I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday weekend. I know I sure did! It was great to be home and see all of my family and friends. My always insightful friend, the Tea Toad popped in this morning and, as we talked about the weekend, he asked me an important question; he wanted to know what the best part of the weekend had been.
It didn't take me long to answer; I replied, "It was all the hugs I got from everyone." Then I paused and continued, "So, Tea Toad, why is that? I had lots of fun doing all kinds of neat things so why is it that I liked the hugs the best?"
The Tea Toad laughed a little and said, "Hugs are a lot like tea. They're warm, comforting, and make us feel better." I suspected that but, in my usual manner, I wanted to know if there was any scientific reason to backed this up. Turns out that a lot of research has been done on why we like...and need...lots of hugs each day.
What I learned was amzing. Here's what the experts had to say.
1. Hugs reduce our worry of mortality. Psychological Science conducted a study on fears and self-esteem and found that hugging, even an inanimate object like a teddy bear (and especially a toy frog) helps to soothe a human's existential fears. Interpersonal touch, it seems, is such a powerful mechanism that it can  instill in us a sense of existential significance. It simple words, hugs make us feel like we exist.
2.  Hugs stimulate oxytocin. And that little dynamo is a neurotransmitter that promotes feelings of contentment, and reduces stress and anxiety.
3.  Hugs lower our heart rate. A hug may warm our heart but it turns out that they're good medicine, too. During a recent study, the participants without a partner developed a quicker heart rate than those who got to hug their partner during the experiment.
4.  Hugs stimulate dopamine. In addition to oxytocin, hugs tell our brains to release more dopamine which is a pleasure hormone. It's what is responsible for giving us that "feel good" feeling. Additionally, dopamine increases our motivation...and who couldn't use a little more of that?
5.  Hugs stimulate seratonin. Lonliness and depression occur when our seratonin levels decrease. Hugs stimulate more seratonin production which, in turn, makes us feel significant and important. Hugging for an extended time boosts seratonin and elevates our mood and creates happiness. Even cuddling with a pet has a soothing effect on humans.
6.  Well-hugged babies are less stressed as adults. There is a direct link between touch and relieving stress, especially in the early stages of life. Research cites that babies development, including how they cope with stress and anxiety as adults, depends on both nature and nurture.
​7. Hugs balance out the nervous system. The human skin contains pressure centers that can sense touch. "The galvanic skin response of someone receiving and giving a hug shows a change in skin conductance. The effect in moisture and electricity in the skin suggests a more balanced state in the nervous system - parasympathetic" so says Psychological Science magazine. And, finally,
8.  Hugs enhance our immune system. If hugging didn't already do a lot for us, now we see in scientific studies, that hugs help to make our immune system stronger. Hugging helps the body to handle both physical and social stresses; they boost the immune system naturally so that it can do the job it was meant to do.
Whew! Hugs do us a lot of good. But the best part is that they just plain feel good.
The Tea Toad was definitely right. Hugs are a lot like tea. They do make us feel calmer, more relaxed, and even a little happier. So if you haven't yet had your daily dose of hugs, this is the perfect time to start giving...and receiving hugs. The best part about hugs is that both the hugger and the huggee gain the benefits. You can never get, or give, too many hugs. You already knew that they made you feel great, but now you also know that there's solid scientic effidence to show that hugs are good for your health.
Now that I am aware of how important hugs are, my morning routine will include:
Take vitamins
Have a cup of tea
Brush teeth
Find someone to hug. (Maybe it'll be YOU!)​

 After last weekend's training in doing nothing I am excited, once again, to have a fun activity scheduled for the holiday. Like many other places, this weekend marks the "official" beginning of the summer season. In Land of Lily Pad, this means a 3-day weekend of swimming, picnicing, and fun for everyone. I'll be headed home for the holiday as soon as this blog is posted.
Tomorrow, I'm going ziplining with a few old friends from school. By now, most of you know what ziplining is, but I did a little research on the subject and found a few interesting facts I'd like to share with you.
