving van 11 maart 2011 in Japan en het ongeluk met de nuclaire installatie in Fukushima is op 5 april 2011 11.500 ton radioactief verontreinigd water in zee gestort... Teneinde de oceaan en al haar bewoners te hulp te komen, stellen wij u het volgende gebruik van de flacon "Environment" van onze Kit Actions Espoir voor.

U kunt ofwel direct een beetje van de flacon "Environment" in de zee verstuiven, of een beetje in een kom of fles waarin u wat water gedaan hebt, en dit vervolgens in de zee gieten. Als u niet vlakbij zee woont, kunt u het produkt of het water met daarin het produkt heel goed in een rivier of andere waterweg gieten, die vervolgens in zee zal uitkomen. Of u in Japan woont of aan het andere eind van de wereld maakt geen enkel verschil, want alle zeeën en oceanen staan met elkaar in verbinding.

De informatie in dit produkt wordt vervolgens overgebracht op de zee, op dezelfde wijze als in de algemene presentatie van de kit wordt uitgelegd. In feite wordt de informatie die zich in het mengsel bevindt overgedragen aan het water, in dit specifieke geval de zee, om haar te helpen te herstellen van het ondergane trauma. Door de zee te helpen, helpt u alle wezens die daar leven... Het is tamelijk bijzonder, dat moet erkend worden, maar het gaat hier om avant-garde processen.

Zoals eerder geschreven in de algemene presentatie van de kit, is dit soort van "codering" van een energetische informatie in een fytotherapeutisch produkt (bloesemremedies en etherische oliën) een zaak van specialisten en wordt geleidelijk aan gemeengoed voor bijvoorbeeld, de meest bekende, de Bachbloesemremedies, de FES remedies en andere grote bedrijven in de wereld, die zich op dit grote innovatieve gat in de markt gestort hebben gedurende de laatste jaren.Hoe dan ook, het is een middel dat binnen bereik ligt van iedereen en alle beurzen om, op een concrete manier, in dit geval, de planeet te helpen.

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Meer dan zes jaar geleden besefte Heidemarie dat er iets mis was in haar leven. In wezen mistte ze niets: ze had een goed betaalde baan, een eigen huis, een auto, bankrekeningen in zwarte cijfers en een huis vol spullen. Ze specialiseerde zich in het onderwijs, vervolgens in de gestalttherapie en maakte als psycholoog een groot deel van haar carrière. Maar op een dag besloot ze de meest radicale beslissing van haar leven te maken en alles achter te laten. Ze verdeelde haar geld onder haar kinderen en sloot haar bankrekeningen. Ze gaf de auto, het huis en haar spullen weg totdat zij achter bleef met niets. Heidemarie besloot dakloos te worden. Ze claimt haar vrijheid en beweert dat dit haar roeping is: “de missie om de aandacht te vestigen op het onrecht. Ik heb geen vakantie nodig, het is een van de fouten van onze samenleving. Het scheidt vrije tijd en werk, omdat de meeste mensen iets doen wat ze niet leuk vinden om geld te verdienen en uit te geven aan dingen die ze niet nodig hebben “.

Dus in 1996 stichtte Heidemarie samen met andere collega’s, de vereniging Gib und Nimm. Een centrum waar ruilhandel is van spullen, uitwisseling van kennis en verschillende andere activiteiten. Ieder doet wat zij kunnen en krijgen van anderen diensten die zij kunnen bieden. Bijvoorbeeld het bereiden van voedsel, auto reparatie, een knipbeurt of lessen voor kinderen. Op deze manier krijgt iedereen wat hij/zij nodig heeft door iets te doen wat zij willen, zonder enige inspanning. Om deze reden voelt Heidemarie zich erg blij vandaag, zonder iets materialistisch. In ruil daarvoor heeft ze de vrijheid verdiend te doen wat ze wil, op de manier waarop ze dat wil en alle tijd daarvoor te hebben. En het is geen klein feest. Deze praktijken benadrukken haar schepper, het positieve effect van haar toegenomen persoonlijke zelfvertrouwen en gevoel van eigenwaarde kunnen iedereen dat bieden. Het vermijden van vervreemding veroorzaakt door een baan die hen niet motiveert of een vertegenwoordiging is van diegene. Het is een systeem gebaseerd op wederzijds vertrouwen en solidariteit, die het verdrag vernietigt “wat u heeft, is wat u waard bent.”

