diversity – Health4earth

Thankful

Sam Ssifton of the New York Times created this poem from six word phrases sent to him by readers reflecting on their gratitude.

The way my toddler says potstickers.
Did scary things. Didn’t die. Encouraging.
My backyard garden that feeds us.
The cold side of the pillow.
We celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary.
I’m grateful for being fired.

The joy of a wedding dance.
New beginnings and a playful Chihuahua.
The crow that brings me rubbish.
A July day at Wrigley Field.
My little orange cat, Cinnamon.
America’s compassion finding its voice.

Only momentarily a widow. Defibrillators rock!
Sun on snow, white diamonds glistening.
First house, fresh paint. Goodbye, gray!
Family, sobriety, heavy metal, Cheddar cheese.
Sun rising. Moon setting. Another day.
It won’t always be like this.

A man I melt into nightly.
I’m grateful for Spam. Comfort food.
Hummingbirds. Photocorynus. Clouds. Pula. Haiku. Sprites.
Sunny deck, soaring birds, hot coffee.
Love, enough money, health, moist turkey.
My one wild and precious life.

I hope you have a restorative and grateful holiday. Sam Sifton, NYT

Happy Thanksgiving!

The World Laughs in Flowers

I hope they are native!

My yard is at peak. Unfortunately, it is also in a drought. Some places are challenged with flooding, but it is dry in my neighborhood. Native plants don’t need chemicals, and they adapt to wet and dry weather extremes

I don’t water, and hope for rain.

Native plants attract the bees’ birds and butterflies. The monarch butterflies and the hummingbirds are thrilled with these native flowers in my yard

Ideas for adding native plants https://wildones.org/

Bee balm (menardia) and purple cone flowers

Above are Culver’s root, milkweed, and lots of menardia. The bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies are thrilled.

Joy

Celebrating May, a great month to be outside.

Trillium in the woods

May Joy

The smell of lilacs permeates the air.

The chickadees cardinals and orioles sing at their hopeful best

My beautiful niece is married

A swallowtail butterfly lays eggs on the blooming golden Alexander.

Golden Alexander is a swallowtail host plant

Every tree shows its own personality,

The first hummingbirds in my yard,

The freedom of biking to events and just for fun.

A season of hope,

Columbine and wild geranium bloom,

The violets are radiant!

Hummingbirds follow the blooming Columbine.

Discussions about what to do with dandelions. And even the first dandelions bring joy!

Be mindful, pay attention, get outside and see our beautiful world!

“Dandelions are one of the earliest flowering plants in spring, dandelions provide food for pollinators such as bees and butterflies, rabbits, birds and deer, just to name a few. The dandelion also helps below the surface by feeding the soil with its deep root structure.” unknown source

Earth Day

Our environment is everyone’s duty to protect!

Tomorrow is Earth Day. It is 55^th Earth day since the annual event was initiated in the United States on April 22, 1970.

Earth Day was started by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson because he saw such deterioration of our water and air quality. It was a call to take better care of our planet. The call is even more important today with the terrible effects of climate change and the production of so much plastic which no one could visualize in 1970.

On this Earth Day visualize the world you want to live in and decide what changes you need to make to create the beautiful world you wish for??? How can we insure clean air and clean water for everyone?

Earth Day 2025 | Activities & Resources for April 22

The Painted Lady

Each one of us needs to work to create the world we want to live in. I want a world of clean air, and clean water. I want a world of healthy birds, healthy butterflies and healthy people.

The sighting of the first butterfly is always exciting. Have you seen one yet?

Below is a beautiful essay on the Painted Lady butterfly. Like all birds butterflies and bees these butterflies are stressed by climate change, loss of habitat, and harmful chemicals. The theme of the essay is that these are very resilient butterflies that have been able to adapt for their survival. Unlike the Monarch butterfly Painted Ladies don’t need just a few flower species to lay their eggs, they adapt!

I have planted habitat in my yard for Painted Lady caterpillars.

Painted Lady

Painted Lady love pussy toes.

These pearly everlasting plants have eggs from the painted lady.

On this Earth Day, do everything you can to help these beautiful butterflies survive. Plant native plants in your yard, never use chemicals on your plants, avoid single-use plastic, and everyday work for clean air!

Yea, It’s Spring

Happy spring, the sun has returned

It’s a beautiful world. Spring is a gift.

The world is always turning to the morning!

