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Written by Ben Cheek
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Sunday, 24 January 2010 02:44 |
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You can't keep an orchard if your only skill is pruning. If all you know is how to snip off what you don't like, you will soon have deformed and stunted trees. If you can't help but snip, you'll soon have nothing but stumps.
Growing a healthy orchard takes skill and hard work. The wise person knows to nurture the whole tree: bud, leaf, and branch. And she pays special attention to nourishing the root. A tree well nourished needs little pruning. It grows full and round and produces just as much fruit as it's branches could possibly hold.
Of course, I'm not really speaking of trees at all. Rather, I'm taking about the orchard of people we've been given. It's a tremendous tradgedy when we see the potential in those around us but only find in our hands tools to snip and trim. The ways of coercion and control will never grow a healthy human.
Lay down negativity, criticism, sarcasim, and severity. Sure, it means things will grow a little wild, but true life is a wild and wonderful thing. Wonderous things always emerge when choose instead the nuturing tools of service, kindness, hope, and encouragement. We will gain the penitrating and effective influence that comes from feeding human beings until they are whole.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 24 January 2010 03:51 |
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Written by Ben Cheek
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Thursday, 18 June 2009 19:19 |
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Public protests on both sides of the contested Iranian election were filling the streets of Terhan yesterday as stories and images from the frontlines filled the Internet -- despite a government crackdown blocking popular social networking sites and a ban of foreign journalism. Iranians continued to use sites like Twitter and Facebook to bypass the lid the hardline government is attempting to put on the situation, drawing the attention of powerful people around the world. In recognition of this new role of social media in what could be a major political revolution, the US State Department requested Twitter avoid a scheduled maintenance shutdown to avoid silenceing the voices of dissention. The Iranian government has noticed as well, barring access to major sites, attemting to hack smaller ones, and severing some Internet connections alltogether.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 18 June 2009 19:30 |
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