And it is certainly not about shunning or even destroying those who do not have similar views or take the same side as you.

It is about embracing differences and diversity.

It is about learning to listen to those who are different. It is about realizing that many differences will exist among the more than 6 billion persons who are presently living on this Earth, and the billions more who have gone before them.

It is about learning to listen with an open heart, and to see things from other points of view with an open mind.

It is about trying to understand others. And, if understanding fails, it is about learning to accept them for what they are. Accepting others means accepting their views, opinions, beliefs, and choices.

It is about banishing prejudices.

It is about learning to challenge, through the views of others, our own long-held and perhaps deadpan opinions and beliefs.

It is about learning to learn from others. After all, it is only through differences and diversity that we are able to grow.

And these apply to all aspects of life.

Life is about relationships. It is about realizing that, despite our many differences, we are in fact very similar.

Life is about learning to love one another, our fellow children of God.

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Stocks? Bonds? Property?

How about material goods? Have you bought a new car recently? The latest mobile phone? Other electronic gadgets? A handbag?

Or perhaps you renovated your kitchen, bought a new oven, or installed a new shower system in the bathroom.

Now, do you have pets? Have you been pampering them with high quality pet food? Or have you been waxing your new car, changing its seats, or boosting the engine?

We spend thousands of dollars on all kinds of stuffs. But have you been investing in the most important element of all - yourself?

Your knowledge. Your health. Your skills. Your spirituality. Your wisdom. Your attitude.

Have you?

Because, ultimately, everything else is external and well out of your control. The only thing that really follows you, wherever you go, whatever you do, whatever happens in the world, is you.

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Chasing your dream? Making money? Building the foundations of your career?

In recent months, I have been spending quite a bit of my time carving a new niche for myself. Taking a new career path, after all, usually entails a lot of hard work. Not just hard work, but hard, minimally renumerated work.

Then, by quite possibly sheer coincidence (or perhaps a timed reminder?), I have attended numerous social gatherings in the month of July. Mostly weddings of friends and family.

And, on those occasions, I have seen people whom I have not seen for years (some perhaps even for a decade or more), as well as caught up with them. For some, I have chatted with them at length, much more than I have ever spoken with them.

I am reminded that life is, ultimately, mainly about relationships. In my bid to chase careers, earnings and dreams, I have often forgetten this important reality.

Yes, we must work hard. Yes, we must also play hard. But don’t forget to relate hard, too. Invest in our relationships. At the end of the day, they are what bring great fulfilment to our lives.

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This short 6-minute video clip, which was part of the Short Film Competition at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival, presents a sobering view of what happens to the food which we throw into our trash cans.

The words in the accompanying audio also ask telling questions.

The video portrays laughter and spirituality - the triumph of the human spirit. Let’s hope these really prevail.

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Then one day, we FINALLY see some light. Perhaps not exactly *the* light, but there are at last some much needed insights.

Then something strange happens. What we needed or wanted to see just keeps appearing in front of us, again and again and again.

Was it there all the time, and we failed to notice?

Or was the time not ripe? And when the timing is opportune, the ripened fruits all fall to the ground at almost the same time?

Is patience the lesson we must learn?

Perseverance, perhaps?

What’s God, or the Universe, whichever you prefer, telling us?

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If you don’t already know about Ron Paul, please do. He comes across as a genuine good man, with excellent philosophies on liberty, health freedom, politics, government, and other issues. Unfortunately, and not at all surprisingly, he doesn’t seem to get much publicity.

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Has trends changed since then? Unlikely. If anything, with countries like China and India exploding with economic growth, it is more than likely that our overuse of resources is worsening, rather than getting better.

“For more than 20 years we have exceeded the Earth’s ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path. If everyone around the world lived as those in America, we would need five planets to support us,” said WWF Director-General James Leape, when releasing the 2006 Living Planet Report.

Some bits of information from the report:

* “Humanity’s footprint has more than tripled between 1961 and 2003″.

* The world’s population has ballooned from 3 billion in 1960 to 6.5 billion. Yet, consumption has outpaced even that.