March 20 is the first day of spring, International Day of Happiness and Nowruz. Nature has given us the beauty of spring. Be sure you spend time outside every day to appreciate our beautiful Earth. Ancient people celebrated the first day of spring thousands of years ago!

For the Northern Hemisphere, March 20 is the first day of spring. But for 300 million people around the world, it’s the beginning of a new year, too. Nowruz—which means “new day”—is a holiday marking the arrival of spring and the first day of the year in Iran, whose solar calendar begins with the vernal equinox. Nowruz has been celebrated in Iran and the Persian diaspora for more than 3,000 years. Its roots are as a feast day in Zoroastrianism, a religion practiced in ancient Persia that viewed the arrival of spring as a victory over darkness. The holiday survived the Islamic conquest of Persia in the seventh century and the decline of Zoroastrianism’s popularity, and it spread across the globe through the diaspora of Persian people throughout history. (Here’s how Persia became the world’s first true empire.

It is hard to celebrate much happiness with such chaos in the world. Try to spring clean your brain and think about mental health for yourself and those you love. Be good to yourself and be good to the entire world.

How can you spring clean your brain?

5 Ways to Calm Your Anxious Brain – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

If you are spring cleaning your brain you need to reduce it’s exposure to plastic https://health4earth.com/2025/02/08/plastic-in-our-brains/

This year’s theme is caring and sharing. Make your own happiness special! Go for quiet walks and watch for changes around you as we transition into spring. The birds are returning and the lake near my home is almost losing its winter ice! Soon new buds will be on the trees.

Today also sees the launch of the new World Happiness Report 2025, which explores the variations in happiness around the world. The United States falls to a record low in happiness.. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-drops-to-record-low-in-2025-world-happiness-report-see-global-rankings/ar-AA1BgYsy?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Work for peace. Peace for Ukraine, the Middle East and conflicts in Africa.

A Day of Service

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that!” Martin Luther King

Be kind!

Today is the National Day of Service. Read about it here

What are you doing this week? Pick up litter, donate to a food self, visit someone who needs to be visited, send a thank you note or a letter of gratitude to someone, and ..smile.

“Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” Martin Luther King

August Joy

“The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share.”
— Lady Bird Johnson

The Monarch butterflies charm me as they play tag, the hummingbirds zip from one flower to the next, and the goldfinch quietly sit on the monarda and eat the seeds. Enormous bees gorge themselves with a bounty of pollinator plants they love. The consistent rains of this summer have created a healthy blooming habitat. All this pollinator activity creates joy!

A Monarch on liatris Hummingbirds love cardinal flowers, and Joe Pye Weed.

Native deep-rooted plants fix many things that are wrong with our world. They do not need fertilizers or chemicals, they don’t need to be watered, and their deep roots absorb water run-off. They help to keep our waterways clean, keep our air clean, and they are beautiful,

Native plants are healthy for wildlife. Birds, bees and butterflies love them and they create vital habitat which has gone missing in recent years.

Pollinator Passion

World’s Indigenous People

We are all connected!

This is from the Carbon Almanac!

Today we celebrate International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.

Raoni Metuktire is an Indigenous Brazilian leader and environmentalist. Born in 1932, he has seen a lot of change due to climate change.

In The Carbon Almanac, we feature his quote and it serves as a reminder that we are all connected.

We all breathe this one air, we all drink the same water. We all live on this one planet. We need to protect the Earth. If we don’t, the big winds will come and destroy the forest. Then you will feel the fear that we feel.

Invest in Women

https://www.un.org/en/observances/womens-day

From the United Nations:

Here are five key areas needing joint action:

Investing in women, a human rights issue: Time is running out. Gender equality is the greatest human rights challenge, benefiting everyone.
Ending poverty: Due to the COVID pandemic and conflicts, 75 million more people have fallen into severe poverty since 2020. Immediate action is crucial to prevent over 342 million women and girls living in poverty by 2030.
Implementing gender-responsive financing: Conflicts and rising prices may lead 75% of countries to cut public spending by 2025, negatively impacting women and their essential services.
Shifting to a green economy and care society: The current economic system disproportionately affects women. Advocates propose a shift to a green economy and care society to amplify women’s voices.
Supporting feminist change-makers: Despite leading efforts, feminist organizations receive only 0.13% of official development assistance.

This International Women’s Day, let’s unite to transform challenges into opportunities and shape a better future for all!

Thankful

“The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share.”— Lady Bird Johnson

“The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share.”
— Lady Bird Johnson