Thursday, March 29, 2018

Less Plastic, More Trees, Please!


I Love Big Bags and I Cannot Lie

Bring reusable shopping bags when heading to the store. Whether you are grocery shopping or heading out with friends to splurge on clothes, take your own bags with you. Many stores have totes and reusable bags for a few dollars by the checkout lines and these are more durable, hold more objects, and last much longer than the flimsy plastic and paper bags we get from supermarkets, which are not biodegradable. Additionally, reusable shopping bags are a great way to “go green” and help the environment by using less plastic and cutting down less trees.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Grow Long Hair for a Good Cause: Locks of Love


Share Your Hair

Do you Have long hair or don’t mind growing it out for a good cause? Donate to Locks of Love, truly a group contributing to the good of others. 

Visit their website (http://www.locksoflove.org/) for more information. I recently read of a five year old girl who gave her hair to a fellow kindergartner going through chemo. With kids like her in the world, our future is bright!


Monday, March 26, 2018

How You Can Help Our Most Vulnerable


Welcome to the World!

Assemble a baby care kit to help young mothers care for their newborn babies. Visit the Church World Service website for information on what to pack and where to send the shipment: http://www.cwsglobal.org/get-involved/kits/baby-care-kits.html

The Healing Power of Touch

Be a baby cuddler! “Baby cuddlers are needed in orphanages, neonatal hospital units, group homes, nurseries, and wherever else there are babies and young children who may not have adequate human contact early in life to begin developing social interaction skills.” http://www.volunteerguide.org/hours/service-projects/baby-cuddlers

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Could You Be Kinder? I know I Can


Use Your Common Cents

Lend a helping hand. Next time the person in front of you at the cash register is short a few cents, give them the amount they need. I actually don’t have that many regrets in my life but last year, I was going to a solstice party in Hunters Point district down the street from the San Francisco Giants stadium and I forgot to bring the sparkling lemonade I promised the hostess.  I did not know the neighborhood and could only find a strange new kind (to me) Walgreens that also had groceries and even produce. There was only one cash register and a long line and there I was, “Miss Random Acts of Kindness,” and I was tapping my foot and feeling very impatient. Right that moment,  I knew I was a teachable moment and I will be mindful of not making that mistake again. I can be kinder, starting today.

Saturday, March 24, 2018

The Best Kind of Social Networking


Help the elderly with their devices. Many senior citizens aren’t tech-savvy but given that we live in a technologically advanced society, learning how to use a computer or the Internet can prove to be very helpful. Volunteer your assistance to a senior who has a cell phone or computer and needs help using it.  Be email buddies with your new friends, too!

Friday, March 23, 2018

A Book Can Change Your Life


Give someone a copy of a book that has helped or influenced you; it may have a similar effect on them. I actually keep a stock of books that I love on hand to do just that and have recently gifted quite a few copies of “The Power Of Habit.”  Give it a read!


Thursday, March 22, 2018

Buddy Up; Keeping Our Kids Safe


Teach your children, or the children in your family, about the buddy system. According to the Amber Alert website, a child goes missing every 40 seconds in the United States and more than 700,000 children go missing annually. In order to ensure the safety of your children, teach them to hold your hand when out in public, not to talk to or go with strangers, their phone number and address, and to yell “FIRE!” rather than “HELP!” if some one is trying to hurt or take them—this will gain more people’s attention.

Every child we keep safe save will make for a better future. 


Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Spring Clean Your Neighborhood


Be A Good In Your Hood

Pick up and recycle or compost loose garbage as you walk. Sidewalks are meant for safe walking, not weaving through someone else’s abandoned bottles and crumpled up take-out bags. Take pride in the area you live and help contribute to keeping it clean and safe. One person helping can inspire many others to do the same. I vowed to do this fifteen years ago when living in the Lower Haight in San Francisco and I usually had a big big bag at the end of each week to take to the HANC Recycling Center.  It have gotten some puzzled glances and even laughter in the last couple of year when I am dressed up for a meeting walking down the street and then pick up garbage, empty bottles and what-have-you. I will occasionally say hi and simply say, “This is my service to the earth; recycling is my religion. ”

And it is. I have the planet’s back!

Monday, March 19, 2018

Be a Visionary!


Did you know your old specs can have a second acts? Old prescription eyeglasses can be donated to a Lens Crafters store. Every Lens Crafters business supports OneSight, which provides glasses to millions of people around the globe:

Saturday, March 17, 2018

Small Kindnesses Can Be a Big Deal


Do little things for others: holding the door open and letting them go before you or allowing the person with only one item go ahead of you at the grocery store. I think this is due to our over busyness but nowadays; so many people rush through life and don’t consider the feelings of others. A simple gesture can be a good reminder for us all, myself included. Take your time, look around you, how can you help someone today? In the end, you are also helping yourself just as much.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Be a Good Samaritan


Did you know this is National Samaritan Involvement Week? Now you do and I have no doubt you can immediately be helpful to someone, somewhere. Doing a favor for someone without expecting something in return is the epitome of kindness and will earn you some karma points down the line (though don’t expect any!) Sometimes helping others is the best way to help yourself and anytime one of my friends is singing the blues, I will say, “Let’s go server some beans down at Glide Memorial! You still stop feeling sorry for yourself in the first 60 seconds.”


