Author: David L. Smith
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“Spirituality” Defined
Spirituality is a state of connectedness to life. It is an experience of being, belonging and caring. It is sensitivity and compassion, joy and hope. It is the harmony between the innermost life and the outer life, or the life of the world and the life of the universe. It is the supreme comprehension of…
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One Voice Can Make a Difference
History has shown that just one respected voice calling for calm or reason among a lynch mob; or just one person of strong conscience on a jury; or just one journalist willing to mine for the truth, has turned the tide. If just one person can have so much impact, how do we each become…
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Optimism for the Future
When both the ‘study of the household’ (Ecology) and the ‘management of the household’ (Economics) can be merged, and when Ethics can be extended to include the environment as well as human values, then we can indeed be optimistic about the future of humankind. Eugene Odum, Biologist, father of modern ecologyAuthor, Basic Ecology: Fundamentals of…
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The Purpose of Media
The word ‘media’ is derived from the Latin word meaning ‘middle.’ The over-arching purpose of the media is to use the energy of mediation to foster right human relations. Through its capacity to bring light into dark places, to radiate images of the good, the true and the beautiful outward for all to see and…
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Part-Whole Relationship
Mach’s Principle: The whole is as necessary to the understanding of its parts, as the parts are necessary to the understanding of the whole. The universe as a whole influences local events & local events have an influence, however small, on the universe as a whole. If you cut a blade of grass, you shake…
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Love: To be “All For”
Love may be described as the process of communicating to another that you are ‘all for them,’ that you will support them, not merely that you will accept them, but that you are actively for them. By being ‘all for’ is meant, first, that one is actively interested in the well-being of the other, that…
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Navajo Values
The Navajo Beauty Way includes four areas of knowledge: character development which leads to intelligent decisions, self-reliance which leads to contributing to the family and community through work and responsibility, emotional development which includes establishing caring relationships, and reverence and respect for nature. Herbert Benally, Emeritus professor, Diné College My other sites— Contemplative Photography David…
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Trees and Fungus
Tree roots extend a long way, more than twice spread of the crown. So the root systems of neighboring trees inevitably intersect and grow into one another. Usually, there are fungi that operate like fiber-optic Internet cables. Their fine filaments penetrate the ground, weaving through it in almost unbelievable density. One teaspoon of forest soil…