Of my countrymen
I dreamed,
All of us looking
At each other
In different ways
Beneath white clouds,
On a tiny blue planet,
Rotating around
A bright yellow sun.
Me, my fellow Americans
And all creatures:
Laughing, crying,
Hurting? and loving?
We spin
And the rotation
Is felt
From planet to planet
And universe to universe
Nothing can stop our rotation
From being touched
By everything,
And nothing ever will
“It is better to do one thing 100%, than it is to do a hundred things 1%.” – Mr. Gilrein (My 7th grade health teacher)
I was an operating room technician for six years, and when watching a surgeon conduct surgery, there’s no doubt what’s on his mind: Surgery. Too often it seems that people have a million things going, and instead of doing one thing, they almost do a thousand things. But to accomplish anything in life, a person needs to be focused.
The Veteran Code of Health’s fourth chapter focuses on Nutrition. After subsisting on military rations for any extended period of time, the definition for what qualifies as food could easily get distorted. Yet with the body turning over approximately two billion red blood cells every second, you literally are what you eat. Thus, the following rules should be implemented when determining whether or not it should be on your plate:
–if God didn’t make it, don’t eat it. –if you cannot pronounce an ingredient in a food, don’t eat it. –if it hasn’t been on this earth for 5000+ years, don’t eat it. –if it won’t keep your dog alive, don’t eat it. –the more ingredients in a food, the worse it is for you.
Your tour of duty is over. You march off the airplane after the long trip home, conscious of the different looks your uniform receives. Most are ones of appreciation. Simple nods or even out right thanks given by strangers who try to stand a bit straighter when addressing you. Others are thinly veiled looks of disgust, and you’re not sure if it’s you or your uniform they cannot stand. But at least it’s some sort of acknowledgement—a sign that the past eighteen months were real. The worst are the people who don’t even seem to see you. Rushing past you on errands, they bark orders on cell phones while drinking mocha lattes from Starbucks. Some sit at restaurants gorging themselves in front of the flat screens which hang on the walls. CNN is the station. But the diners only put their forks down when the stats from last night’s game are read by the announcer. And as you take those first steps back into your hometown, the haughty ignorance of your sacrifices makes you hotter than the Iraqi sun.
So…the other day I came across someone who was offering to read my Akashic Record for five bucks. I’ve heard about the Akashic Records from a few of my more mythical friends, and I decided to give it a shot.
The way this works is, a special akashic reader (a psychic) will go into the records (through deep meditation, etc) and then will find an answer to your question.
Question:
“How do I take my writing to the next level?”
Answer:
Thank you for your order and for allowing me a glimpse into your Akashic Records. It is always an honour.
“Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.” These challenging words were spoken by Winston Churchill in a BBC radio broadcast on February 9th, 1941. As one of the great leaders of modern western civilization, Churchill reminded us that leadership is comprised of a set of tools. Although the direction a leader will take people today is different than it was during World War II, the principles used to get there remain constant.
Anyone who’s heard of Landmark Education knows they’re an organization clouded in controversy. There have been rumors of everything from it being the best personal development program ever, to being a cult. I’d read all the reviews of the program and even watched a documentary about the original founder of Landmark (EST) Werner Erhard. After it was all said and done, I was too skeptical about Landmark to do the program…then Time Magazine and BusinessWeek (within a few weeks of one another) had reviews about Landmark and what a great program it was—both articles praised it as a great program for business people. At that point, I decided to give it a go. I figured, best case scenario, I would go to Landmark and it would be the best personal development program ever, worst case scenario, if it was a cult, I could at least infiltrate it and write a good story about what a cult it is.
At the beginning of March, I was celebrating Spring Break and had decided to become a raw food vegan . Well, it’s thirty days later, and I’ve decided to give up being a raw food vegan, but it was a great worthwhile experience.
Anyone who is a vegan/vegetarian knows that the no-meat lifestyle has its benefits and pitfalls. Raw veganism is no different. There was good and bad.
The Good: For starters, more energy. Waking up with a cup of coffee is nothing compared to waking up with a fresh smoothie.
It starts with an awkward silence. All eyes are glued to you as you walk to the stage; the littlest misstep and you’ll never live it down. The second that your foot hits the stage, you take a deep breath, sweat drips down your brow and your palms freeze. Stepping up the microphone you exhale and tell yourself that you’ve been here before, that you’ve only got five minutes and you can handle it. You look out over the audience; finally its time to ease the tension, theirs and yours.
Michael Anthony is an Iraq War Veteran and is the Author of: Mass Casualties: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Destruction, and Dishonor in Iraq. 
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