Link4Change - Chris Ogle

I made the decision back at the end of March 2016, that my regular annual month off the booze was going to take a more serious direction. I actually stopped drinking on the 28th Feb 2016. Those who know me well, will know that each year I have a couple of months 'off' but for some reason I felt the need to do something more. I decided to stop drinking permanently. Well the 1st year is coming to a close... on reflecting back what has it been like... a year without alcohol? What have I learnt? Most of the people in my life enjoy drinking socially. So when I shared my decision I received a whole bunch of different reactions. Let me first start by saying that this decision was taking by me and for me... not to stimulate a response from others. There was no other motive except I decided to stop drinking. Some people took my decision to stop drinking personally. As if it were a judgement or slight on them. But I have made it clear throughout that this was not a statement on

It's a strange thing when you get talking to people about taking action in the community ... or even in business for that matter. Almost immediately one of the first questions that comes up is... and I don't mean days or weeks later I mean almost immediately... Where can we get funding for this? We are so conditioned by money that we believe the only way we can do anything is if we can get money to do it. So... basically what we are saying is this... we are only empowered to do things so long as there is enough money to pay for it . We are therefore hampered and completely dis-empowered because we have given all our power to start anything away to money. If we take this to the extreme... Unless money is available we might as well not start Those with money become the controllers of our ability to start anything Those with money can choose to give it to those who provide the greatest return (for them) on their "investment" With money comes the unspoken requi

Looking around at Trump / Brexit ... you may think the world has gone mad... On the other hand if you didn't watch TV, didn't read a newspaper... actually not much has changed at all. The world hasn't changed there has just been a storm whipped up by the media and the new regimes to illicit a result ... but a result to do what exactly? There are much bigger things at stake here than Trump and Brexit. To say change is on the cards is an understatement of the past 1000 years. There is something very serious going on. Resurgence of religion, scrapping of climate considerations... acceleration of resource plundering... almost like "whilst the cat's away the mice will play" reckless abandonment... but why? At the same time the human population is becoming more aware... the level of consciousness is rising... hard to see with all the noise... but the quiet development of our species continues. The Internet has meant that people can no longer hide... but...

And so the conditioning continues with the dawn of Valentines Day. Don't get me wrong I am not against love; Red hearts adorning our shops as a symbol of love is not a bad thing, quite frankly there is not enough love in the world, I'd be first to agree with that. I also enjoy the innovation and creativity of many small independent traders who seek to make the most of each celebration in difficult trading conditions. I have heard some lovely stories today of people being affectionate and treating others with love and kindness... going out for a special day together amongst other things, great things to do... please continue to treat loved ones like this... on any day of the year! But there is a sinister side to this too. The whole commercial nature of the Valentines band wagon encourages us to take sides again. Those who are for it, and of course these are the ones that care, right? ... and those that don't play ball, and therefore of course are confirming in some way