Aikido Essays (646 words) - Aikido, D, Aiki, Japanese Martial Arts

Aikido Aikido is a Japanese martial art currently practiced throughout the world. Behind the powerful catapulting throws and immobilizing locks and pins of Aikido lie some very simple principles: remove yourself from the direct line of your enemys attack, and through the absorption and deflection of the force of the attack, your enemy is taken out of balance and defeated by the energy of his or her own aggression. Aikido does not use strength against strength, but stresses body and mind relaxation to direct the opponents force away. Because its main purpose is not to take the offensive in injuring or harming the opponent, Aikido has often been called a nonviolent martial art. In daily practice, the student of Aikido seeks to achieve the firmness, stability, sobriety and elegance which make Aikido one of the most powerful and beautiful ways of artistic expression, while conserving its potential as one of the most devastating offers of self-defense. Aikido may be practiced by all people regardless of age, sex, religion, or previous athletic ability. Systematic Aikido practice leads to increased aerobic capacity and to overall body conditioning through both flexibility and strength training. The general philosophy of Aikido makes extensive use of the concept of Ki. The name Aikido can be translated as the way of harmony of Ki. Exactly what Ki is is a somewhat controversial issue. Aikido is one of the more spiritual martial arts and has been referred to as moving Zen. Ai- come together or to harmonize Ki- the spirit of the universe Do- the way Ki is the force behind all things. Everything in the universe has Ki. Ki is the essence of our world. It is the basis of all matter, every phenomenon, emotion, sense, direction, will, consciousness and conscience. Ki is also an energy which can be very useful in our daily lives when used properly. Ki is our life force which keeps us alive. Ki is the binding force of our mind and body. We can be very efficient if we unify our mind and body. However, it is rather difficult to maintain the oneness of mind and body throughout our daily lives without something to bind them together. As electricity keeps the computer and the robot working together, Ki keeps the mind and the body working in sync. Some believe that the physical entity Ki simply does not exist. Instead, the spirit, the intention, the bio-physico-psychological coordination through relaxation and awareness are concepts being used in the teaching. One must first learn to control oneself before attempting to harmonize and control others. Without a good balance and control of oneself, one can neither avoid an attack nor apply an effective technique on others. It is through self-control that one can learn to enjoy a harmonious way of life. In order to harmonize with the laws of nature, we must first learn to develop and maintain the right attitude of training. We must always keep the attitude of becoming one with every situation. This is an attitude of respect for all things at all times. Regardless of the situation, friend or foe, one must always be ready to harmonize. The right attitude greatly affects the efficiency of the action. It is not how strong, but rather how correct you are that counts. This concept of mind-body connection will make it possible for anyone regardless of age or sex to perform the arts efficiently. There are Four keys to body and mind unity. First, Calmly let your mind settle at an imaginary point about two inches below the navel. Second, relax your entire body to the point where you are able to maintain complete control of yourself by keeping calmness of mind and body between tenseness and limpness. Third, naturally allow the gravitational pull to settle your entire body down to where it should settle. Lastly, think positively and be ready for action with a calm and flexible mind without referring to excessive physical strength. Aikido is a positive attitude towards life. Sports and Games

Examining a Sample Workplace Scenario Essays

Examining a Sample Workplace Scenario Essays Examining a Sample Workplace Scenario Essay Examining a Sample Workplace Scenario Essay Organizational culture is regarded as an all-encompassing component of the life of an organization.   It is primarily composed of the varying worldview, attitudes, core values, principles and beliefs shared by the people constituting the organization.   Notwithstanding the cultural differences among the members, the group eventually develops a dominant culture.   Ideally, the dominant one must be able to integrate the minor cultural components.   Taken as a whole, the basic core values and attitudes define the manner the entire organization behaves.   In business settings, it ultimately defines the behavior of an employee towards each other and clients and other people outside the organization (Hill Jones, 2009).Organizational culture is mainly dictated by the prevalent values shared by all members of the group.   