I had got off early one day so I decided to grab my bow and I went up behind my house. I had seen some deer in the distance, and my neighbor’s had said there was some real nice bucks running around while I was walking. I rode to the top of the hill next to little pond about twenty foot round. I got over to the edge of the thicket, hoping a deer would come get a drink. Then I heard something out of sight. I waited then there she was, a doe at about 50 yards coming my way.

Remember everybody has a limit, to make a good solid shot my self imposed was 40 yards. Then suddenly she turned and went into the brush. I could hear her walking in the dry leaves. I was following the sound just waiting for the right time and opportunity to connect. Then just like a ghost, there was no more sound. I thought I knew where she was from where the sound stopped. So I just waited for her to move!

All of a sudden she snorted, just to say that she out smarted me, because she was not where I thought she was . She had traveled nearly another 150′ and circled me ending up standing in a clearing at about 15 yards behind me. I could not move! She had found me and was stomping her foot and blowing at me. Within minutes she had discovered that she had won this fight and I watched her bounce away.

That’s why they call it hunting not killing! You can’t always fill your tag but what a thrill it was! Until Next Time……Turbo

Do you Hunt? Exciting adventure stories even Venison recipes by Turbo and Tabitha Collins await your viewing!

If you’re fed up of SEOs and organic search placements, Adword campaigns that are costing you money, Adsense nonsense, and all the frustrations that come with running a conventional online business, it’s time you look into a funded proposal system. This is by far the easiest method to make money online, for a lifetime!

We all know, if you’ve been around long enough, that trying to make it online is a tough, frustrating, proposition. That’s why many quit and scream ‘they’ve been had’ by some marketing ‘guru’. We also know that to make it online, you need some kind of method to generate targeted leads/customers (building a list to market to), an autoresponder (a method by which you can send your customers timely automated messages on auto pilot), your own website and domain name hosted on a server somewhere (if your really serious about making it online), and finally some way stay motivated and focused on your goals (so that you don’t get discouraged and quit. Now you know this is all true, and all of this can run you into a lot of money. I know.

Back to the funded proposal system. A funded proposal simply means, that whatever your initial outlay is (lets say $10.), it will be your only outlay, because if you understand the program and work it like it’s taught to you the first month, your monthly membership of (lets say $10.) is self-funded (meaning its no longer a debit or expense for you).

Why? Read this sentence slowly so that you understand it! Because in a funded proposal program, which is quite simply a fully automated, fully internet-based, multi-level-marketing program, using a world renowned hosting-domain name-website service, a fully automated auto-responder program, a fully automated targeted-lead generator, a fully automated motivational and training center, is just awesome. You just can’t lose and are generating huge monthly incomes for decades to come 24/7 world wide.

That’s how powerful it is once you understand it. Apply it within the first month and the rest is history. That’s one of the ways that I make a substantial residual income online.

Jon G. Michel is author and webmaster at http://www.jon-michel.com Hurry and grab your Three FREE Incredible Internet Marketing Gifts totalling over $400 in value. Absolutely Free! View Them Here!

The highly anticipated CMS 1500 deadline for filing medical insurance claim forms has been extended. Originally April 1, 2007 was the deadline for submitting HCFA 1500 (12/90) claim forms to insurance carriers for medical insurance claims. The new CMS 1500 (8/05) forms were all that were to be accepted after April 1. The CMS now states that they are targeting June 1, 2007 as the cutoff date. HCFA 1500 (12/90) forms will not be accepted after that date.

The reason for this extension was due an error by (you guessed it) the Government. It is reported that they incorrectly formatted a version of the revised form and the incorrect format was released to some vendors. This resulted in some forms being printed with the incorrect format. It is a fairly minor difference, but the practice management systems would not be able to print the forms correctly on the incorrect format.

How can you tell if you have forms that were properly printed? The easiest way is to look at the top of the form. There is a small red arrow at the top right corner of the form. It should be approximately ¼” from the top edge of the form. On the improperly printed forms the arrow is touching or very close to the top edge. You will want to make sure your forms are printed correctly.

The new CMS 1500 forms are currently being accepted and processed by insurance carriers. Forms that are not printed to specification: off line, printing outside of boxes, etc. will be returned to the provider. This is intended to inform the provider of the problem so they can correct it.

