Planting Trees is Good for All

In 1872, J. Sterling Morton founded Arbor Day, and that year over a million trees were planted in Nebraska. It’s usually celebrated on the last Friday in April (some states choose different dates depending on their weather for best tree planting times). Probably now, more than ever, we need to honor Morton’s big idea-trees hugely improve the quality of our lives. They provide shelter and food for our wildlife, clean the air, absorb carbon dioxide, and release oxygen. They mask noise, prevent soil erosion, and provide wood for fuel and buildings:all this plus the joy and wonder of such a majestic and wonderful plant.

Celebrate Arbor Day by logging onto arborday.org and finding out what you can do in your area. Save a tree by recycling paper. Plant a suitable tree in your garden or neighborhood and dedicate it to someone special.

Making the Most of a Rainy Day

Get a rain barrel:

    *Install the rain barrel at least six feet from your house. Locating it near an area you’ll be watering the        most makes for convenient use later

    *Ensure that your rain barrel has an overflow at least as large as your inflow-for example, if you have         rigged it so that water is collected directly from your eaves’ trough downspout, your overflow valve         should be as large as your downspout as well. This will allow your rain barrel to get rid of excess water      as fast as it collects it, which might be necessary if you live in a city with crazy, unpredictable weather        like my brother does.

    *If you are using the rain barrel to water your garden, consider using a soaker hose. You can attach the         hose to the rain barrel and then run it through your garden so that it covers the area you’d like. Now,         every time you see a rain cloud, you’ll get really excited!

Be a Pre-cycler

Try to recycle all the product packaging that an item comes in, from the cardboard box to the plastic sleeve. Buy fewer, but better-quality, products to ensure you won’t end up with a makeup drawer filled with stuff that doesn't live up to its promises. And finally, check out companies like TerraCycle (terracycle.com) that offer recycling programs for things like mascara tubes and lotion bottles. I am very proud that on my business card, alongside my title of “Publisher,” it also says “Office Composter” because I set up a full-scale recycling and zero waste program. Visitors dig it!

Breathe Easier

Having plants around is great for where you live and where you work. Not only are they lovely to look at, they improve the air you breathe! The following air-purifying plants look great, produce oxygen, and can even absorb contaminants like formaldehyde and benzene (commonly off- gassed from furniture and mattresses). The best part? Nary an electrical cord, nor a battery in sight. Ahhhh.

    *Spider plant

    *Peace lily

    *Snake plant

    *Elephant ear

    *Weeping fig

    *Rubber plant

    *Bamboo palm

Celebrate Earth Day Every Day!

This is the day to acknowledge your connection to your home planet and all the nurturing nature, bounty, and beauty you receive from this big blue dot. April 22 is Earth Day, celebrated annually in over 184 countries to promote a healthy environment and peaceful planet. Earth Day highlights our connection with nature, bringing awareness that each one of us is responsible for the destruction or abundance of our natural world...the only one we have. Earth Day makes us realize that each of us has a voice and every one of our actions matters; collectively great things happen.

Celebrate Earth Day by joining an organized group and help clear beaches and parks of cans, paper, plastic, bottles, and trash. Go with your family and friends, or go out alone. Look around your neighborhood to see what needs to be done. Petition your local government for more trees, cleaner waterways, and an end to industrial pollution. Use earth-friendly chemicals. Recycle paper and cans, and compost green matter.

Log onto earthday.org or check your local press to find out what is happening in your area, how to organize your own event, or what commitment you could make in your own small way to help save our Earth...and then make every day Earth Day.

Be of Good cheer

Open the doors for everyone-young, old, everyone in between- simply because it is a very, very, very nice thing to do.

Roll Out the Welcome Wagon

Greet your new neighbors with a homemade housewarming gift. You’ll make a new connection and help them feel more at home. Good neighbors can last a lifetime and bring a real sense of community on a daily basis.

Extend an Invitation to Life’s Rich Banquet

If you see a uniformed soldier or veteran in a restaurant, arrange to pay for their meal. Anonymously is perfect unless you want to thank them personally and “enlist” a new friend into your life!

Support Farm-to-School Projects

By teaching kids exactly where their food comes from, they will grow up to make informed grocery choices and strengthen their local economies. Start a farm-to-school project in your school district; all the know how is at farmtoschool.org

Eat for the Environment

Cutting back on meat consumption is good for the environment, your health, and your wallet. Producing one pound of beef puts as much carbon dioxide into the environment as driving a typical car 70 miles! Read “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” the 2006 UN paper about the effects of the meat industry on the environment and human populations, at fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e00.HTM

Be a Freecycler

For me, the coolest of the online free resource sites is Freecycle (freecycle.org). The Freecycle Network initiation started in Tucson in 2003, when Deron Beal sent out the first email to 30 or so friends and local nonprofits letting them know about the items he had to give away. Freecycle now has 4,738 groups worldwide and an amazing 6,690,000 members. Just think about how many wonderful free treasures have changed hands and the sheer tonnage saved from landfill. Bravo, Mr Beal!

