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A few days ago I was driving to a meeting.

I lost control of my car on a patch of black ice, spun off the road, and tumbled 50 feet down a ravine. The car was found upside down.

ravine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo above was taken by the towing company. The three below were taken by me at their lot, later that day.

IMG_0921 IMG_0919 IMG_0920

Statistically I should be dead. But I walked away with a concussion, and some cuts and bruises. I got 3 stitches.

I’m at home and I’m SO happy to be alive!

I’ve been given a second chance, and my goal now is not waste even a single moment.

I’ve already posted some about this event on my FB page, but below is the first time I’ve posted this video.

The Ambulance Video

The video below I shot with my iTouch just after getting in the ambulance.

I lost my memory at the point of going off the road, I don’t know if I rolled or what to end up where I did.

My memory returns shortly before taking this video.

I’m still a little bit out of it in this video, remembering where I was going was a little foggy.

WARNING: If blood freaks you out — I had some cuts on my head, thus the dried/drying blood on my face.

Total bodily damage: a concussion, a few little pieces of glass they pulled from the top of my scalp at the hospital, 3 stitches, some cuts on the top of my head, possibly/maybe a hairline fracture in my wrist (so I got a cool splint-brace), a little black-&-blue, and some cool scars. I did get rattled around and shaken up.

I could have died or ended up very badly injured. I feel EXTREMELY lucky!

There are SO many layers of learning embedded in this experience for me, but the main one is cutting out all the BS. We ALL have limited time on this planet.

I’m not special because I had this accident.

We are ALL full of the potential to be amazing and do awesome things, or at the very least do our best, day after day after day after day, and not complain about what’s not working even half as much as we contact our gratitude and appreciation for the miracle that one moment of being alive can be.

No more wasting even a moment of this very brief thing called being alive.

Here’s the video I took in the ambulance:

http://cascadiaworkshops.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ambulance_video.mov

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by Alan on January 27, 2013 in Mindsets,Uncategorized

I tried an experiment recently.

Rather than just create a blog post as a statement, I decided to post it as a question on Facebook.

What I found fascinated me! I got 28 comments and started a fun conversation.

Well – here is the original post I was going to write:

The consciousness revolution is a necessary precursor to the sustainability revolution.

Why?

Because “Problems cannot be solved by the level of awareness that created them.” (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Albert_Einstein)

The finger-wagging, guilt-trip inducing environmentalist, and the depressed and jaded deep green ecologist will not deliver the sustainability revolution. From that consciousness, their actions stimulate an equal and opposite reaction, keeping us all stuck.

Of course there is a chicken-and-egg element to consciousness and sustainability, each spurring the other.

And they are both, visibly, happening simultaneously.

But until we get the center of gravity of humanity’s consciousness to a higher level, we will not be able to get sustainability to stick.

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by Alan on October 29, 2012 in Change Agency,Mindsets

Bring it on

October 9, 2012

The consciousness revolution is not something happening “out there” — nor is its promise and potential inevitable. Every day I have as my goal being able to say when I go to bed that night that I could not have lived that day with more love, more gusto, more kindness, more compassion, more courage, more [...]

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The Rules for Being Human

October 5, 2012

The following list is attributed to Dan Millman, author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior. When I first received this list I was 18 years-old and attending an Outward Bound course in Maine. It had been photocopied so many times that the letters looked a little over-bled and rounded out. I rarely re-post other people’s [...]

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The difference that makes a difference

October 3, 2012

One of the most useful concepts — for anyone, really, but especially for change agents because we so often find ourselves spinning our wheels — comes from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This is the distinction between our circle of influence vs our circle of concern. My circle of concern might [...]

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Community and Sustainability 101

October 2, 2012

Year after year, decade after decade, the idea of living cooperatively with others in some form of intentional community has garnered increasing interest. Whether it’s a co-housing community or a full-blown ecovillage, people want to live more lightly on the Earth, share resources, and have a deeper, richer sense of community in their lives. Whatever [...]

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Coming Back to Life

October 1, 2012

The biggest and most unnoticed obstacle change agents face is unprocessed grief.   When you think about it, one of the most powerful leverage points we have in terms of the kind of impact we want to have is our mood. When our spirits are high we face obstacles with creativity, tenacity, and persistence. And [...]

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Another False Dichotomy: Selfish vs Selfless

September 27, 2012

Being selfish versus being selfless is a good hamster-wheel-of-the-mind for spinning off confusion and guilt. If you’re selfish, all you care about is your own needs. If you’re selfless, your needs don’t enter the picture; you’re only here for others. What if serving others meets your needs? What if being only selfish ultimately results in [...]

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The hardest part

September 26, 2012

When you have a tough problem, the hardest part is figuring out how to figure it out. After that it’s easier, because it’s just about figuring it out. When you don’t even know how to figure it out — that’s hard.

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Am I Nuts?

September 20, 2012

I hope this post finds you well and happy! I’m on day 8 of my launch which is about a 12-day process. I’m learning a lot! and having fun. Everyone who’s seen the Blackbelt Communication Skills (NVC) Coaching Program has had awesome things to say! The program is for people who want to bring power, [...]

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