The year ahead is impossible to predict. As with every year, many unknowns lie ahead. Most of us like being in control, and the unknowns are scary. What can we control in 2017? How we treat other people, and how we treat the earth are things we can control. What kinds of kindness can we spread?
“In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship and never in want.” Celtic
“May peace and plenty be the first to lift the latch on your door, and happiness be guided to your home by the candle of Christmas.” Celtic
“Nollaig Faoi Shean Is Faoi Mhaise Dhuit” (Gaelic)
(pronounced) Knoll-ig f’wee haan ss f’wee shun-ah g-with
(translation) (A Christmas of Happiness and Joy to you)
(old Irish Saying)
“May you be blessed
With the spirit of the season, which is peace,
The gladness of the season, which is hope,
And the heart of the season, which is love.”
Irish blessing.
New Year Celtic Blessing
Slàinte maith, h-uile latha, na chi ‘snach fhaic!
Gun cuireadh do chupa thairis le slainte agus sonas.
A h-uile là sona dhuibh ‘s gun là idir dona dhuib.
Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr!
Good health, every day, whether I see you or not!
May your cup overflow with health and happiness.
May all your days be happy ones.
Happy New Year!
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Last year I did a series on reducing waste over the holidays. Read it here Maybe just do one thing different this year.Below is from the Minnesota Pollution Control: Holiday wasteThe presents have been opened and the festivities are over. What’s to be done with all the stuff and waste that’s left? Are there eco-friendly ways to keep it out of the trash? A lot, and you bet! The EPA reports that garbage increases 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, and it’s not hard to see why. Drive down any street or alley in late December or early January and you’re likely to see trash bins and bags overflowing with holiday waste. Some of these materials have potential value, which can be lost when they hit the waste stream. Even if your holidays weren’t the “greenest” on the block, there’s still time afterwards to engage the 5 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle, and Rethink. https://www.pca.state.mn.us/ Living Green 365 |
“Don’t buy me stuff that will wind up in a landfill. spend some time and make memories with me instead” Weatherman Paul Douglas
The shopping and entertaining season is upon us. How can we be more sustainable in our purchases and lifestyle?
Our choices can help people Thrive!
A Startibune.com letter to editor today:
“The holidays can make us feel trapped by traditions that dictate what we buy, where we travel and who we see. For those looking for more freedom of choice this season, I recommend scrutinizing how you spend money and what cultures and policies those dollars ultimately support. Was this gift made in America? How does that store treat its workers? Is my credit card helping finance the Dakota Access pipeline? While such choices may appear innocuous, their aggregate impact can shutter businesses and victimize people both near and far. Or — if we think critically — our choices can help people thrive.
The election has passed, but we can vote with every dollar for the type of world we endorse and wish to promote.” Robert Beets, Minneapolis
And ideas from Earth911 to make less trash http://earth911.com/living-well-being/zero-waste-how-to-make-less-trash/
https://www.givingtuesday.org/ 
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More on kindness and gratitude from a blog I follow. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you for your attitude of gratitude! Every person who has every stopped to appreciate a flower growing along the side of the road, anyone who has smiled at another for a simple kindness offered, know that your gratitude has been felt all around the world. Whenever you have felt the need to and then have followed through with saying thank you, you have created a chain reaction whose vibration continuously circulates.
Affirmation: I am creating and living within the loop of continuously circulating gratitude
I appreciate you. Love, Annette Rochelle
Wishing you a week of kindness and gratitude
What is a climatarian? I get this question often.
“A climatarian is somebody who chooses their food with the climate in mind and, in particular, replaces beef and lamb with pork or poultry to cut their carbon footprint by a ton a year.” http://climatesnetwork.com/index.php
Read the entire essay here
Reducing your beef consumption is huge, but to me being a climatarian is much more. A climatarian thinks of the climate every step of the day! A climatarian also buys local, reduces their food waste, and reduces energy used in cooking. All this is easy to make part of a terrific Thanksgiving meal!
To me being a climatarian also means reducing energy for shopping trips. It is more difficult to walk or take public transportation to shop, but everyone can combine their car errands and leave out an ingredient instead of driving to get that one item!
Garbage is a terrible thing to waste!
On America Recycles Day, what commitment can you make to recycle more? I live in a community where my one-sort recycle bin is picked up bi-weekly and compost every week. It is easy!! However, every community has their own rules on recycling and composting. Find recycling information for your community http://earth911.com/
It is a horrible to waste valuable resources by putting recyclables in the landfill where they might sit for hundreds of years(We don’t know how long plastic will last, maybe forever in tiny pieces!)
http://earth911.com/ has a great article on the mistakes we make in recycling. Read it here
Some ideas to help you recycle more:
A few weeks ago I wrote how stressful the American election was for everyone. The post-election has been even more stressful. The surprise results, disrespect for diversity, uncertainty and anger have been difficult for my circle of people. Today is World Kindness Day which makes me think of my late mother. She was a role model for being kind in everything she did.
Change and uncertainty are scary. We have lost control of our futures and the future of our earth. With all the verbal garbage of the past year no one has a vision of what the future holds. Today as I read the conservative views in the newspaper, I felt they were uncertain and scared also.
Diversity is so important whether you are talking about people, ideas, plants, foods, wildlife, everything. Mono-cultures can’t survive. They are not sustainable. Does anyone want to live in a world where only one kind of plant or tree grows? A world where we eat only one food? What if every dog was exactly the same? What if everyone thought exactly the same, and golf was the only sport to play? How boring!! I know this is silly, but it is diversity that makes life interesting. Diversity makes our freedoms and choices important, we are not all alike.
The uncertainty will not go away, but we can all be more kind. This week I plan to smile more, criticize less, listen better, and appreciate the diversity of our human family and diversity of our earth, and ….
We will all be happier.
I believe in peace and non-violence. The veterans I have known are awesome. The sacrifice of time and lives is more one can imagine. I have gratitude for what all the veterans of the world have sacrificed for our freedoms and hopes for a better world.
In Canada it is Remembrance Day. This is a post from an amazing college freshman, Sherina Harris. Read her here.
My biggest problem with some of our elected officials is they do not understand the implications of their actions. They don’t respect the lives and families of those in our military when they send them into combat. Leadership, Compromise, negotiations, and PEACE wins the day for me.
Below is from a Startribune.com newsletter by Patrick Coolican:
Veterans Day. A letter home from Sgt. Michael A. DiRaimondo, 22, of Simi Valley, Calif.:
Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003: Life is so precious. Living day by day in good health or just happiness is probably what makes me happy right now. I try not to think that what I do makes me happy. Just being alive, having a wonderful family, good friends, watching the sunrise morning after morning that’s what makes me feel good. I think people take their lives for granted. Some just haven’t hit that part of their lives where they stop and say, “I am such a lucky person to have the life that I have.”
DiRaimondo, who planned to be a paramedic firefighter, was killed on Jan. 8, 2004, when his helicopter was shot down while on a medical evacuation mission near Fallujah.
“Keep them in your thoughts and learn about America’s current and potential conflicts. In a democracy, ultimately it’s the citizens who make decisions about war.” Patrick Coolican
Health4earth 