Be The Sunshine!

Make yourself and others happy by lightening the day. What do you mean that you don't feel happy?
If you WANT to be happy, then just behave as if you are. It will lighten your mood and make the sun shine for those around you.

Be Happy! 

Carry happiness with you!

It Is Urgent That We Heed the Warnings

It is urgent that we address the dangers of global warming.

Scientists from around the world are giving a second warning of what can happen if we do not take steps to reduce global warming. The time for each of us to do our part is now!

Let's pitch in and do what we can to heal the damage we've caused the earth. It is the only planet that we know of that will sustain us. 

I've listed things in previous posts that we can do. Find the ones you can do and enlist your family in friends in joining us in saving the earth. 

Participate in a community cleanup. Organize your neighbors to have a Spring Cleaning day to pick up litter. Make it a party! 

Talk to your favorite ice cream store about offering non-plastic spoons and straws. The more people ask for them the more likely they are to look into doing it.

Recycle what you can. In our city we have recycling picked up by the city. This leaves us no excuse for not recycling. And a few times a year they hold hazardous waste days for such things as oil-based paints, thinners, chemical waste, batteries, etc. If your community doesn't do this, request it of your city council.

Buy food and clothes that are made without pesticides. Pesticides kill bees, which are eco friendly, and are harmful for humans who consume the products made from foods and clothing.

Consider buying items secondhand to avoid the plastic packaging of new items. If you buy items that are shipped to you, ask the merchants to use paper packing instead of plastic wrap.

Recycle junk mail and sign up for online alerts rather than mailed. If you use a shredder, be sure to recycle the shedded paper.

Reduce paper use by printing on both sides, buy recycled paper.

Visit parks, bird sanctuaries, and nature pereserves. The more visitors they have the more likely they are to receive funding to stay open.

Use less. The more stuff we demand the more disrupted the environment by manufacturing. Visit the library instead of buying a DVD, share games and replaced electronics with friends. Encourage the schools to reuse books and school supplies. 

The minerals contained in cell phones and computers can be reused, so always recycle your electronics to keep toxic chemicals from polluting the land near landfils. Businesses like Best Buy will recyle your electronics at no charge. Check out where you can take them in your community.

Have a fundraiser to protect wildlife and their habitats. There are several organizations that work to protect the earth. Explore the possiblities. Support one that appeals to you.

Conserve water by taking shorter showers, turning off the faucet while you brush your teeth, fix leaky pipes, limit lawn watering. Most lawns can go longer than you think without watering.

Plant trees. They consume carbon dioxide and replace it with oxygen, cleaning the air we breathe. Encourage your community to plant trees. Support Arbor Day activities.

Plant flowers and shrubs that don't need much fertilizer to grow. Fertilizers can dump nutrients into the water system which can create wildlife-killing algae blooms in the oceans and lakes. We've seen invasive algie blooms in the lakes that make them harmful.

These are but a few of the ways we can help safe the earth and make the world better, more balanced and healthy.

What are ways that you work to take care of Mother Earth?

The Earth Is Our Mother

We must take care of her. She has been assaulted and contiues to be misused. We need to do all we can to save the earth.

Try to eat more of local produce or produce in season to reduce the energy used to grow and transport food, reducing the releast of heat-trapping gases.

Wherever possible hang up your laundry to dry and save energy used by automatic dryers.

Send a letter to your Senator, Representative, and President asking them to do something about climate change. Let them know that you don't think it is Fake News.

Learn more about climate change and talk you others about what you learn. When everyone gets the science we have a better chance of working to find solutions.

Always throw trash in the can so that it can't be eaten by wildlife or end up in the ocean. Trash that is properly deposited in landfills is kept out of the sea. Enormous amount of plastics are polluting our oceans and endangering the sea life.

Stop releasing balloons in the air. They eventually fall to earth and can end up in the ocean, engangle animals, or be mistaken for food. Save the animals and put you used balloons in the trash.

Pay attention to your surroundings and do what you can to make it cleaner. Pick up litter and don't add litter. Put gum wrappers in your pocket until you get to a trash can. Recycle soda containers. If you smoke, field strip the butts. Be responsible. Have compassion for the earth.

We are all on this earth together. We all have a part in keeping it clean and healthy.

Not Sure Where To Start?

You want to create a better world but don't know where to start? Let's start by saving the Earth. To have a better world we must take care of our earth. It is the only one we have! And having compassion for the earth is a great we to start to make a better world.

Instead of buying new things buy second-hand, or fix the old. Repair appliances and clothing. Manufacturing emits carbon dioxide when making new products.

Unplug energy electronics when not in use, use power strips for lamps and TV. Unplug chargers when you aren't using them. Reduce the amount of energy required for your home. Only replace with energy smart appliances when upgrading.

