Tag Archives: Linkedin

Dr. Martin Luther King on Hope

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Dr. King’s life was dedicated to uplifting his fellow-man, the downtrodden, the poor, the hopeless, and the forgotten.  In Trumpet of Conscience, Dr. King reflected on hope, “If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose the courage to be, the quality that helps you to go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.”

This year the economic situation is taking center stage.  Young people fresh out of college are trying to find jobs and mature adults laid off from their once secure jobs are having trouble finding (any) job and especially ones commensurate with their former income.  Two years ago this time our minds were on the catastrophic devastation in  Haiti.  (Note: Please don’t forget about them; they still need our help!) Last year it is on the senseless Arizona killings and the worsening respect for our public officials and for life itself.  This coupled with massive job layoffs, increasing numbers of people facing life altering health challenges, and those with jobs facing furloughs or no pay raises makes the need to pull together and help each other even more critical.  People are hurting.  United we stand and divided we fall.  We cannot let our fellow brothers and sisters lose hope and we can’t lose hope either.

Keep Hope Alive

We’ve got to do what we can to “keep hope alive.”  Not only for those in our families that are facing challenges, but also for the jobless, homeless, and hopeless people everywhere.  Reflect on the time in which Dr. King lived and how he responded to difficulties.  In spite of everything he endured, the hoses and attack dogs, his home bombed, being spit on, jailed, ridiculed, and threatened with death, he still had hope and faith.   You may not think that you have enough to share, but what the world needs now is love, encouragement, hope, and perhaps a big smile.  Now I know those things won’t pay the bills,  but they can perhaps lift someone’s spirit and help them get through that day. You never know when you might need a little encouragement.  Perhaps a smile might be just what you need to make it through a day.  Dr. King never gave up on his dream and fought for it until his dying breath.  So, don’t give up on your dream either and when you feel like giving up, remember Martin.

I’m Barbara Talley, The Poet who speaks and inspires.   To find more about me, check out What does Barbara do? or visit  my website.

Find Your Own Truth

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Discernment is the Goal

Oprah routinely asks her guests, “What do you know for sure?”  That’s a good question for all of us to reflect on and answer. Part of our responsibility for receiving this gift of life is to be searching and discerning.  We must take this life seriously. One of the best ways to do this is to learn to discern the good from the bad, truth from falsehood, and right from wrong.  That’s our job, to stay in the light and on the straight path.  We must independently investigate truth and not accept everything that we hear, see, and are taught.  We are responsible for living our best life so, we must be true to ourselves.

We Must Validate Truth

We must use our brains, our thought processing center, our human CPU (central processing center) to validate our input.  It is our thoughts that create our reality.  Reflect on the Buddha’s words, “We are what we think, having become what we thought.” The goal is to create more and more good in this life.  Surely our purpose for enduring this earthly existence with all of its pains, trials, and tribulations  couldn’t have been to “create more bad, evil, falsehood, and wrongs.”  No intelligent mind could come to this conclusion after serious reflective contemplation and meditation!

So, what do you know, for sure?

I’m Barbara Talley, The Poet who speaks and inspires.   To find more about me, check out What does Barbara do? or visit  my website.

Are We Getting More Violent?

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We are living in a world that we collectively helped create, either by our conscious moral  involvement or by our apathetic silence. If I only watched the news, I’d become depressed about our world and feel helpless and hopeless.  But I understand the power of our thoughts to create a more peaceful and loving humanity. Our beliefs and perceptions don’t merely record our history, but they collectively help create it.  What we think, what we believe, what we expect, is what we create.

We Need to Ask the Right Questions

I haven’t seen the statistics for 2010 yet, but violent crimes declined in 2009 according to the FBI. Periodically murders get national focus, when they are horrific, scandalous, or when the victims include someone in the public eye (like the Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords).   The media highlights it; we think about it, and within a few days we forget.   Meanwhile the environment, politics,  and climate that creates these atrocities continue. Everyone still wants to be able to have their own gun, even high-capacity magazines capable of executing such tragedies.  We need to ask the right questions if we are to get the right answers.  Why are atrocities like the one in Arizona, Virginia Tech and Columbine with young people as the executioners continuing to happen?  According to Gary Null’s  video, The Drugging or Our Children, the number of psychotropic drugs given to our children between 1995-2000 doubled.  Some say they are safe.  Others say they are not.  Do your own research.

