But if there is one constant in life, it’s that it’s always changing, always moving.

Before any change which we actually choose, we first start with the acknowledgment something isn’t right. This could be anything from knowing exactly — “I need to stop smoking” — to knowing vaguely — “I just don’t feel right.” In any case we start by seeking change. A move away from pain; a move toward pleasure (or ease).

Some may seek help for the transition. Some could seek help from friends or a counselor. Oftentimes these people will tell you change is a process. But is it? Or does that just give you an excuse to drag it out and not actually make the change?

Perhaps change is really just a decision so change happens the moment the decision is made.

When I decided to stop smoking — I mean really stop — it was an immediate and no going back decision. I had had enough and that was that. (for the rest of this story, please visit www.thistle-glow.com)

Funny that must have been what the smoking baby in South Sumatra thought….

• Smoking Baby Reportedly Has Quit

Two-year-old Ardi Rizal of South Sumatra, who reportedly smoked 40 cigarettes a day, has broken his nicotine addiction through a 30-day rehabilitation program, the Jakarta Globe reported Thursday.
www.earthtimes.org/articles/news

• Pisa’s Leaning Tower 800-year-old Mystery Solved

Professor John Burland has spent the last two decades striving to save – and understand – the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After defying gravity, Italian bureaucracy and accusations of corruption, it seems he’s finally cracked the case. From 1990 to 2001, the tower was closed as the International Committee for the Safeguard of the Leaning Tower strove to save it from collapse. Visitors to Pisa dropped off by 45 percent. ‘Without our intervention, any local storm or earth tremor could have finished it off.’ Burland, 72, is emeritus professor of soil engineering at Imperial College London, his reverend-like humility belying the fact that he helped solve one of the most fascinating riddles in architectural history.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/architecture/7907298/Solving-the-800-year-mystery-of-Pisas-Leaning-Tower.html

• China Plans Buses That Can DRIVE OVER Cars 

China is the current world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases and biggest energy consumer. But the country also is thinking in big and bold ways when it comes to how it will reduce pollution with a new plan to build a “straddling bus”. The innovation, powered by a combination of electricity and solar energy, will allow cars less than 2 meters high to travel underneath the upper level of the bus.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20100803/cm_huffpost/669166_201008031605

• Rotary Club Provides Windmills, Increase Income for Salt Harvesters
Five families who harvest salt from the desert in western India have new windmills that will double their income. The families — who are among the 10,000 families who migrate annually to the Little Rann of Kutch salt marsh in Gujarat to collect up to 800 tons of salt apiece — previously relied on diesel engines to draw water to the desert’s surface. Five windmills were installed by the manufacturer in February with the help of Rotarians and the recipients. Rotary Club members expect the other five windmills to be in use by October, the start of the six-month salt-harvesting season.
www.rotary.org/en/MediaAndNews

• Cape Town’s “Ghetto Ballerina” Lands U.S. Scholarship

“Ghetto Ballet” is a documentary that chronicles the lives of four young ballet dancers living in one of the poorest towns on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. As a result of that film and an email from a kind viewer, one ballerina has been given the chance to train in the United States.

www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/07/30/ghetto.ballet.email.atlanta

• Beating the City Summer Heat 

Three dumpsters in New York City have been transformed into public swimming pools complete with pool decks. People can use them for three Saturdays starting this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP-sgwKbuZ4&feature=player_embedded

• 40 Billionaires Pledge to Give Away Half of Wealth
A little more than a year after Bill Gates and Warren Buffett began hatching a plan over dinner to persuade America’s wealthiest people to give most of their fortunes to charity, more than three-dozen individuals and families have agreed to take part. Buffett said he and Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, and Gates’ wife Melinda made calls to fellow billionaires on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans — in many cases, people they had never met — to try to persuade them to join the giving pledge. The United States has roughly 400 billionaires — about 40 percent of the world’s total — with a combined net worth of $1.2 trillion, according to Forbes. If they all took the pledge, that would amount to at least $600 billion for charity. The 40 names that have pledged to date have a combined net worth surpassing $230 billion, according to Forbes.The pledge is a moral commitment to give, not a legal contract. It does not involve pooling money or supporting one cause or organization. It’s up to each person who signs the pledge how to divvy up their wealth.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38556042/ns/us_news-giving/

• “Recovery Sleep” Can Make Up for Lost ZZZs

A new study just published in the journal Sleep has found that those periods of “recovery sleep” are good for us and can actually undo some of the damage caused by sleep deprivation.