These are core values dearly held on to by both the managers and the employees alike.   The values help define how should a fellow employee interact with ano ther employee, a subordinate with the superiors and the organization as a whole with the stakeholders and the general public in general.   Organization culture, far wider in scope, is basically influenced by the consolidated values of the organization.Montana and Charnov (2000) went to the extent of defining organizational culture in the corporate environment.   Corporate culture, therefore, involves the totality of the values, traditions, customs and drives that contribute to the distinct character of the company.   It both defines the behavior of the policy makers and the managers, since the corporate culture is mainly shaped by the visions and stated objectives outlined by the founders and the subsequent decision makers.Varying types and components of organizational cultureMany models of organization culture were developed over time.   Essentially, those models were defined according to specific schools of thought management theorists belong to.   Most basic model defin es organization culture according to the extent of power and influence it exerts to the rest of the organization.   According to the model, subcultures may be defined as strong and weak culture.   Strong culture is the dominant composite values in an organization, where hierarchical structures, communication formats and management-employee behavior are clearly defined (McFarlin, 2002).   An organization with a strong culture seldom experiences major intra-corporate conflicts, since the goals and manner of executing them are precisely defined.   Weak culture, on the other hand, exhibit minimal alignment of the variant values and attitudes, necessitating a strong persona or leadership in the company.Hofstede (1984), in his study involving 100,000 workers employed by IBM in different parts of the world, investigated the varying aspects of culture that wields significant influence on the behavior of the entire multi-national corporation.   The study was able to identify the fi ve major components of corporate culture, namely: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, and long vs. short term orientation.   Power distance pertains to the expectations of the society on varying levels of power.   Some individuals are inherently expected to discharge greater power than those in the lower echelons of the organization.   Minimal power distance assessment score, therefore, entails that everyone in the group are perceived to have equal rights.   Uncertainty avoidance refers to the established rule defining the extent the group may accept risks and uncertainty involved.   Individualism versus collectivism means the ability of the employees to stand up either for them or for the entire organization.   This concept, however, was rebutted by some thinkers, showing that an organization high in individualism may equally value collectivism at the same time.   The latter two components define the relat ionship between members of two main sex groups and the ability of the organization to accommodate changes visvis the manner people perceived the importance of the future against the past and present.According to Johnson (1988), there are seven basic elements of organizational culture that are helpful in describing and evaluating the same.   Corporate paradigm pertains to the core values and generic mission of the company.   It includes the raison d’à ªtre of the entity and the basic goals it is intended to achieve.   Control systems refer to the identified processes and mechanisms to assess the operations of the company. Control systems are important in evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization.   Organizational structures pertain to the established communication lines, hierarchies and the manner work is executed in the workplace.   Power structures provides for the specific persons who make the decisions of varying significance.   They also explain how power is shared among those who wield it and the basis of the authority in making decisions.   Symbols literally mean the logos and designs of the company.   However, the concept has been expanded to include trivial but equally important things, such as parking spaces and washrooms.   Rituals and routines involve the habitual activities generally observed.   Stories and myths encompass information about people and events, giving one an idea on what are most valued by the people who share them.   These elements are not entirely independent of each other.   Most corporate entities display the overlapping and merging of the different elements.The Case of ABB Electromechanical MetersBurton, Obel, Hunter, Sà ¸ndergaard Dà ¸jbak (1998) conducted a study involving the ABB Electromechanical Meters.   ABBEM belongs to a larger multinational corporation, i.e. ABB.   The other division is the electronic meters.   