Ziplining is known by many names and has been around, in form or fashion, for many years. In 1906, Alberto Santos-Dumont used a direct ancester of the modern zipline to test his pioneer-era canard biplane before it ever flew under it's own power, later that same year. H.G. Wells wrote of a device similar to the zipline in his 1897 book, The Invisible Man. In years gone by, a type of zipline was used in the Australian outback to deliver food, cigarettes, and tools to people working on the otherside of an impediment...like a river or gully.
The term "flying fox" is most commonly used when referring to a small-scale zipline; like one that might be found on a children's playground. The jungles of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Porta Vallarta are popular desinations for zipline enthusiasts. Icy Straight Point in Alaska boasts the worlds longest zipline. It's more than a mile long with a 1300-foot vertical drop. It takes only 60 seconds to complete the run, traveling at an average speed of 60 miles per hour. The record, though, is 82 miles per hour! One of the more interesting ziplines is found in China. To reach the beginning of the ride, you must first hike up the Great Wall of China. Getting back down, is the fun part. Your zipline ride takes you over Mandarin Duck Lake which offers spectacular views of the Great Wall as well as the surrounding mountains.
The zipline in Lily Pad is far less glamorous but for an adreneline-seeking amphibian, it'll prove to be a fun outing. And I'm excited to be one of the first frogs to ride it. I'll cap off the weekend with a family picnic and I promised my little brother, Quigley, I'd join him in a swimming contest. To tell you the truth, I'm a bit worried. Quigley has become an excellent swimmer and I am quite certain that he'll have no trouble beating me this year. But it's all in good fun.
Whatever your plans are for this holiday, please stay safe...and have a great time, even if this is your weekend to practice doing "nothing". I'll see you all back here on Tuesay.

This zipping around will be loads of fun. I can't wait! Wheeee!

"Why am I here?" is a question that's often asked, both by children and adults. It seems that we all have some inherent understanding that we are here for a reason. But finding that reason isn't always as simple as we'd like. Often, we struggle for years...some of us nearly a lifetime, before finding out what it is that we're meant to do.
The science of purpose has blossomed in recent years, and it shows that your life's purpose should be a combination of two things; 1. the strength of your personal values and goals(and how well you live them) and 2. Finding your own unique way of helping to help make the world a better place. Current research is showing that these two factors correlate directly with our psychological and physical well-being. They can even contribute to our longevity.
Studies have shown that adults (humans and amphibians) living with heart-dease, and who were also living a purposeful life, had a 27 % decrease in their risk of having a heart attack over a 2-year period. For older people, and frogs, those with a sense of purpose had a 22% decrease in their risk of having a stroke. Although the reason why this happens isn't clear yet, it was clear that it has something to do with a decrease in stress levels. We all know by now that prolonged stress is very harmful.
Another study showed that hospital workers were more apt to use better hand-washing hygiene if they were told that doing so  would prevent their patients from catching diseased, over just telling them that it would help them. The workers attitudes, then, were service-to-others based, rather than based on their own personal gain. "Pointing out to employees that their actions affect others can result in transcending behaviors - and save lives," says behavioral scientist and author, Victor Strecher.
So how can we move from imagining our purpose to actually living it? Like most things worth having, it takes energy and willpower. These can be boosted by improving our lifestyle; eating healthier, getting enough sleep and, of course, exercising. Learning to become more present in our everydaylife helps, too. 
As I go along, researching and writing these blogs, I am seeing more and more evidence that happiness, living a purposeful life, and staying healthy are all inter-connected. And isn't it wonderful to know that by simply changing a few small things, we can have a HUGE impact, not only ourselves, but on others, as well!
I am fortunate to have found my life's purpose at a relatively young age. Writing allows me the opportunity to share messages of positivity and, hopefully, bring a little joy into the the lives of others. I especially like it when I can have a positive impact on what children read; helping to give them a better sense of identity and showing them how they can better their world and future, gives me extreme pleasure and a deeply important sense of purpose. It's what makes me get up every morning and do what I love. And it's a feeling I wouldn't trade for anything!
Although science, in the area of purpose, is still in its infancy, it's important to note that anything we do to better the world will have a positive impact. The world needs it. And it certainly will make you feel better to know that you contributed, even in some small way, to creating a place where it's just a little nicer to live.