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/02/%E2%80%98recovery-sleep%E2%80%99-can-make-up-for-lost-zzzs/

• Haitian Schools: Rebuilding From the Ground Up

Schools in Haiti were some of the hardest hit after January’s earthquake. Nearly 80 percent of schools were destroyed. But, now American educators and private aid organizations are trying to rebuild schools for the start of this year’s school year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPXG8WSOo-Y&feature=player_embedded

• Baby Revived By Mother’s Loving Touch

A premature baby with no vital signs defies odds and survives.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/health/2010/08/30/mom.touch.baby.life.cnn

• ShelterBox Increases Aid to Flood-Hit Pakistan

Thousands of displaced Pakistani families will find new homes and have access to clean water to drink thanks to international disaster relief charity, ShelterBox. When the catastrophic flooding hit Pakistan the charity was able to respond within 48 hours distributing tents to hundreds of families who had lost their homes. Since then ShelterBox has sent out enough shelter and water filtration systems, known as LifeStraws, to help thousands of families.

shelterbox.org/news

• Canine Lifeguards Doggie Paddle to the Rescue

Hundreds of specially trained dogs from Italy’s corps of canine lifeguards are deployed each summer to help swimmers in need of rescue.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38820088

• This Woman’s Nose Stands Between You and Gulf Seafood

Susan Linn personally has sniffed more than 1,000 samples of seafood from the oil-tainted Gulf of Mexico and is one of 30 “expert sensory assessors” tasked with smelling Gulf seafood samples to determine whether it’s safe to reopen local waters. Their opinions, paired with chemical tests, have been used to decide the fate of the commercial and recreational fisheries affected by the massive spill.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38885939

• A Classic Tale of Lassie

An Iowa family followed the sound of their barking dog to find their two-year-old son. The boy had wandered about a quarter-mile into a corn field with the dog and got lost.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zovu9jY_c4s&feature=player_embedded

• Bee I.D. for Biodiversity

A York University doctoral student who discovered a new species of bee on his way to the lab one morning has completed a study that examines 84 species of sweat bees in Canada. Nineteen of these species – including the one Jason Gibbs found in downtown Toronto – are new to science because they have never been identified or described before. Gibbs’ expansive study will help scientists track bee diversity, understand pollination biology and study the evolution of social behavior in insects. 

www.yorku.ca/mediar/archive/Release

• Forest Fires Help Power the Nitrogen Cycle

When fire burns down a forest, nitrate levels go up, and the effects are persistent, according to recent research from University of Montana scientists. They found that charcoal deposited during fire events has the potential to stimulate the conversion of ammonia to nitrates, an important step in the nitrogen cycle. The burned sites had greater rates of nitrification, meaning that nitrogen was being processed more quickly through the ecosystem than without a fire. The research results reveal a link between fire, charcoal deposition, nitrification, and abundance of nitrifying organisms in coniferous forests of the inland Northwestern US. 

www.agronomy.org/news-media/releases

• Lab-Created Corneas Restore Vision

A new study from researchers in Canada and Sweden has shown that biosynthetic corneas can help regenerate and repair damaged eye tissue and improve vision in humans. Globally, diseases that lead to clouding of the cornea represent the most common cause of blindness. The biosynthetic corneas also became sensitive to touch and began producing normal tears to keep the eye oxygenated.
www.ohri.ca/newsroom/newsstory

Good news collected from several online sources, for more google: good news.
 And if you enjoy my writing you can catch my blog at www.thistle-glow.com, this week’s is the rest of the introductory story:“Change: Process or Decision?” Hope you enjoy good news and a good life, Amie

You find as you age — and especially for someone like me, a work-at-home otherwise full-time mom, part-time single mom (husband’s a firefighter so often away days at a time) — it’s hard to keep up with friendships much less find new ones.

It’s really no surprise how important relationships are in life and especially friendships. But what I find interesting in our first good news story is the comparisons the study gives to other health risk factors. It
makes it more motivating to work a little harder at hanging on to those friends who offer good belly laughs or finding new friends to share life with.