Although both divisions basically belongs to th e same industry, the study conducted is illustrative of the sub-organization culture of the electromechanical that defines the division’s attitude and behavior towards the other division and within the mother corporation itself.Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) initially started as the Westinghouse Meter Plant, established in 1953 in Raleigh, North Carolina, US.   The plant, subject of this review, periodically churns out metering equipment.   With clearly defined goals, the plant workers had been minimally relying on outside resources, except the raw materials and components not produced by the company.   The varying sections are fully integrated into one production system.Sometime in February 1989, ABB executed a joint venture agreement with Westinghouse, resulting to the eventual acquisition of the meter operation in December of the same year.   Prior to the said acquisition, ABB management adhered to the core value emphasizing self-reliance and autonomy of its divisions.   The same philosophy was transferred to the workers of the plant upon acquisition.   The meter plant was composed of the electromechanical and electronic divisions.Before the entire meter plant was acquired, the two basic divisions had been relying substantially to one another.   Although all specific job functions were grouped into three smaller sections with their respective heads reporting to the over-all plant manager, most workers in general rely heavily to the different sub-groupings.   Electronics division, for example, normally purchased certain components from the electromechanical division because the latter has no production capacity to produce the same.   Besides, it was deemed practical and beneficial to purchase from the other division within the same production line than having the same outsourced from other companies.   In the same manner, the electromechanical division depended largely on the electronic division for the designs and assembly of certain com ponents.   This heavy dependence inherently provided the convenience of sourcing sub-component materials from within the same plant.The introduction of what the meter plant perceived as an alien philosophy from ABB contributed to significant changes in the organizational structure that potentially threatened the productivity and efficiency of the entire plant.   The component divisions had to establish and provide for their own material needs and services because of the imposition of the new paradigm in the company.Evaluation and RecommendationsAt the onset, ABB top management was desirous of increasing productivity and efficiency in the production line through greater independence and autonomy.   The top policy makers were aware of the potential adverse impacts of too much reliance among the component divisions in the company.   The managers put too much importance on the said policy on self-reliance.   Necessarily, when the meter plant was acquired from Westinghouse, the same policy was imposed on the workers and section heads who had originally valued the exact opposite.Sims (2002) believes that the currently existing organization culture may result to varying degree of dysfunction and initial adverse reaction, especially when a mother company merges with or acquires an albeit smaller company.   In the case of ABB’s acquisition of the meter plant resulted to the seemingly radical overhaul of the different elements of organizational culture discussed earlier.   Organizational and power structures were hugely altered, as the new owners will ultimately be making all major policies.   They had the authority to define how the company as a whole must be able to function to produce the desired results, including even the manner one component division interact with another within the same mother company.Definitely, the contrasting sub-cultures of the mother company and the meter plant could not remain separated.   The acquiring company has the prerogative in defining a comprehensive set of policies covering all aspects of the workplace.   Separation of cultures in the cited case would not work out, especially because the component divisions have identical and shared functions.   What could have been done was either the assimilation or integration of the two sub-organizational cultures.As explained at the beginning of the paper, fuller understanding of the varying components and elements of the entire organization culture is critical in the formulation of an effective and realistic set of company policies.   Intra-organizational conflicts may be avoided when there is a reasonable accommodation of specific values long observed by the entity being acquired by the mother company.   Disintegrated and variant sub-cultures have the potential to create a weak organizational culture.   A weak culture is one of the contributing factors of inefficiency and reduced productivity in the workplace.   A strong leadership, expressed through memoranda and issuances may augment the situation but it will take longer before the plant workers may be able to change the way they look at the things in the same workplace with new policy makers.

