Missing you...

I hope all my readers will forgive me for taking such an extended hiatus! I've been gone a while because I'm working on an all consuming project recently. It's another writing project that I've been spending most of my time on - yes, I'm cheating on you. Despite the constant writing though, I've been getting an itch lately - that itch to write something, and publish it immediately. If you're a blogger, you may recognize my need for instant gratification. Don't get me wrong, it's very exciting to see this project take shape! I just felt like I might be lacking a little reader interaction these days!

Aside from the writing, I was recently involved in another project that inspired and humbled me. Me and two of my very good friends organized a teen workshop addressing issues like clarity, inspiration, integrity, accountability, finding your soul purpose and so much more! Last Saturday we brought together five great presenters, so many wonderful sponsors, a beautifully catered lunch and 39 of the most amazing teens I've ever met!

It was a hectic few weeks leading up to the event and in the final week prior, I did let myself fall behind schedule on my writing project, but that's getting caught up now so I don't feel bad. We started getting quite a bit of interest from kids and some of them didn't have the funds to attend the workshop but we hated to turn anyone away so we started looking for sponsors. Now keep in mind, as of yet, there is no non-profit status to claim and no tax benefits to offer to those who might consider donating to our cause. All we had to offer was the gratitude of these kids and a banner with their logo on our website! Still, again and again we got small business owners agreeing to sponsor a teen for the day! I was touched again and again by the generosity of people. One sponsor I communicated with a few times, was finally able to sponsor a teen just one day before the event. I emailed to say I would love to add his business cards or fliers to the take-home bags we were putting together and I'd be willing to drive to wherever he was to pick them up. I assumed he was local. He had seen about the event on facebook, seen that we were looking for sponsors for teens who were unable to go on their own, read about what we were doing and decided this was a cause he could get behind, but he wasn't here in town, he was in Colorado! So there was nothing he could gain in return, he just wanted to give a teen that wanted to go, that opportunity! I was so moved.

Kevin Hall spoke before lunch and as a gift to the kids, gave every one of them a copy of his book Aspire! Discovering your purpose through the power of words and the companion journal Discovering your purpose through the power of your words. He really connected & interacted with those kids and I could tell how much he cared.

Charan Prabhakar came all the way from Los Angeles for the day and the kids absolutely loved him. He would step in after a particularly heavy moment with a lighthearted story that made everyone laugh, while handily illustrating and underlining the concept the kids had just talked about. He definitely made an impression on them and I'm so thankful he was able to be with us for the day!

At lunch time, the kids grouped up and worked on setting goals while they enjoyed a delicious lunch donated by Kneader's Bakery in South Jordan. I loved seeing them smiling and laughing while they ate and worked on creating new possibilities for their future.

I ran back and forth all day between two conference rooms in an adorable pair of white go-go boots - I even vacuumed in them at the end of the day because I'm that awesome. Indeed, I looked fabulous, but I definitely paid for it! Over the next two days I suffered through the healing blisters and throbbing feet, but now that I've recovered, nothing but the sweet memories remain! I got to meet wonderful kids, work with amazing people, get further clarity around my own vision & purpose in life and eat delicious Kneader's sandwiches for lunch! All in all it was a pretty fantastic day! The format and style need a little work but overall it was a screaming success and I foresee many teen empowerment seminars in my future. I might need to buy some insoles.

Is God Part of The Grand Design?

In "The Grand Design," by eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking asserts that a new series of theories makes a creator of the universe redundant, according to the Times newspaper which published extracts on Thursday.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist," Hawking writes.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

He refers to the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our sun when discussing the possibility of a creator. "That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions -- the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass, far less remarkable, and far less compelling evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings,"

These simple elegant statements are opening my mind up wide. I'm getting more and more Atheist by the minute! Hahaha Okay not exactly. But I am more and more comfortable letting go of the idea of a father/God figure, so similar to the Mormon God I was raised with. And stated so simply, it is all so clear to me that there was no need for a God in the creation of the universe. I never bought the "created in 7 days/6000 year old universe" theory, and I never bought the premise that God zapped Adam & Eve into being like magic. I was always much more comfortable with the idea that God worked with the laws of science & nature to facilitate the creation of our world over time. But this was an unexamined premise that only lived vaguely in my mind. And when I do examine it more closely, things don't fit together quite right. If God existed before anything, out in the ether of space, floating in the darkness, and God created all the universe... well then we aren't on the same evolutionary path and we'll never progress to where God is now. And that just doesn't feel true to me. I don't know, but I feel the rightness of our continuing evolution and progression. There may or may not be a god in some form or another. I definitely don't think there is an old man, clothed in white robes, watching over us all, keeping a tally of our good and bad choices every second of every day. And while it feels like my beliefs have been unconsciously drifting this way for some time, bringing these thoughts into the light now, I definitely agree more and more that is is unlikely a supreme being set the creation of the universe in motion. What do you think?
-Flora