Be a Fixer-Upper

Did you know 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 good exercise for me, beautifies the neighborhood and she appreciates the weekly attention she and her yard enjoy!

Did you know today is Earth Hour Day?

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

Optimism trumps pessimism every time

This is your life, only you can truly control your choices, and choosing happiness is the best way to achieve being a good to yourself as well as the world. Here are some suggestions for how you can ensure simple joy in your life:

·  Be the best you can be by your own standards

·  Surround yourself with people who inspire you and make you feel good

·  Focus on what you have, not what you lack

·  Optimism trumps pessimism every time!

·  Smile often and genuinely

·  Be honest, to yourself and to others

·  Help others

·  Embrace your past, live in the present, and look forward for what is yet to come

Think With Your Heart

Shortly after retirement, this very thoughtful Seattleite, Leon Delong, wanted to utilize his new spare time and decided to do something meaningful. When he heard that city office towers were routinely throwing away half-used rolls of “tp,” he started gathering them and delivering them to a local food bank, where they were given to the homeless and those in financial need. Over the last 15 years, the 76-year old gave the poor over ONE million rolls of toilet paper. “I’m amazed how much this mattered to people,” Delong said. “To me it was just a nice thing to do. Now, it’s my claim to fame.” 

What is YOUR claim to fame?

Listening as an act of love

We don’t always have to donate time and energy to other parts of the world. Sometimes help is needed much close to home. Is a parent, sibling, spouse, or friend having a difficult time? Let them experience that loving feeling and help lift their spirits. Invite them to coffee or to dinner, surprise them with a simple gift, and take them somewhere they like. Lean forward and listen closely. Just listen.

Bake it forward:

If you love to cook and love to help people, this might be the option for you; teaching cooking classes and offering your services as a free guide to getting the healthiest groceries at the best prices via Cooking matters, a division of Share Our Strength. What I love about this is that it is personal and oh-so practical. www.CookingMatters.org pairs you up with your local group and you can bake up a lot of love while showing others how to do the same. 

A proud publishing moment for Viva Editions:

Kaufman Shares his Inspiring Story of Triumph Over Alcoholism and Trauma

Award-winning literary star Alan Kaufman celebrates the release of "Drunken Angel" in paperback with special appearances.

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Drunken Angel by Alan Kaufman

"[An] addictive memoir of self-destruction, recuperation and a literary coming-of-age."

—Kirkus Reviews

(PRWEB) April 03, 2013

Son of a French Holocaust survivor, Kaufman drank to fill the huge hole in his heart, wrecking himself and everyone in his path. His memoir Drunken Angel recounts with raw power and naked candor his descent into the hell of alcoholism while struggling to cope with his traumatic past. Alan Kaufman will share his story at the Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto on April 15th (see below for details). For those who cannot attend this special event in person, Kaufman will also be sharing his message on April 6 on KGO AM 810, from 8:05-8:30pm.

Alan Kaufman Bay Area Events:
April 15 7:30pm In Conversation at the Albert L Schultz Jewish Community Center, Palo Alto
April 11 7:30pm Books Inc., Opera Plaza, San Francisco
April 17 5:30-7:30pm "Spring into Recovery" at the Henry Ohlhoff Recovery Center, 201 Mission Street, SF

In his memoir, Drunken Angel, Alan Kaufman recounts his experiences as the son of a French-Jewish Holocaust survivor, probing the consciousness of an addict to expose the true horror of alcoholism. In no other book do addiction, PTSD and The Holocaust cross paths and combine to produce profound new questions, vistas, and insights into the seemingly intractable malaise that haunts contemporary life. This ultimately uplifting narrative of loss, addiction and redemption is one of the first memoirs by a Second Generation Holocaust writer to address how alcoholism, his Jewish lineage and the Holocaust intersect, raising haunting new questions about how deeply both the Holocaust and addiction lie at the very nexus of our contemporary world.

A literary star and award-winning author, Kaufman is the editor of such critically acclaimed books as Jew Boy (now being made into a motion picture), The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, Matches, The Outlaw Bible of American Literature, publisher of the short-lived but zeitgeist-changing iconoclastic Jewish underground mag Davka: Jewish Cultural Revolution, and founder and acting dean of The Free University of San Francisco. His books and activism have earned the praise of everyone from David Mamet and Dave Eggars to The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Publisher’s Weekly and The Los Angeles Times. His literary works are considered classics of their kind.

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