So here’s to surrounding ourselves with good friends and good news.

• Good Friendships Key To Healthy Living
A new Brigham Young University study adds our social relationships to the “short list” of factors that predict a person’s odds of living or dying. In the journal PLoS Medicine, BYU professors Julianne Holt-Lunstad and Timothy Smith report that social connections – friends, family, neighbors or colleagues – improve odds of survival by 50%.
Check out the comparison to other risk factors and read more at news.byu.edu

Ok what is going on with finding old ships this past month?

Experts work to free buried ship hull at World Trade Center site

Workers at the World Trade Center site are excavating a 32-foot-long ship hull that apparently was used in the 18th century as part of the fill that extended lower Manhattan into the Hudson River. “We noticed curved timbers that a back hoe brought up,” McDonald said Wednesday. “We quickly found the rib of a vessel and continued to clear it away and expose the hull over the last two days.”
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20100715/US.Ground.Zero.Buried.Ship/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38254110/

• Ship Lost For More Than 150 Years Is Recovered
Canadian archeologists have found a ship abandoned more than 150 years ago in the quest for the fabled Northwest Passage and which was lost in the search for the doomed expedition of Sir John Franklin.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38459028

• Obama honors 13 citizens for their good deeds
President Barack Obama awarded 13 people the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second highest honor for civilians.This year’s Citizens Medal winners have helped injured service members and advocated for deaf children. One honoree is focused on conservation, while another helps young pregnant women with educational training. They also include a World War II veteran and a 9/11 widow who has reached out to help widows in Afghanistan. “For these men and women, serving others isn’t just the right thing to do,” Obama said, “it’s the obvious thing to do.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jtYjeno8x40Fh1RChfRPADXlx-1gD9HD1A9G1

• Bermuda man making the day
Johnny Barnes lives in Bermuda and for the last 15 years he has stood on the roadside blowing kisses and brightening the days of passersby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nveq-kwVu3g

• Mother Embraces Baby She Thought Died in Haiti Quake
A mother was reunited with her baby girl six months after the earthquake that devastated Haiti.
The child was injured in a fire prior to the earthquake and after the quake was taken to London to receive life-saving surgery from her burn injury. The charity that took her to London searched and found her mother, reuniting them after six months apart.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38463002

• Luis Soriano Spreads Literacy with Biblioburro
Teacher Luis Soriano is bringing reading education to children in rural Colombia — on the backs of his donkeys. His traveling library system — or biblioburro — has provided literacy and homework help to more than 4,000 youngsters. Soriano’s story has now become a documentary.
http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/Home/27689

• Bus Driver Saves 10 From Blazing Home, Finishes Route
A transit bus driver is being credited for saving 10 people asleep inside a burning home by pounding on the door. After his heroics, Richard Lucas got back behind the wheel and finished his route.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38242320

• Bride-to-Be Gets Early Wedding Gift: $250,000 Lotto Ticket
Robert Russell, an out-of-work welder, surprised his fiance, 29-year-old Tracie Rogers, with an early wedding gift: a scratch-off lottery ticket. The winning ticket surprised them both with its bounty.
www.molottery.com/media/news_release

• Candwich Inventor Provides Sandwich in a Can
Salt Lake City man invents sandwich in a can. He says food in a can will stay fresh for a year or longer and can be sold out of vending machines. Other in-a-can foods he’d like to market include pizza, french toast and cinnamon rolls.
today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38268129

• Hey Man, Have a Cupcake
When former Wall Street lawyer David Arrick lost his job during the U.S. recession, he decided to change careers and capitalize on the popularity of cupcakes in New York City by opening Butch Bakery.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38280688

• Pepsi’s Refresh Project to Help Oil Spill Region
Pepsi is expanding its popular Refresh Project charitable program to help communities affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The company will give an additional $1.3 million in grants next month to projects that will help communities in the five-state region — Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38039606

• Self-Described “Lowly Plumber” Designs Plug For Gulf Oil Spill
A man who described himself as a “lowly plumber” is thought to be the designer of the containment cap that is currently stopping the flow of oil at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0715/BP-oil-spill

• Pizza delivery man saves man having heart attack
A pizza delivery man became a hero when he arrived at a house to drop off a pie. He had been a paramedic in Illinois before moving to Colorado and was able to stop the heart attack one of the homeowners was having when he arrived.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15554261