Even though we’ve been given a reprieve, we suggest that you don’t wait to make sure you are ready for the new forms. Go ahead and start using the forms as soon as you are capable to see if there are any problems printing them. The new June 1 deadline will come quicker than you think.

Copyright 2007 - Alice Scott

Alice Scott and her daughter / partner Michele Redmond are co-owners of a medical billing service. They offer an informational website for both physician’s offices and the general public looking for information or help with their problems with medical insurance billing. href="http://www.solutions-medical-billing.com">Check out their website for more information, more about important changes now going on in Medical Insurance Billing, or to sign up for their free monthly newsletter.

Many years ago my hubby and I were out hiking with a friend through a part of the Daniel Boone National Forest in the north eastern part of Kentucky. It was a really beautiful late Spring day when we were all wandering through looking at the various species of plant life, and occasionally getting a glimpse of some animal life in the area.

Let me give you an idea of this history of Kentucky before I go any further with my story. First of all, the name Kentucky comes from at least a couple of native American Indian dialects. Can-tuck, or Can-tuck-ke, which means “the Dark and Bloody Ground”. NO native tribes ever lived in the Dark and Bloody ground. This is/was the land where spirits and super-natural creatures dwelt.

Of course, when the Europeans came, all they saw was a very fertile and abundant land rich in natural resources and dismissed the various legends as superstitious nonsense. The various tribes that lived in the surrounding areas, that would later become the states of Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, and Missouri, would hunt and gather in the area, but they would not live there.

Now, back to my tale. We were meandering through this particular area spending the day leisurely taking rest breaks, chatting about various happenings going on in the world and our everyday lives, and stopping to have our packed picnic lunch. We would occasionally come across raccoon tracks, deer tracks, and various bird tracks in the muddy areas as we hiked. As we spent the day meandering down the Sheltowee trail, and occasionally stepping off for a break, or to check out a plant or item of interest we would notice, we encountered nothing unseemly or out of the ordinary, until we headed back that is.

As the day progressed to well past the noon hour and began to make it’s way towards setting we decided to head back towards our vehicles while we still had about 4 hours of sun and day light left. We made our way back along the path we had walked and about a mile or so from the parking area we came across some tracks that were quite out of the ordinary. So, we began to look closely at them and follow them.

Our friend, who I’ll refer to from this point on as C., had some experience with tracking and knew about every track that could be made by the wildlife in the area as he had spent a few years working for the Forestry service. He’d never seen anything like these before. And, since we had spent quite a lot of time camping and hiking ourselves making sure to have field guides for identification purposes most of the time we knew a lot of the types of animal tracks too. we were as stumped as he was.

The tracks were huge hoof prints, much bigger than a deer could make. They were bigger than either C.’s hand, my hand, or my husband’s hand with C. having the largest hands of the three of us. The tracks were very deeply embedded into the ground, over an inch deep. And, the pattern of the hoof prints was very odd because while they were made by an animal that had quite obviously been running through the muddy area, and the soft ground, they weren’t leaving the usual pattern made by a four legged creature. The further we followed the tracks the more obvious the evidence in front of our eyes became, however unlikely or incredible it seemed. The tracks were being made by something running on TWO legs. The tracks weren’t there when we passed through earlier on our hike either, so they were very fresh.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I realized what this meant, and apparently the same thought had occurred to my hubby and our friend - this thing could still be very close. We had spent around an hour or so following these tracks trying to figure our what had left such big, deeply embedded, tracks in the ground and now we were thinking that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. The evidence showed that whatever had made these tracks was very big, and probably weighed well over 200 lbs. Now, our precious daylight was waning and we had wandered away from the main trail for about a distance of a mile. We all decided to show a quick set of heels and made for the parking area and our cars.

For next several days we discussed our little adventure. My husband I are well educated in the “myths” and legends of classical history, and the rural history of Kentucky, and we pondered, read, and discussed about just what could have made such tracks. We found no descriptions of normal animals that could have made such tracks.

So, what made these tracks? We knew from legend and tales of such a creature that could have left such tracks, but saytrs aren’t suppose to exist - are they?