I like Wednesdays. In addition to it being "hump day" it's also the day that the Dharma Frog comes to visit. Today, we had a lengthy discussion about flies. I have to say, that all this talk about bugs was giving me an appetite.
Now I had already had breakfast, but that didn't stop me from looking around to see what else there was for me to catch. Seeing that I was eying a particularly large fly buzzing overhead, the Wise One spoke up. "Son," the Dharma Frog said, "the fatter the fly, the more frogs to eat it but, sometimes, the sweetest-tasting ones are the smallest." Honestly, I wasn't paying attention to him, I was intent on catching the big, fat, fly. It was the biggest one I'd ever seen! When, suddenly, out-of-nowhere, a tongue appeared and snatched the fly...MY fly... right out of the air. The Dharma Frog sighed.
"You weren't listening to me, were you, Irwin?" "No, Sir," I replied, a bit embarrassed for my lack of attention. "If you had been, my young frog," he said, "you'd have noticed the other frog waiting there, too, for that big bug. And both of you failed to see the group of smaller, tastier flies that were also flying about." I immediately started looking for them but they had, of course, long since flown off. I was left with nothing to eat and feeling a bit foolish.
Humans often do the same sort of thing. Maybe you've been at the market and seen a basket of lush, ruby-red strawberries that were as big as your fist. You, of course, grab those but, when you get home, you are disappointed to find that they are completely lacking in flavor. Now, had you picked up the basket with the smaller berries, you would have been pleasantly surprised to find that they were very sweet, and tasted like actual strawberries...not cardboard. Kids are the worst culprits of all. On Christmas morning, they immeditely go for the biggest box under the tree when, in fact, the best gift is in the teeny box that is nestled amongst the branches, high up. Bigger isn't always better. But it's the big, gawdy, shiny object that always grabs our attention first.
Life is just like that small gift. The "of-the-moment" hottest, greatest and latest, thing is what everyone wants. But that isn't what's going to fill our "tummy" with joy and lasting contentment. Those things aren't advertised on TV and in glossy magazines. They are found in the simple everyday things we encounter...and they're always free. The giggle of kids playing, the cloud formation that looks surprisingly like Aunt Irma, or the silly joke your colleague told to cheer you up when you found out you had to work late. These things are priceless. They are the teeny gifts that our inner being craves to get. They are the human version of tiny, tasty fies. 
The Dharma Frog forgave me for my inattention today and chalked it up to youth. And I forgave myself. I had, after all, learned the lesson he was trying to teach me. I learned it the hard way, but sometimes that's what it takes to get through to us. Life is a lesson. Often the lessons are easy, but more often than not, they are difficult and sometimes painful. The point is always the same, however, to learn from these lessons, to grow, to mature, and to feel better about ourselves and the decisions we make. Bigger is better when it comes to life. And to live a bigger, happier life, we need to see that good things do come in small packages.​

 Merriam-Webster describes ritual as, "something always done in a particular situation and in the same way each time."  Frogs have lots of rituals such as tapping our left flipper three times and our right one, four times before beginning a game of Leap Frog. We believe it will bring us success and keep us safe. Humans have rituals, too. Some are religious in nature while others are simply done out of habit. 
My dear friend the Tea Toad has a ritual of sipping afternoon tea at precisely 3 pm; never a minute earlier or later. And he insists on have a small treat with his afternoon "cuppa." There's no medical or religious reason for this daily ritual other than the Tea Toad enjoys it. He looks forward to it as a time to stop and savor two of this favorite things; tea and sweets. He says that it's his time to decrompress from his activities and concentrate on the art of enjoying life. Tea time brings him into present moment awreness.
In my usual fashion, I did a little research on rituals and found some pretty interesting stuff. Rituals, it seems, are so ingrained in us that most of the time we don't recognize, or label, them as rituals. We do them rather absent-mindedly. Humans, especially, look at rituals as being unnecessary and primitive. Some are even too time-consuming. But, none-the-less, we are the sum of our daily rituals. They usually start with our morning routine and end with our evening one. "Rituals add substance and meaning to actions and events at both the individual and social level. Rituals can also create new values and structures, so says James Mapes, a noted life coach and writer.
