Go Forth and See the World

    Things are starting to get back to normal, and vacation plans are beginning to ramp up in numbers again. And after this past year, it's important to remember the importance of traveling, even if it means still wearing a mask and having hand sanitizer on your person after getting the vaccine.

    I am reminded of the peripatetic Phil Cousineau that travel is a very important tool for lasting happiness and creating memories to savor over a lifetime. Phil, author of essential guides to making travel meaningful, The Art of Pilgrimage and The Book of Roads, says its important to "go out of your way," and meet people that are native to the place you're visiting. He also reminds us to give gifts, simple tokens from your homeland, and gestures of goodwill that will be returned a thousandfold.

    Over 2,000 years ago, the sage Lao Tzu remarked, "The longest journey starts with a single step." Phil says to use "the eyes of the heart" when traveling to learn something about yourself and the wide world around you. Here are some of Phil's recommended practices for making travel meaningful:

    Imagine your first memorable journey. What images rise up in your soul? They may be a childhood visit to the family gravesite, the lecture your uncle gave at a famous battlefield, or the hand-in-hand trip with your mother to a religious site. What feelings are evoked by your enshrined travel memories? Do they have any connection with your life today? Have you ever enshrined travel memories? Do they have any connection to your life today? Have you ever made a vow to go someplace that is sacred to you, your family, your group? Have you ever imagined yourself in a place that stirred your soul like the song of doves at dawn? If not you, then who? If not now, when? If not here, where? Paris? Benares? Memphis? -Uncover what you log for and discover who you are.

    If you are traveling soon, make sure you are still practicing guidelines! Mask up, sanitize your hands, and keep six feet apart.

Say My Name

     When meeting new people, make an effort to remember their name so that when you address them, it's more personal, respectful, and will make a good impression on them. Everyone is important. When you see them the next time, greet them by name. So simple, so nice.

Earth Hour Day

    Participate in Earth Hour Day today, beginning at 8:30 pm in the United States, and turn off all the lights in your home for one hour. Earth Hour (earth hour.org) unites millions of people around the world and gives them the hope that together we can make a difference. Take this hour to sit with your significant other or invite some pals over for a socially-distant and masked-up candlelit evening of togetherness. Just be. Together.

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, masked up, 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 that are more durable, hold more objects, and last much longer than those flimsy paper and non-biodegradable plastic bags. Reusable shopping bags help the environment by using less plastic and cutting down fewer trees.

Share Your Hair

    Do you have long hair, or don't mind growing it out for a good cause? Donate to Locks of Love, a group of truly contributing to the good of others. Visit their website at 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!

Make Up Your Own Holiday

    Invent a special holiday to celebrate someone you love- be it your spouse, your dog, or your closest friend. On this day, make them a special socially-distant dinner, take them to a drive-in movie, and write them a letter saying how you feel about them. You can even create a fun holiday to share with your household so everyone can participate.

Reimagine and Reuse Every Chance You Get

    In addition to recycling, you should also strive to reuse. When wrapping presents, use old maps or even newspapers- or open up a paper grocery bag, flip it over, and have your kids customize the paper with their artwork. You can also keep and reuse gift bags and tissue paper you were once given. This will save you money on buying gift-wrap while helping the environment save a few more trees.

Power Down

    Switch off lights when you leave a room, don't leave the faucet running if you're not actively using it, use energy-saving light bulbs, opt for blanket overing on the heater, and choose portable fans over air conditioning... All of these will lower your utility bulls and help preserve the planet. It just makes cents (get it?). If every household in the United Staes replaced one regular light bulb with one of those new compact fluorescent bulbs, the pollution reduction would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the road.

The Healing Power of Touch

    Be a baby cuddler. Once restrictions are lifted and hugs are okay to do again outside of your household, start looking for opportunities to do this necessary task. According to this excellent guide for volunteers at volunteer guide.org/service-projects/baby-cuddlers, "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." What could be better than helping a baby survive and thrive?

Welcome to the World!

     Assemble a baby care kit to help young mothers in need with newborns. With the pandemic and quarantines still continuing, help has never been so necessary for these amazing women and their babies. Lend a helping hand by visiting the Church World Service website for information on what to pack and where to send the shipment for its week-long quarantine at cwsglobal.org/get-involved/cws-kitds/baby-care-kits/html.

Use Your Common Cents

    Lend a helping hand. Next time, the person in front of you in line at the cash register is short a few cents, give them the amount they need.

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 advancing society, learning how to use a computer or the Internet can 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!

Treat People Well

    With the pandemic, it can be challenging to share something you worked hard on with people in your life. Like bringing homemade goodies to work. Even with social distancing and operating from our homes, for many of us, we work five days a week digitally with the same people for the same amount of hours. We need a sweet reward once restrictions are lifted, so what could be more uplifting than arriving the first day back to work to the sight and smell of baked goods or snacks? Make something that people would enjoy, such as chocolate chip cookies or banana break. The work environment will become much more warm and inviting than ever before, and making others feel good after a pandemic will be one of the truest pleasures in our lives.

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 win-ire many others to do the same. I vowed to do this 15 yeas ago while living in the Lower Haight in San Francisco. By the end of each week, I usually had a big bag to take to the HANC recycling Center. In the last couple of years, I had gotten some puzzled glances and even laughter when I am dressed up for a meeting while walking down the street and picking up garbage, empty bottles, and have-you-not. I will occasionally say, "This is my service to the earth. Recycling is my religion." And it is. I have the planet's back!