The author, S. Mefford writes for various websites including Greenwoods Village arts and literature To read more about the weird and the paranormal visit True Ghost Tales for real true ghost stories. http://www.trueghosttales.com

Do you feel like you have little control over how you are living your life? Step back and assess how you would like to live your life with more purpose. Your life is one of constant choices throughout your day, and some of those choices can direct you to feeling more purposeful and authentic in how you spend your time. Do you feel that your time is spent in activities not of your choosing? These tips may help you set boundaries so you have more time, make quality choices based on your values, and become much more selective in how you use your time.

>Tip 1. Make choices based on what you really value and need in your life. Create time priorities to satisfy your unique values that will bring you an awareness of who you are and your fulfillment. You may have to prioritize what activities you participate in based on a rating of importance of certain activities, if you have a number of activities that you value. Or perhaps alternate your choices each month.

>Tip 2. Who you are today may be different than who you were before and your standards should reflect that. Raise your standards by telling those around you how you want to be treated and respected. Be able to inform others about how you want them to speak and act in certain situations. you need to educate your environment.

>Tip 3. Prioritize your time by putting yourself first and finding self nurturing activities. Be your best by setting aside small amounts of time to just be you versus doing what others ask of you. Be aware that we all need different amounts of this time.

>Tip 4. Have a partner or comrade to challenge you to consistently reach for what you specifically want, especially those ideas that may be outside of your present comfort zone. Be willing to stretch a bit to feel excited about and pulled toward your goals.

>Tip 5. Learn more about yourself by joining or forming new community groups that will encourage you to learn new things, find ways to use your skills and strengths, and develop your communication skills. Find a community or two of people who will stretch your imagination.

>Tip 6. Volunteer or sign up for new classes at places that feed your soul and make you come alive, even if it makes little sense to others. This challenge is great for developing you in new directions that may enliven previous interests that you may now have time to pursue.

>Tip 7. Do what you like without guilt. Many folks think they must have their calendars fully scheduled or they will miss out on something. This tip gives you permission to just be in the flow, without adjusting priorities. Be in the flow and know your inner guide is assisting you in finding all that you need at the time.

During an outdoor retreat I facilitated this month a group of explorers clarified and committed to some high priorities for themselves for improving the quality of their lives. The intentions ranged from having fun on a daily basis, to staying focused on a healthy diet, to gaining peace of mind through improved communication and family relationships, to prioritizing on exercise and movement.

Challenge for this week: What is of highest priority that you would like to change for improving your quality of life? I challenge each of you to review what is most important for you to increase your quality of life. Write it down and find someone who will hold you accountable to taking the steps needed to attain it. I’m interested in hearing what happens and how the changes affect you.

Visit http://www.fullcirclefulfillment.com for life enhancing tips and tools for increasing the quality of your life and well being.

You can also receive a Free Report for developing healthy goals and effective environments and a Free newsletter “Charting New Territories” at http://www.fullcirclefulfillment.com.

You are also invited to register for my free monthly teleseminar.

Fran Miller, MA, partners with people to increase their quality of life. She offers workshops, getaways, and telephone consulting for individuals and groups to develop meaningful goals that rejuvenate them. They learn life skills to reach their full potential while maintaining work-life integration.

I would like to begin with this statement. ‘Women are Crusaders’ they are the new Pioneers in Society.

Things that women have been known to crusade about are, the women’s vote, women’s equality, Health issues and the list goes on. We are able to identify a situation where we know we can have impact, embrace the solution and advocate the change. We are able to bond and bind together and become a single voice. As women we have taken our place in society and established ourselves as a force to be reckoned with. Our influence has been felt with women’s equality issues, within business and women’s health issues.

We truly care; we nurture our families, friends, co-workers and employees.
We are capable of making decisions, important decisions. Today we purchase or influence the purchase of nearly 80% of all consumer goods, including big ticket cars, financial services and even the computers. Women in business have increased by over 42% in the last decade and we now have over 7 million female business owners in North America alone. Something to note we also make the majority of the decisions concerning health-care for our families. Think about this as we move on.

Today I would like to invite you to consider some new ideas. I mean to provoke thought, influence some decisions and ask you to consider becoming part of an organization, which will again take you a woman, and some of your friends and acquaintances on a new adventure; a project that will add excitement. This will be a new mission for all of us, we will have a single voice that has the potential to dwarf the impact any other mission women have embraced in recent history.