When you stay at a hotel, hang up and reuse your towels rather than washing them after each use. This saves water and energy.

Instead of turning up the heat, wear a warm sweater in winter. In summer open your windows and turn on a fan instead of blasting the air conditioner. Much of the energy used in your home is still created by coal fueled plants that emit lots of carbon dioxide.

If you see a business with the door propped open in the summer with their air conditioning running, ask them to close the door. Leaving the door open to an air-conditioned building can let 2.2 tons of  energy's carbon dioxide escape over the summer.

Eat more vegetables and less meat. Livestock accounts for some of Earth's heat-trapping gas emissions. Eating more plants cuts down on the need for so much livestock and the plants help change carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Leave your gasoline powered vehicles at home when you can walk to bike to your destination. These vehicles produce massive amounts of carbon dioxide. When you do drive, don't let the engine idle for more than you stopping at lights and traffic. This will save the air you breathe and also save you the cost of gasoline!

There are a lot of ways to help save the earth. More in future blogs . . .

Your Assignment - Change the world

It's possible.

Think about it.

If a child can do it, surely you can too.

Go forth and pay it forward.

Be the Change. Do it!

You have some talent or skill that can make a positive difference in the world.

So, do it!

Here's an Idea - or Two

The Kindness Campaign encourages you to do acts of kindness every day. Some folks have trouble thinking of things to do, at least until they get into the habit of finding ways to be kind. So, if you need some ideas I'll try to list some for you.

Be aware of what others are doing. Who might you assist? Take your time at the grocery store so you can be aware of someone who might not be able to reach the top shelf, or someone who could use help putting their grocery bags into their car. Is there an elderly person who needs help with something they are no longer able to do themselves? Do you know someone who dosn't have a car and could use a ride?

To whom might you verbalize your thanks for what they do? Be aware of all the things others do to maker life better or easier for someone and thank them for their behaviors. Have you told a wait-staff person thank you for their specific service? Or maybe you see someone in uniform [armed services, or emergency first-responders]. Tell them you are grateful for the work they do. There is a long list of service people that seldom get thanked, or even noticed. Thank your janitor at work and your spouse at home.

Look around wherever you are for little things you might do, like pick up litter, put shopping carts where they belong, re-shelve something that has been dropped on the floor at a store. Put away a family members scattered items when they are having a hard day. Take over a chore from someone who could just use a break.

Drop a card in the mail for someone you haven't seen in a while, or for someone who is ill or having a struggle with something tough. Write a letter to someone who seldom gets mail, maybe an elderly person confined to home or a facility.

Start visiting someone who has few visitors who is in a facility. Even if you have never met, you can make a new friend and make their day. Invite a friend or two to come for a meal. Maybe you can baby sit for a busy mom who could just use a couple of child-free hours.

Have you noticed that these acts of kindness are very inexpensive? You don't have to be wealthy to make a difference in someone's life.

           Yes, they might take a little time. So slow down a little and make time for being kind.

Do You Really Want to Change the World?

We say we want to stop the hate, to change the direction of our leaders, to solve the problems of drugs and guns and community violence.

We say it, but what do we do about it? What have you done about it? Really. What can you do about it?

It is so much easier to talk about change than it is to actually act on it. Just try something as simple as first putting your shoe on the foot opposite to the foot you usually do. We just naturally do it the same way every day. Doing it differently takes some thought, we have to pay attention and not do it mindlessly. And we'd have to do it over and over to make it a habit. It is the same with any behavior change. Maybe we just don't know where to start to change the world.

Maybe the need for change is so all encompassing that we don't believe we will make a difference. Maybe it seems too big for one person. Well, it is and it isn't. Every action on our part creates reactions. We can consciously choose actions that are most likely to have a positive reaction. And even small actions make a difference.

Often our small action just naturally creates positive reactions in other people and it moves outward like the pebble dropped into water moves water outward. You smile at others and give a cheery greeting and those others are uplifted and more likely to spread cheer. That difference is increased by enlisting others to take action too.

Maybe real change will require changing leaders by electing those who are more likely to behave with compassion. You can help register like-minded people to vote and help them get to the polls. You might choose to actually campaign for leaders you believe will make a difference.

We want to see more compassion, more love, more positive action from people. In order for that to happen we have to mirror that. We must develop our compassion for others. We must act and react in a more loving manner. We must encourage others to do likewise. And we must do it over and over until it becomes a habit.

You have a voice and can use it to work for solutions to the problems of drugs and gun violence. Just look at what the teens in Parkland, Florida, are doing.

The important thing is for you to really want to change - yourself and others - enough to take steps toward change. 

What steps will you take today?