Haar boek “Leven zonder geld” is een succes geworden sinds de publicatie ervan. En de auteur (zeer consequent) verspreidt het met het auteursrecht verdiende geld onder mishandelde vrouwen, maatschappelijk werkers en diverse andere ondersteunende groepen.

Bron : http://www.whattoseeinberlin.com/nl/heidemarie-schwermer/

Zie ook : http://livingwithoutmoney.org/

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Tuy Sereivathana introduceerde innovatieve low-budget oplossingen om het olifanten-mensen conflict in Cambodja te verlichten, door de lokale overheden in staat te stellen om samen te werken voor het behoud van bedreigde Aziatische olifanten. 

Hieronder het volledige (Engelstalige) artikel

Elephants and Development
Cambodia has a long history of peaceful coexistence between people and elephants. Its most famous building, the spectacular Angkor Wat temple, was built out of stone and marble with the help of elephants in the 12th and 13th centuries. Elephants, then abundant in Southeast Asia, served as the critical heavy machinery, carrying building materials and providing the necessary force to hoist pulleys and move stone. Long revered in Hindu and Buddhist traditions, elephants continue to hold deep meaning for followers of those religions today. In Khmer history following the Angkor period, several kings believed that possessing rare white elephants could bring glory for the country. However, despite their cultural significance, after a period of unregulated development, Cambodia’s wild elephant population has dwindled significantly.

Cambodia is a country in transition, having emerged from a violent and isolated past under the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and subsequent conflicts between the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian government in the 1980s. Now, growing as a constitutional monarchy, Cambodia has experienced a dramatic increase in population and an explosion of unregulated development. This has placed enormous strain on the country’s natural resources, particularly its now-fragmented rainforests.

Migration routes of endangered Asian elephants have been disturbed by this development, leading to conflicts between local communities and elephants. With their habitat decreasing, elephants are destroying farms as they look for food on the edges of the forests. Many rural farmers have been forced to relocate as a result of development in other parts of the country, tilling small tracts of land on the forests’ edges to feed their families. Desperate farmers have, in the past, killed elephants to protect their crops. These migrant farmers have no experience living in wildlife areas and no bond with the forests or the elephants. They are extremely poor, have little education and no political power to resolve land and livelihood conflicts.

Human-Elephant Conflicts Resolved
Tuy Sereivathana (Vathana) was born in 1970, the same year that Cambodia entered into a period of extreme political upheaval. In 1975 his family fled from the city and the brutal Pol Pot regime to the rural village where Tuy’s father’s family lived. Tuy’s parents, both well-educated, taught school in the mornings to the local children and farmed in the afternoon to make ends meet. During his childhood years in the countryside, Tuy developed a deep respect for nature and was particularly fascinated with elephants. Later, when he was awarded a scholarship to attend university in Belarus, he focused on forestry studies and returned to Cambodia committed to working to conserve his country’s natural resources.

As a ranger with Cambodia’s national parks, Tuy worked throughout the country, connecting with rural communities and learning more about elephant migration and ecosystems. In Prey Proseth and Trang Troyeng, two communities not far from Tuy’s ancestral home where 30,000 people live on the forest’s edge, he became aware of the lack of capacity within these communities to manage the human-elephant conflict they faced. In response, Tuy began developing his community-based model, spending time with the farmers in their fields and building their trust. He taught villagers how to use hot chilies, native plants, fences, fireworks and fog horns to ward off elephants. He demonstrated the benefits of crop rotation and diversification. Tuy encouraged farmers to alternate rapidly-growing crops such as cucumbers, which can be harvested several times a year before the elephants discover they are ripe. With this type of system, only one of many annual harvests would be damaged in the event of an elephant raid into a farmer’s field. More importantly, he fostered cooperation among the farmers to work together as a community, encouraging them to organize overnight guard groups to protect the fields. Tuy was also able to revive in the communities the national and religious pride attached to the Asian elephant, as many Cambodians revere elephants as sacred Buddhist symbols. Because Tuy understood the dynamics of this environmental problem, he was able to develop simple, effective strategies and practical solutions at the grassroots level.