• Heroic Mailman Saves Lives While on the Job
Mailman returns from his deliveries in an unassuming way but with blood on his uniform and to the cries of disbelief from his coworkers: ‘Did you hear? Keith saved another life today.’”
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38322154

• “Mind-Body” Therapy Shows Promise for Fibromyalgia
A form of ‘mind-body’ therapy, focusing on the role of emotions in physical pain, may offer relief to people with fibromyalgia, a small clinical trial suggests.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38064810

• Rare “Elkhorn” Coral Found in Pacific
An Australian scientist discovered what could be the world’s rarest coral in the remote North Pacific Ocean. The unique Pacific elkhorn coral was found while conducting underwater surveys of Arno atoll in the Marshall Islands.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100729091501.htm

Good news collected from several online sources, for more google: good news.
And if you enjoy my writing you can catch my blog at www.thistle-glow.com, this week’s was entitled “Wanted:Perfect Mother — Ha!” Hope you enjoy good news and a good life, Amie

The video below is an improv group who does live improv in public, (but doesn’t always let the public know that they are doing improv). I love the idea. They have a whole bunch of videos on their site, check them out at http://improveverywhere.com/ I have always wanted to do something like this, maybe one day.

Enjoy the laugh, have a great day,

1: before the sun hits the area  giving us a window between 5AM and 7AM, or

2: when it is overcast.

Given that the weather is in constant flux here in Colorado we decided to go for the 5AM to 7AM shoot for safety.

Now let me back up…One of the shots we are trying to get requires a tent, you may have seen the pictures, the canvas, civil war style tent we used when we shot in February. We had rented the tent from a lovely couple here in Boulder. A week before the pick-up shot we are all set to go, actors a go, crew a go, locations a go, everything except for the tent, for some reason we could not get in touch with the couple. Finally, two days before our shoot they contact us and let us know that the tent is no longer accessible, we are stumped. Do we buy a tent? Do we change the ending? How long will it take for it to get to us if we buy one?…

Patrick, Jesse and I put our heads together, made phone calls to editors, and special effects artist. We finally decide we will shoot it without the tent. What we will do is blue screen the tent out and use the tent from the old shot and greenery from the new shot. Difficult, but not impossible.

7:00 PM July 6th, the night before our shoot. It starts to rain. This could be good, or it could cancel our shoot. We decide to push the call time back from 5:00 am to 7:00 am, since it now looks like it will at least be overcast.

8:00 am July 7th, breakfast eaten, you can check out twitter http://www.twitvid.com/IL0EE for a little video Jesse, Patrick and I did.

8:15 am: Jesse and Patrick head up to Gold Hill to set up the shot.

8:40 After an hour of getting hair and makeup done, the lovely actress Dawn and I head up to meet them.

Some more back story: Some of our wardrobe was loaned to us from a theatre company up in Gold Hill. Our main wardrobe piece for this shoot is a red cloak that Charlotte wears walking out of the tent. We were set to pick up the cloak when we arrived up in Gold Hill.

9:15 Dawn and I pull into Gold Hill and drive to the graveyard where we are doing our first shot, the crew is ready, the weather is perfect, …. there is no red cloak. Jesse had gone to pick it up and it wasn’t there. One lovely, but also annoying thing about Gold Hill is that there is no cell reception, so Jesse and I start walking around town trying to find someone who will lend us their phone so we can call the people from the Gold Hill Theatre company.

We finally find a phone and get ahold of them, and they tell us that the cloak is nowhere to be found.

We have no choice but to cancel the shoot. 3 hours into the day, after paying everyone, we have to go home with no shot.

The day wasn’t all bad though, we did have an old friend of my dads come over and we used his hands for the indoor shot that we needed. He was very funny and gracious, and really excited about having his hands in a movie.

So the next week we spend looking for the cloak. The film all hangs on us finding this cloak. Not only do we have to find the cloak, but Patrick, our DP and editor, is leaving for China on July 18th for three weeks. We have to get the cloak, so we can get the shot, so Patrick can finish the edit and get to China. Me, being the positive thinking person that I am feels certain that it will work out. I reschedule the shoot for July 16th, 2 days before Patrick has to leave. By the 13th, since we have not yet found the cloak I go and buy one, it doesn’t look perfect, but it looks like it might work. The night of the 15th Dawn comes over and we try on the cloak  to match the shot. It looks horrible, there is no way it will work.

