That catchy little phrase “Awaken the Giant Within” is also the title of one of Tony Robbins’ books. Robbins is a well know motivational speaker and financial adviser. I use it here to allude to finding and awakening a passion for something within yourself.
Now a passion is not just something that you enjoy doing. A passion, once discovered, will be something that you find you MUST do; something that you cannot stop doing; 
something that drives you to take actions. Finding something that you are passionate about is not an everyday thing. For many it is, in fact, a rare thing. It’s not that there are not things that they enjoy doing, we all have those things; it’s just that that are not driven to do them. I enjoy an occasional round of golf, but I am nor passionate about golf. There are many things like that in my life and I’m sure in yours that we could say we enjoy but have no particular passion about. Passion might be thought of as enthusiasm taken to the next level.
Your passion might be about a cause or a group or a movement or maybe your religion. Perhaps your passion is service to others. Perhaps it is about something like finding a cure for a disease or finding a way to save the lives of young people through education and intervention in issues like drinking and driving or maybe doing drugs. You will know that 
you have a passion about something when you realize that it is the most important thing in your life, at least for the moment. It’s hard to sustain and intense level of passion for an extended period; however, a true passion will never subside enough to be forgotten.
From the point of view of others, the passionate person can sometimes be mistaken for being obsessed. Perhaps sometimes unbridled passion can turn into obsession; but it is more likely that the person with passion for a cause would be called dedicated, persistent or perhaps motivated, rather than obsessed.
In my little Village of Milford, Michigan, we have some people who have become 
passionate about saving our original old train station; the one that was built when the railroad finally came through Milford in the mid 1800’s. It was buried for years beneath layers of modern siding and added on sections of what was a lumber yard. It was due to be torn down as part of a redevelopment project; however, one man with passion for saving it started a movement that has gained momentum and now has a chance of pulling off a plan to uncover it and move it rather than tear it down. Many Village and area residents have joined him to raise money, take the case to the Village government and continue the effort to “save the station.” All it took was passion.
So how do you find something to be passionate about? Most of the time those things find you. You stumble across a cause or a group that resonates with you, with your values and the things that are otherwise important to you. Maybe it’s a news story on the nightly news or in your local newspaper. It may be about a group that fighting for or against something; but, whatever it is, it stirs something in you that says, “I want to fight for or against that, too.” That’s the first tiny sign of a possible passion. If you go with that feeling you will find yourself becoming increasingly involved with the group or movement and soon it will be you marching in the nightly news coverage. Whatever it was awoke the giant of passion within you.
One reason that we may have so few passions in life is that we are taught at a very young 
age that moderation is the better path. Moderation is less likely to evoke negative reactions from others. We are taught to stifle ourselves (remember that line from the Archie Bunker TV show when he told his wife Edith to “stifle yourself, Edith”?) We are encouraged to sit back quietly and let others make displays of passion in demonstrations or other actions. We are trained to be apathetic and apathy is the antithesis of Passion.
Perhaps it is time to awaken the giant within yourself and let passion rule your life, in at least one little aspect. What do you have a passion for? Why not let that passion out? Why are you holding back? Maybe you are afraid that you’ll be alone in your passion. That seldom happens; but if it did, I suspect that you’d still find a level of satisfaction at having tried something or championed something or fought against something that you do not get out of day to day life. Having passion feels good.
So this week, try to find your passion in some cause or movement or service to others and
then find an outlet for that passion. It may not be in a big demonstration or a march; it may not be in being able to solve the problem all at once; maybe it’s in something small, like helping to clean up a park or roadside or maybe just writing a letter to an official to express your passion and opinion. Whatever you do; make it just the start and watch your passion grow as you take those first little steps. A true passion will flare up like a flame when you are taking actions and then settle down to a constantly glowing ember in your soul in your day to day life.
Awaken your giant within – find your passion.
Posted by Norm Werner 
means to recollect some of the co-workers and friends that I had while in that job. Most job-related friends tended to fall away, once I was no longer in those jobs; although I’ve still got one friend from a job-related relationship with whom I still play golf and socialize with.
there was little that we had in common once the job that we all related to had vanished. As I reflect on the time when I was there it is now apparent to me that the only topic of conversation that we had at the various social gatherings that we had was job related. How boring of a time that must have been for our spouses.
So, perhaps it’s OK to reflect on our prior lives once in a while, but none of us can go back and relive whatever fond memories that we might have. We were different people then. Maybe we can learn a few things from that reflection that might help us in our current lives; but we are different people now and must live in the present and perhaps still dream of the future.
Following the parade the Huron Valley Rotary Club will be hosting family fun activities in Central Park leading up to their annual Duck Race, which will be at 3 PM. Plan on spending the day in Milford.
disappeared. Like most, I suffered a loss to my retirement savings; but, I wondered if the people in the poorest countries of the world even noticed the cataclysmic impact of that vote? Who in Liberia, the poorest country in Africa with a GDP of just $454 per year, really cares whether Great Britain is in or out of EU? In fact, who in the small, poor villages of Liberia cares about the EU at all?
havoc with many parts of the world. And in other news, people continued to rob or shoot other people, trusted people in roles of authority continued to embezzle or cheat those who trusted them, people with pets found new things to post about them on the internet and Hillary and Donald continued to sling mud at each other. The world around us goes on.
or preconceptions about others take over and manifest themselves in our behavior. Perhaps letting ourselves be empathetic towards others, rather than judgmental, is another way to be pleasant. It’s worth a try. So, try to be pleasant until at least 10 AM and see if the rest of your day takes care of itself.