During this time, Tuy, affectionately known as “Uncle Elephant” in the communities he works with, left his position as a National Parks officer under the Cambodian Ministry of Environment in 2003 to assume the role of Human Elephant Conflict Team Leader for the Cambodian Elephant Conservation Group, a project co-sponsored by Fauna & Flora International, the Cambodian government and community organizations. Tuy later became full-time manager of the project in 2006.

In 2008, Tuy helped set up schools and brought teachers to the isolated communities dealing with human-elephant conflict. He saw this as another opportunity to embed the elephant and wildlife conservation message into the community. With support from Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the Los Angeles Zoo and International Elephant Foundation (IEF), Tuy was able to set up four schools. One day per week, these schools teach 250 children about the natural environment, elephants and other wildlife, and how to live in harmony with nature.

Since his work began, Tuy has seen significant success. At the start of the decade, elephant killings due to crop raids were not uncommon. As a result of Tuy’s involvement with the project, there has not been a single confirmed elephant death due to human-elephant conflict since 2005.

As elephant populations throughout Asia continue to decline, Tuy’s program has brought hope to local communities and bettered the prospects of endangered Asian elephants in Cambodia. Tuy’s model is now being used in neighboring communities and is being considered in other countries with human-elephant conflicts such as Vietnam and Indonesia.

Bron : http://www.goldmanprize.org/2010/asia

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Wat wij aanbieden aan diegenen die daaraan behoefte hebben, is informatie die wij verkregen hebben uit onze uitwisselingen met de dieren, over welk onderwerp dan ook dat zorgen baart aan hun verzorger, dierenarts of diegenen die zich over hen ontfermen, hen opvangen, die met hun zorg belast zijn, etc..

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Khan Yunis Journal
Finding a Steadier Path in Gaza
Wissam Nassar for The New York Times

Dr. James S. Gordon, an American psychiatrist, led Gaza children in a coping technique recently in Khan Yunis.
By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: September 7, 2010


KHAN
YUNIS, Gaza — Tough-looking ambulance drivers in this central Gazan
city are drawing images of their fears with crayons. In the
northwestern village of El Atatra, in an overheated hall without
electricity, 10-year-olds are closing their eyes and imagining a
reassuring place. In Gaza City, women who have lost children to
political violence are dancing away their tensions, their black abayas
shaking and flowing.

Gazan women imagined a safe place during a mind-over-body session.

Gaza,
the Palestinian coastal strip filled with refugees and hardship, is not
generally thought of as a center of New Age sensibilities. But through
the intervention of a classically trained but alternative-seeking
American psychiatrist, nearly 10,000 people here have been taught
techniques to reduce anger, ease family tensions and give them a sense
of control in an environment known for helplessness.

“My husband
is ill, I lost a dear friend a few days ago and the Israelis shelled
near our house last night,” Hadba Abu Daha, who lives near the Israeli
border crossing of Kissufim in east-central Gaza, said during a recent
session. “Being in this group makes us feel safe, like we are on Ali
Baba’s carpet. Here we can express our feelings and know that someone
cares about us.”

Ms. Abu Daha and others said that the
techniques, designed for people in stress and offered here free of
charge, were useful not only for them, but for their children and
husbands, to whom they teach the techniques.

The force behind
the training is Dr. James S. Gordon, a clinical professor at Georgetown
Medical School, a graduate of Harvard Medical School and a onetime
chairman of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative
Medicine Policy. He is the rare American, and Jew, who has been
regularly visiting Gaza since 2002.

“We don’t have the power to
change the tragedy they are mired in,” Dr. Gordon, 68, said recently on
one of his trips here. “But we can help them gain a sense of control so
they can look at the world differently.”

Looking at the world
differently has been his quest for 40 years. Long before acupuncture or
mind-over-body techniques were considered anything but quackery by
American medicine, he was studying and promoting them.

Since
1991 he has run the Washington-based Center for Mind-Body Medicine,
which he founded, and he has taken his techniques to Bosnia, Kosovo,
post-Katrina Louisiana, Gaza and Israel. The program, he reported in a
peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, has
produced significant reductions in stress, depression and hopelessness
among participants, both immediately after participation and some
months later.

He currently has a grant from the Department of
Defense to test his techniques on soldiers returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression.

The
system, which blends elements of psychotherapy with classic self-help
techniques, may sound a bit hokey. Participants, divided into groups of
10, meet weekly for 10 weeks and are led through a series of exercises
involving closing their eyes, relaxing their bellies, “talking” to
their pain, imagining a safe place, drawing and dancing.

But the
program’s graduates here are enthusiastic and Mind-Body is now
everywhere in Gaza, with scores of instructors, many of them working
without pay, and waiting lists of people seeking to get in.

“Counseling
is new in Arab culture,” noted Shaher Yaghi, a Mind-Body counselor who
works with children with special needs. “People don’t want to be seen
as crazy, so they avoid therapy. But in a group there is less of a
stigma. A woman can’t easily go out alone in our culture, but here she
brings a friend. We show them how to cope and change their mood and
gain equilibrium.”

Another advantage to such group work is that
Gaza is not exactly teeming with advanced mental health professionals,
and this is a program that does not need them.

According to
Mohammad al-Sebah, director of mental health services at the Hamas
Ministry of Health here, Gaza, with a population of 1.5 million, has a
total of 6 psychiatrists and 22 clinical psychologists.

Some counselors are trained psychologists, but most are not.

Dr.
Gordon, who has spent $3 million on the Gaza program, all raised from
private donors, has trained 200 group leaders here in weeklong
sessions. The training is essentially an intensive version of the
sessions that the counselors will later teach, along with some of the
theoretical backing. The counselors continue their training in
bimonthly meetings with one another.

The Health Ministry, Mr.
Sebah said, had high praise for Mind-Body, and he is an instructor in
its program. Dr. Gordon said the minister of health, Bassem Naim, was
welcoming of his program and seemed unfazed by his being Jewish.

To
ease concerns here over the music and dancing, which are part of the
technique, but are frowned upon by the strict form of Islam that holds
sway here, the genders are segregated and the music tends to have an
Islamic or folkloric quality to it. The Dabke, a popular Palestinian
folk dance, is often used.

Dr. Gordon is now talking with the
Palestinian authorities in the West Bank, run by the Fatah-dominated
Palestinian Authority, about bringing his technique there, probably by
having the Gazans train people.

He has also spent time training
Israelis who endured rocket attacks by Hamas. With the big reduction in
rocket attacks over the past year, his work in Israel has diminished,
but for a while a couple of years ago, there were closed eyes and soft
bellies going simultaneously in Israel and Gaza, a few miles apart.

He brought Kosovar counselors here to train the Gazans, and has brought counselors from Israel and Gaza together for training.

He
plans to take them all, along with counselors from the United States,
to Haiti this fall to train Haitians devastated by the earthquake.
Cross-national teamwork is part of his vision for healing the world’s
trauma.

The Mind-Body counselors in Gaza meet every two weeks,
exchanging impressions and offering one another advice. They call the
meetings their own safe place.

“We try to look to the light, to
the hope,” said Jamil Abdel Atti, who heads Mind-Body in Gaza. “We say,
‘Take off those dark glasses.’ ”

For some participants, optimism
emerges quickly. In El Atatra, a small group of 8- to 10-year-olds were
in their fourth Mind-Body lesson, and had been asked to draw three
images: themselves, their biggest worry and what it looks like after
their problem is solved.