Be a Visionary

    Did you know your old specs can have a second act? Old prescription eyeglasses can be donated to a LensCrafters store. Every LensCrafters business supports OneSight, which provides glasses to millions of people around the globe. Learn more at LensCrafters.com/onesight/

The Little Things Count

    Do little things for others, like holding the door open and letting someone go before you, sharing some of your hand sanitizer, or allowing the person with only one item go ahead of you at the grocery store. I think due to our over-busyness 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, and ask yourself, how can I help someone today? In the end, you are helping yourself just as much.

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 a few copies of The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Give it a read.

Use Your Words

    I read all the time as a child, and by that I mean every minute I wasn't at school, doing chores or homework, or sleeping, I had the cover of a book open. I developed a love of language that has lasted me a lifetime. I noticed that it brings 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 and communicate better with others. If you have a smartphone, download a free word-of-the-day app instead of using a dictionary. Help feed a child by adding a definition to the Online Dictionary on definition-of.com.

Be a Good Samaritan

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

Buddy Up

     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 or go off with strangers; remember their phone number and address; and to yell "FIRE!" rather than "HELP!" if someone is trying to hurt or take them- this will gain more people's attention. Every child we save will make for a better future.

Cloth Napkins Are Nicer Anyway

     On average, America uses around six napkins each day- 2,200 a year! If every American used even less than one napkin per day, more than one billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.

Make Amends

    It's never too late to say you're sorry. Apologies to someone you wronged in the past, especially if you stopped communicating because of the issue. By admitting fault and letting them know how sorry you are to have hurt them, you are taking responsibility for your actions and proving that you care enough for them to make things right. However bad you felt over the problem, you will feel five times better after making peace.

Stop World Hunger with Ten Grains of Rice a Day

     Save a few dollars each month and donate it to a different charity. One great option for your donation is through freerice.com. For each correct answer in their online quizzes, they donate ten grains of rice to 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!

Lessen the Landfill in Your Daily Decisions

     Diaper with a conscience. By the time a child is potty trained, a parent will have changed between 5,000 and 8,000 diapers, adding up to approximately 3.5 million tons of waste in US landfills each year. Whether you use cloth or a more environmentally friendly disposable alternative, you're making a choice that has a gentler impact on the planet.

Share the Positive

    When you read an online article that you found helpful, moving, or enlightening, take a moment to leave a positive comment at the bottom of the page. Acknowledge the writer for their stye or content, or even add some additional information that you have about the topic. The writer- and other readers- may appreciate what you have to say. If it inspires you, share it, too. I started subscribing to www.dailygood.org and every morning, I come in to read some truly excellent and uplifting ideas in my inbox. I share the very best ones and have heard from Facebook friends and fellow Tweeps that they love 'em. So, as the old saying goes, accentuate the positive!

Don't Be Judgmental; Be Kind Just because You Can

    "Contagious Optimist" Colleen Georges taught me this: It's easy to judge others for their actions and take for granted those we love and meet in chance encounters. We sometimes get so caught up in our busy-ness that we forget others are busy, too. They have rough days just like us, and they benefit from our kindness just as we do theirs. Go out of your way to wave at strangers, say good morning, say thank you, give a compliment, and listen attentively to someone who needs your ear. Do it because you can, because it feels great, because it makes someone else feel good. Don't worry about a subsequent thank you; let a thank you be a beautiful perk rather than an expectation.

The Language of Kindness

    Learn a new language. Or become more fluent in your less dominant language if you are already multilingual. The more people you can communicate with, the more you'll make yourself available for work opportunities. Learning other languages will also open you up to new people and cultures. One time,  friend of mine took a volunteer vacation where he taught English to orphans and abandoned children in Liberia. He said he enjoyed every minute and wants to this every year, as he loved working with the kids. As he told me this story, his smile was at least a mile wide.

Please, Mr. Postman

     Look into a pen pal. Writing to someone in a foreign land- whether it be a soldier, a fellow student, or a long-lost relative- can really help you gain perspective and will do the same for the person you are writing to. You can even write to someone close to home instead of Zoom or text messages! Check out this website for more details on how to find a pen pal: penpalworld.com. Letter writing is more meaningful than an email or text- this beautiful old-fashioned tradition will bring lasting enjoyment to you and your pal.

Save the Rainforest

     Tropical rainforests take in vast amounts of carbon dioxide (a poisonous gas which mammals exhale) and through the process of photosynthesis, convert 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 over two percent 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. That's an area more than twice the size of Florida that goes up in smoke every year!

    According to savetherainforest.org, "If present rates of destruction continue, half our remaining rainforests will be gone by the year 2025, and by 2060 there will be no remaining rainforests remaining."

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.

National Solo Vacation Day

     With the pandemic, it can be hard to plan a vacation, even if it's by yourself. But why not plan ahead?! Pick a town, state, or country that you always wanted to go to and go there, alone! Think about it: you can make your own schedule, wake up when you want, stay out, stay in, and eat what you feel like. It can be your reward for quarantine since last year! So start planning your chance at making a memory that will last you a lifetime and add to the story of your life.