Test Runs and Shadow Boxing??

It great to think about a "life with more meaning". What comes in my mind all the time is Wow! How can l have a such life? and the questions keep coming up; which one is a meaningful life? and from whose stand point is the life meaningfull? The answer to these questions may not be conclusive now. However as we attempt get them let us no forget that we are living a life now. The question is what kind of life is it just NOW? and What are you trying to test/experiment your life with right NOW?

I was recently invited to give a counseling talk to a group of 200 or so young people aged 13-22 years. I was amazed by the way how young people are good at exploring and adventuring. However the dangerous and scary part is that they venture into areas which may even put the very life they are exploring into jeopardy. An example young people try to explore relationships and sex. However in an era of pestilences like HIV the exploration or adventure may result into the end of the life itself.

The only message l found appropriate for my audience was that yes it is great to experiment, explore and adventure. However Life is not like a Race Car which you can test of on the Race Track to check the engine speeds neither is Life a boxing match where you can do some shadow boxing to check out your 'reach. Life is LIVED NOW because in LIFE THERE ARE NO TEST RUNS OR SHADOW BOXING!!!

Sand Through Our Fingers ... ?

Well I was determined not to let that fantastic Big Hope 'feeling' slip through my fingers. I don't know about you but I left the Congress absolutely full of inspiration, rejuvenated, raring to go, and bursting to get on with living, properly. So much have I learned that it's truly hard to keep it all contained in this small brain of mine.

Added to our own strand there were so many people doing such wonderful things around the world to prevent us from losing our humanity entirely, faced with the onslaught of the money and power culture in which we live. It was a shear joy to share with you all some amazingly in-depth thoughts about how we each and every one of us play a part in either adding too or, if we are mindful, changing the world.

I just wanted to send this message to you to extend an enormous "thank you" for all that you and everyone else at the Congress has given me.

My role here at the University is to look after the Alumni network. We are around 36,000 individuals, who are all, to one degree or another connected with Liverpool Hope. The power we hold as a group therefore, if we can succeed in harnessing it, is very very real.

So, whatever I can do to work with you to help keep the Big Hope Movement alive and vital I will gladly do: If you are involved in or know of events that you think I could promote for you for example, want me to broadcast a call for support, simply want me to publish stories, absolutely anything, just let me know Our alumni are all over the world, working in, achieving in, involved in, leading in, all walks of life. The potential is huge.

So let's make sure that we keep in touch and prevent that sand from escaping!

Welcome To 'Life With More Meaning'

Just a brief welcome message to all those who are signed-up to the Life With More Meaning Big Hope Congress Strand and of course a huge "Welcome" to the Big Hope itself!

We all look forward to meeting each and every one of you at Hope Park Campus Liverpool next Wednesday 4th June 2008. The Congress promises to be a very special event indeed and we ask that you all play an active role in its success.

You can use this initial posting as a place to add your own comments and welcome messages to your fellow strandee's.

Watch out for more news on its way to you very soon...

Ray