Freecycle’s mission is to save good stuff from the landfill, promote environmental sustainability, and imbue life with the spirit of generosity, creating stronger local communities in the process.

The steps to join a Freecycle group are straightforward. If there isn’t a group in your area yet, you can start one. Once you have joined your local group, you can begin to post messages for what you want and what you have to offer. Freecycle is administered by volunteers and has the advantage of not needing a physical location-Freecycle’s easy-to-use listing website makes it nearly effortless to use. Some posts are for significant items such as computers, bicycles, televisions, stereos, and even cars. Offering your surplus and finding what you need for free are both gratifying experiences, and ultimately, they alleviate a lot of stress on our precious planet.

Go Solar

Solar ovens are inexpensive and easy to use, and you’ll cook for free every time you use one. Since it doesn’t require electricity, fossil fuels, or propane, a solar oven is perfect for your emergency supply kit. They also pasteurize water for drinking. Check out solarovens.org to see the great work this nonprofit is doing with solar ovens in developing countries. Go solar and really worship the sun.

Calling All Cat Cuddlers

Yes, there is such a thing as ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Day. Consider rescuing an animal from a shelter, and if you can’t do that, volunteer at your local animal shelter as a dog walker, cat cuddler, or whatever else they need. Most of my friends who adopt a pet are at least 200% happier thanks to their new family member. 

Participate in the Gift Economy

Free markets are one of the ways that people have figured out how to cooperate when finances are uncertain. It is one of my absolute favorite examples of a gift economy, where people come together with items to give away or share. The Really Really Free Market (reallyreallyfree.org) is a great prototype. No money exchanges hands. Participants simply bring their offerings and display them communally.

People also bring their expertise and talents to share: lawyers, musicians, jugglers, gardeners, ecologists, hairdressers, tarot readers, and cookie bakers are all there enjoying this unique marketplace. It provides as much diversity as the market economy, and for free!

The Really Really Free Market website lists 34 regular free markets happening in states across the US and another ten or so worldwide in places like Pertgh, Australia. Your city could be next.

And don’t Forget the Senseless Acts of Beauty!

Ann Herbert, the poet artist who inspired Random Acts of Kindness, also implored us to add prettiness to the world. There are so many ways to do this: plant flowers, pick up trash, or paint a lovely mural for the entire neighborhood’s pleasure.

What beauty can you bring to the world?

Be a Fixer-Upper (Plus Weeding is Good Therapy)

Assist seniors near you with tasks like raking, shoveling, or doing minor home repairs through Volunteers of America’s Safety of Seniors Handyman Program (voa.org). I pull my 98- year-old neighbor’s weeds and it is a good exercise for me, it benefits the neighborhood, and she appreciates the weekly attention she and her yard enjoy!

Have a Mission and Live By It

Tucker Hiatt, one of the Bay Area’s most beloved teachers, has been running Wonderfest- a nonprofit science education program-with his own and donated funds since 1997 (Wonderfest.org). The mission is based on the insight, inspired by Voltaire, that “societies will continue to make mistakes as long as long as they continue to misunderstand how the world works. When people comprehend nature and each other, through science, they make smarter decisions about virtually everything: personal and social relationships (psychology), our environment (biology and chemistry), and technology (physics).” Wonderfest promotes the scientific outlook so that mistakes-even atrocities-are gradually relegated to history. Since retiring from teaching, Tucker has devoted himself full time to bringing science to the public in non-school settings. Whenever I’m at an event with him I meet former students of his who have become physicists, engineers, professors-and still talk about how influential he was to them. Now his mission is to expose those of us who didn’t get to have him as a teacher (my words, not his!) to that same sense of inspiration.

  Some cool things Tucker and his organization have accomplished:

*Wonderfest has presented hundreds of free (or nearly free) science events for the general public-young and old.

*Wonderfest ran a high school team science competition that gave students $70,000 in prizes and scholarships.

*Wonderfest has rewarded local, public-spirited scientists with $45,000 with it’s Sagan Prize

Make Beautiful Music

If you’re a musician living in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Nashville, or Miami, you can volunteer through the nonprofit Musicians on Call (musiciansoncall.org) to deliver live, in-room performances to patients undergoing treatment or unable to leave their beds. Add a dose of joy to a healthcare facility by bringing the healing power of music to people who need it.

No Strings Attached

Write down the things that someone has given you, no strings attached, for which you are grateful. It can be an old sofa, some sound advice, or a lift to the airport. Now list ten things that you would like to give someone yourself, and see how many of those things you can cross off in a week.

