Warren Macdonald's Unlimited Adventure

Antarctica Unlimited Photo's Online

For everyone who has asked, I'm happy to announce that the photo's from our recent 20 day Antarctica Unlimited trip are now up on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/warrenmacdonald/

The trip was a huge succees with six clients (plus my Mum and Dad) joining Margo and I down south onboard a ship actually built to be down there; as opposed to the one that sank (thanks for all your emails checking in on us) which wasn't. We'll be anouncing details of a ten day trip to be run 2008/9 on: http://www.warren-macdonald.com/antarctica.html

We'd love to have you join us!

Actions Speak Louder than Prayer

Flicking through a trashy gossip magazine this morning (don’t ask; no; I didn’t buy it) brought me to a story about Mother Theresa. Apparently, and this all comes to light in a new book about her, based primarily on letters she sent to fellow ministers and confidents. Apparently, or so the book says, she’d spent the last 50 years of her life with “an absence of god in my heart”.

Seeing as many of the most well know pictures of Mother Theresa capture her in serene prayer, this seems a startling revelation; a contradiction even. What really leapt out of the page at me though, while taking in an almost full page spread of her kneeling in prayer in a room empty but for a statue of Christ on the opposite wall, was that the fact that Mother Theresa prayed often hardly defines what she did in life. Her prayers, any of our prayers for that matter, mean jack if we don’t follow through with action. “Her prayers, her communion with God, gave her guidance” you might say. That’s great, but if we spend all of our time “being, or looking for guidance”, what do we actually get done?

Mother Theresa should be remembered for the same reason all true heroes and heroines should be remembered; she took action. More importantly, she took action; she pursued what she knew in heart was the right thing to do, when she didn’t really have to. She could have just stayed at home in Macedonia, praying long distance for the poor, sick and dying of Calcutta…

Wreckreational Property

Margo and I have spent the past year looking for a place to live. To say its been a happy experience is a little inaccurate. Both of us have spent out entire lives seeking out and spending time in wild places; places where solitude and sense of space give us room to be at one with our place on the planet; our sense of self and how we fit into the world by immersing ourselves in its natural beauty. We figured the little towns and villages in the mountains, dotted along rugged coastlines and tucked away in hidden valleys would always provide refuge for those like us who’d opted to not play the game; who’d dropped out in effect through disillusionment at where our unsustainable way of life was taking us. Boy, talk about being asleep at the wheel! Recreational property, and all it brings with it, has quite literally bitten us on the ass. Prices in some of the small mountain towns have now pushed past prices for similar properties in the city. “So what”, I hear you say; “you’re just bummed because now you have to pay more.” Maybe, maybe not. What I’m bummed about is that our marauding consumer culture is now bursting out of the cities and suburbs and into the wild places I love. Places I choose to visit because I have to do on their own terms. The terms they dictate to me shape who I am. They enable me to adapt; to be creative, to live fully in the moment. Exposing yourself to those conditions is part of the deal, an accepted part of the experience. Our mountain towns are now being populated by people who want to look at the mountains, but not experience them. By people who want to live in a cute little mountain town; with a Wal-Mart and Starbucks just like they had back home. But of course they don’t want to live there full time; no that would do. You can see where this is going, and you know, I don’t want to take you on a huge rant, but let me share this with you:

Two weeks ago I spoke at a meeting for SYTA (Student Youth Travel Association) up at Whistler (2 hours north of Vancouver BC). My job was to impart the importance of travel for young people in developing tolerance and understanding of other cultures, and the enormous personal benefits of expanding our own perception of life on earth. Whilst there, something I hadn’t noticed before really, really jumped out at me. Sitting outside with my coffee, a couple in their mid fifties wheel mountain bikes past me. Not just ordinary mountain bikes though; full on downhill mountain bikes, and they are decked out with all the accompanying body armor to go with them. Problem was, it was obvious from the shape these guys were in; they weren’t even really cyclists let alone downhill mountain bikers. They’d bought into the marketing hype that says when you go to Whistler, you get to be “extreme”.  I’m telling you, over the course of 3o minutes I saw at least six people either on crutches, limping, or carrying some other form of injury that had obviously occurred because they thought they were “extreme”. They’d bought into the hype; been sold on this idea that we can all buy into any lifestyle we want. We can have it all. Yeah, we can, and we can’t. I speak a lot these days on creating our own reality. I speak about the power of purpose and intent and how we can manifest incredible change in our lives. What I’ve never said is that it happens overnight, or with zero effort. To those of you I saw hobbling around whistler the other weekend, I hate to break it to you, but you are not “extreme”, I don’t care what you’ve done in the past, if you’re spending most of the time on your butt driving a desk these days, you cant expect to just go out there and start shredding up the mountain on a bike, or skis, or anything else for that matter. It takes preparation. It takes practice. It takes time. You might be able to buy the gear, and look the part, but we wee through it. You might be able to afford that big house on the ski hill, but were not buying it. The lifestyle you’re trying to buy; the one we’ve been living for the past three decades is not for sale. The gear might be; the property definitely is, but the people who created what you were so attracted to; the people who lived and breathed the mountains; they’ve moved on. They had to, because when you brought into their town what you need to survive there, you destroyed the very essence of why they went there, and why you admired them for it. Its wildness.

