Annual Memorial Day Post: To Honor Fallen Warriors, Stop Glorifying War & Become an Activist for Peace [with Links to Many Resources]

Cover image from the enlightening website,
"War is a Crime: A Blog About a Criminal Enterprise

As a “baby boomer” growing up in the United States, I’ve lived through many, many Memorial Day commemorations and solemn memorial services. And as the years pass, I’m growing less patient with our tolerance for war. For example, has anyone really noticed that we’ve been both killing and being killed for nearly 17 years in Afghanistan? Probably few US citizens could tell you how long we’ve been in that far-away land, why we are there and if we’re making any “progress,” despite all the death, destruction, and maimings. After all, there’s no military draft that reaches into all American households and pulls out soldiers, no “war taxes,” and generally no real “skin in the game” for most of us. Aside from having our airwaves a bit cluttered with Memorial Day speeches, we are mostly able to put this messy war stuff out of our minds.

Now most of the time I try to keep these articles positive, practical or uplifting. But here I’m going to stretch things a bit and include what we old liberals call “consciousness raising.” In that spirit I’m going to share some stuff here that will help you ponder why it is we can’t seem to quit fighting and then learn how you might take action to stop the senseless killing of our kids.

Those Spring Flowers: Pointless Bursts of Color or Anchors to the Here & Now?

2019's "superbloom" of California poppies near
Lake Elsinore blankets the mountainsides with dancing colors

It's that time of year again (at least in much of the Northern Hemisphere). Out of the gray of winter, against a backdrop of dead grasses, winter-worn leaves and bare branches, flowers pop out at us, clamoring for attention. They tease us with noisy bursts of color that don't seem to have any purpose.  "Hey, I'm over here!" they demand. "It's spring and it's warming up and I'm beautiful and it's great to be alive!" Their crazy, random shaped heads bob and jiggle around in the warm, moist breezes. Some last a few weeks, while others shrivel and die after a mere day or two.

In A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, Eckhart Tolle explains how these little colored marvels have helped shape humanity's perceptions:

"As the consciousness of human beings developed, flowers were most likely the first thing they came to value that had no utilitarian purpose... not linked in some way to survival. They provided inspiration to countless artists, poets, and mystics. Jesus tells us to contemplate the flowers and learn from them how to live. The Buddha is said to have given a silent sermon once during which he held up a flower and gazed at it."

And how can flowers teach us how to live? By grabbing our attention and, however briefly, slamming us into the here and now. Their ephemeral beauty touches something deep within us... something that is beyond words... something that compels attention and focus... something that invites us into the present moment.

And then, soon enough, our faces turn away, disappearing into our digital screens. Then our brains disappear into those mini-dramas from work or some talking head's political narrative or celebrity "news," and on and on and on. Eventually, our consciousness is completely consumed by the neverending ping's and dings of the gossip stream that is the news or Facebook or Instagram or... [insert your favorite gif-bedecked screen addiction here.]

How about you? Did you notice that short-lived flower you walked past today? Did you catch that beautiful smile that someone beamed at you? Did you really hear and process that thing your kid said that seemed to make him so giggly? Did you look into your dog's eyes when she wagged her tail at you and connect with her unrestrained love? These are examples of NOW moments. Follow the flowers to connect with your own ephemeral NOW moments and connect with your own life aliveness before it fades.

(Bonus: Online Google photo album:
Virtual Flowers for My WORTH SHARING Readers 
-- I shot all these at or near my home in Southern CA.)

Related Stuff from the Archives: 

• Download 20-minute Audio Podcast: Practice Mindfulness -- Summary: This podcast reviews the power of mindfulness — the practice of bringing your full awareness into the present moment — and how you can expand upon your inherent ability to practice mindfulness.
• Chapters from my WORTH SHARING book online:  
• How Mindfulness Meditation Helps Me Laugh at Mental Soap Bubbles
• Meditation Fact Sheet: Scientifically Proven Benefits and a Who's Who of Famous Meditators 
• Searching for a Picture: How a Camera in Your Hands Can Improve Your Vision
• How to Get Comfortable Doing Nothing: 3 Simple Strategies
• Inspirations: An Archived Collection to Motivate & Bring Peace of Mind 

Got downtime? Teach yourself project management with these free videos and tools!

The Situation: You've Got Lots of Down Time & A Great Big Brain to Feed!

As noted in my last article, the vast majority of my fellow Americans -- indeed, people from all over the world -- have been stopped in their tracks by the COVID-19 pandemic. We've been asked to stay home from our jobs and schools and generally "hide out" at home to help stop the spread of this horrible and deadly disease. And you can only spend so much time on YouTube, Netflix, Facebook, etc. until you go numb! So why not teach yourself something valuable so that when you emerge from your cave... and you will eventually emerge!... you will have some "added value" in the workplace?  And project management (PM) is one skill set that provides lots of value in almost any industry!

The Overall Approach: Keep It Simple... Become a PM Minimalist! 

Project Management (PM) Minimalism is the practice of doing “just enough” PM to get the job done, and no more. PM Minimalism may be applied to any project in any industry or professional practice. It's up to you to decide what “just enough” PM is for your particular project, in your unique organization. The Project Management Minimalist: Just Enough PM to Rock Your Projects!*  provides lean, simple, and professional-level PM tools and guidelines to help you make this decision and run a Minimalist project. (*NOTE: Amazon, my book distributor, won't let me list this book in their catalog at a price of $0.00 [FREE!], as I would like to do. So I set it up for sale at the absolute minimum price they allow, which is $2.99 for the Kindle, $6.99 paperback. But honestly -- you don't need to buy the book to get a whole bunch of valuable stuff that you can use to teach yourself PM Minimalism.... See below...)

The Video Series: An In-depth Overview of PM & PM Minimalism

These free videos are short and sweet and matched to the book... but you don't need the book to get a lot out of them! They'll allow you to just kick back and ease into project management and PM Minimalism.

The PM Minimalist Support System & Freebies (Lotsa Good Stuff!)

Inspired by the videos to go a little deeper? This is a HUGE collection of mostly free stuff to help you learn and apply PM Minimalism, coach/lead your project team and even create a do-it-yourself PM Minimalist workshop. There are PDF reference tools, audios, coaching guides and all sorts of useful materials to help anyone who is new to PM get their project up and running immediately.

Enjoy!