Here are a few points for you to consider.
Today we have impacted the outcome of Breast Cancer through a vision of education and early detection. The reason we see such high recovery rates for women diagnosed with Breast Cancer is the campaign women found themselves on educating each other on the importance of prevention, early detection, and effective treatment. Women took charge and advocated for each other and changed the face of this disease forever.

Women are becoming more self-empowered, responsible and successful in business. We have shown ourselves to have the necessary intelligence, skills, savvy, and drive to take our place in the front offices and corporate boardrooms of the highly competitive and demanding global business world. We are a segment of the population that is on the move and establishing ourselves as an important force within the business world of tomorrow.

Having read all this let’s talk about something that is impacting women right now and some very scary facts every woman needs to know.

Today in North America the #1 killer of women and men is Heart Disease. It kills over 1.5 million people every year. 50% of those that die; if they are men have had no warning. 64% of the women that die had no symptoms. No warning! And do you know what is really scary most women have no idea of the risks, and are doing little if anything about it. Why……….No Mission……..Poor Education……Apathy…….Yes Apathy. Dr. Gerald Bresnahan one of the foremost Cardiologists in North America states, that every single patient of his that experiences a heart attack is truly surprised, it doesn’t matter what their health status is, it doesn’t matter what there symptoms or warning signs were, they are surprised it happened to them. Do you understand your risks; do you understand how things like High Blood Pressure Diabetes and Weight influence these risks? Do you understand the risks of your mother, sister, daughters, sons, father, brother or the risk of your husband?

Do you know that we have the equivalent of a 9-11 everyday here in North America with people dieing of Heart Disease? Every 30 seconds someone dies of a Heart Attack in North America. 17.5 million people died worldwide in 2005 and it is predicted that this number will rise to 20 million by 2010. Do theses statistics inspire thoughts of ‘What is going on?’ Do you think that you may be one of those special women who might want to tackle a mission and crusade that would have impact on society on a whole and while you are educating offer real and safe solutions?

Do you know that despite the headway women have made in business that most women will end their lives in poverty? More than ½ of women that are single live with incomes below the poverty line. I know you know women that are in that situation. If you could avoid this, or help some one else avoid this would you?

I invite you to join a movement, an opportunity to educate, and offer solutions for women and men to prevent the leading cause of death worldwide right here at home in North America. Women together can do the same for heart disease as we did for breast cancer.

Would you like to participate and help women with a hand up to secure their financial future? Giving them opportunity, that is rewarding and inspiring to aid in their own self-empowerment. Opportunities open to women from all walks of life, where we can educate and guide to a better position in their lives.

The skills, and talent you need to accomplish this is a true caring and passionate interest in impacting the health of women; the discipline and drive to set goals and hold yourself accountable to hitting your targets; and a sincere intention of supporting, coaching and mentoring to the best of your ability other women and men like yourself who have the desire to secure their health and financial future while experiencing true impact on society and living a life of purpose and prosperity.

Join me and others in this campaign, be part of the new single voice for changing the face of health and heart disease in this nation now. Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve and be part of the Wellness Revolution for women today.

I look forward to meeting all of you as you join us on this incredibly important campaign of Wearing Our Hearts on Our Sleeves.

darleneisunicitynow@rogers.com

Darlene has a strong and diverse background in business and customer relations. It includes production and quality control in the Seventies and Eighties, then co-founding and managing a large heavy construction company in the Grey-Bruce region in the mid Eighties until the early Nineties. Her responsibilities included human resources, estimating, contract negotiating, employee relations, job implementation, customer services and all aspects of accounting. She was the first woman in the heavy construction field and also owned a Custom Design Homebuilding company called Darbek Enterprises.

In 1988 Darlene became the first female member of Rotary International paving the way for women in Rotary today. Darlene is also a certified facilitator for Time Management and Personal Excellence with the Pacific Institute. Today combined with a keen understanding of Nutrition, strong caring interpersonal skills, clear vision of marketing stratagies and established business expertise, she is moving forward with a New Business Plan, leading edge research, and cutting edge products.

You’ve worked your way up throughout your career, attaining a high-level rank through demonstrated achievement, dedication, and proficiency. One day, you find yourself needing to look elsewhere, and that’s where the old nagging doubt sets in: you never finished (or even started) college. What if this holds you back?

