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!

Contribute to Peace

I’m for anything that is peaceful and kind. Get outside in March and please contribute peace to a Mindful March

Mindfulness helps us respond more wisely, especially in difficult times. So let’s pause, breathe and choose to live mindfully this month. By cultivating inner peace we can contribute to peace in the world around us too.

Look for beauty and live with awareness and kindness every day!

The Year of the Dragon

Happy New Year!

Wishing you good luck and good fortune in 2024, the year of the dragon.

The Vietnamese are so happy traveling home, decorating, planting red and gold flowers. I have been in Vietnam for the past month and loved their excitement.

We can learn something from them: Be kind, be happy, honor our ancestors, and eat healthy food

Red and gold decorations and red and gold flowers.

The year of the dragon

Vietnamese flag

A beautiful country

Cave of the Buddhas in Laos

Seven story pagoda

https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/special-report/chinese-new-year

A Kinder World

Every action matters! As we start 2024 many of us think of ways to resolve to make things better for our families, our friends and for the world. Below is the Action for Happiness calendar for January. Maybe just choose one action you like and do it over and over. Kindness is like a ripple; it grows and grows. Take deep breaths, smile, listen, and enjoy! Good Luck

Taking the Side of Peace

Peace is not something you wish for. it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away. John Lennon

Make Peace

PEACE

Today I am taking sides.

I am taking the side of Peace.

Peace, which I will not abandon

even when its voice is drowned out

by hurt and hatred,

bitterness of loss,

cries of right and wrong.

I am taking the side of Peace

whose name has barely been spoken

in this winnerless war.

I will hold Peace in my arms,

and share my body’s breath,

lest Peace be added

to the body count.

I will call for de-escalation

even when I want nothing more

than to get even.

I will do it

in the service of Peace.

I will make a clearing

in the overgrown

thicket of cause and effect

so Peace can breathe

for a minute

and reach for the sky.

I will do what I must

to save the life of Peace.

I will breathe through tears.

I will swallow pride.

I will bite my tongue.

I will offer love

without testing for deservingness.

So don’t ask me to wave a flag today

unless it is the flag of Peace.

Don’t ask me to sing an anthem

unless it is a song of Peace.

Don’t ask me to take sides

unless it is the side of Peace.

Rabbi Irwin Keller, Oct. 17, 2023

National Make a Difference Day

The fourth Saturday in October is a day to make a difference.

Today on Make a Difference Day spread kindness and compassion. Take time to smile and be friendly to everyone you have contact with. Kindness creates a ripple that keeps on multiplying! Smile, listen and radiate kindness!

Also, be kind to the Earth. This letter to the editor might give you some ideas:

Thrown away but still there

As a kindred spirit in garbage collection, I both share Ron Currie Jr.’s small sense of accomplishment and often much greater sense of frustration with the vast amounts of garbage we continue to produce and casually discard (“The soothing futility of picking up trash,” StarTribune.com, Oct. 25).

“Out of sight, out of mind” keeps us oblivious to the waste we produce. As someone once encouraged me to question, when I throw something away, where is away? If we all had to dispose of our trash in our yards, might we become more conscientious of our purchasing decisions?

June Superior Views

On what should have been a beautiful Lake Superior morning, smokey air was creeping across the big lake from fires burning in Canada. Luckily, most days are filled with brisk clear Lake Superior air.

Amazing butterflies, the Compton tortoiseshell.

Sounds of robust birds singing fill the woods. The chestnut sided warbler, song sparrows, oven bird, indigo buntings, red-eyed vireo and many others sing all day long.

The butterflies are the very best, and the contrast to so few butterflies in urban areas is striking. Every amazing butterfly that lives in June is here. They seem to love the host plants I have planted to get them to begin the next generation of butterflies. There is hope for the future if we could get over our addiction to pesticides and plant pollinator gardens.

Milkweed is a wonderful host plant.

The swallow tail is one of the easiest butterflies to identify.

Seeing the bear, fox and big bucks and deer have been a surprise. After several years of scarcity, they are back, and the squirrels, chipmunks and bunnies are almost non-existent.

Bunch berries will have red berries later in the summer.

June in the north country of Minnesota and Wisconsin are famous for the beautiful but non-native lupine. They grow in patches everywhere. This year I was struck by all the June white plants blooming. and have enjoyed enormous fields of daisies. I especially love the delicate star flower, the false lily of the valley, the hardy Canada anemone, and classic north woods bunch berries. To experience these beauties, you need to get out of your cars and walk!

Star flowers

Live with Wonder and Kindness

Albert Einstein described feelings of awe as “the source of all true art and science.” he said, “Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better!”

An amazing live oak tree in Texas

I feel awe for our amazing, beautiful country, and have been on a wonderful winter road trip into the center of the United States. We traveled from Minnesota to Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. We drove through a landscape of snow and wind generators in Iowa, and the flat farming prairies of Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, and then through the hill country of Texas into the flat flood plain of the Gulf of Mexico. Next, heading north into the swampland of Louisianna and Arkansas, the hills of Tennesse and Kentucky into the farmlands of Illinois, and finally back into hilly Wisconsin and lake-covered Minnesota. The landscapes and terrain change, but so do the people, plants, trees, birds and the weather.

Knees of the bald cypress tree

I am intrigued by the live oaks of Texas and the cypress trees of Louisianna and Arkansas, and also by the incredible diversity of trees in Tennessee. We love the unique birds of the Gulf of Mexico, but also love seeing our Minnesota birds in a different habitat.

As I travel, I cherish meeting people from all over the world, but especially enjoy how pleasant and friendly people are in the Southern part of the United States. Many go out of their way to greet you on the street, “How’re ya doin?” or “Hi honey!” Something I don’t experience in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin or Iowa. In the North we all can be kinder/friendlier and smile more!

Bald Cypress trees create awe

How can we experience wonder every day?

How a Bit of Awe Can Improve Your Health – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Need a 2023 New Year’s Resolution? Try Nurturing “Everyday Awe.” | Sierra Club

7 Ways to Find Awe in Everyday Life – Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays

Drop the devices and gaze at the clouds or stars.

Visit a local, state or national park.

Take an Awe Walk in your neighborhood, noticing things as if for the first time.

Describe to a friend or write about a time you once felt awe.

Visit a museum or planetarium.

Get up early to watch the sunrise.

Play amazing music. (Beethoven’s Fifth comes up often. Psychologist Michelle Shiota suggests Alison Krauss’ “Down to the River to Pray” and Carlos Santana’s live “Europa.”)

Positive January

The Actions for Happiness group has many good ideas to add positive energy to your days for this January.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/staying-hopeful-in-a-cynical-time#details

World Kindness Day!

November 13, is World Kindness Day

Kindness creates a ripple of more kindness. Spread it now!

https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/how-to-celebrate-world-kindness-day

Random Acts of Kindness

Do a random act of kindness.

Pledge to yourself that you will do at least one random act of kindness each day. While these actions might seem small, that doesn’t make them any less important.

You’d be surprised how picking up litter, leaving a review for a favorite local business, or writing a thank you note to a teacher can make a positive impact on yourself and your community.

We’ve even compiled a list of over 100 ideas to practice random acts of kindness — check it out!

Ideas for kindness and happiness from Actions for Happiness: