What is the biggest favor you can do for your pet reptile to make it feel at home?

Simulate your reptile’s tank (vivarium) as close as possible to its natural habitat! It’s as simple as that. Researching your reptile and its interactions with its natural habitat and constructing a reptile tank to mirror that environment can boost your reptile’s personality, while making it feel more comfortable around you and save you from having to deal with a reptile that simply hates how you decorated its tank as if you were Ray Charles with a interior design license.

Variety is the Spice of Life!

Once you’ve done your research, you can have some fun by mix-and-matching different textures in your reptile tank. As long as the material isn’t too foreign to its natural environment, creatively place natural or natural-looking materials into the reptile tank. If you own or want to own an iguana, putting at least 4 different textured branches and 3 varied live plants inside the reptile tank along with 10 different textured stones can keep your iguana’s interest level high. If you own a bearded dragon, I recommend mixing different colored sands (like red and white) on the bottom of the reptile vivarium and including 2 different textured huts to hide in. This will never cease to amaze your pet reptile and keep boredom at bay. Do as much creative decorating as possible to interest your reptile, but always keep functionality, safety, and aesthetics of the reptile tank in mind. Never allow materials to take up so much space that the reptile doesn’t have any ground to run around on.

Creating the Perfect “Mirrored” Environment

When you customize your reptile tank to ensure your reptile stays healthy and comfortable, you should always factor in temperature, space necessities and lighting requirements. All reptiles need temperature regulation and some species also require humidity control. When you install a light for your reptile tank, make sure it is strong enough to produce the minimal heat your reptile needs to live in to survive. If it is not, you can always buy another heater, be it a ceramic heating system or a heat mat underneath the reptile tank. Make sure you give your reptile enough space to roam around in. Keep in mind that all species of reptiles desire different amounts of space to exercise in. Bearded dragons tend to want a ton of space whereas frogs do not need that much.

Be the Paul Blart of “Reptile Tank Security”

When customizing your vivarium, install measures that keep your reptile from escaping. Obviously, you shouldn’t forget to cover the tank when done with visiting your reptile. Security is common sense for most people, so I won’t go into great detail about it. Just use your smarts when deciding whether or not to include an item in the reptile tank.

If you follow these guidelines to perfectly mimicking your reptile’s natural habitat, your reptile will give back to you tenfold in love!

If all the data received by our senses were stored in our memory, we would soon be overwhelmed. The subconscious sorts through the input and retains only a fraction for permanent memory storage. Every second, the eyes absorb ten million bits of information, the skin takes in one million bits, and the ears receive one-hundred thousand bits. Of these millions of bits processed, only about forty bits reach the conscious mind. Data that are not deleted are sorted and filtered by the subconscious, then consigned to long-term memory.

The active brain can remember things that actually did not happen or that are not correct. The mind makes assumptions to link events. People remember words that are implicit or not stated, with the same probability as explicit words. Studies with fMRI have demonstrated that the same brain areas are activated during questions and answers about both true and false events. This may explain why false memories can seem so compelling to the individual reporting the events.

Types of Memory

Remembering – storing memories in a memory bank, and recalling them – is a biological process which involves dedicated brain structures as memory banks variously specialized for different types or categories of memory function. Knowing that memories are formed in different categories, and that they move between categories, can help in developing strategies for improving memory and learning.

There are two broad categories of memory: non-conscious, and conscious. The latter includes short-term, and long-term memory.

• Non-conscious memory, takes two forms. One of these, implicit memory, automatically stores experience and concepts and plays a role unconsciously in affecting perception. The other form, muscle memory, plays a role in the mechanical execution of a series of motions, as in riding a bike or playing a musical instrument, learned through repetition over time.
• Short-term memory, is the working memory. It’s a place for stuff that you need to hang on to for only a short time. Maintaining information for only a few seconds, it enables you to remember a current thought, and so, for instance, take part in a conversation, keep a lecture in context as it progresses, or maintain the thread of a story or movie.
• Long-term or permanent memory: The memory of the events and facts that we can consciously recall and verbally describe. It includes that of words, symbols, and general knowledge about our perception of the workings of the world. Information of a personal nature, things witnessed or experienced, is better remembered when associated with emotion.

The brain links information on an unconscious level. You can consciously help to maximize this effect. As you perceive new input, match it as best possible to material already in your memory, by using images, sounds, key words, and concept maps. A vital ingredient for memory is reviewing, and it is effective only when done at specific times after absorbing the information. For instance after one hour, one day, one week, and six months.

The Emotional and Thinking Brains

This is a good juncture to explain the difference between different types of stress. Unhealthy stress is either too low or too high. Healthy stress is often just called a challenge. Frequently, the distinction is conditional on how much control we perceive that we have over the stressor. In challenging situations, the body releases chemicals such as adrenaline and norepinephrine. These enhance learning by increasing motivation, sharpening our perceptions, and even strengthening our body. On the other hand, unhealthy stress raises alarms all over the body by releasing cortisol, the survival hormone. In this book, I use the word stress to refer to unhealthy stress.

Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux discovered a particular relationship and interaction between the emotional and thinking brains, and identified the neural pathways that carry information from the senses to the brain. Information entering through the eyes or ears goes first to the thalamus, which acts as a sorting area to assign different information to different parts of the brain. It compares new data with existing information and decides whether to compress, absorb, or ignore the new input. If the incoming information is emotional, the thalamus sends out two signals. With survival a priority concern, the first signal goes to the emotional brain (limbic system, specifically, the amygdala), and the second to the thinking brain (neocortex). This means that the emotional brain has the information first and, in the event of an emergency, can react before the thinking brain has even received the information and had an opportunity to consider options.

In such a case, the amygdala sends instructions to the lower reptilian brain to flood the body with stress hormones. There are more neural connections going from the limbic emotional center to the neocortex than vice versa. With continued arousal of the amygdala, it is difficult to break out of the resulting fight or flight cycle. So reason does not rule, and we are left hanging in the middle of a crisis.

The hippocampus helps create long-term memory by assigning data to different parts of the brain. For example, the names of natural things such as vegetation and wildlife are stored in one part of the brain, while man-made items such as cars and furniture are retained elsewhere. Likewise, the event, or what happened, and its meaning are laid down in separate parts of the brain.

Emotion drives attention which, in turn, drives memory. James McGaugh, PhD, of the University of California at Irvine, said, “We believe that the brain takes advantage of the chemicals released during stress and powerful emotions to regulate the strength of storage of the memory.” Journalist Jill Neimark said, “A memory associated with emotionally charged information gets seared into the brain.”

It is the management of emotions that gives learners greater command over their learning.

Although the brain thrives on challenge and complexity, its primary drive is survival. It needs to survive socially, economically, emotionally, and physically. The brain is pre-wired to learn and, if optimum conditions are not present, employees may learn to fear change in the workplace, and students may learn to fear subjects like math. Overwhelming stress has a detrimental effect. Researchers have evidence that high stress experienced by a pregnant woman can distress the fetus, resulting in learning difficulties for the child later in life. Among infants and toddlers, high and chronic levels of stress can make learning more difficult, perhaps even shrinking the part of the brain associated with memory.

Tips to Remembering

Imagine that I recite a list to you of thirty items. I then ask you to write them down after I finish. You would remember things that are:

• at the beginning of the list
• UnUsUaL
• repeated, repeated
• at the end of the list

The first and last items are known as primacy and recency. Every study session has them. If you study for one hour, then take a break, you get one of each. If you study for twenty-five minutes, take a short break, then study another twenty-five minutes. You get double the primacy and recency events. How great is that?

Memory is not stored in a single location in the brain. It is deconstructed and distributed all over the cortex. The emotional content is stored in the amygdala, visual images in the occipital lobes, memory of the source in the frontal lobes, and venue is stored in the parietal lobes. Remembering is actually an act of reconstruction.

Memory Decay, or loss of remembered events, is a natural phenomenon as new experiences displace existing memories. You can easily counteract this loss of learned material through periodic review. Review can facilitate the preservation of at least 80 percent of your learned material. Without a systematic review process, the material evaporates to a 20 percent retention level.

A greater variety of input streams from eyes, ears, tactile, and emotion allow for more pathways to exist for dynamic reconstruction, thus creating richer memory. Multi-modal instruction makes a lot of sense. Accelerated Learning addresses the need.

To get a handle on just how unlimited our ability to learn is, multiply the number of neurons (10 billion) by the number of branch spines (10 million) by the number of dendrite spiny protuberances possible on each spine (100 million). The result indicates how many new connections are possible when learning. Using this size font, the answer is a 1 followed by zeros that extend for some 6.2 million miles!

The capacity of our memory is virtually unlimited.

Does indecision keep you awake at night sometimes?

At the Artistry of Change, we help people in high pressure careers activate a more resilient and creative mindset. The Futurist, Alvin Toffler once said… The ability to creatively handle constant change will be the most sought after skill in the new millennium. So, if you want to be indispensable to those you serve… ability to make excellent decisions quickly is an important skill to have.

80% of the problem is a negative mindset

Now, the truth is, 80% of the reason you may feel plagued by indecision is because of your mindset and not anything else. Some people think that maybe they’ll have less indecision when the speed of change slows down or maybe when they have less options to choose from. To those people, I suggest they go live alone on top of a mountain

The Change Artist Mindset

After 5 years of surveying and researching people in high pressure careers, we came to the conclusion that there are 3 top habits of mind that help or hinder people when making important decisions. We call this collection of habits “The Change Artist Mindset”. These are good habits of minds that help you make wise decisions in these 3 ways:

1. Seeing the big picture… which is done by taking regular time out

2. Improving your brain capacity… which is done by changing your posture, breathing and focus

3. Using a variety of criteria… which is done by implementing a systematized process for making important decisions

The Change Challenged Mindset

As opposed to what we might call “The Change Challenged Mindset”. This is where you tend to sweat the small stuff, focus on the negative too much, and use just a narrow range of criteria with which to make decisions.

What causes people to make unwise decisions?

• Feeling rushed for time so you don’t take the time to think things through from a variety of perspectives.

• Feeling overwhelmed by lots of options and priorities

• Fear of making mistakes

All of which often leads to a sense of inertia about making a decision and moving forward

What are some costs to making poor decisions?

• Financial problems – (e.g. misuse of your money)

• Relationships problems – (e.g. saying or doing things that undermine trust)

• Health problems – (e.g. causing accidents)

• Career problems – (e.g. misuse of your time and focus leading to ineffectiveness)

Why do people keep making bad decisions then?

Well, sometimes it’s just part of the process of learning and growing.

As the old saying goes… Good judgment comes from experience which comes from bad judgment. But, sometimes it’s just plain dumbness… and if you’d done a few quick processes up front you wouldn’t be dealing with the negative fallout.

You get stuck in the Primitive Brain sometimes

You see, the problem is that overwhelm, busy-ness, and constant change tend to trigger people into the Reptilian Brain. This is the most primitive part of the brain where all you can really do is… fight or flight.

If you can get into a serene state of mind you activate the frontal lobes where you best decision making abilities reside.

Override bad programs

How might you do this? It all starts with good habits of mind which leads to good programs in your bio-computer. You may have to override bad programs in your mind that you picked up unconsciously in your childhood watching your parents, or from advertisements seducing you into making decisions that aren’t in your best interest. So the trick is to install better software for the job.

You can do this without anything in your external world changing

You can have the same amount of To Do’s, obligations, deadlines and frantic people all around you and still find calm and clarity, because sometimes you can’t change those external circumstances. This is about the inner game of decision making.

Explore the possibility of breaking free of confusion

Because if you are living in the modern world with obligations, relationships and goals you want to achieve… chances are the rate of change and number of options are just going to keep increasing. If you want to explore the possibility of breaking free from mindsets that undermine your ability to:

• make good decisions

• enjoy life

• be more effective

• be more creative

Through the Attakwas kloof lies an ancient pathway, trampled out by the huge, hard feet of migrating Elephants, to the soft pattering feet of a fox at hunt or Springbok being hunted. This path provided a way over the barrier mountains standing between the coast and the interior.

These 'Barrier Mountains' were the Swartberge (Black Mountains) in the North, and the Langberge (long Mountains) in the South.

In 1689 the chief of the Inkwa tribe, Hykon, had invited the commander of the Cape settlement into the interior, and the chief's only road, had been this one.

The Little Karoo was once known as 'Cannaland', this previous name was inspired by the Ganna (Sceletium), that in the flower months formed as a blanket of sorts for the Little Kalaharis, so pervasive was the species.

Amazing (and quite fabulous for the mind to try and grasp, while standing face to face with the Little Karoo), the Little Karoo is one of the most amazing landscapes entirely fashioned by water. A brave concept to digest, seeing as the Little Karoo is a vast, dangerous desert.

An ancient sea washed over the area millions of years ago (about 600 to 800 to be a little more precise), containing within it thousands upon thousands living creatures and organisms. Rhich in nutrients, this ancient sea's small residents helped in the creating, or forming of the 140 km long, 1000m thick belt of limestone. Their falling shells and skeletons over many years transformed into just that.

More species of succulents grow in the Little Karoo than anywhere else, and thus it makes for quite some excitement under Botanists.

Some of the Succulent Species include:

-> Ancient parents of cultivated Geraniums world wide, the family of GERANIACEAE's offspring also range to the famous Bushman's Candle (Sarcocaulon pattersonii). So called because the plant's stem secretes a very flammable resinous concentration, that enables it to be burned, even when the plant itself is still green!

-> The LILIACEAE family include diverse offspring ranging from the adamant 'Lili' (Lilly) in Liliaceae, to Aloes and Haworthias. The leading authority on succulent plants, Adrian Haworth from England is the lucky fellow the Haworthias are named after.

One particularly spectacular, collectible Haworthia, is the Haworthia truncata, or better known as' Perdetande "- Horse teeth. So called as the plant's tips of its leaves resembles a full set of horse's teeth! Though apart from its weird appearance, it is also noted for its medical value.

The Aloes that are part of the LILIACEAE family are greatly known because of its medical values, especially ALOE VEROX, which is a key ingredient in a popular line of products in South-Africa that's uses range from helping to heal burn wound better, to treating acne.

-> The next plant family sounds like it comes straight out of a 70's sci-fi movie! The ASCLEPIADACEAE family is a reptilian looking / colored bunch, including stapelias, who feed on living insects! Beckoning them closer by mimicking the scents of death; rot and excrement.

-> The Ganna (Salsola aphylla) itself is a huge provider of food for ostriches and livestock and mostly flourishes in dry watercourses.

A very interesting story that springs forth from amongst the wilderness and beauty of the Little Karoo is the legend of the Watermaidens.

In 1875, a farmer known as D Ballot penned down this most mysterious and interesting event from the past told to him by a old Bushman named Afrikaander in these exact words:

'I know many stories of Waterwomen which my mother has told me and I will tell Baas (Master) one of them.'

'There was once a girl who all the people said was so good-looking. One day the girl went out to walk along the river; and came to a large water-hole over which a krantz (cliff) was hanging. ' Here old Afrikaneander stopped short, and advised me never to go near a water-hole over which a krantz is hanging, for, he says he, "Met zoo een gaat is dit nooit helder nie, baas." (with such a hole it is never clear, master), and then continues the story.

'Well, baas, I told you that she stopped at the hole to look at some flowers which were very attractive, and which were drifting near her, till at last one of them came so near that she stooped over the water to pluck it. But she had hardly touched the flower when she was caught by the hand and dragged in the water.

'Now, as the girl did not come home, her mother went to look for her, and traced her tracks to the hole wherein she had been dragged, and when she saw that the tracks did not go any further, she knew at once that the water women had caught her child, for she was a clever woman. She therefore ran into the veld and gathered some shrubs which she knew the water women were fond of. When she had enough of these shrubs, she ran home, dried them hastily by the fire, and ground them into a fine powder. Then she ran back to the hole, and threw the dust over the water. When she had done this, she went and stood a little way off and waited. She had not waited long when she saw her child coming out of the water and walking towards her. She was unhurt, but the water women had loved her so much that they had licked her cheeks quite white and this remained so ever afterward.

'She told her mother that the people under water had such fine houses and that they live in great abundance. As I have said, the girl's mother was a very clever woman, and she had instructed her child from youth how she should behave, and what she should eat if she should fall into the hands of the water women. If they ask you: "What will you eat, fish or meat?" you must say: "I eat neither; give me bread to eat". If you ask for fish or meat, it will be certain death for you; as the water women are half fish, half flesh, they would think that you would want to eat them. '

THE OSTRICH
The little Karoo's unofficial bird, the Osrtich's genetics seems to be just perfectly in tune with the Little Karoo. So much so that we may say it has found it's ideal habitat within the Little Karoo.

The Ostrich's diet includes Ganna and many other succulents, Herbs etc. They also have as many sandstones as they can swallow in the Little Karoo. (Sandstones are a big aid to Ostrichs' digestive systems).

Reptile Vivariums are the most basic component of any reptile housing one may set up. Since the vivariums are where your reptile will spend most of its life, it is very important to make sure you purchase a high-quality housing unit (vivarium) for your pet. Fortunately for you, I have had the experience buying and trying out most of the brands and types of vivariums sold in both America and the UK, so I can easily explain to you which reptile housing units have the highest-quality for the lowest-price that you can buy painlessly on the Internet.

Different Types of Vivariums

1. Most plastic vivariums are much too small for adult-sized reptiles. If you would like to house a small reptile in an enclosure for the minimal cost to you, buying a plastic vivarium is a fantastic idea…if the reptile wont outgrow the cage itself and is still comfortable within it if the reptile does grow larger.

2. Glass vivariums are perfect for animals living in habitats filled with water, such as turtles or fish. This type of enclosure always has either a removable wire mesh top or a ventilation hood to provide just that – ventilation. The ventilation hood may also include a light/heating unit that is necessary to monitor (a very easy task) in order to be certain that your reptiles/animals do not overheat. Since glass vivariums are see-through, it is important to provide a small shelter within the vivarium where the reptile can go to hide or to escape to in times of feeling stressed from seeing something moving outside of the cage that may scare them.

3. Wire reptile vivariums can be bought to house reptiles such as chameleons or bearded dragons. This cage is usually made out of wire mesh crafted around a wooden frame. Since the wire mesh is not the best type of insulation, it can be difficult to maintain a certain temperature necessary to simulate the reptile’s habitat. Fortunately though, your reptile will get plenty of fresh air with a wire vivarium because of the many natural holes in the cage’s walls. This type of enclosure will also offer you a greater view of your reptile over what a wooden cage will provide for a view. Make sure you buy a wire vivarium that has tightly-woven wire mesh so that your reptile cannot escape, but will still get great enough air ventilation. One very-high quality cage I have personally bought and tested can be found here: Extra Large Screen Reptile Habitat Cage – U.S.A. made..

4. The most popular type of lizard enclosure is the wooden vivarium. The popularity is mostly due to the fact that since lizards are agoraphobic, or fear of a difficult escape from an enclosure, the visible walls of a wooden vivarium will prevent your lizard from running into them like lizards in glass vivariums frequently do. Because of this and since wood is part of their natural habitat, most reptiles in wooden vivariums feel more comfortable and relaxed. Buying a wooden housing unit for your reptile could make a huge difference in its personality when it is both inside and outside of the reptile vivarium.

Wooden reptile vivariums are also very good insulators as compared to a wire mesh or glass cage. More insulated housing means lower electricity bill since the wooden vivarium’s heater works much less to keep the cage warm for your reptile. Need I say more?

5. Melamine is another type of vivarium which is made out of wood painted with a finish resembling plastic. Usually, a melamine vivarium has a glass front with three side walls and a bottom made of melamine. This type is very innovative because it provides the insulation of a wooden vivarium and the ability to see your pet as with a glass vivarium, all the while still providing the reptile with its own privacy. Melamine vivariums are great at resisting water and absorbing heat.

To understand our kids with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) it is more than helpful to know something about the brain. The more you learn about the brain, the more you will understand your RAD child’s behavior. Here is a brief introduction to the subject.

According to Bruce Perry, MD, child psychiatrist and neuroscientist working with challenging children and their families, 90% of the brain’s development occurs in the first three years of life. Critical to the healthy development of the brain is the nurturing given to an infant and young toddler. Hundreds, thousands of times a baby cries from hunger and nurturing mom responds hundreds, thousands of times and feeds her child, healthy development of the brain occurs. Hundreds, thousands of times a baby cries with soiled diapers and every time those diapers are promptly changed, healthy development of the brain occurs. Whenever a baby or your toddler calls out for play and a loving person plays with that child, healthy development of the brain occurs. And every time those events occur, cuddling and hugging and other close physical and emotional contact takes place, all promoting healthy development of the brain.

The effects of negligence and abuse are devastating. When those needs consistently are not met, when mom, dad, or other care taker chronically does not provide care when her baby cries out, healthy development of the brain cannot occur. The baby whose needs are not met will rage and tantrum until becoming quiet all alone. The long term result is that the baby learns completely inappropriate self-regulation which has many implications, not the least of which is to not trust any caretaker and to attempt at all costs to be in complete control of any situation. Obviously that is not a description of a healthy child. What we see are children who are chronically tense, anxious and hyper-vigilant, sometimes described as the fight or flight response. This is devastating to the future of the child.

This is all about the brain. The fight or flight center of the brain is the most primitive part of the brain, the brain stem, the amygdala, also known as the reptilian brain. Consider the ever present alertness of the reptile who is always ready to run or fight (bite). When healthy brain development fails to take place, the ever vigilant child is literally stuck in the brain stem.

When proper healthy nurturing has occurred, the baby experiences love and caring which is experienced in the limbic system of the brain. The baby “learns” that adults can be trusted and that their environment is safe. They learn that they do not have to be in control.

The child with RAD does not willfully distrust adults, particularly caretakers. It is not choice. The raging of the RAD child is not intentional and planned (most of the time). It is the result of stimulus and response – the stimulus of something occurring on the outside causing a response in the brain.

It is not all bad news. The brain can be healed, the connections can be repaired. It can be a long and arduous process requiring awesome dedicated parents who can assemble a strong support team. And understanding the role of the brain can be critical to help us figure out what will work best to help our children.

What is it like for you when your RAD child is raging? How do you respond and what do you do? Please send me an email and share your experiences with your raging child.

The Universe in Motion

((In Narrative Poetic Prose) (and semi hexameter))

Part I of III

Forevermore, and from the beginning

In an endless motion everything goes

Flows unruffled-: the heavens above,

The pit below, the planets, stars, and the

Cosmos; bodies, nature, space, the abyss,

The flashing of thunderbolts, heat, cold,

Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and the

Vastness of the whole: follow their course

Through whatever travel time allowed them

By Almighty God-all is on the run-

All have a journey, all in the spread of

Things, spread to every end of creation!

All motion in the universe goes, flows

Devoid of end. Man with his very

Eyes, can see things that bind things.

See space and time bend, matter quiver!

Hill to hill, mountain to mountain, sea to

Sea, land to land’s end, and to sea’s end, and

The rivers, tributaries, and nature, – for

Nature guards all, the full body. One feds,

The other, and all breed humanity by

The holy limbs of God. If driven apart

From its fit, by the absurd, pray God sets

It back in place; or that God would not allow

It in the first place! For it would have better

Not to have been, than to have all been

Scattered wide and uninvited. For by

Fact, nothing got started or stabilized

By itself, and each and all set, in its rightful

Place. Nor did primal germs say one to another:

How each should move, to be driven;

Compacted, and changed to make a flower

Or a plant, a bug, a tree… Then by trial

And error, attempt to make a mortal!

God forbid this kind of motion and thing

For infectious germs to have precedence

In creation, if so, should they decide

Then to make great rearrangements what then?

Contiguous touching, connecting, attached,

To make humankind into imps and goblins?

But God has obstructed such a design,

Preserved what he has, threw proper motion,

Matter to flow in the cosmos, oceans.

And gravity to wave like the seas from

Explosions; and for the forces of earth,

A canopy; and, an asteroid belt, lumped

Barriers, built to move and sway, to cloak

Earth, from invaders. And through suitable

Balance and motion: earth spins like a top,

Counterclockwise; and the moon orbits the

Earth, counterclockwise, and the earth orbits

The sun-unmovable-counterclockwise…

And the bear, the fox, the wolf, the whale

And fire, the reptilian, the spider all with

Breath and air; and the plants take in Man’s

Carbon dioxide, and gives out oxygen…

One feeds the other, even Earth’s firmament

With Earth’s solar system, all work together.

Can a deep-rooted germ, fertile, fix all this?

In a billion or more years? Without God’s

Initiative, inventiveness? Does the

Germ, have a brain, far beyond God’s?

Can the proton, the electrons, within

A cell, within its nucleus, act together,

Without God’s triggering life-death motion?

Does it have a will, heart, breathe or a brain?

Who’s creating the breeding barrier, code?

The genetic DNA; keeping disease far

At bay? The immune system, by spark chance?

Vanity gives the fool dreams to embrace.

Vanity says: something comes from nothing;

That fixed positions come from, oblivion!

That is to say, something from nothing is the

New cause, by chance, which is contrariwise to

Man’s own doubtful physiological impossibilities.

The blind leads the blind, the fool teaches his

Error, and nonsense is born apart from God.

How is it that all this came about?

All these moving things, forever together…

The sun stands still, but it’s in motion

In its frame as a whole, until its energy

Diminishes, and collapses on its

Own, losing its gravitational pull and hold:

It slowly moves to its death, a black hole.

Yet so many things hide their motions,

When afar from us, too far to view and study.

Even the simple landscapes, the hillside

The wooly flocks, the mud beetle.

The color in the grass, we are all

Blurred and bent, as if standing afar-

The warmth of the sun, its serene atoms

Speed down with its light, through God’s matter

Traveling down this empty void, compelled

To warm the earth, slowly, and to cleave on

To the waves of air; particles of heat

Laments, outbreaths, entangled, enmeshed,

Each restrained by God’s fingertips, checked and

Balanced, in advance. Aboriginal atoms

With their old, bold and simple solidity.

We are a young species gathering data

On time, space, life, matter, energy, with

A barbarous past… , nor are we a

Long-lived species, years to be counted

Several times over on our fingertips:

To explore God’s wonders, we must rush!

Should the sharpness of space,

Its plan, its baffling weight and strength,

Should it move sluggishly over time and space

And should God not have preserved its

Original design, -for: chance, menacing

Madness and oddness, cutting off possibilities

For chance and rhyme?

The red lust of madness would have stepped in

And, -what God has put in place, chance

Would have made obsolescent, and farfetched!

The Universe Unfolded

Part II of III

Concerning motion, unfold these thoughts: look

Into the skies, that in no wise way,

Could nature of the world, the universe be built

Other than by divine design, power-; what faults

Do you find burdened with? All the weight upon

The earth: grains and trees, mountains and seas do

Not leap to the sky… but like the roof of a dome

Remains in place. Timber and beam, our bodies-

The elephant and the whale, all the weight

Underneath the earth, its magma, its plates,

The crust of the earth, all within and without, does

Not ascend, rise like the wind, to the empty

Void: past the moon! Venus, Mars… to the sun!

Fire and flames shift to the air, rise aloft,

And then drop: what drives them back down?

Meteors burn up before they hit the ground;

If not, they splatter sparsely. The midnight

Shooting stars flame up the sky, as does the

Devil’s star, the comet, with long fiery, fury tails

Like the Dragon. And the constellations drop to

Earth’s view, while earth spins on top of a needle!

From corner to corner: comes rain, hail, light,

Heat, all bustling, from over and above

And out of the clouds, zigzagging, falling back

Down to earth! Why not the other way! God

Has made earth’s firmament like a layered cake.

And should the naked eye look sanguinely,

Through a telescope s/he will see the universe

Splashed with galaxies, all gyrating, agitated

In and with motion. Furrowed by great waves

Fifteen-billion years in the making. Energized,

With gravity: the cosmos taking quantum leaps,

With new understandings, and Relativity:

Drawing bodies toward bodies as matter keeps

Moving like the surface of a sea, with its

Gravitational waves and astonishing precision…

And recreating new galaxies from black holes.

Thus, is it not the universe our beloved,

Multicolored home! Astonishing, intriguing,

Always interacting, always in motion…

The crossroads

Part III of III

In light of all that I have said, we are

Now at the crossroads where resides the Universe

And God- Creation of the universe is

Concealed first by nature; and then by science.

Science making God nonsensical, a relic.

And too we have theological concealment

Of the universe, its motion, its creation!

Why! For the sake of grace, to work through faith.

You must take the physical, then the spiritual.

To understand God, is to understand the

Universe, perhaps not so unlike a fishbowl

And God, above it, looking down into it:

Or God, stepping into it, while still looking

Down upon it. The Universe and Creation

Was created with the idea it is to be lived

With motion, with a view to worship.

#5246/ 5-18 through 31-2016

By Dennis L. Siluk, Dr. H.c. © May, 2016

Early in Becoming Your Dream, Joan McManus offers up her book’s primary point: “You have right now the mental skills to learn to synchronize your dominant mental attitude with the higher frequencies of the ideal person you dream of becoming. By using that gift of choice that is already yours, you will, by universal law, become your dream.”

This powerful statement sets the tone for an adventure through the ten essential steps McManus explores that will bring about transformation for anyone who follows them. McManus devotes a chapter to each step, including Designing Your Dream; Test, Digesting, and Investing in Your Dream; Understanding the Power of Your Thoughts and Words; Assuming Leadership of Your Mind; and Receiving Your Abundance. To achieve your dream, McManus explains that we must familiarize ourselves with the six mental faculties that determine the life we live. She refers to these as our Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). They include intuition, will, perception, imagination, reason, and memory. McManus walks us through how to use these HOTS to their highest potential to achieve the lives we currently may only dream of having.

Throughout Becoming Your Dream, McManus draws upon scientific research and the insight of numerous spiritual and leadership experts. For example, in discussing the power of imagination, she quotes Eben Pagan, who tells us, “We were born into a world that seems to want us to create what we first imagine in our mind. It is a reality that is spectacularly friendly to creative design and manifestation.”

Building upon this focus on imagination, McManus tells an incredibly powerful story that is by itself worth the price of the book. She reveals that as a child she had polio and was in a hospital with other children who suffered from it. Her grandmother would continually send her inspiring postcards, and at the urging of a friend, she spoke openly about her grandmother’s vision for her: “that I was a child of God, made in the image and likeness of my Creator. She said I must ‘see’ myself walking. I must not accept these circumstances as my reality; that was Error talking. I didn’t have to understand how, but I did have to know I would walk. She said that image-already formed in her mind-would soon begin to form in the material world.”

When McManus shared her grandmother’s vision with her five-year-old friend Kenny, he said five words to her that would change her life: “I can see you walking.” At that moment, McManus began to see it too, and before long, she was recovering and back in school, able to walk and play like other children. She discusses here how her other HOTS came into play, such as the role of memory, in her ability to walk. She says it was necessary to “un-memorize” the many attempts when her limbs had failed her-and to “re-member” herself as a whole and healthy person. She also needed to dispute common reason and replace it with uncommon reason. “Uncommon reason was needed here to say that, although I couldn’t conceive how it would happen, I had an inner knowing that it was possible, for I could clearly see my upright, walking body in my mind.”

McManus goes on to talk about the power of faith and knowing that Spirit has your back. Just as she had faith that she could walk again, we all can achieve our dreams if we have the same faith. She agrees with the scriptural analogy of needing faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains but states, “you must, however, have that seed firmly planted in the fertile soil of your mind.”

Many more powerful stories and messages fill the pages of Becoming Your Dream. McManus looks at how our reptilian brains hold us back and how we can conquer them. She advocates for the importance of meditation, during which time we can reconnect to the intelligent field of consciousness of which we are all an inextricable part but forget about because we are too busy. She agrees with Blaise Pascal here, whom she quotes as saying, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” And she discusses the power of forgiveness, using as an example the genocide in Rwanda and how Paul Kagame, its president, spread a message of forgiveness to help heal his nation.

Personally, I found especially valuable McManus’ discussion about false rules we have all learned and how to overcome our belief in them. These rules are generally based on false beliefs and they no longer work; they encompass a wide range of areas in our lives from religion to sex. Ultimately, we have to learn to make rules that work for us.

Becoming Your Dream concludes with a beautiful chapter about receiving abundance, including these powerful words, “As you learn to receive your goodness and your abundance with grace and gratitude, you will find that the same inner divine light that shines so brightly in those you love is also present in each of us. You will be joyfully motivated to share your wealth of knowledge, resources, experience, and happiness with the world as a whole. There is no private good. Your gifts are part of the fabric of humanity.”

THE BASICS OF DRIFTWOOD USE IN AQUARIUMS, REPTILE HABITATS, OR VIVARIUMS

According to the Webster's Dictionary, driftwood is defined as "Wood debris which has been washed up or is floating in a body of fresh or salt water". For aquarium, habitat, and vivarium lovers, it is highly desired, especially when the driftwood is of a rare variety. Driftwood adds a natural, esthetically pleasing touch to these environments.

VARIETIES OF DRIFTWOOD

Although there are several different types of driftwood on the market, the four most common varieties include standard, African, and Malaysian driftwoods, and Savanna or African root. Each variety offers its own unique characteristics.

Standard driftwood is found in any body of water throughout North America, and is often the remnants of branches which fell into the water. These pieces are washed by the water over time, removing all bark, and finally resting upon the shore. Because standard driftwood pieces float, something heavy will have to be attached to it in order to make it sink in an aquarium. In a reptile environment or vivarium you may choose to slightly anchor the pieces to prevent movement as well.

Savanna or African root is the second most commonly found type of driftwood. Like African driftwood, it is also self-sinking. Its appearance is gnarled on one side while smooth on the opposite. It is relatively inexpensive.

African driftwood looks very similar to standard driftwood. The difference between the two is that the African variety is self-sinking, meaning that it will sink to the bottom of an aquarium without any sort of weight or anchoring. The wood also exhibits darker colors and is more intricately patterned, with a ribbed or hollow appearance. True African driftwood is commonly more than a hundred years old and is quite expensive.

Malaysian driftwood is similar to standard and African varieties in appearance. It is also self-sinking. The differences in this variety lie in its elongated branches. It is the driftwood of choice for attaching Java ferns or other plants.

HOW TO PREPARE DRIFTWOOD

Before a piece of natural driftwood can be used in any habitat, it is vitally important to have it thoroughly cleaned. Driftwood can be exposed to disease or infestation from the ground or the shorelines where they are found. Smaller driftwood specimens can be easily cleaned through boiling. Using a large pot, boil the pieces for about 15 minutes in three separate sessions, draining the water between each boiling. Large driftwood specimens can be cleaned using very hot water and a potato scrubber.

It may seem useless to cleanse a natural product for use in a natural habitat. In the wild, native fish and animals are able to stay away from certain fungus, diseases, infestations, and so forth. Likewise, if they were to become exposed, these creatures may be able to fight off the resulting health issues. Finally, the open air of the wilderness and the wide open bodies of water greatly dilute the potency of these infestations. In an aquarium or habitat, creatures are not awarded these environmental benefits, and therefore, are more susceptible to severe illness or death. It is better to be safe than to be sorry, especially when it comes to your prized aquariums, terrariums, reptilian friends, and vivariums. One spore of fungus, one tiny infestation, can destroy all that you have worked so hard to establish!

FINAL WORD

Driftwood can be a beautiful addition to any habitat. However, without careful consideration, proper care, detailed preparation, and precise placement, this seemingly natural decorative can quickly become hazardous. If driftwood is properly prepared it can be a delightful addition, making your aquarium or terrarium look as if a professional designed it!

1. Change the lens you use for seeing the unknown. Do you see the unknown something to be feared, challenged, dealt with, managed or overcome? Or is it something to be navigated, explored, embraced, cultivated, or expressed? If you think of facing the unknown in your work what thoughts and emotions come to mind? What metaphor? A beast to be tamed, a wave to be surfed, a game to be played? How we perceive the concept of this unfolding future we call the unknown determines how easily we navigate it.

2. Consciously engage uncertainty. Whether we like it or not the unknown has now become our working partner. By actively engaging the unknown in small ways at first – such as with a low-risk / high-ambiguity project – you develop the essential skills to work with it in larger high-risk / high-ambiguity arenas. What would it take for you to go deeper into situations, pushing past what you currently know, before going forward? It feels counterproductive in our fast-paced culture, but by taking the up front time to go deep and explore multiple dimensions, next-level solutions begin to reveal themselves.

3. Allow the process to be messy. When we start consciously exploring unknown, there is a period of time where logic, order, and organization are put on hold as we get into the unearthing of new information. It can seem illogical, nonsensical, and even foreign-sounding as it emerges. Like all births, new directions are not necessarily tidied up and pretty as they enter the world. Similar to a baby being born, the ideas, structures and systems that emerge from the unknown space can look unrecognizable at first. The task it to continue to draw whatever shows up forth, amidst it messiness, until the new order emerges. There is a natural, self-organizing system at play in every emergent situation. How much time and space do you give to ideas to go formulate?

4. Actively leave the familiar. Just because something worked for one group in one situation doesn't mean it is necessarily repeatable. Look back to the past for what is relevant to the new situation and bring it with you. Leave the rest behind. It is in our nature to seek the shelter of the familiar even if we know it is no longer serving us. Leaving what is comfortable and not working to dip into the "empty space" to draw forth the new is challenging. Do you have compassion for yourself (or others) when you are frustrated, overwhelmed and feel like you hit a wall?

5. Use multidimensional creative approaches. By using a variety of creativity tools, techniques and approaches you can engage more of your brain and more of your senses. The human habit is to approach uncertain situations with the same set of analytical tools each time. No matter how focused and capable your thought process, unless you do something different to activate new parts of the brain, the information will still travel down your same neural pathways in the same way and you will come up with the same types of solutions. If you purposefully integrate alternative methods, whole brain thinking and multi-sensory stimulation, awareness is heightened and you become more responsive and resilient. What are some ways you can intentionally do this?

6. Be the Beginner. Probably the most significant, yet challenging aspect of navigating the unknown is the willingness to enter the beginner mind. We live in a knowledge based society. We are educated to have the right answers. The more we know, the more intelligent, capable, and competent we are considered. We are rewarded and recognized for that which we know, not for that which we don't know. Yet, in a world where the word innovation is showing up in exponentially more mission and vision statements, this is often exactly what is needed to move forward. It's not about abandoning what you know, but bringing it to the table to sit side by side with what you do not know.

7. Accept the human paradox. Within the paradox of human nature, being what it is, the unknown is both dangerous and exciting, a threat to be feared and a mystery to be revealed. We are mystery seekers. There is a multi-billion dollar mystery industry – books, movies, adventure tours, Internet games, and haunted houses. There is something about walking around the corner and not knowing what will pop out that is inherently exciting and alive to us. Uncovering and discovering are in our nature – just look at a child exploring the environment, looking behind every crack and crevice for what's next.

While a part of us may love the mystery, we have another part of us, in our reptilian primal brain, that has been hard wired to fear what is around the corner. Our ancestors knew well knowledge of our surroundings gave us control of a dangerous world. There was a real danger in leaving the safety of the cave. This is still true today. When we perceive threats to survival, we like to know what is next. Ironically, the same world that makes people want to retreat to their caves to hide from the "predators" is this same world that is requiring new levels of innovation to adapt and thrive. When is change exciting and when is it threatening to you?

The more you work with the unknown as a co-creative partner, the easier it is to stay grounded in the winds of change. It takes more than just deciding to embrace uncertainty to be able to do it. It takes understanding where you are in relationship to the unknown now, and then consciously choosing to be with the discomfort, and perhaps excitement, of exploring new territory. Underneath business buzz words, mission statements and strategic goals, there is an unsure human facing a new world. It takes practice. As with mastering any new skill, navigating the unknown is an ongoing process.