Are We Getting Worse?

The repetitive showing of a single incident makes you think that we are getting worse as a society.   Maybe we are, maybe we aren’t.  At the very least it makes us more fearful and when in fear we are more likely to give away our rights or make brash statements or decisions.  Did you know that the murders in the US have been declining steadily between 2000-2009, dropping from 17,300 to 15,241?   Washington DC gets the rap for being a very violent city, but did you know that between 1991 and 2010 homicides in DC have dropped from 479 annually to 131 in 2010?   There is a lot I don’t know.  What I know for sure is that fear is used to control and what we believe becomes our reality.   So, what do you know for sure?  What is your truth?  Before you pass on information or contribute to mass fear and hysteria, check it out.

I’m Barbara Talley, The Poet who speaks and inspires.   To find more about me, check out my promo sheet or visit  my website.

Independently Investigate Truth

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It can be dangerous to just blindly follow the majority.

Nothing is off-limits today, from health, identity, race, ideologies, war, to religion.  We have been told who and what to believe and trust and who and what to fear and hate.  We follow the leaders or turn a blind eye even though our hearts tell us something contrary.  The enlightened are learning that they must do their own research: search their hearts and make their own conscious decisions.  Consider how time disproves many facts that people once accepted without question.  In 1964 more than half of all adult men smoked; it was the norm. People were taught that smoking was okay and almost nothing about second-hand smoke.  Now we know that both the smokers and those exposed to second-hand smoking are at risk.  Once we thought that smoking was safe, now we know it is the leading causes of preventable deaths.

What Are You Accepting Without Question?

Are you accepting the cultural, religious, and political fears, hatreds, or biases fed to you?  Are you accepting the limitations defined statistically for people who look like you, talk like you, dress like you, or who are your gender, ethnicity, or color?   Ideologies are one thing, but it is just as important to be informed about your health.  We don’t like who we see in the mirror and are afraid of aging, spending billions to avoid a natural process. Instead of changing our diets, lifestyles, and stopping catering to our addictions, we are accepting pills and medications as a way of life.  Some take a pill to get up, a pill to relax, a pill to arouse you and one to get to sleep.  Enough already!  What are you accepting today as fact, without question, that tomorrow may be proven catastrophic to your health.   We’ve been told to brush with fluoride toothpaste and fluoride has been added to all public water systems.  Now that too is under question.  One research study found that kids drinking water without fluoride had IQ’s that were eight points higher. Fluoride means lower IQ and more mental retardation. You are responsible for you and if you are a caretaker, for your children.  Before you believe something, check it out.   Before you put anything in your mouth, check it out.  Before you put something in your mind, check it out!  As the United Negro College slogan asserts, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Here’s to more conscious thinking in 2011.  Your life and even our planet’s survival depends on it.

I’m Barbara Talley, The Poet who speaks and inspires.   To find more about me, check out my promo sheet or visit  my website.

Don’t Stick Your Head in The Sand.

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You Can’t Hide from The Truth

Closing your eyes doesn’t make your problems go away, neither does ignoring them.  If we are to be sane, successful, or of service to ourselves or others, we must operate around truth. We must pray for certitude and strength.  We must make the hard decisions that need to be made and change the things we can and let go of the things we can’t.  Even though it may be hard, we must learn to let go of dreams, relationships, or even jobs when it’s clear to everyone that they are no longer nurturing or sustaining us emotionally, mentally, or financially.  We can’t stick our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is okay.

Face and Handle the Truth

On the other hand, we also must hold on to our dreams and visions when our heart and faith tells us to, even if the whole world is against us.   Instead of abandoning our dreams, we might just need to change our perspective,  strategy or environment.  Be true to yourself by facing and handling the truth wherever it may lead you.  Look at the man or woman in the mirror and see what changes need to be made and change them.  Last year about this time I shared Five Changes That Will Make a Dramatic Difference. and How Are You Handling Change? I offer them to you in spirit of service as we take this journey together.

I’m Barbara Talley, The Poet who speaks and inspires.   To find more about me, check out my promo sheet or visit  my website.