To your health (or, who will jump on the organic bandwagon next?)

Don’t get me wrong; I’ve waited fifteen for us to reach the point we’re at now, all the time wondering whether we’d ever get here. “Here” is the fact we now have Wholefoods (and many others); an entire supermarket filled with organic this, vegan that, biodynamic whatyamacallit. Fifteen years ago, if you wanted to eat organic you were shopping in whole-foods stores that catered strictly to hippies, anarchists and allergy sufferers. Watching the transition has been at times incredibly frustrating, and incredibly moving. I’m not kidding you; I still remember the goosebumps and tidal wave of emotion that swept over me the first time I walked (or wheeled rather) in a Wholefoods supermarket. It had seemed a pipe dream, a nice idea way back then, but here all of a sudden it had become a reality. Let me tell you why.

We, those of us who chose to eat organic, despite the high prices, despite the looks shot to us by pimply faced checkout kids or café till jockeys that screamed “not another organic yuppie”; we created this current reality together with farmers whose principles and products we believed in. with business owners who had the guts to give shelf space to products the mass population had no interest in. With people who actually cared about us and what we ate, and the effect that producing the food had on the planet. The entire organic movement springs from a common understanding that, despite what they tell us, it doesn’t make sense to put food into our bodies that has been produced by utilizing massive amounts of chemicals. By utilizing farming practices we know are doing untold damage to our farmland. We knew in our guts it wasn’t right, and were prepared to pay more to have our food produced by people who knew there had to be a better way.

Fast forward now to September 2007. I made a prediction four years ago that within ten years we’d wee an organic McDonalds burger. Six months ago I switched my prediction to within two years. We are now so close I can almost smell it. Two days ago the “O” word appeared, for the first time in my experience, on the huge highway sign usually reserved to promote the 99c burger out the front of a generic junk food “restaurant” ( I use the term loosely). I say generic, because I wish for the life of me I could remember which one it was; it wasn’t McDonalds, but could have been Dairy Queen or A&W. It really doesn’t matter who it was, but they wanted us to know about their organic iced mocha. I know some of you are thinking “great, it’s about time McDonalds went organic”. Someone else might be thinking “don’t yuppify my McDonalds, please…” that’s fine, but please keep this in mind. McDonalds, or DQ, or A&W don’t give a flying *#@! about you or your health. They don’t give a flying *#@! about the planet. The only reason they pimping their iced mocha is because they want in on the organic gold rush that’s about to happen. I’m confident now we’ll see the organic McDonalds burger within twelve months. Before the end of 2008 we’ll have organic coke, and hell, by the decades end we might even see organic Benson and Hedges. But please remember this. That’s great that these companies have finally gone organic, but their not doing it for you or me or the state of the world. Their not doing it because it’s the right thing to do. The companies that are have been doing so for some time now, and they are the ones who deserve your support. They care; let’s show that we do to by supporting them rather than the veritable avalanche of bandwagon jumpers that are heading our way.

Here are some long time organic producers that deserve our support:

www.vitasoy.com

www.sonatural.com,au

www.wholefoods.com

www.wildoats.com

www.amyskitchen.com

www.summerhill.bc.ca/

www.lundberg.com

www.drbronners.com

www.transfairusa.org/

New Speaker Video

Something to ponder...

