Be a Good in the World: April 22

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 a 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 in 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 a Good in the World: April 21

Top of the Mornin'!

 One of our fabulous interns here at Viva Editions, Sara Wigglesworth, has a lovely way of saying “Good morning” upon arriving that ensures it will actually be a better day. I have to admit that greeting coworkers sometimes slips my mind, so it’s helpful to be reminded of the power that a simple, well-intentioned, and sincere greeting can have. It is a wonderful way to start the day with elegance and ease.

Be a Good in the World: April 17

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!

Be a Good in the World: April 15

Be a Good in the World: April 15

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/a0701e/a0701e00.HTM.

Be a Good in the World: April 14

Hold a Closet Swap Soiree

You can share your surplus clothing with friends and acquaintances by throwing a “naked lady party.” This is a fun way to exchange clothes as well as other items. First, set a date, and invite a group of friends to your house (we do ladies only, but men could be included, too) and ask everybody to bring some clothes that they don’t want anymore. Set up your living room as a shop, designating different areas for guests to deposit their items—dresses in one pile, sweaters in another, and so on.

Be sure to make a bedroom available for those friends who are too shy to try on clothes in company. We usually drink wine and have some snacks, and we end up with bags of new-to-us clothing. Don’t be bashful—things that you are heartily sick of will be starring in somebody else’s wardrobe, and the surplus can be dispatched to the thrift store.

Got gratitude?

Operation Gratitude

I learned about this from my mom, whose church regu- larly sends cards, letters, and care packages overseas to the armed forces. My mom and her fellow church ladies bake some of the best cookies in the world, so they gather up all kinds of goodies and treats and send them over- seas where the taste of down home surely brings many smiles of satisfaction. Those who are less gifted in the baking department (such as me!) can make a $15 dona- tion to Operation Gratitude, which pays for one care package for one serviceperson. Operation Gratitude (operationgratitude.com) has sent over a million of these kindness kits around the world! 

The gift of yourself

When I lived in the Lower Haight district of San Francisco, I drove for an AIDS food bank in my rusted-out little car I had brought with me all the way from West Virginia. I had arrived in the mid-eighties, which we may all remember as the height of the AIDS crisis. My best friend delivered meals to patients in their homes and I gave rides and also hauled groceries donated to the food bank by the Church Street Tunnel. One early morning, I was walking to the Market and Church Street MUNI station and there was the bank, with giant pink letters announcing itself as a place to lend a hand for the AIDS cause. I went in and within two minutes had a shift and assignments for the week. Everyone in there seemed extremely cool to me and they were not grim at all, but seemed to have a mission of importance. It seemed such a small way to help during that scary time, and I learned that regardless of what you can give, large or small, it is important to give of yourself. And it all does add up. Feeding America is the largest hunger relief organization the United States and they need you. Please visit www.feedingamerica.org to find your local food bank or hunger organization. Get involved – you’ll make a difference and you’ll make friends along the way. I sure did, and they remain my friends to this day.