Mr. Mapes tells us that rituals allow us to make certain elements of our behaviour routine and automatic so that we don't constantly have to "rev" ourselves up for certain actions; humans (and frogs, too, of course) have linited willpower and rituals help us with discipline. Take a minute and think about all the things you do automatically that are rituals...like making your morning tea or coffee, and buckling the seatbelt and adusting the mirrors before starting the car. Those activities are actually rituals.
I could go on and on about this subject. I found lots of interesting facts and information on this subject. But in the essence of time, I'll sum things up by offering you five daily rituals that can have an enormous impact on your personal and professional life.
1.  Create a gratefulness list. I talk about this ALL the time and that's because it's so important. Simply commit yourself to writing down 5 things every day that you are grateful for. For me, I like to do this before falling asleep. It's a positive way to end the day. Plus, it helps me to sleep peacefully.
2. Take a pause before starting up your computer in the morning. Get into the habit, ie ritual, of stoping and organizing your desk...as well as your thoughts...before beginning your day's activities. Coming into the present moment makes us more efficient.
3. Commit to having a monthly lunch date with a good friend or a co-worker. This is one ritual I really enjoy. I have lunch every month with a good friend. We're relaxed, and while eating a fine meal, we can reconnect and catch up on what's been happening with us. Having time set aside each month, or week, to connect with others is so important!
4.  Schedule meetings. I know! I always dread meetings, but I have learned that these, too, can be a useful ritual. Meetings have value by setting a time for co-workers to connect and acknowledge each other. Meetings help to fuse a team together by instilling a sense of culture in us. Don't work, or work from home? No problem! Schedule a family meeting once a week and use this time to go over schedules, activities, and plan for family outings. It works the same with families as it does with co-workers. It gives us a sense of belonging.
And #5:  Start your meeting, either at work or at home, by offering respect for your colleagues and/or family members. Allow time for everyone to declare their admiration, respect, or congratuations on the accomplishments/contributions of others.

Make rituals a conscious choice every day and you'll soon take a big LEAP into the exceptional life you've always wanted.

We have a game that we play here in Lily Pad; it's called Worms From Nowhere. We write down how many worms we'd like to show up out of nowhere within the next month. Then, we put our "desire' in a safe place and forget about it for 30 days, at which time we look at the number and see how close we came to getting our wish. One time, I wrote down 50 worms! By the very next month, I had found 35 unexpected worms...worms that I didn't look for. Poof! They just showed up, as if by magic. This is a great game and can be done with pennies, or any other commodity of your choosing.
I tried to convince one skeptical friend to play the worm game but they weren't interested. After a bit of nagging on my part, they relented and gave in. They wrote down the number 100.; they asked for 100 worms to show up in a month. That's a lot, but, ok. After 30 days, I asked my friend how many worms he'd gotten. He told me 80...80 worms had appeared out of nowhere. it wasn't the full 100, but 80 unexpected worms is a lot of worms! I was very surprised...shocked, really...that he didn't want to play the game again. I mean, after all, he had received 80 worms....
As it turns out, most of us (frogs and humans alike) are comfortable with a certain amount of money, worms, health, happiness, etc. Some of it is, I think, social conditioning. We're taught at a young age to not expect too much...of anything. Now, I don't think our loved ones do this to keep us from expecting a lot from life; they do it in order to sheild us from pain and and loss. If you learn to not expect much, you're never disappointed. The problem with this line of thinking it that it makes us settle for a mediocre life; one with less happiness than we are entitled to.
I have often written about thoughts and how they create our reality. But I had never really thought about how our negative thoughts can prevent us from attining happiness. If you're like me, you've probably read lots of inspirational books, chanted mantras and affirmations...all in an attempt to get to that "sweet spot," that place we like to call happiness, joy, or bliss. Unfortunatey, when we try to to force our psyche into believing that we can be happy, that we can attain a sense of safety and well-being, all we end up feeling is the force, not the the safety or happiness we were trying to attain. "Then we get the whiplash effect as our brains belch up a double dose of pessimism," so says life coach Martha Beck. Miss Beck goes on to say that the key is to accept loss (what, only 80 worms came to me? I asked for 100!) with out resistence. Just accept it and be grateful.