If you've seen me speak, you know I'm big on taking responsibility; for our actions, for the decisions we make; in a nutshell, for creating our own reality. When we think and act as if we have no power over outside forces, we end up in the position we find ourselves in now (more on that later). I'll often have people come up to me after a presentation to tell me that I've helped them realize they really can achieve whatever it is they want to achieve, and can see now how they’ve been holding themselves back. I've had this from individuals, as well on a company wide level. Which is great; make no mistake, but sometimes I feel like they’re missing the point. More and more, especially since the release of The Secret, were beginning to realize just how much we really do create our reality, from our thoughts through to the actions we take. Where we start to get off track in my mind is that the very first thought we have in utilizing this power is in putting it to use to gather yet more 'stuff'. Material stuff. Ever increasing profit.

As I said last month, the big problem with The Secret for me is that it’s encouraging people to conjure up a new Lamborghini in the driveway, rather than using the law of attraction to create a better world. For those of you that think a new Lamborghini equals a better world (I'm talking a better world here, not just a better existence for you alone), its probably best if you stop reading now. The position we’re in now demands that we stop thinking about ourselves for a second, and consider where we are as a species; as the human race. When I get up and tell you that you can change the world, and you think that the best way you can apply that is by increasing sales so you can buy a Hummer; you've really missed the point. I'm not interested in you buying a Hummer. I'm not interested in inspiring you to take a golfing vacation in a third world country. What I'm interested in is inspiring you to take action in creating a better world by questioning everything around you and everything you do. We are, ladies and gentlemen, at crunch time.

I know some of you are going to want to switch off now, thinking 'he's going to go all doom and gloom on us'. Yeah, I am, because right now we need a good foot in the backside and smack across the head. We need to wake up! We've had chances before to do something about where we're headed. I love Stephen King’s quote from 'On Writing'. ‘We had the chance to change the world in the 60'd and we opted for the home shopping network instead'. We blew it; we went back to sleep. We can’t afford to do that again. Governments and businesses now realize we have an environmental crisis on our hands.

If you’re rolling your eyes right now, and waiting for a more convenient truth, there isn’t one. The signs are everywhere; we can’t ignore or run away from them anymore. Everyone is jumping on the 'green' bandwagon, which is great, but talk is cheap; it’s our actions which will effect change, not our words. I could rant endlessly on this subject, as it’s close to my heart; but I'll spare you; this time. Let me just say though that for those of us who have seen this coming for decades, and have been laughed at, abused, arrested (that would be me) and some even murdered; its about bloody time the rest of you got it. When I see a headline in a magazine like BC Business titled 'The tree huggers were right', I feel vindicated that I've been right all along. 'That’s great', I hear you saying. 'You were right, we were wrong, but what can we do now?' You can take responsibility for it. That’s the good news, and the bad. If you think this is something our governments are going to sort out, you’re wrong. They have no interest in sorting this out. They can't simply because they can't make tough enough decisions to sort it out when in our present system if they do something we don’t like we'll vote them out again at the end of their 3 year term. Nope, they can’t help us; it’s up to us individually.

What can you do? Forget about who you vote for unless you’re prepared to really pony up and vote green, because all of the major parties are tarred with the same brush. They’re virtually indistinguishable these days, and so are their policies. Nope, the only way to effect real change is to vote with your wallet which is why I'm all for you manifesting all of the wealth in the universe; I'm just not interested in seeing you spend it in ways which move us backwards instead of forwards. Ways to vote with you holy dollar include:

* Committing to buying organic food wherever possible.

* Only buying recycled paper (including toilet paper), and if your local supermarket doesn’t carry it, ask why not?

* Refusing to buy into this bottled water scam.

Do you realize that Dasani, a subsidiary of Coca Cola, is not even selling you water from a spring; its selling you bottled tap water. The same stuff that comes out of your tap at home. Seriously, every time you screw the cap off of one of those bottles you are supporting a practice that is absolutely unsustainable in the energy wasted and resources consumed. Do us all a favor and buy a Nalgene bottle so you can fill it up at home.

Its not rocket science; if we all just did one of the things above we'd be making a difference. The scary thing is, that won’t be good enough forever. Some would say it’s already too late, and that we all absolutely have to do all three and then some. They may be right, but so as not to gout out on too heavy a note, I want to encourage you, if you're not doing it already, to consider taking on board just one of my suggestions; for the sake of all of us.

It’s an amazing world we live in, let’s not forget that, but its time to take our heads out of the sand. As are the signs were in trouble everywhere, so are the signs of hope, if we look for them. Here’s one I want to share with you:

What you see is what you get????