Examples:

*Drive a friend to the airport

*Carry groceries for an elder to their car

*Babysit for a relative

*Buy a friend a cup of coffee

*Volunteer at a soup kitchen

No Foolin’

I don’t know the history of April Fool’s Day trickster antics but they always make me cringe. I suggest a “reverse prank” instead, where you do something really nice.  Heard through the Random Acts of Kindness network about a good deeder buying lottery tickets, adding a sweet little note, and placing them onto a car door where they could not be missed. Can you imagine if you were the recipient of this delightful act and won the big Scratch Off for a cool million or so?

Have fun and bring some joy into this early spring day. It may be April Fool’s Day but don’t fool yourself! Today is about laughter rather than pulling pranks on others. Tell your coworkers a joke you enjoy; find a way to make someone who looks unhappy put a smile on their face.

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.

I Love Big Bags and In 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 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 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 dinner, take them out, and write them a letter saying how you feel about them. You can even create a fun holiday to share with your family 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.

Welcome to the World!

Assemble a baby care kit to help young mothers in need with newborns. Visit the Church World Service website for information on what to pack and where to send the shipment at  cwsglobal.org/get-involved/cws-kits/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

Bring homemade goodies to work. For many of us, we work five days a week with the same people in the same office for the same amount of hours. What could be more uplifting than  arriving at work to the sight and smell of baked goods or snacks? Make something that most people would enjoy, such as chocolate chip cookies or banana bread. The work environment will become much more warm and inviting, and making others feel good is one of the true pleasures in life.

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 15 years 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 have 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 what-have-you. I will occasionally say, “This is my service to the earth. Recycling is my religion.” And it is. I have the planet’s back!

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

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 style 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 lifehack.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 Judgemental; 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 or 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 smile 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; lety 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. 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!

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. 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 beautifully 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.

Love Notes

Leave encouraging, inspiring, or funny notes or quotes in a library book or other random places (without littering of defiling public property). A simple note stapled to a bulletin board, taped to a column, or written in chalk on the sidewalk may influence in wonderful ways-you’ll be like a secret agent who brings happiness to others. This website has fun examples that might give you some ideas: artofgettingstarted.com

Live Your Values

When we are on track, living close to the things we deem important-the things we value-we feel happier. This isn’t flash happiness, it isn’t the kind that lasts for a few minutes when we get a new toy, or enjoy a concert. This is the kind that lingers in the background of our lives. The kind that even in moments of sadness or frustration, never completely disappears, because if we are living a values based-life we are also living with meaning and purpose.

-Polly Campbell

Give Life

Donate blood. One donation can hjelp up to four people. If that’s not inspiring enough, every three seconds, someone needs a blood transfusion due to various injuries, illness, or conditions. Donating is completely free and completely safe at bloodcenters.org. Go to the American Red Cross website (redcrossblood.org/make-donation) to find a location near you. And did you know you get cookies and juice after your donation?

Help Those Who Help Themselves

Empower an entrepreneur with a loan through Kiva. You can give as little as $25 to small business owners 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 paid by the borrower with Kiva Credit-which you can use to fund another project. Through Kiva.org, I have bought some really lovely pillows, baskets, and bangle bracelets made in India by creative, hard-working women.

Mindfulness at Mealtime

Eat like a Beatle! Sir Paul McCartney and many other celebrities support Meat Free Mondays. Check it out at meatlessmonday.com. The Belgian city of Ghent has instituted a Meat Free Thursday. Choose a day of the week to eat vegetarian or vegan and try to stick to this one-day diet each week. This global movement is saving water and preventing deforestation, not to mention its enormous health benefits!

Fur-Free and Fabulous

Don’t buy fur, ivory, or other products derived from endangered animals. By purchasing these things, you are personally contributing to the extinction of an entire species without realizing it. And we know you don’t want to do that. Fake fur is lots more fun. If you want to know specifics about poaching or endangered species, go to worldwildlifefund.org.

Be Ripsniptious!

Author Art Plotnik helped revive this word in his book Better Than Great: A Plenitudinous Compendium of Wallopingly Fresh Superlatives. Simply put, “ripsniptious” (rip-snip-shuss) can be used to express something or someone that is wonderful and highly spirited. Today, you will be ripsniptious and notice all of the other ripsniptious things around you. Let this be your word of the day and let it embody you-and introduce others to ripsniptious of the word ripsniptious! It’s fun to say, isn’t it? It’s even better to be it. It is also a wonderful compliment and I think you are pretty darn ripsniptious for reading this book!

Power for the Planet

Turn off your computer at night instead of leaving it on or in sleep mode, since this wastes energy. By doing so, you can save an average of 40 watt-hours per day, which adds up to four cents a day, or $14 per year (50waystohelp.com). In addition, the life of your computer will also be extended, as the amount of available time for virus contamination will be greatly reduced. This act of conservation is a great idea you should share with your office-mates.