Now it would seem that accepting loss would make our lifes worse but, in reality, the opposite happens. With nonresistence, we raise the ceiling on our happiness level while, at the same time, reducing our pain when things don't go our way. If you look around, you'll probably notice that all creatures are able to enjoy; dogs wag their tails, kitties purr; even us frogs ribbet and hop with delight. Only humans, however, become attached to this feeling and immediately start obsessing over future enjoyment and even fearing it's loss. And that's BEFORE it ever happens! Animals, on the other hand, take joy as it comes. They might wait, for a bit, for the other shoe to drop, and certainly it sometimes does, but they eventually allow their happiness to settle in and they go about living life. Humans might be well served by taking a few basic doggy command lessons:
1. Here - Take yourself to a place of happiness; make a list of all you're grateful for, take a walk in nuture, etc. It doesn't matter, just do something that makes you happy. Make a list of the positive things in your life and tell yourself that these things will, indeed, keep showing up in your life. Not only that, but they'll keep getting better and better.
2. Sit - Every time you feel yourself drifting away from your inner happiness, sit still and watch your inner turmoil. Just observe it as it ebbs and flows. Then, gently bring your attention back to your happy place; a place of safety, security, and joy.
3. Stay - This is the hardest command for humans to learn. It involves detattchemnt. And letting go is never easy. When you learn to "stay" in that open-hearted place of nonattachement, ie accepting of whatever happens to you, you set yourself up for bigger and better things to come into your life.
I was happy with the 35 worms that appeared in my life. But I know that I can acheive much more. And I don't just mean more worms. I am paying closer attention to my happiness set point and I work everyday to raise the bar. But I also am willing to accept the losses that will inevitably appear. Playing the worm game isn't really about getting more worms. It's learning that hope isn't dangerous; that it's good to hope for wonderful things in our life, but that we must also be able to accept life, and still feel happy, even when those things don't happen. Good and bad have a way of balancing themselves out. And learning nonattachment will significantly reduce the pain, and fear, and disappointment when the "worms" don't show up.

 I've had a very busy week and I am really looking forward to having some much-needed R and R. Normally, I use Fridays to plan an activity, or two, but this weekend I am going to try and do nothing.
​This may sound easy, but it really isn't. Believe it or not, doing nothing is a skill that has to be learned! It's been long-recognized that constant "doing" is a kind of compulsion. In that respect, I think that most of us can be classified as having OCD. We just can't stop ourselves from keeping busy. But learning to actually do nothing is a vital skill for all of us in this always-frantic, always-connected society that we now live in.
So what exactly is "doing nothing"?  I mean we're always doing something, aren't we?Unless we're dead. Breathing is something, right? By-and-large, doing nothing has come to mean not doing something useful. The problem with this definition is that the word useful comes to mean doing something to better our future...and this doesn't always serve our best interests. Doing nothing means being connected to the present. For me, it simply means feeling alive!
Did you know that aimlessness, restlessness and, yes, even boredom, can stir up our creativity? It's true! Taking time away from your projects gives your mind a sort of incubation period where it can subconsciously get to work with fresh ideas. Boredom often stimulates people to find more interesting ways of doing things. I bet you've had that happen at work, at least once or twice. And when you let your mind wander off aimlessly, you actually help to combat tunnel-vision. Your mind will find new and out-of-the-box ways of looking at things. This is often when we have one of those, "What if..." moments.
Research has shown that too much busyness can be counterproductive. Most times, doing less will actually accomplish more. Haven't you ever noticed that a day spent doing endless mindless tasks is exhausting? Personally, I hate those days. I'd much rather have one project and focus on it. Those days are, for me at least, exhilerating.
Since the industrial revolution, humans have treated themselves like machines. There is no "off" period except for sleep. And many humans get precious-little of that. "I'll sleep when I'm dead", they say. While that is certainly true, if they don't give their brain the downtime it needs, they may get their "dirt nap" sooner than expected!