* In 2003, mankind’s ecological footprint, in other words how much we stressed nature, was 25% higher than Earth’s yearly ability to provide for us. This includes food, energy, and the processing and recycling of human waste.

* “People are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources.”

* An index was used to track 1,300 vertebrate animal species, which include amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles, and it found that most animal populations had decreased by about 30%, due to various factors, such as loss of their natural habitats.

* Using its own criteria, the report said that Cuba was the only country which was able to attain a high level of development (which included good education and health systems) without using more resources than what would be sustainable.

Modern life, modern civilization, and modern living - are they sustainable? The answer is a quite obvious and resounding “no!” By that fact alone, it is clear that life as we know it today will not carry on for too long. Either we have to evolve and adapt, and make some drastic changes to the way we use resources, or we are consuming our way into oblivion.

As though we needed more wake-up calls.

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What does it even mean to be alone?

I tend to believe that we are often a lot more alone than we think we are.

In this life, we have companions, friends, loved ones; we get to enjoy kinship, warmth, relationships and love.

But, ultimately, we are alone. Why? Because the only person who is with you all the time, from the moment you were born a human to the moment you cease to be one, is you.

Yes, there are more than six billion human beings on this Earth. And the number is growing all the time.

That means that most of us, especially those who live in densely populated areas, are often surrounded by people. Therefore, it is hard to be physically alone.

But we are almost always *alone*, inside, internally, emotionally, whatever we want to call it.

In fact, the worst kind of loneliness is whereby you are surrounded by people, thousands of them, yet they are all strangers — no words, no hugs, no love, no recognition, no nothing.

That’s alienation of the soul, at its deepest.

It can be quite a horrible feeling, and it is one of the biggest paradoxes of modern life. That we are constantly surrounded - beside, even on top of and below us in vertical structures - by dozens, hundreds of people, yet we have never been more alone and empty inside.

Ironically, being “alone” in the nature reserve is a less lonely experience, and one probably feels more connected with creation in there.

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Can one fully enjoy the pleasures of materialism and consumerism, yet still swim in the warmth of kinship, warmth and love?

I had a little discussion with friends recently, and the following are my musings.

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I would then challenge the premise that one can have both. Yes, technically one can have both, but can one *have* both? Usually, there has to be compromise, and something has to give. Some people can smoke and indulge in sinful food and still be healthy. But generally speaking, such things damage health.

Coming back to materialism, there are several ways I can think of which could compromise the “things which matter in life”. To drive big cars and carry fancy handbags, one usually has to work very hard and very long hours. First compromise — time.

Next — if one were a filthy rich billionaire, how do you even know who are your real friends? 2nd compromise — with money comes insecurity.

Then there is mindsets and attitudes. If one can earn lots of money while remembering what’s important, well and good. But the reality is that many people are so driven by material wellbeing that they *forget* and lose sight of what is important.

I also think there is a fundamental difference between being (financially) rich and being materialistic. If I earn $1200 and I spend $3000 on a handbag, it’s quite different from someone who earns $1m and spends $10,000 on a golf club.

How about young girls [...] who sell their bodies to buy branded goods? What’s that all about? How could that happen? Maybe one reason could be that their parents are too busy themselves indulging in materialism to look after their kids?

Materialism is an empty shell cooked up by people and corporations who are making millions off it. Countless social research has reiterated that, as long as our basic material needs are met, money makes no difference to levels of happiness.

And it has also damaged basic human values and structures. Even the whole economic recession is down to too many people in certain countries spending beyond their means.

And the world’s solution to the woes? Encourage people to spend more. How ‘wisdomous’.

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Have you been seeking and searching, trying your darnest, but to no avail so far?

Here, I just wish to make one point.

Don’t easily let fear mongers, naysayers, doomsayers, spiritual murderers, intellectual killers and generally all pushers of negativity convince you to give up.

If you feel something is wrong, there probably is.

If you believe there is an answer to be sought, it’s probably there.

Don’t easily give up.

Why?

Because, “there is no cause” or “there is no reason” are statements only made by people who do not know the causes, do not know the reasons, and cannot be bothered to seek them.

Just because a cause (or causes) or a reason (or reasons) has not yet been found, does not mean there is none.

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