Quests Beyond Existence presents the reader a mixture of story-telling, imparting principles, entertaining and educating the reader about concepts beyond human lives.

The book hopes to leave with the reader a more accepting attitude and a much better understanding of life and its relationships both here and beyond. Through the work, it is hoped that the reader will learn to understand human and non-human relationships and be able to apply these ideas in their own lives thereby improving their own existence. These values are hopefully achieved through concrete examples and shared personal experiences of the people in the stories.

Quest Beyond Existence does not comment, judge or criticize any actual people, groups or organizations in real life. There is nothing in the work that can be deemed slanderous of any other person, being or group. Furthermore, the book does not contain any incidents of crime nor does it include any specific descriptions of any violent acts towards human or animals. Quest Beyond Existence also does not contain any vulgar, offensive, discriminatory and indecent words or concepts as it is also completely apolitical.

Quest Beyond Existence does not include any mention or discussions of any acts of terrorism or terrorists. The work is completely based on shared personal experiences of the author. It also does not contain any descriptions or discussions relating to or pertaining to sex or sexual acts.

Quests Beyond Existence is copyrighted and is listed with the Philippine National Library as a Transpersonal Psychology work of fiction.

Buy the book and judge it for yourself.

Who is Ronaldinho?

Ronaldinho is arguably one of the best football players in the world, currently playing for FC Barcelona as a midfielder, where he has amazed everybody with his amazing footwork. He is the latest miracle from Brazil, scoring wonderful goals and “dancing the samba” while doing so. He was also named FIFA World Player of the Year in 2004, the most prestigious award a player can receive, following his Brazilian team mates Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Romário.

Where did he come from?

Born in the southern city of Potro Alegre, Brazil, Ronaldinho worked his way out of the slums to become the worlds most recognized and coveted player. His love for football blossomed when his father, Joao da Silva Moreira, joined an amateur club. Roberto Moreira, Ronaldinho’s brother, was a rising start in the Gremio Club, but when is knee shattered he was relegated to a substitute player.

The World Cup

Ronaldinho dazzled fans in the 2002 World Cup where he played so gracefully that he was almost unstoppable. Scoring 27 goals in 57 matches he helping Brazil become World Cup winners for the 5th time. He is considered to be one of the most inventive football players, treating the football like his lover, flirting and teasing it before taking control.

When asked if he had a girlfriend during a press conference, he took out a football and said, “This is her.”

His unquenchable thirst for football and his love for life will surely make him a player to be rivaled with for years to come. In fact, Ronaldinho said “I still have a video of my father, which I watch before every game I play for Brazil. It gives me strength, makes me determined.”

Quick Statistics

Full Name: Ronaldo de Assis Moreira

Born: March 21 1980

Place of Birth: Vila Nova, Brazil

Club: FC Barcelona.

Height: 181cm

Weight: 80kg

Random Fact: Ronaldinho’s name is Portuguese for “Little Ronaldo”.

Some submissive men dream of entering an alternative relationship with a woman who becomes known as their Mistress. The dream for most men, however, rarely becomes a reality. These men pour over mistress looking for slave personal ads. They join numerous expensive dating sites for the alternative community. All to no avail. The sad fact is, there are more men wishing to enter this kind of relationship than there are like-minded women. And this is where my article comes in.

I want to arm you with all the knowledge necessary to help you find a dominant woman. The next few paragraphs are short but packed with everything I know to help you. And this information has proven to help hundreds of other submissive men.

You should begin your search for a mistress looking for slave men by getting involved in online social communities. Like all of my suggestions, these are, of course, all free. Get yourself accounts on sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. You see, these sites have large, dedicated groups of people interested in the dominant-submissive lifestyle. Once you have created your free accounts, you should join relevant groups, and get involved. Send friend requests to dominant women; some will even notice you and send you friend invitations.

Twitter and Facebook are two excellent networks. You can search on twitter based on keywords. Type in the word “mistress” and you will have thousands of women to “follow.” Likewise, Facebook has hundreds of relevant groups for submissive men to join for free. On these groups you should post a message like “Please friend me. I’m a submissive man seeking a dominant woman as my mistress.”

Consider looking at online classifieds. You will get dozens of emails from internet marketers, certainly, but in amongst those will be real dominant ladies seeking men like yourself. Craigslist is a good place to find mistress looking for slave personal ads. And, of course, the site is also totally free of charge.