First of all, relax. There exist countless professionals, managers, and even executives who do not possess a degree, yet these same job seekers successfully ascend the career ladder just the same. What’s their secret? Much the same as you, their bottom-line contributions and hard work had become a stand-in for that coveted diploma.

Keep in mind that, as you pursue that next opportunity, there are a myriad of ways to pique an employer’s interest and win interviews, starting with the approach presented on your resume:

Quantify Your Contributions
Extracting accomplishment information of significance can be a challenge, but consider the payoff! Your resume must shout out this type of information in order to prove the consistency of your performance.

For example, when working with a telecommunications executive lacking a degree, I discussed his leadership role in a high-profile project. The end product, “Eliminated $34M in rework, slashed staff requirements for task completion, and achieved 78+% ROI by leading sales and service delivery teams to identify core revisions” speaks for itself and cuts through any doubt about his abilities.

Add professional training as proof of ongoing development.
Many well-established professionals have attended hours of seminars, training sessions, and other educational opportunities in order to sharpen their core expertise.

Be sure to keep a complete list as fodder for an educational section on the resume-and as evidence of your passion for lifelong learning.

Showcase your ability to meet-and overcome-challenges in your previous roles.
What shape was your current employer in upon your arrival? Were you the sole source of measures that increased efficiency? Did you manage a major, multimillion-dollar account or enhance the company’s reputation with its vendors?

Adding the context in which these achievements were completed can paint an entirely new picture of your strengths. Don’t forget that these types of leadership examples can add punch to your resume and demonstrate repeatable skills.

In summary, establishing a link between your expertise and consistent performance is the fastest way to gain attention during your job search. Consider that for every employer who wants candidates to possess a degree, there are possibly two others that will look at your “on-the-job education” as equivalent (and possibly stronger) credentials.

A prominent resume expert specializing in helping fast-track professionals win interviews despite the lack of a degree, Certified Professional Resume Writer and Interview Coach Laura Smith-Proulx has produced award-winning resumes that consistently gain attention from hiring managers.

Her work has been nominated for the international “Toast of the Resume Industry” awards, and has appeared in the “Expert Resumes” and “Same-Day Resume” books. A former Fortune 500 recruiter, she has assisted professionals in successful career changes since 1989. She can be reached at 877-258-3517 or at info@anexpertresume.com.

It feels like for the past couple of years on the internet an idea of a “secret” that will clear up all your financial worries has been marketed. These products will tell you they have what noone else is telling you to making money online. That, they alone, can end your financial worries and let you work one, or two hours, a day and make enough money to retire by next year. They go on to say that to buy from anyone else would be a mistake and not to trust other products but their own.

“Secret”, “Discover” and “Revealed” could be buzzwords in this business. They all are aimed at or imply hidden knowledge that someone doesn’t know yet. They are actually sales words used to grab the attention of unsuspecting new marketers looking to increase their knowledge or just get into internet marketing. It’s an easy trap to fall in and even the most successful and experienced internet marketers have probably started out the same way before figuring out this “secret”.

When you actually look at the “secret” it’s nothing anyone would categorize as anything amazing or earth shattering. It makes sense in its simplicity and is simply a matter of doing the right things in the right order, every time. Internet marketing articles, websites, and ebooks often dodge, duck, or write around some of the logical steps. This may not be entirely planned, but because most of it is common sense. So if it’s so easy, why isn’t this information freely available online?

Internet marketers spend a lot of their own time, money, and effort just to learn the ropes of the business. Discovering and figuring out those steps and right order often does not come free or cheap for any of them. This way the information is always sold. The biggest question someone has to ask themselves when getting into internet marketing is how much that information is worth to them. You will pay in any combination of time, money, and effort to get the knowledge you need. Your commitment, dedication, and determination will be the real test to see if you succeed.

Robert Kreuk is a full time internet marketer. Through his input and experience he has teamed up to create the definitive internet marketing guide for new marketers called href="http://www.chimp-change.org">Chimp Change

Elephants are the largest of land mammals. They are regal creatures used throughout the world as images of stateliness and ceremony. They are, in general, private, gentle and herd-like creatures. They are in danger in some areas because of illegal ivory trade killings. Its long trunk, huge head with large flat ears and columnar legs characterize this gigantic creature.

