Twine Designs Weaving your style, space & spirit together

TANTALIZING INFO

• GREEN GUIDE TO REMODELING by builditgreen.org informative brochure intended for west coast but applicable guidelines to green remodeling anywhere

• GREEN GUIDE TO NEW BUILDING by builditgreen.org informative brochure intended for west coast but applicable guidelines to new green building anywhere

• GREEN DRINKS.ORG IS WORLDWIDE
(and we have a local group in the Berkshires!)

Did you know that you can meet other individuals in your area that care about the earth and sustainability. People of varying professions and diverse backgrounds get together the first Tuesday of every month for happy hour at Barrington Brewery. It starts at 5:30 and you can stay until closing if you desire. Hope to see you there sometime! For more information, go to www.greendrinks.org.

• ENERGY ENGINEERING - THE NEW BUSINESS FRONTIER FOR SENIOR SERVICE LEADERS

As a business coach, the experience that my clients and I co-create is truly about exploring new possibilities and thinking in very different ways. I challenge my clients, both individuals and organizations, to abandon old patterns of belief and action. To be bold. It's really all about the sentiment expressed by Albert Einstein when he said, "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them." You must put yourself and keep yourself in a different space than where you were when the issues and situations that confront you today were created.
In the next ten years, our way of conducting business will be transformed. Some experts are calling it the shift of the ages. The recent revelations about Enron, WorldCom, etc. are only the beginning. What will fill the vacuum, the gap in which we find ourselves? The secret to transforming business is all about managing one's energy field and its vibrational frequency. Whether you work in a large organization or small single site facility, have a conservative or liberal culture - you have the opportunity to take the great outer technology that helps businesses succeed and blend it with a set of powerful energy focusing tools (inner technology) and you will create a shift in yourself and your organization.
We must gently evolve our business model from one that is driven only by logic and rational thinking to one that is DRIVEN by INTUITIVE THINKING and carried out by the LOGIC. Even though many of us have an inner knowing about this transformation, we also have huge resistance to such a major departure from what we know has worked. If you are at all like me, you may initially think that this is just too "woo-woo" or out there or too good to be true. You may be afraid that your colleagues or employees may think that you've finally lost it. To begin to transform us and our organizations, we must take the first small step and allow for the possibility that there is something more. We must then let go at a pretty deep level - unlearn many of the fundamental principles and unwritten rules that have been programmed in us from our past business experiences.

by Leta Beam - President, Vantage International, a business coaching firm [leta@vantage-inter.com - 717.238.3939 - www.vantage-inter.com

SPIRIT OF HOME by Jane Alexander

In an uncertain, scary world, we cling to home. Yet many of us find our homes are not satisfying our needs. I think that's because we often equate a "good" home with a large, showy, impressive home. We talk about getting larger square footage, upgrading to a bigger space, a grander style of house. We fantasize about pillars and columns, huge back yards and monumental spaces. Our egos might rate such criteria yet our souls cringe. I'm sure, if you think about it, you know what I mean. I'm talking about the kind of buildings which are built and designed so full of pride and prestige that you feel uncomfortable the moment you walk in. You barely like to sit down in case you crease the cushions. These are the kind of homes that make you stand to attention; that make children and animals unwelcome and adults feel ill at ease. They symbolize a complete breakdown between the owner and the earth - the link is simply not recognized. But anyone with sensitivity of soul can feel it in their bones. The place is not a home, it is a statement - like the latest designer clothes or the smartest sports car. It is hollow. A true home should be our own mini-world, our own Mother Earth. It needs to be the kind of place which nurtures you and makes you feel safe yet also gives you the freedom to be totally yourself. When we feel safe and comfortable in our homes then we feel more able to deal with the often frightening outside world.

(More to Come)