Doing nothing, at first, will be difficult. The usual guilt about slacking off sets in. In Bhuddism, for example, busyness is actually seen as a form of laziness. It shows that humans have failed to withhold their attention from whatever little drivel, email, or text message comes their way. The best way of learning to do nothing, is to schedule regular "do nothing" time just as you would other tasks and activities. And is exactly what I'm planning to do this weekend.
t won't be easy, though, trying to explain to friends that I'm canceling out on a social event by saying I'm busy doing nothing....But they'll get used to it and, maybe in time, they'll want some "do nothing" time of their own.
I wish you all a wonderful, and boring, weekend! See you back here on Monday...all rested and relaxed

I've always considered myself to be a pretty intelligent little frog, but after yesterday's visit with the always-wise Dharma Frog and intellectual Tea Toad, I began to question just how wise I really am...and how smart. I decided that I would spend sometime today looking at the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Are they the same thing, or are they very different and separate?
I came across a quote that explains the  distinction pretty well; Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing NOT to put it in a fruit salad. For those of you who don't eat salad, or who may not be a gardner, it simply means that knowledge comes from learning and wisdom comes from living. This brings up a good question, though. Can a frog (or person) be wise without being smart? The answer is yes...and no. Here's what I mean.
Knowledge is kind of like a sword. Of itself, it's not very useful. It has value, but the value increases significantly when the sword is put into the hands of a skilled swordsman.  The sword, or knowledge in this case, is a tool. But what good is a tool if the person holding it doesn't know how to use it. There's no simple answer, but what is important to know, here, is that knowledge is good and useful. But wisdom can, and often is, the better skill to have. Anyone who can read, or memorize facts, can be knowledgeable, but knowing how to put those facts to good use makes you wise. I've known many wise frogs, and a few wise humans, who never attended college. On the other flipper, I've known some college-educated frogs who had no wisdom at at. It's as if everything they've ever learned just went "POOF" into thin air. Knowledge and wisdom are best when they join up and hold hands.
Knowledge without wisdom doesn't offer much value. But there cannot be wisdom without some knowledge. Even the most uneducated frog, if he's lived well and learned from his experience, can be very wise. So why am I writing about all of this you might ask? It's simple. We live in a time where gaining knowledge is easy, all one needs is internet connection. The worldwide web has provided us with vast resources for learning. There's a danger to that, however. One also needs to live and gain "street smarts." And that can't be learned from sitting in front of a computer. Be careful of who's wisdom you listen to. Anyone can spout off ideas and advice, but that advice can be harmful if's not backed up with solid experience. Before you decide to take anyone's advice (well, except maybe for mom and me) ask yourself if they walk-the-walk or, in fact, is it nothing more than cheap talk.
Book smarts are great...one can never be too smart. But you also need to mix a healthy dose of life experience into the recipe. If you don't you, too, could wind up with a fruit salad made from tomatoes! And that's just so wrong....and not very tasty!

I had a full house at the ol' lily pad this morning. Both the Tea Toad and the Dharma Frog stopped by. I felt honored to have two of Lily Pad's wisest frogs joining me for breakfast. This doesn't happen very often and, when it does, I know that one of them has something important to tell me. So what was it? I was curious to find out. I made toast, put out the bug jam, poured the tea, then settled in what was sure to be an interesting conversation.
The Tea Toad started things off. He said, "Irwin, my boy, tea is a bit like power; it should be bold, never bitter, and is best when shared with others." I couldn't have agreed more with this advice, but what was he really getting at? I was soon to find out. The Dharma Frog, in his usual quiet way, began to speak, "The power of love is stronger than the love of power...in other words, Irwin, you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." Power, apparently, was the topic, and lesson, for the day.