There are certain interesting facts about elephants. Elephants are sensitive associate animals where if a baby grumbles, the whole family will collectively be unsettled and go over to touch and embrace it. Elephants are said to cry, play, have incredible memories, and laugh. Elephants also mourn at a loss of a stillborn baby, a kin member, and, in many cases, other elephants. Elephants have greeting services when a friend that has been absent for a little time returns to the group.

The elephants are of great importance to us from the ecological point of view. They offer an essential role in the ecology they dwell in. They amend their habitat by changing the savannah, woodlands and grasslands. Elephants can supply water for other types by digging water holes in dry riverbeds. The depressions shaped by their footprints and their bodies trap the water of the rainfall. Elephants act as seed dispersers by their fecal matter. It is regularly carried underneath ground by dung beetles and termites making the soil to turn out to be more aerated and further distributing the nutrients. An elephant’s passage through the high grassland offers food for birds by unsettling small reptiles, amphibians or insects.

Eric Hartwell oversees “The World’s Best Homepage” intended to be a user-generated resource where YOUR opinion counts. Anybody can contribute and all are welcomed. Visit us to read, comment upon or share opinions on nature and visit our associated site articles for free

This week is the Jewish holiday of Passover. It’s a festival that’s been celebrated for thousands of years and every year we read the same story of how Moses took the Israelites from oppression into freedom. It’s a powerful story of how one man can change the lives of many and continue to influence people for hundreds of generations.

Whether we believe the story is true or not is irrelevant. The powerful metaphor contained within it has been a beacon for many oppressed peoples throughout the world. Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and many, many others, took the story of the Exodus and made it their own.

Many of you already know the story of Moses and how he parted the waters to lead his people across the Red Sea. Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve been to the Red Sea, and it’s pretty big. It was a long walk across with the chariots of the Pharaoh bearing down on them. But the idea that we can overcome the limitations of what other people place upon us is a powerful idea.

Enslavement was and is the darkest part of humanity. The idea that we can control the destiny of others with our will, with our beliefs and with our iron fist, is anathema to how we want to be as humans. To deny the lives of others to further our own power or control is a bitter pill no one should be forced to swallow.

But it’s not only the physical act of holding someone in bondage or keeping them oppressed that stands out for me in the Passover story. It is the way we hold this metaphor for how we live our own lives.

We are all in bondage to something.

In my own life, I grew up in a family where chaos ruled. My father was a serious alcoholic who physically abused both his wife and his children for many years. Now, I could have gone one of two ways. I could have been kicked into the gutter of life and reverted to alcohol myself, or I could take the higher road and find my salvation in other things. Well, it was a bit of both in reality.

I loved drugs and alcohol from an early age. I was thirteen when I started drinking and I was fifteen when I got hooked on amphetamines. My self-esteem was lower than a gnat, but that didn’t seem to stop me. As you can see, I’m here now talking about it. But the long road out of bondage to this place I stand in today, being a Fearless Fifty, took me into some very dark and scary places. It is not a road I would recommend anyone going down, but for me there was no option. It was that or perish.

Along the way, people close to me were hurt but I couldn’t help myself, and as I continued to struggle with drug and alcohol dependency it would eventually push me into Alcoholics Anonymous. I am not a Bill W story, although I was in AA for five years. During that time I was also undergoing some very intensive therapy and I confronted a lot of the demons, including being a victim of sexual abuse, which I had locked away.

But getting healthy was far more important to me than holding onto my dark secrets, and gradually I began to unearth the real me beneath the garbage. I began to realize that I was a victim of alcoholic thinking. I was an obsessive compulsive who needed to know exactly where everything was in order to feel safe. I wanted order in my life, but my behavior was anything but. When I drank too much I was convinced I was an alcoholic. But as you know, a real alcoholic cannot live without a drink, and I have always been able to do that. Controlling how much I drank in one sitting and then feeling bad that I’d overdone it again, was my biggest problem.

It took me 5 years to see that my enslavement was the way I think about myself when I drink. I was not my father, or my mother, or anyone else for that matter. It was key to the whole issue. It had to change. And it did. I changed my relationship to alcohol and to behavior that occasionally is not good for me. I like a glass of wine or two and on occasion three or four, but I know how to stop nowadays and what’s better, I chalk it up to having had a really good time and I’ll recover the next day. I’m a Fearless Fifty now because I can face the demons and give them a name. I choose not to allow the demons to enslave me anymore. I choose to live life on my own terms.

