Announcing a
New Daily Progress
Reporting Program
May 19, 2004
by Steven S. Showers, Editor
Dear Lighthouse Keepers, I am very grateful for the
service of our founding members to this important cause. Very grateful. As we continue to
build our momentum of service, I would like to ask from all of you, one little itsy bitsy teeny
weeny tiny microscopic so small that it's hardly worth mentioning addition to our daily duties.
I would like to inaugurate a program of daily reports.
That's all. This is not a big thing. But it is actually very important. It will just take a couple of
extra minutes of your time. But those couple of extra minutes have the potential of providing
something very important, in two important respects.
First, I believe that it will help us to build a greater
sense of group cohesiveness. And second, this greater group cohesiveness will in turn provide
for the alchemy of growth and expansion.
In regards to the first point, I would observe that we
few and are spread out across the country, and across the world. The only place we can actually
gather together in the physical realm is our community forum. And our daily reports to the
forum will help to bring us together within that forum each day. This will help build up our
cohesiveness as a group.
Also, I am reminded of the Watchman on the Wall,
that as he patrols his sector of the fortress, his duties require him to periodically inform his
compatriots that all is well. And so the call goes out, from time to time, that "All is Well".
And this is reassuring to everyone. It would be good to have this sense of reassurance
amplified amongst the whole group on a daily basis. This sense of reassurance will also assist
in making our group identity stronger.
This daily reporting program will also help keep the
project at the forefront of everyone's mind, and this is especially important when we look
ahead. It may be fairly easy to keep this vigil for the first month or so, but as the months drag
on, well, it will not be so easy. The daily habit of reporting will help keep our interest levels
high. This will help boost resolve and determination when the going gets rough, which it
certainly will. Remember, there is always a honeymoon period at the beginning of every
project. The Masters give the parties time to anchor themselves in their duties. Then they start
to allow greater opposition to confront us, and this is for the testing and the strengthening of
our souls. This is sure to come. When the going gets tough, we will need that extra boost in
resolve that this daily reporting program will provide.
One way that this benefit can be capitalized upon to
the greatest extent by each Lighthouse Keeper, is to NEVER DELETE these daily reports as
they arrive in your email inbox from your fellow Lighthouse Keepers. Rather, they should be
saved in a folder, and periodically PRINTED OUT (when you have the time), and then, this
stack of printouts can be placed on the Altar. This stack of printouts will not be just an
ordinary stack of papers. Each piece of paper ties the soul to the actual akashic record of the
particular and specific victory associated with the giving of the Ritual of Exorcism by that
particular Lighthouse Keeper in the instance to which it applies. Our souls, with the help of
the Masters, can tune into these records of Victory, and that will help strengthen our
determination to keep the vigil when the going gets tough.
The calendar record sheets would still be used to keep
the monthly personal record which you can use to compare to the monthly progress chart to
make sure that I entered the information correctly. Also, there may be those cases when a
person is away from their email for a time, vacations, conferences etc., and the monthly record
sheet would be useful in making the reports when the Lighthouse Keeper arrives back at their
computer.
Now, there is one additional element to this daily
reporting program. And it is the comment section of the daily report. What I would like to see
there from each Lighthouse Keeper, every day, is a quote taken from any Pearl of Wisdom, that
bears directly on our work, and then your commentary on how you believe that particular
principle applies to our work. This is a three-part task. First, we read our pearls daily, with an
eye to catching those principles that apply to our work. This could be current pearls, or it could
be any pearl that you have in your collection. It could be any pearl that you can bring up on
Pearls On Line if you want to go back in time. Second, we add the relevant quote to our daily
report to the community forum. And Third, we give our own perspective on why that quote
applies. All three elements need to be there.
Make no mistake about it. While we might feel some
resistance to this extra effort, no gain is ever achieved and held, without such extra effort.
When we set ourselves to this small additional task, which is very well-defined and to a
purpose, this gives the threefold flame in our hearts a matrix to expand into. That's right. This
is a matrix for expanding the flame of the heart. And as you can see, it is a balanced threefold
matrix. Our determination towards a divine purpose is amplified. That's the blue. We make
that extra effort because we have a certain appreciation, respect and love for the purposes of the
Masters that we are working to fulfill. That is the pink. And when we make the effort to
explain why a particular pearl quote is applicable, that is the amplification of understanding,
and that is the yellow.
