Welcome to the June issue of my Blog... www.TheUrbanShaman.blogstop.com

The theme for this month is:
It’s Summertime!

This is the month we celebrate “The Start of Summer”
I have an article on “Expectations” this month that I wrote a few years ago, but because of the business of life, I am revisiting it and sharing it with you all... Also, I have included a very important bit of information on your drinking water habits from a newsletter I receive from The Union of Concerned Scientist’s Greentips.

Please pass this information to your friends and family... or email me to join the mailing list if you are not in my database @ TheUrbanShaman@aol.com ...

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!
ENJOY!
Much love to you all...
Peace N' Blessings,
Gail Oliver


Expectations
Gail Oliver © 2005

Expectations will get us in trouble every time. You may not even be aware of the expectations you have in all areas of your life and your reality. An expectation is a confident belief or strong hope that a particular event will happen, a mental image of something expected often compared to it's reality, it is a standard of conduct or performance expected by or of someone.

We all put expectations on every facet of life from; jobs, family and friends, relationships, mates or perspective mates, religion and the list goes on. We expect certain service from merchants, law enforcement, our government, our cars, the phone company... well you get the gist.

Expectations are a kin to assumptions and arrogance.

When expectations are not met, we get our feelings hurt, because we expected a certain outcome. We also, most times unconsciously, tend to judge others when they do not meet our expectations. I recently experienced this, an associate was trying to ram his personal beliefs down a group of people’s throats. He threatened to leave and not participate in our group because we didn’t get him. He had expectations of us we all couldn’t possibly live up to and in his judgment, we weren’t worthy, so his reaction was to take his ball and go home. He later recanted his position. A couple of weeks ago, while in a business situation, my expectations of certain protocol got the best of me. I was judge, jury and prosecutor, which was not fair to the other person and as it turned out, was a big waste of energy because they just didn’t know any better.
I apologized for my behavior.

There are somethings we expect that are just what we feel to be are our divine right because we are humans living in a society. We expect respectful and considerate treatment from family and friends and people in general. We expect good service from a paid service provider (well unless you are a certain Cable Co. subscriber). We expect the truth from our loved ones. We expect reasonable compensation for our expertise. Some of these expectations are indeed reasonable in the grand scheme of things, but it’s when we force an expected outcome, we set ourselves up for disappointment. When we create expectations based on bad past results and experiences, we limit ourselves and often set ourselves up for failure. This is often true in relationships. The new people in our lives deserve a clean slate. After all they aren’t responsible for our past hurts or mistakes.

When we have expectations for a certain result, we often cheat ourselves.
Our expectations are limited to what we can imagine... the gifts from the Universe are infinite. If someone treats you in a way that does not meet your expectations, communicate to them how you want to be treated. But before you do, breathe, and when communicating, come from loving kindness. Usually, if reasonable, the person or circumstances will come your way and be in your favor. Remember, we are all doing the best we can with what we have to work with and we all need help from time to time to understand each other.

When you are open to experiencing your life without putting any expectations in the mix, you get more. You are living in the moment... When you stop putting expectations on relationships, and you are not attached to specific outcomes, you get more. When you eliminate your fear based expectations, you find them having no more power over you and your life becomes more free.

This took me a while to comprehend... As a child my Father never promised me anything, as he said, this way if for some reason he couldn't come through, I would not be disappointed. This served me well growing up because I was always pleasantly surprised when I least “expected” it...And because of this, the things my Dad did for me, big or small, always exceeded any expectations I could have ever imagined...




Is Bottled Water Better?
Greentips©June 2007



Bottled water manufacturers’ marketing campaigns capitalize on isolated instances of contaminated public drinking water supplies by encouraging the perception that their products are purer and safer than tap water. But the reality is that tap water is actually held to more stringent quality standards than bottled water, and some brands of bottled water are just tap water in disguise. What’s more, our increasing consumption of bottled water—more than 22 gallons per U.S. citizen in 2004 according to the Earth Policy Institute—fuels an unsustainable industry that takes a heavy toll on the environment.

Environmental Impact

Fossil fuel consumption. Approximately 1.5 million gallons of oil—enough to run 100,000 cars for a whole year—are used to make plastic water bottles, while transporting these bottles burns thousands more gallons of oil. In addition, the burning of oil and other fossil fuels (which are also used to generate the energy that powers the manufacturing process) emits global warming pollution into the atmosphere.

Water consumption. The growth in bottled water production has increased water extraction in areas near bottling plants, leading to water shortages that affect nearby consumers and farmers. In addition to the millions of gallons of water used in the plastic-making process, two gallons of water are wasted in the purification process for every gallon that goes into the bottles.

Waste. Only about 10 percent of water bottles are recycled, leaving the rest in landfills where it takes thousands of years for the plastic to decompose.

The Simple (and Cheaper) Solution

The next time you feel thirsty, forgo the bottle and turn to the tap. You’ll not only lower your environmental impact but also save money—bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more per gallon than tap water. And because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for tap water are more stringent than the Food and Drug Administration’s standards for bottled water, you’ll be drinking water that is just as safe as, or safer than, bottled.

If, however, you don’t like the taste of your tap water or are unsure of its quality, you can buy a filter pitcher or install an inexpensive faucet filter to remove trace chemicals and bacteria. If you will be away from home, fill a reusable bottle from your tap and refill it along the way; travel bottles with built-in filters are also available. Finally, limit your bottled water purchases for those times when you’re traveling in countries where water quality is questionable.

Other portable options are:
Using one of the household filters mentioned above, buy your own safer reusable bottles or stainless steel containers and fill your own... These bottles are made from materials less toxic and are reusable and dishwasher safe and can be purchased at:
Whole Foods
Bed, Bath and Beyond

or Google : Reusable water portable containers

Not mentioned in the above article is, when regular bottled water is left in a hot car, especially in the summer, it leeches the toxic chemicals from the plastic and these chemicals have been known to cause cancer in humans.... so there!