Updates from Organizations - Government agencies - Advertise Various Artists

4 Tips To Self-Enlightenment That Can

Help America Come Back Together

In the minds of many citizens, politicians and pundits, America has never been more divided.

A Pew Research Center study showed an average gap of 36 percent between Democrats and Republicans on various political and values-related issues. That’s 21 points higher than the first year the poll was conducted – 1994.  

Novelist Piero Rivolta, also a successful businessman who emigrated from Italy to the United States, says it’s important that we know how the world sees us and, further, how we see each other. Like the characters exhibit in his aspirational novel Bridge Through The Stars: A Novel of Desire and Destiny, Rivolta says Americans can aspire to a higher plane of consciousness and learn how to come closer together.

“The phenomenon of fundamental differences among people is indisputable – more manifest today than ever,” says Rivolta (www.pierorivolta.com), who’s written nine books and operated businesses in car manufacturing and commercial building. “The world is going through a dark period, and it unfortunately includes the United States. But this is the country that can be the light and make a renaissance happen.  

“We must restore the primary qualities that we all share as human beings – intuition, compassion, love, moral sentiment, and a sense of fairness. We can with civility acknowledge our differences and find a common way to walk together respectfully. But that will start only after taking a deeper and more honest look at ourselves and having a real willingness to grow.”

Here’s how Rivolta proposes we open our minds and become more open and kinder to each other:

• Ask more of yourself to engage others. Rivolta thinks people with differences need to be more engaged in productive and informative conversation rather than shouting each other down. “We need to re-learn how to listen; that’s the only way to reach higher as a people together,” he says. “Part of true enlightenment is understanding where someone with opposite views is coming from. I also believe it’s time to talk about freedom in terms of respecting the freedom of different kinds of thinking. Ask ourselves what we can contribute to that.”

• Go back to understand your past – and yourself. “Before you can better understand others who are much different than you, you need to have a full understanding of yourself and where you came from, memories good and bad, and why you think like you do,” Rivolta says. “Truly facing ourselves gives us a stronger grasp of our inner foundation, which can free us to be more empathetic and accepting.”

• Embrace all opportunities to evolve. “The darkness of night, with the sky studded with stars, remains a concept unfathomable to us – infinity,” Rivolta says. “It can also represent all that is possible. If our mind is not capable of evolving toward new visions, new realities, all this will be for us is a big ocean without shores, lacking any use for us. What a tragic waste that would be.”

• Expand your definitions of true love and respect. “Don’t make the mistake of so many in today’s society – of confusing love with an exchange of heightened sensations that are similar to what we experience with arts, sports, and sexual experimentation,” Rivolta says. “Love encompasses so much more. It’s jointly participating in an awareness of feelings, pleasant or sad, and with fellow human beings whom we’ve grown to love after bitter disagreements.”

“Let’s change and think in a more accepting and connected way,” Rivolta says. “We have to start to consider that even with different ways of life and thinking, we can still live together.”

About Piero Rivolta

Piero Rivolta (www.pierorivolta.com), an award-winning poet and author, grew up in Milan, Italy in a family of automakers. He has made a career of successful reinvention based on creativity and passion for enhanced living. The leader of a successful car manufacturing company, he left Italy and moved to Sarasota, Fla., in 1980 with his wife Rachele, a painter. Rivolta has also been a residential and commercial builder, high-seas sailor and yacht producer. He recently published Bridge Through the Stars, his first novel since the publication of Journey Beyond 2012 and his Sarasota trilogy: Sunset in Sarasota, Alex and the Color of the Wind and The Castaway. Rivolta is also the author of four poetry/prose collections: Just One Scent: The Rest Is God, Nothing Is Without Future, Going By Sea and One Life, Many Lives.

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SPIRIT HOUSES

Latest EP

Two Passing Ships

Out Now

Available for Review

Streaming on Spotify

On Tour Now with Vinnie Caruana and Brandon Reilly

Brooklyn, NY - November 6, 2018 - Spirit Houses, the solo project from Mike Ireland (I Am The Avalanche, Pass Away), has delivered the most personal and emotionally charged collection of music of his career with the recent release of Two Passing Ships. This project was forged in hopes to heal and mend some emotional wounds and dive into topics about some of the darkest experiences in his life through music. The EP was released on October 26th, 2018 and is now available for review. Listeners can find it on Spotify. For additional information, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/spirithousesmusic.

Ireland shared "This EP is the story of the worst year of my life. Experiencing the lowest of the low and somehow making it out alive. I was in such a crucially dark place when I made this record. I was absolutely rock bottom depressed and fucked. I had to do it."

