Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 15, Number 2 • Summer 2007
Director’s Notes: Taking a Breath
By Jill Ryan
Our lives are so
packed with activities
and "must dos"
these days I have
trouble finding time
to step back, take a
deep breath and
consider the big
picture. Sometimes
I feel like a tennis ball bouncing from task
to task and activity to activity. This is of
course true not only of our personal time
but our work and activist time. It is not
that we intend to take on more than we
can handle, we simply take things on
because we want to see change or action
in things important to us.
Because I know the stress and seemingly
endless list of things that "must be done"
when running a grassroots advocacy
campaign, I am guessing that you might
feel this same stress to press on and get
things done. I hope that this summer you
will remember that break in the action
almost always helps the situation and
makes us more effective and efficient.
Whether we are spending time getting
the word out about a public meeting,
collecting information and research,
articulating the fine points of an issue or
just fighting with a particularly difficult
computer issue we can always benefit
from stepping back, looking at the
problem from different angles and
finding new solutions. I hope you can
step back this summer both from the
immediate tasks at hand and from the
overall "must dos" of life in order to create
new perspective and more fully enjoy this
great place in which we live.
Our lives are not determined by what
happens to us but by how we react to
what happens, not by what life brings to
us, but by the attitude we bring to life.
A positive attitude causes a chain
reaction of positive thoughts, events,
and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark
that creates extraordinary results.
– Anon
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