This year the 4th of July Parade will have a special twist, with the addition of the Huron Valley Rotary Club’s annual Duck Race in Central Park. Here is their Press Release –
local organizations are encouraged to enter a float or walking group in the parade. The parade is on the 4th of July and steps off at 11:00 AM, with line-up starting at 10:15 AM. Participants line up on Union, Hickory and East Streets. Groups may obtain the Parade Registration form from the Milford Historical Society web site – 
couples have “their song”, the special song that they remember from a dance or a date or a special occasion in their lives. Almost anyone who has had an American wedding and reception can remember the hokey pokey song or maybe the Chicken Dance. Many ethic weddings have their own ethic music and dances that are brought to mid by certain tunes.
It’s been quite a while since music or catchy songs had much real impact on my life, but I still recall the songs that seemed so important in my youth and a few can still make a feeling weal up inside. These days I’m as likely to be humming or quietly singing a song from our church service as anything. There’s something honest and reassuring about many of the little tunes that we sing during a service that make them stick in your head. Perhaps I’m gravitating towards the funeral song end of the musical spectrum as I get older, but I prefer to think of the church songs that stick in my head now as being songs of hope, too.
the greatest song ever made?” Again, it depends upon how you ask the question in Google. The answer to a question what are the top ten rock songs of all time returns the list at the end of 
elevator pitch. That was a short message that could be delivered in the span of time that someone might spend with you on an elevator while going to work. Usually these were timed to be delivered in 15-20 seconds (maybe a little longer for a skyscraper elevator ride), and they were supposed to contain enough content to quickly get across compelling information about yourself or your product so as to elicit the response of the other party being interested enough to what to know more. It was an interesting challenge.
great bloggers, but lousy Tweeters. It would have been frustrating for them to try to squeeze their great ideas and arguments into a Tweet; however, I also suspect that they would have found a way to use and adopt the technology, as did those in most of the recent areas of citizen unrest and uprisings. Perhaps Paul Revere’s ride to Lexington would have been unnecessary if he could have just been able to Tweet that the British were coming by land.
On this Martin Luther King day, America and the world are still struggling with many wrongs that need righting, many injustices that beg for justice and many old prejudices that seem to refuse to die. People still take to the streets, as they did in King’s day seeking redress of the wrongs, although many times not as peacefully as he would have liked. Too often there is still a lack of recognition between the right and wrong positions in many of the areas that still cause division and pain. There is too much of a mentality of “them vs. us”; rather than searching for a solution that involves “we”.
their righteousness in their “defense of American Family values.” Apparently they think it is OK to discriminate so long as they also proclaim themselves to be evangelicals who are mounting a Bible-based defense of American life as they define it. What’s that old saying about two wrongs not making a right? That’s apparently not in their Bible.
political power. He also found new adversaries to try to hold in check – those who were different from him in almost any way. For quite some time this new strategy worked well by employing tactics such as direct political contributions, Political Action Committees and gerrymandering to maintain political power. That political power allowed the structuring of laws that stripped away what power the masses has accumulated through the tort process or via organized labor. Rather rapidly, in terms of history, those in power amassed most of the wealth of the country, too. Now the top 1% of the world’s people control 99% of the wealth of the entire world, and with that wealth they can buy all of the power that they need to maintain their positions.
is full of instances of the people eventually getting fed up with existing on the crumbs that fall off the tables of the rich rulers and rising up against them.
certainly exposed the carnage that rabid partisanship has wrecked upon both parties. The huge philosophical divide between the parties and the lack of interest in any compromise has left the entire middle of the political spectrum abandoned and ripe for a third party effort. Unfortunately, the only way that anyone can mount a campaign effort for President these days is to first acquire a billion dollars or more.
sound bites and personal attacks along the candidates; however, I did recently watch the reruns of the last republican “debate”. It was obvious that the closer to the center of the stage a candidate was placed measured not only his current polling strength, but also his adherence to the tea party conservative line. The only candidates who made statements that seemed to both thoughtful and reasonable in a political environment that is begging for compromise were the politicians relegated to the far ends of the stage. Of course they spent most of the evening off camera.
it. At least it is somewhat like a modern TV comedy, filled with ridiculous characters sparing with each other with words rather than swords. Like a TV show, or a movie, it requires that you suspend your disbelief for a period and just enjoy it, laugh along and don’t think about the horrible consequences of any of these clowns actually get elected. It’s only a hoot if you don’t stop to cry.
had in mind was to write about the various books or spiritual writings that underpin the religions of the world. The Bible was the one that I am most familiar with and I knew the names of a few others from some of the religions that I at least know exist.
apparent that the topic and the approach that I was taking are both overwhelming. Just looking at the so-called “major” religions of the world yielded more than 55; most of them having various books or writings which provide the foundation for the beliefs and practices of the believers in those religions.
ones who “get it.” They are “the chosen ones”, so to speak. That serves to provide the underlying justification for much of the “them vs. us” mentality that is presently associated in the modern world with religions, at least in some places. Very few of the religions of the world actually recognize the other religions and most look with pity or disdain on those who do not believe as they do. The docks of human history are apparently filled with those who missed the boat on the one and only true religion when it sailed.
to set aside logic and just believe allows us to accept that which we cannot explain. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it – “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.” The fact that moral codes have been created around those beliefs also provides a needed part of a civilized social structure. We need religion in our lives because without it there is a vexing void in our understanding of the world and what is happening around us. Religions help us define the boundaries in life, beyond which you do not need to understand, just believe.
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