Some food for thought…

If I could pick one common theme fro the past few years, it’s that everywhere I turn, people are talking about stress. The pace of change has put so much on our plates, it is impossible for many to comprehend how they could possibly take any more. At the same time, we fully expect to be asked to do more; to produce more; to contribute to the pursuit of ever increasing growth. This might be great for our bottom line, but what does it mean for us?

We’ve known for decades that stress is harmful, and best avoided, but just how harmful might become more apparent when we consider the results of recent studies, and realize that yes, if this is happening to animals its happening to us to…

According to the study, stressed meats (all meats, including fish) tastes different. So different, even restaurants (I use the term loosely) such as McDonalds and Wendy’s are putting pressure on suppliers to reduce stress on livestock prior to slaughter. Apparently, stress damages the meat on a cellular level, to the point where it can be downgraded to hamburger material. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make the connection. The connection between stress and coronary conditions has been known for some time, but damage on a cellular level; that’s something to take note of…

The new low in advertising...

I think by now you get the gist of this blog of mine. My aim is to get you thinking. I’d go as far to say my aim is to get people wake the hell up. To do that, I need to bring up things that on first instance might look like I’m just being negative, and that might turn some of you off. Let me point out though that unless were exposed to what’s wrong, how are we ever going to make it right?. As someone pointed out to me recently, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” You might say this next story got me outraged, particularly as I’ve just got back from an event where I got to meet a bunch of ‘wounded warriors”, i.e. Iraq/ Afghanistan war vets, whose lives has been literally blown apart. None of them looked any older than 21…

Anyway, here’s something to think about:

I don’t what you think about the war, but I’d like to know what you think about this. According to Bloomberg.com, the Pentagon has taken to using a kid’s movie (Transformers) to recruit our kids into a military career. Yep, you heard me right. First off it was advertising in video game magazines; because that will get you ready to go toe to toe with a guy who’s just seen half his family wiped out as a result of “collateral damage”… Now though, we’ve taken it a step further. According to Lt Col Paul Sinor, this film will appeal to both potential recruits and their parents, who are “centers of influence” for enlistment decisions…. By showing kids how cool it is to fly around in machines (i.e. US military aircraft/ vehicles placed within the film) blowing stuff up; they are hoping little Mikey will get all fired up to go over and get his piece of the action.

Seriously folks; its time to wake up. If you can send Johnny off to see Transformers after reading about this, I have to point something out to you. In the act of giving your money to the maker of this film (which, by the way, you’re doing if you’re paying to see it), you’re saying it’s OK for them to market war to our kids. And hey, don’t give me that crap about 18 year olds being old enough to make up their own mind. The 18 year old demographic will indeed flock to see this film because it’s just a cool film. But Transformers, the toys that is, aren’t toys for 18 year olds; they’re market is way younger than that. The Pentagon knows they might see some kind of increase in recruits this year and next as a result of this film, but that’s not really what they’re looking for.  Nope, their after you’re little Jonny or Jeanie, and they want them thinking about signing up before they’re even in high school…

Green Hype and Hoax...

I'm sure many of you read with interest as I did the story early this week about Anheuser-Busch (the company behind Budweiser) and their "wild Hop Lager" organic beer. In a nutshell, Anheuser-Busch have been muscling the USDA to relax their standards as to what constitutes an "organic" product. Just approved to an already questionable list are 38 ingredients (including 19 food colorings) that may now be added to our food (in quantities up to 5%) and still have the product receive the USDA's "organic" stamp of approval. AB claim that the hops they want to use aren't available in large enough quantities in the organic version, so they need to use non organic hops to make their organic beer...

I could bore you with more details, but there is one point here you have to understand: People ask me all the time "What can I do to make a difference?" and I keep telling them; there is no stronger vote, no stronger statement you can make than the one you make with your money.

its as simple as this: we've all seen the story. anybody who now goes out and purchases even one can or bottle of this bogus product, is voting for a lessening of organic standards, and lets be honest here; voting for a system that will eventually make the term "organic" irrelevant. If you want to make a difference, do this. Find out which companies make "real" organic food; which have been doing so from the outset and do it so as to make the world a better place. Not these wannabe companies jumping on a bandwagon that had to come along just so as to cash in on this "green" wave sweeping the country right now. Sure; its great, albeit 20 years too late in my book, but seriously; support the companies that are in this, and have been for a while, for the right reasons.

Then you'll be making a difference.