You should also take a look at Flickr. Although this is a photo-sharing community, provided free by Yahoo!, it has a huge community of submissives and dominants. You can take part in the community, friend people, and chat.

Managing personal finance is a task that requires care and prudence to ensure that individuals prioritize their budget allocation to daily expenses such as credits bills and routine expenses on one hand and investment portfolio such as stocks, future securities, and retirement plans on the other hand. A good way to manage personal finance is by incorporating a finance software.

Although traditional methods of managing personal finance are still used, many people find them cumbersome, unreliable and time consuming. The development of customized finance applications has seen an increase in shift from traditional methods of managing finance to modern methods which employ accounting management software. These software and applications range from simple common spreadsheets to advanced professional software for businesses.

Budget Planning

First, this software will help you develop a realistic budget and allow you to make quick and better decisions regarding your money. This software will also enable you to set objectives on your finances. Basically, budgets are financial tools that reflect our money objectives whether in setting up investment portfolios or paying for routine investments. This software can help you prepare a detailed budget. You can use this software to prepare a budget based on the particulars of your income and expenses, cash records and registers and related accounting documents.

Management Flexibility

Web based financial tool will offer you a more flexible way of managing your budgets. Since they are based online,you can also access them remotely so long as you are connected to an internet terminal. In addition, you can update or modify data or make corrections without the need of creating different pages or altering the entire data.

Simple User Interface

If you have poor book keeping skills, this software will definitely help you create simple and reliable budgets without the need of enlisting the help of a book keeper. Some applications have easy to fill templates and you will only be required to enter details to a page. Some of the softwares have easy to follow guides and once they are installed, you can learn their features step-by-step.

Payment Schedule Reminder

This software is also useful in developing reminders of scheduled payments or expenses. Sometimes it is difficult to keep track of recurring monthly payments. You can develop a payment schedule and set a reminder that will prompt you of the impending payments if you are forgetful or committed to other things. This will give you the peace of mind and avoid unpleasant experiences with your creditors or lenders. Evaluations of Investment

This software is also useful in evaluating your investment portfolio. Some incorporate algorithms that help you determine profit ratio, potential earnings,amount of capital, value of stocks and assets. These calculations are very long and cumbersome using ordinary book keeping techniques however, with a finance software you can easily make calculations on your investment, get accurate results and make quick decisions based on the outcome. If you are not satisfied, you can redo the recalculate and compare the former and present results and locate the source of an error.

I live my life clear of conflict. Meaning, when I feel conflicted with myself or others, I work through it to feel connected again. I’ve experienced the joy and bliss of having ‘nothing between us’, and this addictive state of being so connected and peaceful encourages me to stay clear, or get clear, time and time again in conflict circumstances. Whether it be friends, romantic partner, or business relationships… ‘nothing between us’ means that we’re connected with no resentment, anger or frustration.

Last week was challenging for me. There was conflict in a couple of personal relationships, all about the same issue. My bliss left the building! What was left was annoying me so much that I described it to a good friend like ‘a rock in the dryer’. You’ve heard that sound, right? When something very hard is clanging around in your dryer with the rest of the laundry? Now imagine there’s no other laundry in the dryer, just the rocks. That was my inner noise last week. Rattle, rattle, bing, bang, rattle, bonk… (repeat for hours and hours and hours).

I took control of the madness going on inside me and I stopped it.

Ahhhh… joy and bliss was mine again.

I’m going to share with you how I did it, because there’s a good chance you’ll feel a ‘rock in the dryer’ rattling around one day and you can use this strategy to get clear and connected again.

First, I used ‘the Pivot Process ‘ from Esther Hicks, in Ask and It Is Given. The Pivot Process suggests that when you catch yourself having a negative thought, interrupt your thought by saying this. “Now I know what I don’t want, so I am getting clear on what I DO want. What I DO want is… (finish by writing out what you do want instead.)” Repeat the pivot process as necessary when your negative thought returns.

Second, I used my 5 Step Model to Plan a Difficult Conversation, by Yours Truly (Me, and taught in my Sandbox Training programs).

Step 1 – Issue – Decide whether the issue is worth dealing with or not. The juice must be worth the squeeze, so decide whether it’s worth a conversation, or just let it go.

Note, there were two parties (two rocks in my dryer) and in this first step I realized that only one of them was worth maintaining a relationship with, so after running it through step 1, I decided to let one rock go. The decision to intentionally remove the rock from my dryer, with love, forgiveness and absolutely no desire to continue a relationship with was made. Letting go means really letting go… not just avoiding the conversation and holding resentment. Letting go could also mean just deciding to leave the conflict unaddressed, yet continue the relationship as well. You decide what the letting go looks like but letting go means letting go of the resentment too. The second party however, is a relationship worth keeping, working on, rebuilding trust in, and getting reconnected. For that party, I proceeded through all steps of the model.

Step 2 – Intention

Step 3 – Why

Step 4 – Damage control

Step 5 – Write your opening

This 5 Step Model and the guidance for each step is coming out in my new book Sandbox Strategies for the New Workplace.

Well, here’s to peaceful laundry with no rocks in your dryer, meaning peaceful, connected relationships where your world is going round and round and you feel a state of joy and bliss. Speaking of Joy… we wish you a holiday season over-flowing with much joy. So much that you have lots to share with others. Sending so much love to all those who read my blog called Leadership Tips.

When reading/writing a tatting pattern, the first thing to keep in mind is that there are a few rules. Some rules are written and some are not. This includes using basic international tatting symbols and abbreviations. Over the years tatting symbols have changed, been deleted or new ones added. Some of the more basic symbols and abbreviations are listed below.

ds Double Stitch

+ Join

J/j Join

p Picot

· Picot

Sm Small

L Large

Lg Large

Ch Chain

R Ring

Cl Close

RW Reverse Work

Some Victorian (older) symbols may include

d s double stitch

r w reverse work

The only difference with these particular Victorian abbreviations is that the letters are separated by a space as each letter represents an individual word. In today’s symbols these letters are joined; as you’ll note in the first list.

You will notice that there is more than one way to abbreviate/symbolize both the join and the picot. This is true with other tatting directions as well. When writing a pattern it’s important to keep clear and concise instructions by either sticking to letter abbreviations or symbols. To demonstrate some ways of writing patterns; see below.

1) R: 5·5·1·1·5·5 CL R, RW

In this example, you will see that nothing indicates what stitch to use. Of course, we are referring to the most common stitch; the double stitch. So, each of the numbers tell you how many double stitches to do. The first part of our pattern calls for 5·. This means to do five double stitches (even though the ds is not mentioned, the number-by itself-represents ds’s) and then a picot. Notice that next our pattern calls for another 5 double stitches and another picot. Then, it changes to 1 ds, a picot, another ds and another picot. Then ends with 5 ds, picot and 5 more ds’s.

Note: Since we already did a double stitch to create our picot, we only need to do four more to complete the second 5ds segment.

2) Ring: 5, p, 5, p, 1, p, 1, p, 5, p, 5 CL

Here is another way of saying the same thing as in sample #1. Both ways are correct. Please notice that, at the end, the instructions simply say CL (close). We already know that it’s a ring. The very first of the instructions tell us so. Therefore, we know that we’re closing this into a ring. However, this example does not say to reverse work. The majority of the time, you will be doing a reverse work. Your instructions, if written properly, should tell you.

Note: If you are going from a ring to a chain or from a chain to a ring, you will want to reverse work. If, however, you are making a clover or multiple ringed circle, you will not reverse your work; unless the designer has something particular in mind and they will let you know this in the pattern. This is dependent on whether you needle or shuttle tat. There are those who still teach RW with shuttle tatting and those who do not. But, is necessary with needle tatting unless told otherwise.

Another shortcut with writing patterns may be to say 5, p, 5, p, 2 single ds’s separated by picots (same way of saying 1, p, 1) But, this is usually done if there are a larger number of ds’s separated by picots.

What would be confusing to a reader is if this same pattern were written by mixing symbols and abbreviations. Notice the example below:

R: 5ds·5, p, one ·, 1·5 double stitches, ·, five

Although these instructions are not impossible to read, it would make it a bit tricky even to the seasoned tatter.

In closing, I’d like to leave you with one of my favorite lace patterns. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

R: R: 3, p, 3, p, 1ds, 1 sm p, 1 lg p, 1 sm p, 1ds, p, 3, p, 3 Cl

Ch: R: 3, p, 3, p, 1ds, 1 sm p, 1 lg p, 1 sm p, 1ds, p, 3, p, 3

R2: 3, p, 3, j in 6th p of previous r, 1ds, 1 sm p, 1 lg p, 1 sm p, 1ds, p, 3, p, 3 Cl

Continue Ch and R2 until desired length. This makes a beautiful lace and is quick to work up.

Affiliate marketing and Network marketing (otherwise known as multilevel marketing or multi-level advertising) are considered 2 separate business versions. But in reality, a good network professional will use an affiliate marketing Network marketing combination to create additional streams associated with earnings. Other than those which result from his / her specific MLM business.

On the other hand, a skilled internet marketer may also think about joining an Network marketing so that you can power their initiatives. Whilst online marketers make money each time they market a product or service that they’re advertising, an affiliate network professional can also earn money off of the products and services which their downline sells, or even the other people they recruit into their business.

Their are many affiliate marketing MLM applications to choose from. An MLM funded suggestion is actually an example of this particular. These kinds of company models are designed to capture the interest from the entrepreneurial kind of person; who is looking for assist with starting the business from home.

Much more particularly, these folks tend to be researching network marketing or a specific Network marketing company. The actual financed proposal is actually a good way to increase your contact list of subscribers that are curious about home business or Network marketing businesses. These proposals provide what these types of individuals are looking for: instruction, assistance, help, methods, etc.

The funded suggestion can be free to join having a later choice to update, or it can cost a relatively small fee. Then you can choose to promote the funded suggestion yourself or else you may make the most of their promotional resources which are often available at an extra cost. Because others join the actual funded proposal under your individual link, you then obtain titles and get in touch with information and can continue to connect with them so that you can promote other items and/or providers that are based on the things they are searching for or to market your personal MLM opportunity. Additionally, you can earn profits when individuals sign up for a person in your funded proposal. Whilst these types of commonly are not enough for you to make a living off of, you are able to funnel these types of earnings into much more advertising or even other business costs.

The important thing to becoming successful with the affiliate marketing MLM combination is to develop a responsive record and gives them exactly the things they are searching for. If you have someone in your record which has subscribed to Network marketing instruction, then you can still provide them services and products that are based on which.

If someone in your record has subscribed to information about engaging in the actual Multilevel marketing business, you are able to show them why these people may wish to join a person inside your MLM as well as on your own group. And if a person tend to be currently a good example of somebody that is making multiple streams of income with internet affiliate marketing, then you definitely may obtain a “yes” from their store when it comes to them becoming a member of your Network marketing. They are able to learn from you as well as pass this information on to their downline as well.

I’ve sure you’ve heard before that it’s a possibility to make money with your blog and you may be wondering how this is possible. And were they really meant for making money or just for journaling your personal thoughts? I’m not sure what they were intended for but they are great ways to make money.

I have a personal blog which is just my own private little place to go online and jot down my thoughts, but I also have my business blogs.

Back In the Beginning

To be honest with you in the beginning of my blogging experience I really wasn’t sure what I should do with my blog. I knew I wanted to make money with it, but I didn’t know how. I didn’t know what I could do to not only be a value to others so they would come back to my blog, but that I would still enjoy writing it.

So it was really important to me that I find a topic in which I would be excited about, and have enough to offer so that I could blog every week or so. After starting a blog that was meant to just be an add-on to my business at MommysPlace.net and struggling with the direction of that blog, I came across one of Alice Seba’s blogs, which she used to write about her experience through a traffic product.

So every couple of weeks she would update her progress through this course. She would tell us all about her successes with this product and how great it was for her business. And it made me think of how I could do something similar.

Product/Service Focused Blog

And this is when the light bulb moment went off in my head. This is when I realized what I should have been doing all along. I have been a member of an exclusive coaching program for mothers in business.

Since joining this program my business has seen great success. My income has increased more then 10 times what it was before I joined, and my traffic has increased even more then that.

I enjoy and believe in this coaching program and it happens to have an affiliate program. I often got emails from other work at home mothers who wanted to know my thoughts on this program.

Taking a cue from Alice’s blog I decided to start my own such blog. And named it Mom Masterminds Grad and it can be found at [http://www.mmgrad.com]

I use this blog for the purpose of documenting my successes with my business. My projects, new content added to my website, keyword phrases I was ranking for…etc. Basically anything that has to do with my business that was directly or indirectly because of my joining Mom Masterminds, I jot down.

Not only was this the best move I could have made for my promoting this affiliate link it also served as a great way to really see for myself the successes my business was achieving and also to keep me on track.

This is one way you could make money with a blog. There are other ways you could make money with a blog if you don’t want to devote a blog to one service or product you’re promoting.

Side Kick Blog

For instance, my blog at [http://www.telecommutingmoms.com] is a side kick to TelecommutingMoms.com and my forums. This is a blog in which I update my members on additions to the website, newsletter and forums. And also use it as a vehicle for updating members on any important telecommuting news and promoting affiliate programs.

So this blog serves more then one purpose. My main goal with this blog is to get traffic to certain sections of my website. I have a large website and it’s not always easy for people to find my information. This is a great way for me to keep certain new pages or sections of my website in the public eye and get traffic to those pages. It also serves as a way to make money with affiliate programs. And lastly it gives exposure to my forum and my newsletter.

There can be many ways and, many topics in which you can make money and gain exposure to other businesses you may have, or can help in creating you as an expert in a certain field.

Just take the time to really think about what you could be writing about and then how you can make money with that as well. You can take a look at others blogs to get an idea and see what other people are looking for.

Making Money With Your Blog – Resources:

Blogs to Riches- is an e-book that details ways you can make your blog profitable. And the really cool thing with this is if you list the publisher’s link on your blog for 45 days he will give you this e-book for free! If you don’t want to wait that long you can also purchase it for a low price. Read more about Blogs to Riches – [http://www.blogstoriches.com]

Increasing AdSense – is an e-book about how to increase your AdSense revenue. This e-book isn’t specifically geared towards blogs, but the information you will learn you can use with your blogs. (As well as websites and forums…anywhere you have adsense.) http://www.adsense-secrets.com

* Don’t know what AdSense is? Go to http://www.google.com/adsense to learn more.

Ready To Blog?

Are you ready to take the leap into a blog? If so, it’s really very easy to set up a blog. The one resource I have used for my old blog is blogger.com and what I use for my current blogs is WordPress. Blogger is a great option for the newbie and you can host it with them. WordPress is a bit more complicated and must be hosted on your own domain, but it’s by far my most favorite option for blogs.

Submit Your Blog

After you create your blog you will want to submit it to blog directories to help get your blog out in front of the public. Some of the directories you can try are:

BlogWise – [http://www.blogwise.com]

Blog Search Engine – http://www.blogsearchengine.com

Blog Hub – http://www.bloghub.com

Blog Daisy – [http://www.blogdaisey.com]

Get Blogs – http://www.getblogs.com

Is Blogs – http://www.lsblogs.com

Feeds

Next, you need to add feeds to your blog. For adding a feed you add a little graphic to your blog. It can be a “my yahoo” feed, msn feed, or many other options.

When they click on that they can add your blog to their personal feed page. Then every time you add a new post they are alerted on their yahoo page that you have posted AND it even shows the topic of the post and how long ago it was posted.

This is one of the best resources I’ve found in keeping people coming back to your blog. They can subscribe to it so easily and they will be automatically updated whenever you have posted. It’s pretty easy to add an RSS feed to your blog. The resource I personally use is at http://www.feedburner.com

Watch Out Blogging World – Here I Come!

Now, see how simple this really can be? You can make money with a blog, gain exposure for another business or websites, can build yourself as an expert on a certain topic, can create a blog for free, get it listed for free and start an RSS feed for free! Now get out there and start blogging.

Do you feel as if you’ve outgrown your circle of friends? Perhaps you do not feel safe or understood any longer. There may be fewer and fewer things you can share with people in your habitual circle, and it leaves you feeling lonely or isolated. If so, you are not alone. Welcome to one of the core dynamics of continuous growth!

As we continue to evolve, many of us struggle with a sense of not quite fitting in with our traditional community or tribe: we may have expanded or changed beyond the borders of tribal norms, and no longer find the same sense of belonging there. Other members may have tightened the tribal rules to foster a sense of security. As a result, we may feel a sense of disconnection or alienation.

In truth, each one of us belongs to many tribes simultaneously: there is your original tribe – the family you were born into – and then there are all the communities of choice you have joined: your work tribe, your social circles, your faith-based community, your neighborhood, and more. These communities are not static; they are in continuous flux because they consist of individuals who are in continuous states of change. When there is a lot of change happening in either the individual or the community, a sense of dissonance results.

How are we to deal with this? First, it is important to recognize that tribal allegiances were historically forged for survival. They were adapted over the course of centuries to ensure the safety and survival of the group. Survival required that individuation be sacrificed for the trade-off of security.

In modern society, the tables are flipped. Whether we enjoy it or not, change is essential for survival at every level of being. The pace of change is driven by technological advances and happens with increasing rapidity: sociologists estimate that more change has taken place in society over the course of the past 100 years, than in the totality of the previous 6,000 years. Individual adaptation now is a requirement for survival, and the pace of individual change does not always match the pace at which our various tribal communities evolve. The resulting dissonance can cause intense friction and pain.

Dissonance also results from confusion between the concepts of ‘connection’ and ‘community.’ We tend to equate one with the other, when they really relate to different qualities. Connection relates to connectivity: the objective physical technology or media that enables us to build community, but which does not represent the quality of that community. Connectivity simply offers the opportunity to connect with others through internet, texting, phone calls, or any other social networking options.

Community is the result of building relationship through meaningful interaction over time. There is no shortcut; it is a process that develops when bonds of trust and intimacy are nurtured and honored.

And here lies a caveat: When we confuse connectivity with community, we depersonalize the sacred nature of true community and start relating to people as objects. Instead of developing intimacy over time, we collect friends on social network sites or try to buy people’s allegiance. Yet friending is simply an act of connecting; it does not create intimacy.

In fact, social experiments indicate that technologically dominated connectivity results in alienation and social collapse over time. In a groundbreaking social experiment conducted by Josh Harris, one of the founders of social networking on the internet, he found that the more people’s private lives were exposed by 24/7 technology, the more their sense of intimacy and relationship deteriorated until the community collapsed in violence and self-destructive behavior.

It is time to revisit our concepts of community so we can create tribes that offer a true sense of intimacy and belonging.

In his 1987 book, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, psychologist M. Scott Peck described several core characteristics of true community. Beyond the obvious components of inclusivity, commitment and participatory consensus, Peck pointed out the quality of embracing diversity through realism. When each member contributes their unique viewpoint from a place of humility and goodwill, the community benefits from a broader perspective in which to better grasp the full context of a situation. In other words, mutual tolerance helps members to embrace one another’s different viewpoints as an integral part of the whole, instead of imposing a forced compliance to groupthink or cohesion.

In an environment like this, members experience and express compassion and respect for one another. They allow others to share their vulnerability, to learn and grow, and to express who they truly are. When conflict arises, they learn to resolve it with wisdom and grace. Members listen to and respect each others’ gifts, accept each others’ limitations, celebrate their differences, and commit to find solutions together rather than to fight against each other. Indeed, the true spirit of community is the spirit of peace, love, wisdom and power. The source of this spirit may be seen as an outgrowth of the collective self or as the manifestation of a Higher Will.

Does this description of community sound spiritual to you? It is indeed, because Spirit is the common denominator among all of us, regardless of how separate we feel from others.

As human beings, we often experience a socio-economic sense of separation from others because of different opinions, beliefs, expectations, language, culture, or interests, since each one of us expresses these in a way uniquely different from anyone else. And still, we continue to differentiate! In this ongoing process, we continue to evolve or devolve in response to life. A community that felt like a good fit last year may no longer work today; the places where we felt embraced, now may suffocate us. Over the course of a lifetime, we can expect to outgrow and change allegiances to many of the tribal communities we once belonged to.

And yet, when we transcend the layers of physical appearance, mental beliefs and socio-economic conditioning, we find in the presence of Spirit a common denominator in everyone around us. Perhaps it is time to expand our tribal definitions to embrace a spiritual community that includes all of mankind as children of God.

Mother Teresa admonished her nuns to see Jesus in every leper they encountered, to find His presence as they looked into the eyes of the homeless. When we can look past the issues that divide us to find omnipresent Divinity in each other, we will uncover the foundations of true community.

Spiritual community transcends all socio-economic borders, beliefs and backgrounds. It is inclusive because it operates on voluntary self-responsibility and mutual compassion, and its doors are open to everyone.

Building this type of community takes time: time to listen, to hear, to respond and to participate. Take a few moments to read the description of spiritual community again. Then, make time in your life to foster that type of connection with people who matter to you. You are one of the architects of community in your life, and you can participate in building a tribe where you belong.

Computers have caused a revolution in education, but the tremendous changes seen in the last decade may be surpassed in the next as those computers are connected in a global education network.

Teachers and high school students sample the water in Lake Baikal in Siberia while at other lakes around the world, other teachers and students take similar samples from local lakes and subject them to the same simple water-quality tests. Via their school computers, they exchange their results and their observations about how water pollution problems are the same around the world. They are part of a “global laboratory” project that includes scientists specializing in water pollution.

A similar computer network pins citizen activists, joined with students, teachers and scientists, in “sister watershed” groups throughout the world.

Amateur birdwatchers and biologists pool their rare bird sightings in a North American computer network that is linked with bird researchers in Central America and South America.

The differences between classroom and community education are blurred on the global computer networks. Voluntary organizations, government agencies, students and teachers are all involved in a real that has become, for many, a virtual classroom, without walls, and increasingly without borders.

Already, pilot projects have high school students sharing the methods and results from field studies of environmental quality, using computer telecommunication to leap national boundaries. Elementary school children share their life experiences end visions of the future the same way. Their messages to one another, passed with tremendous speed and shared simultaneously among many classrooms, provide strong, personal lessons in science, geography and human relations.

Environmental education curriculum development, pursued independently and often in isolation by teachers, school districts and universities over the past two decades, is now linked in a global forum that can respond immediately to the ever more complex and urgent environmental problems the world faces. Teachers the world over are connecting with their counterparts to discuss how they can do their jobs better. Co-ordination of international education projects is less burdened by the constraints of time and travel budgets as computer networks provide forums for collaboration.

The technology for this exchange takes advantage of the personal computer’s ability to communicate over standard phone lines using a modem. The simplest networks connect personal computers in a “store-and-forward” system that echoes messages from one to the next, until all have copies. These least-cost networks are linked to larger, faster computers that act as central information storage banks and relay stations. They in turn exchange information with one another and tap the power and data in computer systems at major research and educational institutions.

In many ways this vast new sea of information presents its own challenges, often akin to “drinking water from a fire hose.” The enormous glut of fact and opinion is impossible to take in, and has forced those who would taste its power to devise new ways for organizing and sampling the information flow.

Electronic mail services and computer “conferencing” let students and teachers communicate with each other privately, or publicly as members of large discussion groups. Computer conferences are organized much like those where people meet face-to-face, except that the meeting rooms are inside each participant’s computer. Computer conferences transcend time zones, since participants review and comment on each others’ written postings as their time and interest allows. Everyone gets to read and think about questions or statements posed in a conference, and everyone has a co-equal opportunity to reply.

Computer networking is making classroom walls disappear. Real environmental problems are entering the classroom with immediacy via computer nets, and students are jointly seeking understanding and solutions with scientists, citizen activists, journalists, government officials and community leaders of all kinds. While access to computer networks is still remote for most people on the planet, it is becoming more and more available to the gatekeepers and opinion-leaders who help shape common understanding of the global situation. The increasing abundance of the multiple information sources available via computer networks, if viewed as a well-stocked marketplace, may also stimulate demand for more and better goods by the world’s information consumers.

Citizen participation in the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), for example, has been ccoordinated via computer networks on seven continents, giving NGOs access to complete text of the preparatory committee documents, and providing public forums for news and issue discussion. This availability of information has a dramatic effect on how an event such as UNCED permeates the mass media everywhere.

Underlying the often chaotic view presented by the mass media, structures are developing to channel the new rivers of information to empower this and coming generations to deal with the issues it describes. A variety of efforts at computer networking for environmental education provide some great models. At the root, these efforts are all based on the same notion: that environmental problems must be viewed with a global perspective, but responded to by individuals acting locally, in their own communities or homes.

All of this new technology is not without cost, and the developed countries are clearly ahead in providing computer access for education. But even in the United States, where computer telecommunication is becoming commonplace, profit rather than educational reform is a dominant force in determining who gets access.

The harsh reality has motivated citizen computer networks to band together in the international Association for Progressive Communications (APC) to make computer network access broadly available. The APC hosts several promising educational efforts on its partner computer networks that now extend to more than 90 countries around the globe. These services may be tapped by anyone with a personal computer and modem, often via a local call, at costs roughly equivalent to a newspaper subscription or monthly telephone bill.

The education projects offered on the APC networks are examples of how low-budget computer communication can fit into community programs and classrooms.