Songs like "Nightmare Every Night" and "Irish Stout" dive into the very real events of Ireland's life, detailing the end of a relationship, the realization that life sometimes doesn't work out how you imagine and realizing that your world is changing in every way. On lead single, "Death Was A Naked Sword," Ireland shares, "This song is about the total frustration of never being good enough for someone. Constantly trying to better yourself to no avail and the death of Union that's out of your control. Coldness and misery."

Two Passing Ships Track List:

1. Nightmares Every Night
2. Inn on Ursulines
3. We All Dies Alone
4. Irish Stout
5. Sweetheart, I'm Jealous
6. Death Was A Naked Sword
7. An Open Letter To My Future Love

Spirit Houses is currently on an acoustic tour with Vinnie Caruana and Brandon Reilly playing songs from the recent EP as well as covers and acoustic versions of I Am The Avalanche hits. A full list of tour dates is below.

            Upcoming Spirit Houses Tour Dates:

            November 6 - Buffalo, NY - Mohawk Place

            November 7 - Pittsburgh, PA - Smiling Moose

            November 8 - Chicago, IL - Cobra Lounge

            November 10 - West Haven, CT - The Cave

Ripping open every emotional scar while telling a very real story of self-realization, utter heartbreak and loss, Spirit Houses has delivered an honest and relatable EP for anyone that has ever experienced the loss of love. "Spirit Houses is a look into my psyche. Every song is true and every song is autobiographical. It's my only way to properly communicate my thoughts to others and myself."

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Press Photo Download Here

Cover Art Download Here

For more information, please visit:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spirithousesmusic

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For Women and Their Finances,

 A Man Is Not A Plan

 In generations past, many women thought they didn’t need a financial plan. They relied on their husbands to handle that responsibility.

But from a financial planning perspective, that was a bad idea – both then and now. As a demographic, women have always outlived men so they were destined to manage their finances at some point in their lives. This might happen when they got out of school, before they got married, after a divorce, after their spouse died, or a combination of these situations. 

“A man is not a plan,” says Kathy Longo, a financial professional and author of Flourish Financially  – Values, Transitions, and Big Conversations (www.flourishwealthmanagement.com).

“Statistics show that all women are going to have to take the reins of their finances at some point in their lives – it has never been something that they should just hand over to their husband.”

Longo says women should build their financial confidence by:
 

• Understanding spending.  All spending can be divided into two categories – critical spending and “nice-to-have” spending, Longo says. “Critical or necessary spending includes everything you need to live, not everything you want to have,” she says. “Nice-to-haves aren’t necessary for day-to-day living. Understanding the difference between these two expenses will help you budget and know which expenses to cut back on, especially if you have a financial setback.”
   
• Understanding debt. There is good debt and there is bad debt. “Good debt facilitates a goal such as a mortgage to buy a house or student loans to further one’s career,” Longo says. “Bad debt includes any debt with a high-interest rate such as credit card debt for things you don’t really need.” She says it’s important to beware of bad-debt purchases and have a plan to pay off debt as soon as possible.
   
• Building an emergency fund. You can’t control when an emergency hits, but you can control being financially prepared for emergencies, Longo says. “Ideally you should have 3 to 6 months of living expenses stored away as your emergency fund. This can be overwhelming, so start working toward saving one or two paychecks for an emergency fund and go from there.” This can help you through one of life’s inevitable surprises.

• Saving early. The earlier you begin creating and executing a savings plan, the more money you will have when you need it. “It is not just that you are building savings, but you are also getting growth on that money,” Longo says. “The sooner you can build a habit to “pay yourself first” the sooner you will see that savings balance grow which create possibilities for the future.
   
• Gain confidence around your finances. It is never too late to take control of your finances and your life regardless of your sex. “But women, in particular, need to understand that the sooner they grasp their true financial picture,” she says, “the sooner they can start managing their finances to create the future they want.” It is much better to take an active role and interest in your finances than to wait for a transition such as divorce, inheritance, or being widowed. Focusing on the goals and possibilities your investments bring may be more comfortable than thinking about the dollars and cents, and equally effective.

About Kathy Longo, CFP®, CAP®), CDFA

Kathy Longo, author of Flourish Financially  – Values, Transitions and Big Conversations, is founder and president of  Flourish Wealth Management (www.flourishwealthmanagement.com). For more than 25 years, she has served her clients with extensive knowledge and wisdom as a wealth manager, financial planner, firm manager and business owner.  Her many awards include being named one of the top 50 Women in Wealth Management by Wealth Manager Magazine. She has been a wealth manager for 25 years and has held wealth management positions at such firms as Accredited Investors, Family Financial Strategies, American Express Trust Company, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and CCP Financial Planning. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and three children.