11:00 PM the night before our shot we decide to cancel again. We are back looking for the cloak, and now also looking for someone who can shoot it because Patrick won’t be here.

Last night we finally get a call. The theater company in Gold Hill had found the cloak!! We are finally ready to get the shot. However we are now short a DP. We are disappointed that Patrick won’t be shooting it, but are meeting with a couple other DP’s tomorrow to see who will be the best fit for us and Lilith.

We are doing our final pick-up next friday, July 23rd from 5:00 am to 7:00 am. I will tweet and post pictures that day so keep in touch.

Thanks again for all your support on Kickstarter. You all are so awesome. If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do so, we are 130% funded, which is so cool! There is still one week left, so if you want to help support we have some cool rewards for you.

I have two young children so I’m constantly on the search for something.

Sometimes the loss is something more problematic like when my husband recently lost his credit card. I had a strong feeling it was safe with us on vacation but we tore the place apart on a search and were unable to find it. Luckily it seems no one else did either since it was never used.

Sometimes things seem like they are lost for good. For instance, the pictures from a part of my dad’s around-the-world trip were lost. His computer mysteriously ate them up after he deleted them from his camera but before he backed them up. He comforted himself that he’d at least always have the memories. I was sure something could be done. I brought his photo card back to the states and tried my hand at recovery. It didn’t work. Not one to give up easy I found a place to send it (www.memorycardrepairshop.com if that ever happens to you), and they recovered the 600+ lost images. So things are sometimes not as lost as they seem.

Take for instance our first good news story also about the potential loss of priceless memories in pictures…

• Camera Lost in Aruba Floats to Florida
Paul Shultz was walking along the pier of a Key West marina when he saw a bright red Nikon camera. Its waterproof plastic case was covered with six months’ worth of crusty sea growth, but the camera itself was almost pristine. The Coast Guard investigator tested his skills using very few clues to track down the camera’s owner in Aruba.
www.msnbc.com/id/37714680

• Man Finds Lost Class Ring 27 Years Later
A Maine man who lost his high school class ring 27 years ago while swimming in a quarry found it right where he thought it was all along.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37777464

• G8 Pledges $5 Billion + for Maternal, Child Health Goals
Recognizing the importance of child and maternal health, leaders of G8 nations along with some other countries and private organizations have pledged to allocate a total of $7.3 billion over five years to “health and nutrition programs” for women and children in developing nations. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, “We are committed to moving towards a day when women in developing countries will not die or suffer disabilities from pregnancy or childbirth.”

http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/June/28/GH-062810-G8-Summit.aspx

• Billionaires Extend $600 Billion Challenge
Last year Bill Gates and Warren Buffett started what can be called the biggest fundraising drive in history. They are driving to get the 400 wealthiest Americans to pledge at least 50% of their net worth to charity during their lifetimes or at death.
www.features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010

• Financial Reform Bill Hopes to Affect US Consumers Positively
Described by some as the biggest financial reform since the Great Depression, the bill, if passed, would overhaul many of the rules that govern relationships between financial institutions and consumers. Some of the changes include: a new consumer protection agency housed within the “quasi-government” Federal Reserve to oversee financial products and access to credit scores for free.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/article/financial-reform-bill-means-big-consumers/story?id=11012343

• Panera Co. Will Open More Pay-What-You-Want Cafes
The idea for Panera’s first nonprofit restaurant was to open an eatery where people paid what they could. The richer could pay full price — or extra. The poorer could get a cheap or even free meal. A month later, the verdict is in: It turns out people are basically good. So the restaurant plans to expand the nonprofit model around the nation, opening two more locations within months.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100625/ap_on_bi_ge/us_panera_pay_what_you_wish

• Prosperous Lawyer Aids China’s Migrant Workers
Liu Pifeng’s peasant origins have left a lasting influence, he says: sympathy for “ordinary people at the bottom of society who are so helpless.” And that was what motivated him to devote part of his law practice to a free legal-aid clinic for migrant workers.
www.csmonitor.com/World

