The Global Village

The following information was sent to me in the form of a PowerPoint Slide Show, an attachment to an email from a friend. The author is unknown to me and I cannot vouch for the correctness of the facts but I thought it both interesting and enlightening, so I transcribed it for posting here. Wherever we, as individuals, fit in the jigsaw puzzle of human Life that makes up our Global Village, we should be grateful for what we have and for the opportunity to better ourselves through the power of our individual self will. Again, I don’t know about the accuracy of the facts stated here, but I assume whoever wrote it did the appropriate research. I think it is worth reading - several times.......

A GLOBAL VILLAGE
If you could fit the entire population of the world into a village consisting of 100 people, maintaining the proportions of all the people living on Earth, that village would consist of;
57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 Americans (North, Central, and South) and 8 Africans.
There would be; 52 women and 48 men, 30 Caucasians and 70 non-Caucasians, 30 Christians and 70 non-Christians, 89 heterosexuals and 11 homosexuals.
Six people would possess 59% of the wealth and they would all come from the USA. Eighty people would live in poverty, 70 would be illiterate, 50 would suffer from hunger and malnutrition. One would be dying, 1 would be being born, 1 would own a computer, 1 (yes, only one) would have a university degree.
If we looked at the world in this way, the need for acceptance and understanding would be obvious.
But, consider again the following;
If you woke up this morning in good health, you have more luck than one million people, who won’t live through the week.
If you have never experienced the horror of war, the solitude of prison, the pain of torture, were not close to death from starvation, then you are better off than 500 million people.
If you can go to your place of worship without fear that someone will assault or kill you, then you are luckier than 3 billion (that’s right) 3 Billion people.
If you have a full refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over you head and a place to sleep, you are wealthier that 75% of the world’s population.
If you currently have money in the bank, in your wallet and a few coins in your purse, you are one of 8 of the privileged few amongst the 100 people in the world.
If your parents are still alive and still married, you’re a rare individual.
If you are able to read this, you’re extremely luck because you don’t comprise one of those 2 billion people who can’t read.
And So....
Work like you don’t need the money.
Love like nobody has ever hurt you.
Dance like nobody is watching.
Sing like nobody is listening.
Live as if this is, indeed, Paradise on Earth.

The Daffodil Principle

The following short story, the truth of which is unknown, has a very important truth to tell. It was sent to me as an attachment to an email that I received from one of my friends, who frequently sends me something to ponder on. It is a PowerPoint Slide Show and I liked it so much that I transcribed (edited) it so that I could post it here. The author, who is unknown to me, tells us a nice little story while explaining the meaning of ‘The Daffodil Principle’...............And so it begins - - Several times recently my daughter had telephoned me to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over. They only last a little while."
I wanted to go, but mainly to see my grandchildren, as it is a two-hour drive in LA traffic from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead, which is located inland in an area known for it’s spring flowers, especially daffodils. "I will come next Tuesday"’ I promised a little reluctantly on her third call. Unfortunately, that next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Traffic was at a standstill. Still, I had promised, and so I reluctantly drove up there. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house, I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my wonderful grandchildren. "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn," I told her. "The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!"
My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this weather all the time, Mother." "Well," I assured her, "you won’t get me back on the road until it clears, and then I’m heading for home!" "That’s OK, Mother," replied Carolyn, "but first we’re going to see the daffodils. It’s just a short way," Carolyn said. " I’ll drive, I’m used to driving in this stuff." And so off we went into the storm. "Carolyn?," I asked nervously, "Please turn around...."
"It’s alright, Mother, I promise," Carolyn replied. " The weather is lifting and you will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."
After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small grave road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, "Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car, each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path past the church. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight I’d ever seen.
It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemony yellow, salmon pink, saffron and butter yellow. Each of the different colored varieties were planted in large groups so that they swirled and flowed like their own river with their own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers. An absolutely unbelievable sight.
"Who Did This?" I asked Carolyn.

It was just incredible. I could hardly believe it when she replied, "Just one woman. She lives on the property. And that is her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept small A-frame house, modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers To The Questions I Know You Are Asking", was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "Fifty Thousand Bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One. At A Time, By One Woman. Two Hands, Two feet, And One Brain" The third answer was, "Began In 1958."
For me, that moment was a life-changing experience.
I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, almost fifty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time, often just one baby step at a time and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find that we can accomplish magnificent things. It just takes the desire and the will to do. We Can Change The World.
"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it ‘One Bulb At A Time" through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve"
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.... She was right, of course. It’s so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays.. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is only to ask, "How can I put this to use today?"

And the answer is, "Use the Daffodil Principle...... Stop waiting........
Stop waiting - until your car or home is paid off. Stop waiting - until you get a new car or new home. Or until your kids leave the house. Or until you go back to school - Until you finish school, Until you clean the house, Until you organize the garage, Until you clean off your desk, Until you lose 10 lbs., Until you gain 10 lbs., Until you get married, Until you get a divorce, Until you have kids, Until the kids go to school, Until you retire, Until summer, Until spring, Until winter, Until fall......Until you die.......Until you get started.. Why not get started NOW.
There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
So work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt, and Dance like no one is watching. We live Life moment by moment. So make every moment count.
Don’t be afraid that your Life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
Wishing you a beautiful daffodil day !