Globl operations mngement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Globl operations mngement - Essay Example Kim (2001) for instance talks of the issue of globalization, which makes it extremely important for companies to practice global management approach. With a global management approach, companies are at an advantage of experiencing cross-boarding learning exposure (McCarthy, 2011). This is a situation whereby the experiences tapped in one area of the companies operations that have proven to be workable and useful are transferred to other parts of the companies operations. Again, there can be cushioning in terms of financial gains whereby areas that have better financial fortunes can be used to supplement management duties in other areas of the company’s operations where financial turn-up is low. These merits have however been affected by certain advancement in operations management as exists in other countries; thereby inhibiting certain companies from accruing the entire benefits as discussed. For instance there are different economic and trade clients from one country to another. For this reason, if a centralized global management system is practiced, chances are that such management approaches would not work perfectly from country to country. Finally, in the United States, most companies have had their global management approaches being affected the rate of economic development in other countries. For this reason, even when revenues and sources of expenditure are carried over to some of these countries, the branches of the companies there still find it very difficult to align their levels of output thought the entire operations management may be

Incarnation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Incarnation - Research Paper Example Thus, in the earliest state of Christianity, the Evangelists did neither elaborate on Jesus’s words â€Å"The Father and I are one†3 nor expound on the baptizing formula â€Å"in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit†4; which, according to Dibb, indicates that they were more concerned with the message of salvation, rather than with the theological detail.5 On the other hand, identifying Jesus as Christ and linking Him to the Father (Lord), the New Testament writers not just suggested the fulfillment of Jewish expectations of the Messiah, but also His divine status – the latter being considered the central point that has made the uniqueness of Christianity6. All in all, the whole Christian tradition could be considered as â€Å"recording and interpreting various collective and individual experiences of Jesus†7; while the experiential knowledge of Jesus, in turn, became more or less the basis of ‘philosophy’ in the context of Christology89. ... This paper is focused on the central concept in Christology, namely the incarnation, which actually represents the greatest challenge faced by theologians, philosophers and apologists concerned with the Christian faith and worship. The following sections explore the concept of incarnation as viewed by representatives of different schools of thought and traditions within the Christian Church, as well as by contemporary theologians and researchers in the field. Thus, the paper traces the development of this concept over the centuries and attempts to address its acceptability nowadays. Early Christian Writers – Views of the Nature of God The relationship between the human and the divine, the finite and infinite, in the person of Jesus, appeared an issue that increasingly required further articulation. St Ignatius, who became the Bishop of Antioch in 69 AD and was sentenced to death in about 107 AD, wrote a series of Epistles to the Christians, in which Jesus Christ is depicted as â€Å"God becoming visible†, â€Å"God existing in flesh, true life in death†, representing the mind of the Father12. Ignatius had philosophically described a progression â€Å"from divinity to humanity†, where Jesus Christ is not considered a separate being but a part of the progression whereby the mind of God had become flesh, and the â€Å"doorway to the Father†13. However, according to Ignatius, the human and divine in Christ does not interfere with the unity of God14. One of the earliest Christian writers, St Irenaeus of Lyons (120 – 202 AD), who served at Lyons as a presbyter to Polycarp, wrote his magnum opus – Against Heretics – at about 180 AD15. In this work, having exposed the errors of Gnosticism, Irenaeus set forth

Soccer or Hunger Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Soccer or Hunger - Essay Example In fact, the level of attention that is paid to the sports in Europe and U.S speaks about the high levels of life the dwellers of this regions have. Thus, it is no wonder that there is little football fans in Africa - it's hard to devote all of the attention to the forthcoming football match when you don't know what your children will have for breakfast tomorrow. Soccer has become a profitable industry due to the amount of attention that is devoted to it in the developed countries. It turned out that being a soccer player is a decent occupation; at least the salaries of the soccer players in some parts of the world, are higher than those of the doctors or lawyers. The numbers found in the Soccer and World Football FAQ were that in top Euro leagues the soccer players make from $50,000 to $7,000,000-8,000,000. The statistics strokes us down by the fact that the financial state of the European soccer players is not as good as it may've seemed, as the average salary is no more than $1,500,000. The top salary in Mexico is $2,200,000, but the average one is no more than $400,000. High profile players like David Beckham earn roughly 10 million a year from their salary alone. Roy Keane (Manchester United) got paid 100,000 a week, while Ronaldinio gets paid 7.6 million per year.