As we continued our chat, I began to understand the direction we were moving in; power isn't so much about ruling over others with force, as it is about our ability to affect change in the world.  Our ability to influence others, and to effectively bring about change, depends on what others think of us. This was a whole new concept of power for me. I wanted to know more so I asked the wise ones to explain further. They went on to tell me that our ability to alter the state of others...which is what power boils down to, depends entirely on how much trust the "the others" have in us. Power, it seems, is constructed in the judgements and actions of others. When we are granted power by others, they increase our ability to make their lives better...or worse.  When we receive power from others, it feels like a vital force. It propels us forward  in pursuit of our goals. Power can also make us feel excitement, inspiration, joy, and even euphoria. Power can be, and often is, an addictive drug; the more we have, the more we want. And it's important to use that power for good, ie benevolent behavior, rather than for evil...serving no one but our own self-interests, and causing harm to others. I was finding this all so fascinating!
The Dharma Frog summed things up by saying that when we find ourselves in a position of power, that we must be very aware of the feeling that power gives us. Are we feeling the desire to help others, or are we feeling the need to help ourselves? We must also pratice humility; power is given but it can also be taken. Power is a gift. It gives us the ability to transform lives. And we mustn't be impressed with our our own work. In fact, we should always be a little critical of what we do. Accept and encourage the skepticism of others. No matter what good we do, there will always be more work to do.  
The path to enduring power is to stay focused on others and to give; resources, time, respect and, most importantly, power to others.
When we are truly powerful, we become empowered to change the psychological context of powerlessness. When power is given to us, others shouldn't feel less powerful, but MORE poweful. Power like tea is, indeed, best when shared. But, I think, the most important take-away from their message is that power should also mean love. When we love ourselves, we don't feel the need to control others. We believe in the old adage, "live and let live. What we do feel, though, is empathy and without empathy, there can be no love. They go hand-in-hand. When we're seen as someone who is loving and empathetic we become powerful in the truest sense of the word. And that kind of power is something that I want a lot of!

Whether it's watching fireworks, attending a performance of Cirque du Soleil, or gazing out into space, we all have activities that, to others, may seem pointless. But, none-the-less, we think they're fun and entertaining. They make us feel something. Humans, and most frogs I know, spend big money each year, and many hours, on seemingly pointless activities. But why is that? What is it that we hope to gain....
An economist might tell you that engaging in these activities are a waste of effort...time and money. But if you ask a psychologist why we do these things, you'll get a very different answer. So what does a scenic view of the mountains, a massive display of fireworks, remarkable human accomplishments, the vastness of the sky, or the majesty of a beautiful building have in common? The answer is awe. They all provide us with a feeling of "reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder." That's the dictionary's definition of the word awe. But feeling awe, for me, is about finding that connection to something bigger, greater, and more meaningful than simple everyday life. 
Awe involves a sense of uncertainty that humans will often try to unravel. "How'd they do THAT?" is often the first thing that pops into your minds when seeing something amazing. Then, you immediately begin to try and fathom out how something was done or made or created. More than any other species, humans are deeply dependent on intelligence; and humans have the ability to store vast amounts of information. Some scientists believe that awe may stem from the human's basic need to understand the world in which they live. I just like the feeling it gives.
Does awe prompt us to look closer at our environment? Does it affect the way we perceive our world? Are some humans (and a few frogs) more prone to being awe-struck than others? Does awe make us more open-minded or does it make us defensive and inflexible? Does awe affect the way we interact with others? These are just a few of the questions scientists have yet to answe about awe. Awe, at least for me, puts everything into perspective. I see the intracacies and mysteries of life and of the world around me. Awe reminds me of my place in the universe. It makes me feel small, but in a good way. I don't feel insignificant; awe simply makes me realize that there bigger things out there than just me and my problems. Awe makes me feel inspired to do better, to be better, to see things more clearly. Feeling awe makes me a better frog.
My wish for all of you is that you allow awe to become a regular part of your life. Not just whenyou're on vacation, but every day. All one has to do is look upwards; the sky is awesome. The oceans are awesome. Little small frogs that croak are awesome. Awesomeness is, I believe, in the eyes of the beholder. Let your eyes behold awe everywhere you look. It's as simple as stopping to smell, and see, the roses. The very fact that we are here is pretty amazing. Don't you think?
I know that all around my lily pad lay wonders just waiting to be discovered. I bet you'll find them, too, maybe even as close as your own backyard. Just look around....