Not DUTY Free

It has been a while since I last posted anything, primarily due to my increase responsibilities at work. This has been a good thing though...I think...as it has provided me with a new opportunity to expand my horizons more globally.

My success in recruitment is being taken overseas as we look to increase our international student population. Although the travel excites me it isn't exactly a bottomless budget so we'll need to be creative and targeted on how we approach this. I've got a great team to work with so this should be a lot of fun as we move forward and accomplish this goal!

Perhaps I should polish up my Spanish, or take on more languages too...and I'm off!

Stories keep the Fire Alive

Did you ever have a conversation that after you were done left you feeling exhausted? I'd be willing to bet that many of these conversations we're either negative or just went in circles!

We all try to avoid it (I hope), but how about speaking to the eternal complainer, or the drama queen, or that know-it-all. This has been such a hot topic that books have been written about the negative affects, intrinsically and extrinsically, they have had on people or company's. One in particular is by Phil Harkins that addresses how to attain that higher level of a powerful conversation, and how to avoid the bad ones. This may not always be that easy and don't get yourself fired over it but I thought what my pastor shared in our March 15th sermon resonated pretty succinctly; "Focus on keeping the fire of Christ alive in all of us through by sharing stories of goodness, love and peace."

How's that for keeping it simple!

AMERICA

Happy Birthday America!!



So what prompted the Declaration of Independence? Well it was a number of events that eventually drove the wedge;

French-Indian War (1754-1763)
Sugar Act (1764)
Stamp Act (1765)
Quartering Act (1765)
Townshend Acts (1767)
Tea Act (1773)
Boston Port Act (1774)
Quebec Act (1774)

...Paul, did I miss any???

In short, this series of laws/acts listed above forced colonists to give (financial through taxes, physically their homes, land and food). It's like a bully taking your lunch money and embarrassing you in front of others, so naturally colonists became extremely frustrated (pissed off) with the British...hence the ultimate fix Declaration of Independence!

There is much more to our history so grab a book and check it out!

Little Sponges

You always hear the term children are "little sponges" and if you are a parent you see it more and more everyday with your own kids. I see it with both my boys all the time, especially in language development and comprehension.

I'll give you a couple examples;

1.Stacie speaks to both of my boys in Spanish daily, and Gabriel already knows well over 100 words in Spanish.
2.We read to both and sing songs with our children, so much so that Graeme has picked up on certain words that have helped him compose a sentences that make sense.

Now true I am a proud dad, but there is more to this than just that...Why can children absorb so much at a young age?

The way our brain develops is actually quite amazing. At birth we have all the cells/neurons we will need for our lifetime and as time progresses we will form connections/synapses to other parts of the brain. These connections (aka-learning pathways) are formed partially due to your genetics, but are also based off our experiences. Since every experience is so new to a child they form very rapid connections in the brain, so much so that at 3 years of age the child has twice as many connections as an adult. As the child grows into an adult we end up not using all the new connections we had made, but rather strengthen the ones we do use. The example of pruning a tree is used to help give you a visual. Bonsai! You may have a tree with 10 limbs each of them representing a different content area, but to help 7 of them exceed standards you need to cut back 3 of them. That choice is made in the brain by the shortest/weakest connections that are essentially not being used.



So in conclusion, the more repetitive and beneficial experiences the child has, the more the brain strengthens those connections to avoid having them cropped. Pretty amazing, and to think I got this information from the Department of Education

Truth

How many lies are you exposed to everyday? email? politicians? personal communication? I'm willing to bet more than 5 per day...so where does this addiction to lies stem from?

I think it first stems from our parents (yes, I am to blame). As children we ask questions like "how are babies made?", or one that my friends nine year old son asked "what's a pedophile?" We don't give them the exact answer because it is too graphic so instead we sugar coat it and make up some reasoning. If we understand this is a lie, this is the introduction to a lie or an exaggeration to the truth.

Another reason people lie is to usually gain something or get out of something; acceptance, praise, acknowledgement, etc. I do believe that most of the time this is harmless, maybe you said you shot a 46 but really with that penalty stroke should have been 47. Even so there are varying degrees of lies as our politicians so evidently prove everything they speak; "landed under sniper fire", which again doesn't really harm me in any personal way but if you exaggerated and lied about this..."where does it stop?"

The lies that are really bad though lead to manipulation and hurting someone. I'll give you a personal example that happened to Stacie and I about 2 years ago from a very close friend. Stacie's best friend at the time was watching our home in Arizona while we were back home in Wisconsin visiting family. She had our home and car keys so access was pretty wide open. After returning home, we discovered about $7000 overall had been stolen (identity theft crime) via credit cards and ATM. Stacie, the investigative detective, quickly linked it to her best friend and questioned her...at first she lied straight out to Stacie. Hung up, only to call her back later and get the truth confessed to her. OUCH! That is when lies can lead to pain.

So what's my point in all this...it is simply to be cautious! Of what you read, what you hear, and even what you see. There is a fine line between being paranoid though too and that is no way to live your life either. My belief is to question but to also have trust and faith in your own judgement, and that there is more truth than lies in your life.

Following Passion

What does it mean to be passionate? I think my cousin Jeff sums it up pretty good in his blog Passion=Truth. I wanted to take this time to educate you about another man who followed his passion and through it accomplished great things.

This man, John Muir, was a great visionary and also happened to be Wisconsin raised and educated individual. He is what some might refer to as a trail blazer! Blazing the trail has been a term used for the first man out ahead of the group making tracks for the rest to follow…and in my opinion this is he! He was an adventurer, conservationist, naturalist, but perhaps his most important role was his passion as a writer of God’s beautiful country…for it is what got him recognized by President Theodore Roosevelt. Today Teddy Roosevelt is credited with the designation of 150 National Forests, the first 51 Federal Bird Reservations, 5 National Parks, the first 18 National Monuments, the first 4 National Game Preserves, and the first 21 Reclamation Projects. Now Teddy does deserve this credit since he did implement the whole process in his role as president, but every match needs a spark and that spark in my opinion was John Muir.

Following your passion can present opportunities not yet seen by us, but through the hand of God it will become evident that this passionate quest was worth it!



Tunnel View by Ansel Adams at Yosemite