Know your facts

Know your facts
The naval stand-off story
This story is an 'alleged' transcript of an actual radio conversation between a US naval ship and Canadian maritime contact off the coast of Newfoundland in October 1995. The tale, in various versions and featuring different nationalities, has circulated widely in emails and in books for many years, and has been used by numerous speakers and writers to illustrate lessons relating to negotiation, making assumptions, and related themes. Unfortunately it is not true, but it is nevertheless a great story. If using this as a teaching analogy, you will probably be forgiven for not revealing the truth of the matter until after telling the story.
Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees North to avoid a collision.
Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees South to avoid collision.
Americans: This is the captain of a US navy ship; I say again divert your course.
Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.
Americans: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH, THAT'S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER-MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.
Canadians: We are a lighthouse; your call.

Colors

Your living is determined not so much by
What life brings to you,
As by the attitude you bring to life…
Not so much by what happens to you,
As by the way your mind looks at what happens.
Circumstances and situations do color life.
But you have been given the mind to choose
What the color should be.
                                                        John Miller

You expect success, you will succeed. If you expect failure, you will fail. It is as simple as that. Negative thinking is s learned habit. We can condition our minds to think positively by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones … hour by hour, day by day. We can't control all of the circumstances of our lives, but we can control our attitude toward them. Positive mental attitude means having the appropriate attitude under the circumstances.

The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz's

 

Don Miguel Ruiz's book, The Four Agreements was published in 1997. For many, The Four Agreements is a life-changing book, whose ideas come from the ancient Toltec wisdom of the native people of Southern Mexico. Essence of it being “Everything we do is based on agreements we have made – agreements with ourselves, with other people, with God, with life. But the most important agreements are the ones we make with ourselves. In these agreements we tell ourselves who we are, how to behave, what is possible, what is impossible”

The simple ideas of The Four Agreements provide an inspirational code for life; a personal development model, and a template for personal development, behaviour, communications and relationships. Here is how Don Miguel Ruiz summarises 'The Four Agreements':

The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz’s code for life

Agreement 1

Be impeccable with your word - Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Agreement 2

Don’t take anything personally - Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Agreement 3

Don’t make assumptions - Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Agreement 4

Always do your best - Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

  AWAKE! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
        Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
        And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
        The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.
                                                         Omar Khayam
 

“It's all a Checkerboard of nights and days
Where Destiny with men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates,and slays,
And one by one back in the closet lays.”

                                                         =Omar Khayyam

 

 

A Pale white flower falls from a dusty book, 

And so by a strange dream my soul is filled

When did this flower bloom and where,

In what lost spring.

Was it a memory of tender meeting, a token of fatal parting

Did they meet each other, were they happy ever after,

Or were they lost, like love, like this pale forgotten flower

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour.

 

A BOAT beneath a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July -

Ever drifting down the stream —
Lingering in the golden gleam —
Life, what is it but a dream?


I am the heat of your hearth on the cold winter nights

I am the heat of your hearth on the cold winter nights, the friendly shade screening you from the summer sun, and my fruits are refreshing draughts quenching your thirst as you journey on.
I am the beam that holds your house, the board of your table, the bed on which you lie, and the timber that builds your boat.
I am the handle of your hoe, the door of your homestead, the wood of your cradle, and the shell of your coffin.
I am the bread of kindness and the flower of beauty. 'Ye who pass by, listen to my prayer: Harm me not.

(This prayer has been used in the Portuguese forest preservation's for more than 1,000 years.)