Wednesday, March 14, 2018

National Dictionary Day (and Happy Pi Day, too)


I read all the time as a child.

I mean every minute not at school, doing chores, homework, or sleeping. I developed a love of language that has lasted me a lifetime. I notice that it bring joy to others when they hear an interesting or pretty word.  So, try Flipping through a dictionary every day and pick a word. Use this word at least once in the same day. This will help expand your vocabulary to better communicate with others. If you have a smart phone, download a free word-of-the-day application instead of using a dictionary.  Help feed a child by adding a definition to the Community Dictionary on http://definition-of.com/

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Stopping World Hunger, 10 Grains of Rice A Day


Save a few dollars each month and donate it to a different charity. The website http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1504 quizzes you online and for each answer you get correct, they donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Program to help end world hunger. Think about how much rice will be donated if even half of the population did this!

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Throw the good kind of shade; plant a tree!

Trees Are Good for Us and Essential for Good Air and a Healthy Planet

Encourage community management of forests. If there are common property lands nearby that are degraded, work with local communities and environment NGOs to establish sustainable community forestry that benefits everyone.  Get involved at www.treesforthefuture.org and meet your fellow tree huggers

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Go Plastic Free


Let’s Not Contribute to the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”

I don’t know about you but photos of the big patch of plastic and garbage floating in the ocean scares me more than almost anything else. Nearly 90% of plastic bottles are not recycled, instead taking thousands of years to decompose. If you are used to toting around your green tea, juice or iced coffee in plastic, get a cool-looking thermos instead. This is a great choice for the environment, your wallet, and possibly your health. You can guzzle as much as you want and still be “green.”

Global warming isn’t the only environmental nightmare that scientists are struggling to solve.
Millions of tons of plastic waste litter the world’s oceans, converging together in rotating currents called gyres and blanketing the water’s surface. On average, these gyres now hold six times more plastic than plankton by dry weight.
Fortunately, 19-year-old Boyan Slat, founder and president of The Ocean Cleanup, claims to “have invented a method to clean up almost half of the great Pacific’s garbage patch in just 10 years, using currents to [his] advantage.”
The self-described environmentalist and entrepreneur first presented his revolutionary ideas at a TEDx Talk in the Netherlands and was recently named one of Intel’s 20 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs Worldwide (Intel EYE50).
Slat first became aware of the problem while diving in Greece, frustrated that he was “coming across more plastic bags than fish.”
He asked himself, “Why can’t we clean this up?”
At least one million birds and another 100,000 marine mammals die each year from the plastic, and a number of species risk extinction due to the massive amounts of plastic circulating the oceans.
Economically, marine debris costs an estimated $1.27 billion annually in fishing and vessel damage on America’s Pacific coastal waters.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Learn the Language of Kindness


Learn a new language. Or become more fluent in your less dominant language if you are already bilingual. The more people you can communicate with, the more valuable you are to working opportunities as well as opening yourself up to new people and cultures.  A friend of mine recently took a volunteer vacation where he taught English to orphans and abandoned children in Liberia. He said he enjoyed every minute and wants to do this every year, as he loved working with the kids. As he told me this story, his smile was at least a mile wide!


Tuesday, March 6, 2018

We All Can Use a Good Pen Pal: Relearn the Importance of Writing Letters


Please Postman:

Look into a pen pal! Talking to someone in a foreign land—whether it be a soldier, fellow student, or long-lost relative—can really help you gain perspective and will provide support to the person you are writing to. Check out this website for more details on how to find a pen pal http://www.penpalworld.com Letter writing is more meaningful than an email or text so this beautifully old-fashioned tradition will bring lasting enjoyment to you and your pal.

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Rainforests are the single largest source of the air we breathe


Save the Rainforest!

Tropical rainforests take in vast quantities of carbon dioxide (a poisonous gas which mammals exhale) and through the process of photosynthesis, converts it into clean, breathable air. In fact, the tropical rainforests are the single greatest terrestrial source of air that we breathe.

What’s truly amazing, however, is that while the tropical rainforests cover just 2% of the Earth's land surface, they are home to two-thirds of all the living species on the planet. Additionally, nearly half the medicinal compounds we use every day come from plants endemic to the tropical rainforest. If a cure for cancer or the common cold is to be found, it’ll almost certainly come from the tropical rainforests.

Tragically, the tropical rainforests are being destroyed at an alarming rate. According to Rainforest Action Network, more than an acre-and-a-half is lost every second of every day (refer to the entries below to see, quantitatively, what that translates into). That’s an area more than twice the size of Florida that goes up in smoke every year!

“If present rates of destruction continue, half our remaining rainforests will be gone by the year 2025, and by 2060 there will be no rainforests remaining.” http://www.savetherainforest.org

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Help Somebody Halfway Across the World


Help Those Who Help Themselves

Empower an entrepreneur with a loan through Kiva. You can give as little at $25 dollars to entrepreneurs in developing countries to help eliminate poverty. Throughout the life of the loan, you will receive updates on the progress of the project and will be repaid by the borrower with Kiva Credit—which you can use to fund another project or withdraw. http://www.kiva.org/ I have bought some really lovely pillows baskets and bangle bracelets made in India by women whose creativity was sent soaring by Kiva!