Porters Five Analysis of Honda

Porters Five Analysis of Honda Porters five forces is a framework developed by Michael E. Porter that we use to analyse the industry regarding the internal and external environment, competitors, and also better understand the industry context in which the firm operates. The aim of the five forces is to modify the strategy or just some rules in the firm favour in order to stay competitive, improve the position, and realize profit. Porters five forces is a very useful tool, since it helps us to understand the current position of the firm, and take advantages from the strengths of competition and also improve the weaknesses, and avoid taking a wrong strategy to do not stack in the middle, and lose position in the market. This framework is used to identify whether a product, service, business will be profitable, and also know the suppliers; power of buyers, substitutes, new entrants and competitors that will face the firm in order to stay attractive. Now we will see each force in more detail: Rivalry: this force shows the competition between existing firms that offer the same product or service, and even have the same strategy. If there is many competitors, then you should have a little power over them by adopting a strategy that may be based on price, quality, innovation, advertisement, like differentiation, cost leadership, or the focus on a narrow segment. Threats of new entrants: new firms entering the industry will bring new competition, in order to gain the market, and decrease profitability for existing firms, above all those firms who have little protection and barriers to entry, then expecting some firms to exit the market. Threats of substitutes: the ability of customers to find other alternative ways and products with lower prices and better quality that must satisfy the same needs. There is a product for product substitute, substitute needs and also generic substitute that relates to something that people can do without. Buyers bargaining power: determines the ability of buyers to impose pressure on the firm either by switching to another company or having other substitutes, or cutting down prices. They can also affect the conditions under which all the firms operate. Suppliers bargaining power: determines the ability of suppliers to drive up prices which put pressure on firms if there is a few number of suppliers, or by the uniqueness of their products and the control they have over firms. By analysing and understanding each force, and how it affects the strategy of the firm, it provides the opportunity to identify the strengths of the firm and the ability to modify some points of the strategy to make sustainable profits, and being successful in achieving and establishing appropriate strategies. Porters five forces on Honda Motors: Rivalry: competition in the automobile industries is very high, because there are many firms in this industry which offer many choices for the customers, so each firm try to do its best to make more profit than others, and make its products the more sellable in the market. Toyota, Ford, General Motors are the main competitors of Honda, so it should keep on innovating, improving, researching, and developing to stay effective in this sector. The degree of rivalry in the automotive industry is further heightened by high fixed cost associated with manufacturing cars and trucks and the low switching cost for consumers when buying different marks and models Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/44521940/Tata Threats of substitutes: there is not a huge threat of substitute in the automobile industry that offers utility, independence and no wasting time, even if there is a large number of transportation. There are bicycles, subways, buses, trains and airplanes that could make our life easier, but that can be less convenience than automobiles. The price of fuel have a large effect on the consumers decision to buy vehicles, also the maintenance and the insurance of the car, but the automobile still has an important use in our personal and daily life. Barriers to entry: it is not easy for an entrant to enter into the automobile industry easily, because of the brand loyalty of the consumers. It is substantial for established companies to have barriers to entry to protect themselves, because some companies are entering into foreign markets by buying an existing company or either merging with it and then realising a huge profit. With local knowledge and expertise, companies have the potential to compete in the market in which they operate against the domestic firms. Honda took the risk of entering into a long and complex relationship during the 80s with a European company universally considered to be one of the least capable automobile manufacturers in the west British Leyland. Source: the case study of Honda Buyers bargaining power: consumers have many choices and brands, but the factors that affect more the consumer to buy a certain brand from another are: the appearance, quality, price, design. Consumers want always something new and nice looking with the latest technologies. The car had to be efficient, by saving fuel, protecting the environment, and running fast. Since there are lot of competitors, people have more choices to select the less costly, and better in quality, for being loyal to a certain brand, thats why Honda tries to make its cars unique. Honda has a history of delivering high quality and fuel efficient vehicles, so