 are able to feel more intimacy in your relationships, if you have a feeling of prosperity and you feel more vitality as you move from day to day….all of that, I’m sure, brings you to a place of Peace. You can breathe more deeply and appreciate your life more fully.
Turn to channel 2 for a second and you can also see that you can have that Peace right now…it’s always there for you whenever you tune into it. You can meditate and rest in that natural great peace…the one that is always there…just waiting for you to stop for a moment and tune into it.
So I see two kinds of Beauty…the one that is always there, always present…and the one that you can absorb into your life and then bring to the village.
I also see that there will be all kinds of obstacles on the way. to Freedom Mountain…whichever road we choose. But do you remember the importance of those obstacles? They are there…blocking your way…or sending you back into old patterns and/or addictions…they are there to help you go deeper. You will meet them through meditation and you will meet them working with a mentor or therapist. They are an essential part of the journey. You may have to confront them more than once…as often as it takes to finally see what they are lovingly bringing to you. Once that happens, they will slip away…no longer necessary. You got the message…you don’t need the sticking point anymore.
Then you are living a life that MATTERS! And you know what happens next…remember the pebble on the smooth surface of the lake? That sense of mattering will ripple out into all other areas of your life. …into your health, into your relationships, into your work…ripples of joy and authenticity.

Like an aria sung from a balcony during lockdown…we are all touched and raised higher by a genuine expression of beauty and connection.
Dive into your meaningful life now!
This week we continue with our topic of the police and crime.
Below is a very interesting story of a mugging that had an unexpected ending. Can you understand what he's saying? If you want to read the transcript, click this button.
This week we are learning to describe people.
In this video, we hear two people discussing the physical descriptions of escaped prisoners.
This week we talked about linking. Watch Rachel's lesson on linking.
You can also practice spelling and sentences with games.Last Wednesday, I was invited to represent Democrats Abroad and the Democratic Party by participating in a black-tie debate at the Oxford Union.
My colleagues in the debate included two students and a don. We would propose the motion, “This house believes Hurricane Katrina blew away the myth of US racial equality.” I was pleased to learn that one of the students on our side, Christopher Shuler, was born in my home state of Tennessee. The opposing team consisted of two students from America and two journalists from the News International empire of media mogul, Rupert Murdoch.
The Oxford Union was formed in the 1820s by the students of Oxford, who wanted their own separate and sovereign organization which would allow them to debate topics like atheism that were prohibited by the University. The venerable Union building is located between Frewin Court and St. Michael’s Street in a prime location in central Oxford. I was pleased to note that it has been undergoing a sort of renaissance over the past few years, and it looks far better today than at any time in my recollection over the previous 21 years.
On Thursday evening we assembled in the Gladstone Room at the Union for drinks before dinner. I met my colleagues and some of the Union officers. At dinner, I was seated between the President, Sapana Agrawal and the treasurer, Ed Mason, and across from the Secretary, Kate Spooner. The Oxford Union is a proving ground for the political leaders of the future. Presidency of the Oxford Union often leads to a high-level career in politics. For example, Benazir Bhutto was president of the Oxford Union before becoming President of Pakistan. Five prime ministers of Britain have been Union presidents: Gladstone, Salisbury, Asquith, MacMillan, and Heath. The rhetorical skills of a master politician are honed by participation in the Union debates.
From my perspective, it would not be surprising if, in the future, Sapana Agrawal and her colleagues involved in the Union become prominent in politics. All of the Union officers whom I met were impressive, concerned and engaged with the need for dynamic and progressive political change. Meeting the group of young political leaders involved in the Union and Isis magazine was one of the most inspiring experiences of many in recent years which have been dominated by a seemingly unending concatenation of increasingly dire political developments.
After dinner, we filed into the Debating Chamber where we took up positions on opposite sides of the despatch box. After several salient words of wit and wisdom from Madame President, the debate began. Highlights of it included the opening statement for our side by Christopher Shuler. Impassioned, informed and implacable, Christopher laid out an airtight and compelling case for the proposal. I predict great things from Christopher in the future. Christopher is the Editor of Isis, the most popular and respected student publication in Oxford. Dr. Steven Tuck, a top-ranking academic expert in racial prejudice in America, delivered a telling account of the realities of racial inequality in America, and he did so with great wit and charm making his statement all the more effective. Fraser Campbell is a fellow at All Souls College, one of the most prestigious academic appointments in the world. He summed up our arguments with the brilliant style, wit, and aplomb of a master rhetorician. Frazer is a Past President of the Union, and I foresee a stellar career in academia or government unfolding smoothly before him. The assignment of a passionate deconstruction of the myth of racial equality in America fell to me.
Our opponents were extremely formidable. Two students who are internationally recognized debating champions from Lewis & Clarke University, Keith West and Paul Bingham, did admirable jobs of articulating their case. Gerard Baker, the American editor of The Times (of London) who has been based in Washington, DC for the past decade produced a powerful statement for his side. Taki Theodoracopulos – the international celebrity-journalist and editor of The American Conservative – regaled us with his wit, charm and a devastating delivery of his attack on our arguments.
After the debate, we filed out to a drinks party in the Gladstone Room and awaited the results. I had the opportunity to thank each and every member of the opposition for their massive contributions to the debate. Keith West and I had a chat about his interests in the law and the degradation of religion in America by the fundamentalist right. I met Christopher Shuler’s parents who arrived a few days before the debate from their home in Nashville. It was an ebullient occasion, and I was delighted to meet so many members of the Union who expressed their support for our side. The final tally was 139 in favour and 115 opposed. By my reckoning, the twelve to fifteen honourable members from racial minorities tipped the scales in our favour, and if they had not been present, the whites would have been nearly deadlocked.
My speech proposing the motion is reproduced below.
Speech of Michael Carmichael before the Oxford Union, 16th February 2006.
Madame President, honourable members, distinguished guests, friends - there is some overlap between those groups - I stand before you tonight as an American citizen who loves his country. I love America because of the ideals enshrined in her core documents: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and, yes, the Declaration of Independence. America was founded on the principle of constitutional democracy, and it offered hope for a better future than the absolutism and autocracy of the old world. It must be said, that while the United States has made a great deal of social progress, it has not fulfilled its mission – far from it, for racial inequality still haunts the heartlands of America.
Speaking as an eyewitness to the Jim Crow Era of apartheid and ethnic cleansing in American history, I must tell you that I have witnessed African-Americans moved to the backs of buses. I have seen separate and decidedly unequal toilet facilities for racial minorities. I have seen separate but unquestionably unequal schools for racial minorities. I have seen separate but unequal health and hospital facilities for racial minorities.
Worse still, when I worked in government, I have seen continuous streams of reports of police killings of hundreds of racial minorities who were shot by Southern police officers allegedly for ‘resisting arrest’.
I lived in the United States of America when the act of lynching was still legal in parts of the Deep South. While lynching became illegal in 1968, it is still practiced by white supremacists in many parts of America.
I was born in Memphis, near the precincts inhabited by the characters in William Faulkner’s novels, and I lived in the South for most of my life. As a son of the South, I was indoctrinated, inculcated and acculturated with the traditional tempos and rhythms of elitism, religion, and racism that permeated the Bible Belt. African-Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Creoles and Mulattoes were all deemed to be racially inferior to the supreme white race.
Sadly, I must report to you that those attitudes of racial prejudice in America are still exactly the same today – as vividly revealed by Hurricane Katrina. While the civil rights movement led by Dr Martin Luther King eventually resulted in the passage of the great civil rights legislation of the 1960s