Hazem, 10, drew his problem, as did
many of the others, as an Israeli tank aiming its barrel at a house,
something that happened in the war 19 months ago. His solution drawing,
however, was unusual. It showed the soldier in the tank and the
inhabitant of the house emerging and shaking hands.

A version of this article appeared in print on September 8, 2010, on page A6 of the New York edition.


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In een wereld waarin het slechte nieuws, het negatieve, het lijden en de wanhoop de norm worden, presenteert www.fondation-bazile.org artikelen die tot nadenken stemmen, suggesties en praktische adviezen aan allen die er behoefte aan hebben om sterker te worden in tegenspoed, hoofdzakelijk in het geval van natuurrampen.

Het delen van een visie op mensen, dieren en de omgeving, via teksten en artikelen, is een actie om het bewustzijn van eenieder te doen evolueren.

De Kit "Actions Espoir", ontstaan vanuit een originele denkwijze, levert tegen geringe kosten een van de meest vernieuwende produkten, voor al diegenen die soms ondenkbare beproevingen te boven moeten komen...

De opvang van personen, maar ook van dieren in nood, ondersteunt diegenen die behoefte hebben om de hoop weer terug te vinden.

www.fondation-bazile.org is de site van de Fondation Luc bazile - Actions Espoir, stichting zonder winstoogmerk, die als doelstelling heeft om door middel van conferenties, geschreven teksten, ateliers, en acties op lokaal, regionaal, nationaal en internationaal niveau, te helpen de mentaliteit te doen evolueren en op deze wijze bij te dragen aan :

- De hulp, de bijstand en de bescherming van het leven van mens en dier in de eerste plaats in het geval van een natuurramp ;

- De bescherming van de planeet in al haar levensvormen.

Zij wil met eenvoudige middelen en aan een zo groot mogelijk aantal een hulp bieden die verder gaat dan de beproevingen van het bestaan, om zo de hoop weer terug te vinden.

Voor meer informatie kijkt u op www.fondation-bazile.org

Contact : info(at)fondation-bazile.org

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- Februari : Missie in Petite-Terre (eiland-beschermd natuurgebied) : communicatie oefeningen met en walvisachtigen en leguanen.

- Mei : Opvang van een mishandeld dier lijdende aan psychologische problemen (nachtelijke paniekaanvallen) met zelfverminkingsgedrag. Onderzoek en opstellen van een rapport in samenwerking met een vertegenwoordigster van de SPA (Dierenbescherming) met het oog op een adoptie (hond).

- Augustus/September : Praktijkoefeningen op vervuild terrein met als doel de regeneratie van gewonde bomen en met gebruikmaking van de "Environmental Trauma Relief" uit de Kit Actions Espoir voor de regeneratie van bloemen (orchideeën), bomen en struiken. 

- September : Distributie van de Kit Actions Espoir onder enkele families, slachtoffer van de aardbevingen (Christchurch, Nieuw-Zeeland).

- Oktober : Advies en consult op afstand via Internet voor een hond met nachtelijke paniekaanvallen en zelfverminking (Bas, Nederland).

- November : Gift van een Kit Actions Espoir aan een inwoner van Haïti die terugkeert om zijn familie te bezoeken.

- November : Opvang en verzorging van drie verlaten, uitgedroogde en ondervoede kittens.

- Kerst : In samenwerking met 2 maatschappelijk werksters, uitdelen van diverse Kerstmaaltijd-pakketjes aan mensen in nood in de regio Sainte-Rose.

- Kerst : Redding en opvang van een loslopende hond (vrl.).

- 2010 : Diverse kortdurende interventies bij dieren, voornamelijk zoogdieren met gebruikmaking van de kit Actions Espoir ; diverse consulten voor psychologische hulpverlening aan mensen bij de vestiging van de Fondation ; aromatherapieconsulten voor mens en dier ; sanitaire voorzieningen bij ons kantoor ten behoeve van de spoedopvang van mensen ; constructie van een noodopvang voor kleine gewonde dieren ; psychologische hulpverlening aan mensen die diverse traumatiserende situaties hebben doorgemaakt ; brief aan het Kabinet der Koninging Beatrix der Nederlanden met originele informatie over de orka Morgan, onderwerp van discussie voor wat betreft haar vrijlating uit het dierenpark waaar zij werd verzorgd. 