• Healthy Hero finds ways to encourage active kids
Mom and grant application writer combines her skills with her goal of getting her and other neighborhood kids more physical activity by securing funds then leading mini play camps. Funding paid for training and equipment for her to host more than 70 children over two summers and one school year.
http://goodnewsdaily.com/show_story.php?ID=10079

• Australian “Angel” Saves Lives at Suicide Spot
For almost 50 years, Don Ritchie has lived across the street from Australia’s most notorious suicide spot, a rocky cliff at the entrance to Sydney Harbour called The Gap. And in that time, the man widely regarded as a guardian angel has shepherded countless people away from the edge.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37670329

• Electrolux Turning ‘Plastic-Islands’ From the Ocean Into Vacuum Cleaners
The Pacific Ocean is polluted with the largest floating garbage islands in the world. Electrolux intends to gather plastic from the world’s oceans and turn it into a number of vacuum cleaners. The initiative – “Vac from the Sea” – aims to bring attention to the issue of plastic pollution and at the same time combat the scarcity of recycled plastics needed for making sustainable home appliances.
http://www.engineerlive.com/Design-Engineer/Health_Safety/Turning_%26amp%3B%23039%3Bplastic_islands%26amp%3B%23039%3B_into_vacuum_cleaners/22860/

• Young philanthropist is driven by sustainable energy
It’s not everyday a 22-year-old is given an award for being the philanthropist of the year. But Stephen Erario, who just graduated from Colby College, received a philanthropist of the year award for his work in upgrading the Maine’s infrastructure in order to provide the state with sustainable energy.
www.sustainmidmaine.org

• IKEA Stores Swapping Incandescent Bulbs for Energy-Efficient Lighting
Swedish home store IKEA aims to offer its customers a wider variety of lighting options, all more energy efficient. In this effort the store is restocking its shelves with energy efficient light bulbs as it sells out its final inventory of incandescent bulbs.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37710322/

• Brain Stimulation Technique Boosts Language Ability in Alzheimer’s Patients
Preliminary research suggests a brain stimulation technique, known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, boosts the language ability of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
www.bma.org.uk

• Quirky Wine Labels Make Drinkers Think
Jerry Prial founded Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based Gerard Wine Company after spending 30 years in the beer brewing industry. He picked the name Debauchery — extreme indulgence of sensuality — as an antidote to the wine world’s “mysterious and intimidating” ambiance. “I’m trying to fight through the clutter, all the thousands of different wines out there,” he says.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37828659

• Yosemite Hits Peak of Beauty
A wet winter is always great for park visitors looking for a splash of nature. Now people are flocking to Yosemite National Park in high numbers for the promise of lots of water coming down the falls.
www.nbcbayarea.com/around-town/events/Yosemite

And if you enjoy my writing you can catch my blog at www.thistle-glow.com, this week’s was entitled “Women’s Beauty.” Hope you enjoy good news and a good life, Amie

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/us/11bcculture.html?ref=movies

Love and gratitude,

Erin and the “Lilith” production team.

National Wildlife Federation:

Deepwater Horizon Response:

Natural Resource Defense Council:

CNN.com

I also wanted to post this song as a reminder that the earth is our mother and we need to take care of her. Without her we couldn’t be here. We need to stop waiting for someone else to make the changes that need to made in order for our children’s children to grow and thrive here on this earth. “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” ~Native American Proverb. Let’s give it back in better condition not worse.

Music by: Michael Franti and Spearhead, one of my favorite musicians.

I’ve heard a story contrasting a wealthy business man who made four million dollars a year, had two homes and a happy family but who was unhappy because he didn’t consider himself successful as he wanted to make five million a year and have three homes. Yet another man who had nothing was happy and when asked why he said simply, “I woke up this morning and found myself above ground.”

I think that’s how the Fijian people live their lives. They are the happiest, friendliest people I’ve ever seen, yet they have so little material goods and work for next to nothing. Many still live in villages where they share everything. Any income made is brought to the village and distributed by the chief as he sees fit; to support the kindergarten (preschool) or to build a new home for the newly weds. (Mind you new home is a tin shack with a thatch roof in some cases.) They greet visitors with the biggest smiles and a big BULA! (Hello!).

Fiji, the friendly place! Let’s take a look now at how some Westerners are being friendly…

(And if you’d like to read my thoughts from above continued — regarding happy Fijians and being happy in general — you can read my blog at www.thistle-glow.com.)