I would like to anchor this tradition within the
Lighthouse Keepers from the very beginning. And as they say, if the child is reared up in the
way he should go (while he is still a child), drawing on Susanne's metaphor of our new Holy
Order as an infant, when the child grows into maturity, he will not part from the ways of good
sense, vigilance, and righteousness.
In regards to the issue of growth and expansion, there
are two things to say. First, the alchemy of growth and expansion is tied to the (divine)
strength and cohesiveness of the center. This daily reporting program as described will help us
to fulfill that requirement. Second, when people visit our community forum, I want them to see
that this is a dynamic daily activity. People are more likely to join a dynamic daily activity.
And of course, it would give the forum a really solid ambiance of determined and persistent
purpose. People will be attracted to that.
It reminds me of a story in the book "Tom Sawyer" by
Mark Twain. There is a story in there about a time when Tom's aunt tasked him to whitewash
the fence. He made the work look like so much fun, that he attracted all of his friends to come
help him. In fact, if I remember correctly, they had to trade him something of value in order to
be allowed to help paint the fence! I think I will go look for that story, and post it sometime
later for those of you whose early childhood education did not include the works of Mark
Twain.
And I kid you not on this point. We had some people
come in to paint our kitchen today. After drafting this document, I went into the kitchen to see
how things were going. The painters had already left for the day. I noticed that they had left
some paint (it was white primer) in the roller tray, and the roller was still attached to the long
handle. And I couldn't help myself. I had to dip the roller into the remaining paint, and
proceeded to roll another coat of white paint onto one of the walls. There was just enough left
there to do one complete wall. And it was very satisfying for some reason.
And so I would request that each Lighthouse Keeper
give a daily report to this forum, that "All is Well" on their particular section of the wall. The
report will be one pointed, whether the Lighthouse Keeper has successfully completed the
Ritual of Exorcism for that day, either Yea, or Nay.
Now, I would just say that the syntax of the report is
important, and this is primarily for organization, readability, and computer related reasons.
First, in terms of organization, these reports need to be easily differentiated from all other
message traffic in the forum, so that message rules can be constructed within your email
program, that will allow you to automatically file them to a specific folder (if you so desire).
Or, if you let them all come into your primary Inbox, the predictable format will allow you to
use the "find" feature later, to collect them all together, and put them into another folder.
Second, in terms of readability, if the content is structured in a uniform manner, it can be read
and understood more quickly. Third, in regards to a computer issue on my end, I will be
constructing a computer program that will scan these reports for the information contained in
them for the purpose of automatically updating our Monthly Progress Report Charts. That
program will look for specific keywords that need to be in specific places. If those keywords
are not there, or they are in the wrong place, the program won't work.
I would therefore request that each Lighthouse Keeper
construct the syntax for each of their reports to follow this particular form, in terms of subject
line and content. The words in red are the keywords, which will help the computer locate the
information that directly follows them.
Email Subject line: Daily Report for Lighthouse Keeper No. [your number]
Email Content:
Daily Report for Lighthouse Keeper No. [your number]
Report: Monday, May 3, 2004 - Yea! (or Nay) as the
case might be.
Comments: [the pearl quote, and whatever comments
the Lighthouse Keeper feels like sharing].
The items in red need to be there as shown. The
overall format of the report needs to be as shown. The date and other information that comes
after the "Report:" keyword needs to be formatted as shown. While the "Comments:" keyword
needs to be there as shown, the form or syntax of what comes after that keyword does not have
to be structured in any particular way.
To make this process as quick and easy as possible,
you can take the content of your first report, save it in a text file, and place that file on your
desktop. Or you can place a shortcut to that file on your desktop. When it comes time to
submit your daily report, you can quickly open that file, copy the content to the clipboard, and
paste it into a new message. You can then change the information as necessary, and then send
it off. Also, it would speed things up if you switched on your computer on your way to the
altar, and when you are finished with the ritual, you can sit down at your computer, it will
already be booted up, and you can construct and send your report without any delays.
Remember that the daily reports will no longer be sent
directly to me. The daily reports need to be sent to our community forum. That way they will
be distributed to all Lighthouse Keepers. This is the email address of our community forum:
The_Lighthouse_Keepers@yahoogroups.com
I look forward to seeing our community forum come
to life with this great new burst of purposeful, determined, and clearly evident commitment to a
great cause. Let not the light of our daily efforts be hid under a bushel basket.
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