the consumers are seeking the best product for a good price. Honda has being a leader in producing fuel efficient and low emissions vehicles Hondas achievements on the technology front are well recognised, ranging from its cutting edge low pollution and low fuel consumption engine technologies. The CVCC engine attempts to reduce emission of the pollution and with less fuel used, while VTEC engines was fuel economy with more power Source: the case study of Honda Suppliers bargaining power: there are many suppliers in the automobile industry, and many suppliers rely on one or two automakers to buy a majority of their products. If an automaker decides to switch the supplier, it could be devastating to the previous supplier business. As a result, suppliers are extremely susceptible to the demands and requirements of the automobile manufacturer and hold very little power. Source: http://www.investopedia.com/features/industryhandbook/automobile.asp Honda relies on some main suppliers for the items and raw materials that uses in the manufacture of its products. Honda has only a handful of components makers that might be considered to belong to its suppliers family. Source: case study of Honda Porters Value Chain The value chain is a framework developed by Porter to describe the development of competitive advantage and the value of the business. It is a chain of activities for a firm operating in a specific industry. All organisations consist of activities that link together to develop the value of the business, and together these activities form the organisations value chain. Such activities may include purchasing activities, manufacturing the products, distribution and marketing of the companys products and activities. The value chain framework has been used as a powerful analysis tool for strategic planning of an organisation. Its aim is to maximise value creation while minimizing costs. Source: www.coursework4you.co.uk/essays-and-dissertations/value-chain-analysis.php Value chain represents the processes from getting raw materials and components until providing the whole product or service. In order to conduct a value chain analysis, the company is divided into primary activities and support ones. Primary activities are those related with production, and the cost of providing the product or service, while support activities are those that maintain and arise the effectiveness and efficiency of the firm to enhance the product value. Primary activities: inbound logistics, operations (production), outbound logistics, marketing and sales (demand); services (maintenance). Support activities: administrative infrastructure management, HRM, technology (RD), and procurement. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_chain Primary activities: Inbound logistics: it is related with bringing raw materials from suppliers, and handling them. Operations: it is related with the products and handling the raw material, to come up with the final means activities that transform the inputs into the output. Outbound logistics: it is related with activities of distributing the product. Marketing and sales: analyse the needs and wants of customers, creating awareness, advertisement, and sales promoting to attract people. Services activities are those that maintain and enhance the products value including customer support, repair service. Support activities: Procurement: purchasing raw materials for the companys operation at a high quality and low prices. Technology development: it is concerned with technological innovation, expertise and knowledge that lead the business to survive such as research and development. HRM: it is an important way of attaining sustainable competitive advantage by recruiting, training, motivating, and rewarding the workforce. Firm infrastructure: finance, quality management, RD. Lets now analyse Porters value chain on Honda Motors: Primary activities: Inbound logistics: Honda purchases the raw materials from a number of components and tries to gain advantages in quality and cost as much as possible. Both manual and automated assembly tasks to handle the components together to come up with the final product, and it also adopts an innovative strategy for the planning production called small batch production systems, in order to reduce costs and having a product variety. Operations: Honda has developed a small batch production system, in which same vehicles are sent down the assembly line in batches, and then workers execute the same task for each batch, then components are delivered to the assembly line in batches which exactly match the vehicle they will be fitted into. There is also the facelift that Honda applies to its cars; the components are then replaced by others more developed to come up with a new product. Honda designs models which are related to geographical dimension depend of different market segments. Outbound logistics: Marketing and sales: Honda expanded several products and models that customers could choose among them, and also it adopts a good production system that is related to its marketing and sales. Hondas strategy emphasizes the high technology build into all its products and it offers features like advanced engines as standards rather than optional extras, thus simplifying product variety within each model type, so that every customers could benefit from it whatever the model of the car. The alignment of output levels with customer demand tends to focus on sales strategy, so