Thank you happynews.com for the providing quick access to good news for those with temporary limited access to internet.

• Funnyman Will Ferrell Serious About Fighting Cancer
Making a Difference: Will Ferrell support for a fraternity brother’s Cancer for College program has helped raise funds for scholarships for dozens of young cancer survivors.

• Yves Behar’s New Program to give Low-Cost Glasses for Students
By the end of the year, a new program called See Better to Learn Better (Ver Bien para Aprender Mejor) aims to distribute 300,000 pairs of glasses to schoolchildren between 6 and 18 years of age – and then 300,000 each year thereafter. The effort is a partnership between Béhar’s Fuseproject, the Mexican government, and Augen Optics.
www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Tech/2010/0520

• Locals Offer Homestays for Cup Visitors
Cynthia and Philomen Rakgoale hope to teach World Cup visitors a little bit about the Tswana language, starting with “dumela” — so much more welcoming than a simple “hello.” The Rakgoales are part of a network of hosts who will be welcoming tourists into their homes in a program organized by the Bafokeng tribe, which owns a stadium in the World Cup host city Rustenberg.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37194418

• Kindness 101
At a public school in Toronto, 25 third- and fourth-graders focus intently on a 10-month-old baby with serious brown eyes. Baby Stephana crawls, then turns to glance at her mother. “When she looks back to her mom, we know she’s checking in to see if everything’s cool,” explains one boy, who is learning how to understand and respond to the emotions of the baby in a program called Roots of Empathy.
www.time.com/time/magazine/article

• Butler Inherits New York Fortune
The beloved butler for a prominent New York family, Indra B. Tamang, who grew up in a mud hut in Nepal, has joined the city’s elite by inheriting more than $8 million, including two units at the legendary Dakota apartment building off Central Park.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37135851

• Wal-Mart Plans $2B Hunger Relief Push
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to significantly ramp up its donations to the nation’s food banks to total $2 billion over the next five years, the retail giant said Wednesday.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37106519

• American Boy Breaks Everest Record
A 13-year-old American became the youngest climber to ever summit Mount Everest on Saturday. Jordan Romero’s journey was tracked through GPS coordinates on his blog, logging his team’s ascent up Everest.
www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/05/22

• Chocolate Bar May Help Fight Wrinkles
Eating almost an ounce of specially developed chocolate packed with antioxidants, or flavanols, each day may help prevent wrinkles and make skin more radiant by boosting elasticity and improving hydration, studies carried out by Barry Callebaut showed.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37252490

• Kissing Kid’s Owies May Benefit Health
A loving mother who kisses her child’s boo-boos may be providing more health benefits than she knows.New research indicates that early childhood experiences can have a lasting effect on health by influencing a person’s risk for chronic inflammation. Moms who soothe a child can help reduce stress, calming the hormones that can contribute to inflammation, the study suggests.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37215005

• The 9-Year-Old Microsoft Genius
Nine-year old Marco Calasan is the youngest Microsoft systems engineer in the world, holds four Microsoft certificates and has written a 312-page book on Microsoft’s Windows 7.
www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/05/17

• Volunteer Plants Saplings in Tree-Starved Mumbai
The seed of the idea, Satish Vijaykumar recalls, started as something tiny and simple. But it has sprouted branches that touch hundreds of people. The Sapling Project, as it’s now called, is neither flashy, nor grandiose, nor particularly original. But it provides yet more evidence for a basic law in the physics of making a difference: People at rest tend to stay at rest until one person starts things rolling.
www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0524

• Entrepreneur Looks to Heat Up Solar
Up to now, the main impediments to powering your home with solar energy have been cost and a confusing sales process, but Dave Llorens wants to change that. His startup, One Block Off The Grid, operates as a kind of solar brokering middleman, gathering together large groups of homeowners to negotiate cheaper deals with solar installation companies.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37092823

• Author Promotes Positive Change Through Words
Erica Jong highlights the ability of poetry to inspire others to make a positive change in the world through organizations such as Poetic People Power.  At Poetic People Power’s eighth annual event, poets will premiere new poems about the economics, psychology and costs of our consumerism culture.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36989664/ns/us_news-giving
(I hope to make positive changes in children through my children’s books soon to be published — publisher pending but law of attraction working.)