 

 

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Noetic Sciences Review
Spring 1996
In the Service of Life
In
recent years the question how can I help? has become meaningful to many
people. But perhaps there is a deeper question we might consider.
Perhaps the real question is not how can I help? but how can I serve?

Serving
is different from helping. Helping is based on inequality; it is not a
relationship between equals. When you help you use your own strength to
help those of lesser strength. If I'm attentive to what's going on
inside of me when I'm helping, I find that I'm always helping someone
who's not as strong as I am, who is needier than I am. People feel this
inequality. When we help we may inadvertently take away from people
more than we could ever give them; we may diminish their self-esteem,
their sense of worth, integrity and wholeness. When I help I am very
aware of my own strength. But we don't serve with our strength, we
serve with ourselves. We draw from all of our experiences. Our
limitations serve, our wounds serve, even our darkness can serve. The
wholeness in us serves the wholeness in others and the wholeness in
life. The wholeness in you is the same as the wholeness in me. Service
is a relationship between equals.

Helping incurs debt. When you
help someone they owe you one. But serving, like healing, is mutual.
There is no debt. I am as served as the person I am serving. When I
help I have a feeling of satisfaction. When I serve I have a feeling of
gratitude. These are very different things.

Serving is also
different from fixing. When I fix a person I perceive them as broken,
and their brokenness requires me to act. When I fix I do not see the
wholeness in the other person or trust the integrity of the life in
them. When I serve I see and trust that wholeness. It is what I am
responding to and collaborating with.

There is distance between
ourselves and whatever or whomever we are fixing. Fixing is a form of
judgment. All judgment creates distance, a disconnection, an experience
of difference. In fixing there is an inequality of expertise that can
easily become a moral distance. We cannot serve at a distance. We can
only serve that to which we are profoundly connected, that which we are
willing to touch. This is Mother Teresa's basic message. We serve life
not because it is broken but because it is holy.

If helping is
an experience of strength, fixing is an experience of mastery and
expertise. Service, on the other hand, is an experience of mystery,
surrender and awe. A fixer has the illusion of being causal. A server
knows that he or she is being used and has a willingness to be used in
the service of something greater, something essentially unknown. Fixing
and helping are very personal; they are very particular, concrete and
specific. We fix and help many different things in our lifetimes, but
when we serve we are always serving the same thing. Everyone who has
ever served through the history of time serves the same thing. We are
servers of the wholeness and mystery in life.

The bottom line,
of course, is that we can fix without serving. And we can help without
serving. And we can serve without fixing or helping. I think I would go
so far as to say that fixing and helping may often be the work of the
ego, and service the work of the soul. They may look similar if you're
watching from the outside, but the inner experience is different. The
outcome is often different, too.

Our service serves us as well
as others. That which uses us strengthens us. Over time, fixing and
helping are draining, depleting. Over time we burn out. Service is
renewing. When we serve, our work itself will sustain us.

Service
rests on the basic premise that the nature of life is sacred, that life
is a holy mystery which has an unknown purpose. When we serve, we know
that we belong to life and to that purpose. Fundamentally, helping,
fixing and service are ways of seeing life. When you help you see life
as weak, when you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see
life as whole. From the perspective of service, we are all connected:
All suffering is like my suffering and all joy is like my joy. The
impulse to serve emerges naturally and inevitably from this way of
seeing.

Lastly, fixing and helping are the basis of curing, but
not of healing. In 40 years of chronic illness I have been helped by
many people and fixed by a great many others who did not recognize my
wholeness. All that fixing and helping left me wounded in some
important and fundamental ways. Only service heals.


Reprinted from Noetic Sciences Review, Spring 1996
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