the production levels of particular models can be varied up or down as a function of demand. Services: Honda is aiming to improve their relational with the consumers, by being responsive to the service support throughout maintenance and repair, and adopting a high level of transparency with their customers. Support activities: Procurement: for a number of components, Honda arranges to purchase the raw materials gaining advantages in price and quality. It has also the possibility of purchasing raw materials from component makers located very long distance away to allow cheap labour sources in other regions, or purchasing them few square kilometres which is advantageous for just in time logistics. Technology development: Honda has technologically innovative products, developing new low pollution power sources for its vehicles such as CVCC and VTEC in order to have a good market positions, and also it gives to its models a cosmetic facelift every four years in order to gain competitive advantages. HRM: Honda praises the achievements of individuals, makes merit the key to promotion, and awards responsibility to younger employees across elder ones. Firm infrastructure: Honda had become well known in the business for the collective decision making process utilized by its top executives. Honda adopts too much dichotomies in their strategies management taking advantages from all. They also have a good research and development department aiming to improve the quality of the products and entering new technologies to gain sustainable advantages. The primary activities and the support ones are related to each other, one activity can affect the cost of another activity. Thus, the primary activity is related to the creation of the product by handling raw materials together and selling it, and the support activity is related to the competitive advantages that you gain from buying the components at a low cost and with a high quality and to the technology used in the product. So those linkages between the two activities added value to the firm, and can be a source for a sustainable competitive advantages. Reconciling dichotomies: This approach of reconciling dichotomies is used in a wide range of activities of Honda, and it represents the innovation strategy that seeks to adopt different ways and opposite polarities. Dichotomy means two contradictory polarities that do not fit together, and reconciling in this context, refers to an approach in which those two poles are somehow made compatible with each other. Hondas strategic thinking rejects the trade off, or to choose one strategy, however, Honda has mixed too many dichotomies to incorporate the best of both worlds, and this contributes to the success of its strategy. After Honda had selected its market and customers segments, it is time to decide how it wants to position itself within this segment.

Helping the Little Children Essay -- Personal Narrative Essays

Helping the Little Children    I feel the pounding footsteps under my feet and the intense air rush past me as I run, squirming to keep my posture. I struggle to stay glued to the beast's side. If I miss one crucial step, it may mean tragedy for this innocent little disabled boy. I stay close to Dakota's ribs as we move into the turn. Relieved, I gasp for the warm mountain air as we slow to a walk. With my arms still extended above my head, I smile at the partially toothless grin.    As I drive my topless jeep, rounding bend after bend, I find myself staring at the lightly snow-capped mountains in the distance. I run my hands through my windblown hair and notice nature's brilliant autumn colored aspen patterns whiz past me.    Just over the ridge, I casually pull into Chris Turpin's leaf covered driveway. To my left, stands a squatty farm house that has dirty tan siding with dark brown trim, topped with a new forest green metal roof. The few windows the house displays are abnormally small and are always dark. The simple wood siding, though patched with dust and cob webs, has a neat, serene air to it. A branch-covered lawn, which looks as though it has not been mowed in weeks, makes a narrow ring around the house. To my right, stands a pole barn with no solid sides, rising far above the many tarnished orange corrals surrounding it. The barn is just old enough to have collected a nice assortment of ragged bird nests in its rafters, but the wood is not yet discolored. The barn encloses a small rectangular arena, which has one corner rounded off by an old log. In the spare corner is an ancient water faucet and invincible weeds. Extending from the east side of the barn are large corrals... ...e highest mountain when he grows up. Even though he hurts whenever he moves now, he has such an incredible desire to reach this goal and make his dreams come true. I believe he will someday fulfill his dream, and it will be a result of the magic that happens at this very place. It is just a quaint farm house with a rickety barn and a handful of hospitable souls all put together to create something incredible.    However, this place is not just a place for disabled children's dreams to come true, it is a place for my dreams to come true as well. This is a place I feel I am needed and truly inspired to reach my highest goals. It was here I discovered my gift of helping disabled children, and it was here that I learned to slow down for the turns in my life and enjoy the ride. Someday I will create my own TER Program; that is my dream.