Done to the Mercy Corp and Help the Texas Flood Victims

Donate a gift through Mercy Corps. It’s as simple as this: choose a gift on the website for someone you know needs it or choose to whom you wish. The recipient gets a card that explains the gift and donation made in their name, and your gift helps families in need. Visit http://gifts.mercycorps.org/ to view the gift selection, ranging from clean water to giving a goat to a family. You can choose to remain anonymous or you can personalize with a friendly note to the family in another part of the globe. People have developed nice long-distance friendships through the kindly organization and are really nice to see how your gift is of benefit. Often, the daily headlines are reflected in the regions in need and currently families affected by Hurricane Harvey and the flood in Texas need all the help we can give them. 

The Universe Has Your Back

I (re) learned this truly vital lesson from Imperfect Spirituality blogger and author Polly Campbell: Once today say “yes” to something unexpected that comes into your life.

Know that you are enough to handle whatever emerges from the yes. Know that you have the whole Universe supporting you. Believe that you will have a good time and learn something that you need to know. Exercise your faith by taking the Universe up on the good things that come your way and practice your optimism by believing that there is more to come. 

Just. Say. Yes.

Power Your Life With the Positive

When life gets you down, remember to look on the bright side (and there is always a bright side). Be strong not just for yourself but for those around you as well. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “It is better to light a single candle than it is to curse the darkness.” Look into the meaning of this quote: focus on the light in your life—and if there is none, try to be that light.

 “Attitudes are contagious. Make yours worth catching.” –David Mezzapelle

Turn Off Your TV and Turn Your Brain Back On

Nowadays children have computers and chat rooms, mobile phones, and a TV in their room with a hundred channels in glorious color, stereo, and DVD. Children are techno-wizards. TV is a time filler, and time killer. It brainwashes. It both encourages and plays down violence, in both behavior and attitude. Every ten minutes is a fast food ad, and ads for wanna have, gotta have. TV makes children lazy, sluggish in thought and action.

• If you feel your children are watching too much television and it’s having a negative impact:
• Have all cable disconnected.
• Remove all TVs except one from the house.
• Limit TV viewing to set hours, such as only after homework is finished, no TV during meals, no morning TV.
• Limit channels watched.
• Have family evenings that are fun. Encourage new hobbies.
• Don’t rely on the TV for entertainment; make your own. Talk to your family, and have them talk to you.

Sharing Our Strength

When I worked on the Random Acts of Kindness project, we looked around for places to donate profits from the books and SHARE OUR STRENGTH came highly recommended. It remains an organization I deem as a real good in the world. Did you know one in children in America deal with hunger on a daily basis? Join SOS’s campaign www.nokidhungy.org so we can take care of those who need it most.

Compassionate Crafts

Some of my friends love to knit and crochet. Everyone I know already has a colorful throw given to them. So now what to do with the products of all that handwork? Look no further!

www.woolworks.irg has a section on knitting and crocheting for charity listed by state, with links for organizations that make donations to U.S. troops; to centers for battered women and children; to Native Americans Reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah; and to the homeless in cities all over the U.S.

www.newbornsinneed.org would love clothing and bedding items for newborn, sick, needy, and premature babies. You can donate blankets, hats, booties, and afghans. All they ask is that you use the softest yarn possible.

www.warmingfamiles.org is a 100% volunteer project that delivers donated blankets and other warm items to the homeless and displaced while strengthening families with their charity work. They supply to local shelters and nursing homes.

What Would Martin Luther King Do?

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ ”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dig this!

There is plenty of free stuff to be found in every community Urban foraging, or dumpster diving, has become very popular in the last few decades. Well-known proponents of the movement like the nonprofit organization Food Not Bombs began feeding the hungry with salvaged food 30 years ago. I first learned about The Diggers when I was interviewing the great poets Diane di Prima and Janine Pommy Vega for Women of the Beat Generation.

The Diggers, who came together in the 1960s in San Francisco, regularly fed around 200 people a day on donated and foraged food. They also ran free shops, threw free parties, and started a free medical clinic.

Some contemporary urban foragers call themselves Freegans (a composite of “free” and “vegan”) and pride themselves on their recycling prowess. The Freegans’ mission is to live with minimal consumption of resources and limited involvement in the mechanisms of the conventional economy. If you fancy learning the skills necessary for successful dumpster diving, Freegans (www.freegans.info) are the people to contact. Active groups are listed, and some organize trash tours where they instruct newcomers on how to scavenge safely. The basic rules are commonsense: forage with at least one other person, always thoroughly check food when you get home and wash as needed before eating anything, and don’t leave a big mess at the scene of the foraging—the

rodents will love you, but storeowners won’t!

Talk Less, Listen More

 Listening is one of the greatest gifts you can give anyone. As humans we all want to be heard. So, start by listening a little more each day. Listen to your children, your spouse, your friends, even the Chatty Cathy in the office. You, in turn, will be repaid by being listened to with far more attention and care.