James Allen wrote: A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run
wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds
are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will
continue to produce their kind. Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and
fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong,
useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right,
useful, and pure thoughts, By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is
the master gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws of
thought, and understands with ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought forces and mind
elements operate in the shaping of his character, circumstances, and destiny.
Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through
environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be
harmoniously related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man’s circumstances at any
given time are an indication of his entire
character, but that those circumstances are so
intimately connected with some vital thought element within himself
that, for the time being, they
are indispensable to his development. 
Every man is where he is by the law of his being. The thoughts which he
has built into his
character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life
there is no element of chance,
but all is the result of a law which cannot err. This is just as true
of those who feel “out of
harmony” with their surroundings as of those who are contented with
them. 
As the progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may
learn that he may grow;
and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains
for him, it passes away and
gives place to other circumstances. Man is buffeted by circumstances so
long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions.
But when he realizes that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of
his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful
master of himself. That circumstances grow out of thought every man
knows who has for any length of time practiced self-control and
self-purification, for he will have noticed that the alteration in his
circumstances has been in exact ratio with his altered mental
condition. So true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself to
remedy the defects in his character, and makes swift and marked
progress, he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes. The
soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and
also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished
aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires - and
circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own. Every
thought seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root
there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and
bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts
bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit. (06/15/05)
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LiveScience –
Climate change could make future hurricanes stronger, but it is unknown
whether it will change the total number of storms. Kevin Trenberth from
the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) claims that warmer
oceans and increased moisture could intensify showers and thunderstorms
that fuel hurricanes. “Trends in human-influenced environmental changes
are now evident in hurricane regions,” Trenberth said. “These changes
are expected to affect hurricane intensity and rainfall, but the effect
on hurricane numbers remains unclear. The key scientific question is
how hurricanes are changing.” Sea-surface temperatures in the tropical
North Atlantic – the breeding ground for most U.S. hurricanes – have
been the warmest on record over the last decade.  Across the
globe, the amount of water vapor over the oceans has increased by about
2% since 1988. Computer models show that these climate changes will
push hurricane intensities toward extreme hurricanes, Trenberth
said.  Moreover, the added moisture in the air will produce
heavier rains and increased flooding when the hurricanes make landfall.
But the total number of big swirling storms may not change.  In
the past, when hurricane activity increased in the Atlantic, there was
a corresponding decrease in typhoon activity in the Pacific, and vice
versa.  Globally, the number has remained steady over the years.
In 2004, the extensive hurricane damage in Florida – and typhoon damage
in Japan as well – was partly due to large-scale circulation features
that drove the cyclones toward land.  The way these storm tracks
develop may have little to do with the overall climate. “There is no
sound theoretical basis for drawing any conclusions about how
anthropogenic climate change affects hurricane numbers or tracks, and
thus how many hit land,” Trenberth said. The work appears in the June
17 issue of Science. (06/16/05)
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