Cooperation - Acting Together for Good

Cooperation is allowed to flow more easily when we let go of the necessity to be right all the time.

Cooperation seems simple: working together toward a common goal for the benefit of all involved. But amazingly it can be quite challenging, even when we have so many successful examples all around us. Human society is based upon the concept of cooperation, but finding a balance to ensure the good of all members of society is difficult. In nature, symbiotic relationships form between unlikely allies: a bee and a flower, a bird and a rhinoceros, small fish and sharks. Yet nature also shows us instances of constant competition in which only the strongest survive. Given the choice, it seems most people would choose the more peaceful path of cooperation. Intellectually, we know that together we can create something greater than what one could do alone, but cooperation still seems to be one of the greatest challenges people face. We don’t always agree on how goals can be reached. Our priorities may be different, or our methods, but in the end, cooperation offers the best chance fo! r success.

So how can we learn to cooperate with each other? We can gain greater perspective by trying to understand one another’s point of view, perhaps even putting ourselves in their place. We can search for commonalities as well as differences, and look for the good in different approaches. There is always more than one way of doing things, and some approaches are better suited for certain situations than others. All this is easier when we let go of the necessity to be right and to call others wrong. More important, we must believe that there is a solution that benefits all involved, not just one side.

The results of cooperation can be as simple as effortlessly getting everyone in your household to their appointments to large-scale social shifts to changing minds and hearts or policies that affect the future. 

Italy Visa Day

We traveled to Detroit today, Rakesh, Ryka and I. On the way she slept. We got Dunkins, she didn't want a lot, just a little of her croissant. I just remember her being a little darling and very sweet, making drawings all the way. At the Consular, she was playing and drawing with her fluoro markers. The Officer was very kind and gave her cookies and some candy. He took all our papers and was very swift and efficient. He then took us turn by turn for the finger-printing. Then we got done and said bye to all the people there. She was being a cutie-pie, skipping along, we walked across street, took car and she drew and sang and played all along :). On way home we stopped at the Powell Dance Academy and took a tour and also picked up their pamphlet, the lady said hi to Ryka and asked us to sign up. Then we went home, rested for some time, ate lunch, then I came over to lab and took care of password stuff. Later in evening went over to MJ n Ros and had dinner together.

Going through the Opening - DailyOM

Contracting before Expanding

by Madisyn Taylor

It is a natural part of being that our lives sometimes contract before expanding.
Sometimes our lives contract before they expand. We may be working hard on ourselves spiritually, doing good in the world, following our dreams, and wondering why we are still facing constrictions of all kinds—financial, emotional, physical. Perhaps we even feel as if we’ve lost our spirituality and are stuck in a dark room with no windows. We may be confused and discouraged by what appears to be a lack of progress. But sometimes this is the way things work. Like a caterpillar that confines itself to a tiny cocoon before it grows wings and flies, we are experiencing the darkness before the dawn.

When things feel tight, it’s easy to panic or want to act in some way to ease the feeling of constriction. We might also spin our wheels mentally, trying to understand why things are the way they are. However, there is nothing we need to do at this time other than to be patient and persevering. We can cling to the awareness that we are processing the shift from one stage to another, and the more we surrender to the experience, the more quickly we will move through the tightness into the opening on the other side. Just like a baby making its way down the birth canal, we may feel squeezed and pushed and very uncomfortable, but if we remember that we are on our way to being born into a new reality, we will find the strength to carry on.

Even as we endure the contractions, we can find peace within ourselves if we remember to trust the universe. We can look to the natural world for inspiration as we see that all beings surrender to the process of being born. In that surrender, and in the center of our own hearts, is a willingness to trust in the unknown as we make our way through the opening. 

Rains in Goa - during my June 2013 visit, the splendor and the still untouched raw beauty of it all

The shift that we're seeing towards a new world order...

An observation:

Business, industrialized economics and capitalism, the way they evolved over time and where they stand today are, I believe, largely products of the white world. One might argue that white folk are the most naturally entrepreneurial (arising out of their naturally strong individualism and independent thought) of all races, hence a notion of profit or reward proportional to productivity naturally came about in this society, and they somehow became better organizers and managers of resources amongst all races.

This contrasts with most other races that came from tribes and generally worked in a hunter-gatherer community mode that in part gives rise to socialism or communism, still held on to in some parts of the world today where it is so deeply rooted in the culture. The people in these societies never really had any notion of profit.

Thus capitalism, or should we say corporate-ism came to be established as the order mostly in the white world, while the rest of the world just tried to, or was forced
to, follow suit.

The new shift we see, as other races come into their own as a direct outcome of education, is a grayer shade of a mix of individualism and socialism to shape future generations. The new world order is not "socialism" in it's new guise. Rather, what we will see is corporate-ism and socialism lock horns, and the result of the duel be a new socio-economic order which is in a state of equilibrium between the two schools of thought, borrowing the best of both worlds.

Certainly, in the new world order, economic gain would be tied to the potential of the individual, but while working to keep together the fabric of society and to keep running it's machinery, not compromising the long-term well being of one section of the human race for foolish short term gains of the controlling few.

Don't be afraid

Don't be afraid to learn a lot or understand more than you think you should, for fear of becoming alone, for even as you attain mastery or supreme knowledge, you will always be presented with a new paradox, new questions to ponder, new problems to solve, and will encounter individuals who have been there before.

Don't be afraid to excel. Don't be afraid to have really good ideas that you "know" in your gut will work. Just find a champion. If you can't find a champion, use the world.

You've got a friend

When you're down and troubled
And you need a helping hand
And nothing, nothing is going right.
Close your eyes and think of me
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest hours.

You just call out my name,
And you know where ever I am
I'll come running, dear friend
To see you again.
Winter, spring, summer, or fall,
All you have to do is call
And I'll be there...
You've got a friend.

If the sky above you
Should turn dark and full of clouds
And that old north wind should begin to blow
Keep your head together and call my name out loud
And soon I will be knocking upon your door.
You just call out my name and you know where ever I am
I'll come running to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you got to do is call
And I'll be there...

Hey, ain't it good to know that youve got a friend?
People can be so cold.
They'll hurt you and desert you.
Well they'll take your soul if you let them.
Oh yeah, but dont you let them.

You just call out my name and you know wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again.
Dear friend, dont you know that,
Winter spring summer or fall,
All you've got to do is call.
Friend, I'll be there, yes I will.
Youve got a friend.
Youve got a friend.
Ain't it good to know youve got a friend.
Ain't it good to know youve got a friend.
You've got a friend.

James Taylor -- You've got a friend lyrics adapted for friend