But there are always things in our lives that we are enslaved to.

We find it in our work, our relationship to money, to debt, a style of life we can’t afford, a relationship that’s not working, health that isn’t perfect, too much sex, not enough sex, endlessly trying to please, too much eating, drinking, obsessing about things that are out of our control, habits that are destructive.

In the Passover story we speak of the ten plagues that afflicted the Egyptians as a punishment for their oppression of the Israelites. They include the Nile being turned into blood, frogs, massive hail stones, cow disease, lice and locusts, and the death of the first born child.

What are some of the plagues that afflict us today? I can think of a few. Aids, SARS, Mad Cow disease, wars ravaging Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Sudan, Sierra Leone and many others. The distrust and conflict that separates Israel and Palestine. The economic oppression in Russia. All of these are conflicts of the soul and of the heart. All are a source of oppression.

We would like to think that we have moved on from the dark days of slavery, but that’s not true. Think of the young women from Eastern Europe who are forced into slavery as sex slaves throughout the world. The children in Asia who are forced into child labor and sex. Even here in New York today there is are hundreds of sweat shops and underpaid workers. At the restaurant Saigon Grill on the Upper West Side the food is good, the prices reasonable. But they pay their workers $1.61 an hour to work there. Most are illegal immigrants with no way to retaliate. Now that’s slave labor. It’s a small thing, but I will not return to that restaurant.

We don’t need to support oppression for our own satisfaction. By ignoring the plight of others, we ignore the basic needs of man. We ignore the message that we are intrinsically saying they don’t count. We all count.

That means we are all responsible for the choices we make when interacting with others. It is said at Passover, ‘if even one person is enslaved, we all are.’

Martin Luther King spent his entire life trying to free his people from the oppression of white supremacy and the suffocating laws and expectations that kept people down. The Dalai Lama works tirelessly for the Tibetan people and for mankind to be free of oppression, both physically and spiritually. Repression around the globe is endemic and we must all do our small part to stop the pain. We all have a responsibility to do something about it. Your pain is my pain because we live in the lives of others.

Passover in the Jewish tradition is our yearly reminder. We sit at our Seder table and recite the story of the Exodus. We talk about the present day and we talk about our enslavements. Too much TV, too much work, too much alcohol, too much eating, too much negative thinking. These are just some of the ways we are enslaved.

Think of something you’d like to break free from, and when you’re done, write it down and make a promise to yourself that you will make an effort this year to change it. You see we all have them. I’m enslaved to my work right now. I can’t let it go for a day, or if I do, I feel guilty that I should be doing something. I’m exhausted a lot of the time building my business, making the connections, getting exposure for what I’m doing. No one is cracking the whip except me. Do I need to break that habit? Probably. The world will keep turning no matter what I do.

Freedom is a choice many do not have. Whether it is self-imposed or imposed by others, freedom is a gift and a natural-born right. We all have the right to be free from bondage.

When Paul Robeson sang Let My People Go, you could feel the entire weight of that request. It was a cry for release. A cry for humanity.

Humanity. The words compassion, generosity, acceptance, tolerance and diversity come up for me when I consider that word. We are ALL entitled to our humanity. Our right to be whatever it is we want to be, however we want to be, as long as we generate respect for the rights of others to have the same privilege. We should all have the freedom to live without someone else telling us how it should be.

The holiday of Passover is a Jewish holiday, but it’s a world holiday. It’s a time to consider if we truly are free, and if not, we have the opportunity to change it today. We end our Seder with a statement “Next Year in Jerusalem.” It is a saying that encompasses the idea that we can all live in harmony. We can all find peace in this world.

I wish you Hag Sameach. A good year.

Be the best you can be for yourself and you will be the best you can be for others.
Let us live in peace and harmony NOW.

Fearless Fifties coach and speaker Jacqueline Wales shows you how to become the woman you were always meant to be; how to take risks to strengthen your beliefs about who you are and grow more confident, secure and strong as you develop the life you want.

For your free copy of the Fearless Fifties newsletter and a bonus report Putting PASSION Back Into Your Life go to http://www.fearlessfifties.com

Please contact jacqueline@fearlessfifties.com or call (718) 502 9332