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Illuminations Aleesha Stephenson About the Cover Steve Abernathy Creating Your Dreams Rev. Cheryl Jewett Dream Weavers Dj Brown Perception, Perspective, Decision Marlene Buffa Dream-walking Alegria Imperial Why Raw? David Wolfe World-wide Health Care David Suzuki PhD Fundraising Update Annie Nicholas Get On Track! Jennifer Dillon Walk Your Talk Aleesha Stephenson Life in the Raw Melissa Gilbert Being Mindful Janet Alston Jackson Pet-sense Jean Hofve DVM Breathe Wisdom Jacqueline Kramer Lifetalks Dawn Baumann Brunke Meditate a Moment Featuring: Aleesha Stephenson Juice Feasters Handbook Angela Stokes Bellicon Rebounders QiBounding The Abounding River Game Cafe Gratitude The Raw Greek Gina Panayi Soul Masters - DVD Dr. Guo and Dr. Sha

Perception, Perspective, Decision by Marlene Buffa We look at life through the eyes of our experience. Our basis for our place in the world comes from the manner by which we associate ourselves with respect to others around us and judge how we best fit in the larger scheme of life. We use tools subconsciously and consciously to develop our sense of belonging and adapt our interaction to accommodate what we interpret and determine our true role in life. These mechanisms bring higher meaning to our lives and to others and serve to enlighten our knowledge and understanding of how we function in the world and how the world functions through us. Perception W. Clement Stone said, "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." Our ideas, our conceptions begin first as fluid thoughts in our minds. We then attach words to these ideas and they evolve into basic concepts. After a concept is formed, we develop a method to visualize these ideas into possibility. Some call this conceiving an “idea” and others may term this process as “perception.” Perception moves beyond mere observation into a keen sense of intuition and wisdom. Perception implies seeing more than actually presents itself as apparent and finding an inter-relationship between what you understand and what you know. Perspective Perspective results when we use our perception to integrate new information with what we already know. We balance our opinions against our friends and family and to some extent, or our culture and society to gain a foothold for our position. Depending on where we stand on any given issue, our opinion changes according to our perspective view of the whole concept. Since we experience life differently in our shoes versus another’s shoes, our attitudes and insights vary accordingly, as well. While truisms such as 'both sides of the story' and 'walk a mile in my shoes' offer us hope in understanding the vantage point of opinion, true perspective culminates from lightning fast judgment and experience, sometimes without words. Perspective offers us sanity-moments in a world where we often don't understand how we fit. Most importantly, our perspective arises only from within ourselves. We can never know the perspective of another person, no matter how eloquently they verbalize it. Perspective originates in the innocence of a child to the world-weary observations of experience and life-lessons. Decision We make decisions every moment of the day for the remainder of our lives. Using the tools of perception and perspective, we take a chance on our future by building on our experience and stepping forth into action. Subconsciously, we extract our understanding of where we exist in our world to balance it with where we want to go and derive our actions accordingly. Sadly, many of us choose to rebel against the “intuition” of our perception and perspective, and forge ahead with what we interpret as logic and sound decision-making, when our “gut feeling” may have served us better instead. Your decisions affect not only your future, but the future of the world you live in. By engaging in the use of these cognitive tools, your spiritual growth empowers those around you and ultimately raises the resonance of the world. Just pay attention! Taking a quiet sideways glance at life, Marlene offers insight through her words from experiences. A student of new-thought teachings, Marlene finds practical spirituality around every corner and seeks wisdom through observation of life's inter-relationships. Sometimes playful, sometimes poignant, always thought-provoking, her writing inspires readers in meaningful ways. Her first book entitled "Full Tummy, Empty Bladder, Warm Bed," is now available for purchase. Visit her website at: www.wordsofmind.com

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