Stop using bleach and chemical cleaners to kill germs and banish rings in the toilet bowl. Pure white vinegar does the job and, as a natural substance, is less harmful to the environment.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Remember. Respect. Work toward the world they fought and died for.
It started at an international gathering in Hawaii in 1965, this excellent idea. Those wise people thought that taking even one day a year to really think about what we’re grateful for is a healthy thing that would enhance our well-being and make us more content and happier. It’s a day off from focusing on our troubles and the bad things that happen to us and instead looking at all the little things–and people–that enrich our lives.
You, my readers, are part of what I give thanks for today.
Happy World Gratitude Day!
Yesterday was World Oceans Day, calling attention to our oceans and how to appreciate and take care of them and inviting us to do so all year long. This year the emphasis is on all the plastic accumulating in those magnificent bodies of water. So I offer you this small reflection:
40,000 garbage trucks filled with plastic = 270,000 tons of it floating around our oceans. That’s what the current estimate is. And that’s a conservative guess, since fish, birds, and other species eat a good amount of it. It’s unsightly and deadly for the critters who eat it or get hopelessly entangled in it. It’s not healthy for humans, either.
This is something to think about next time we’re about to toss a plastic bottle cap, bag, food wrapper, or other item onto the roadway or gutter, where it can wash into the waterways leading to the ocean. Or tossing those items off of a boat or bridge.
The item can’t be that heavy to hold onto until you see the next recycling container.
One in every 110 U.S. kids has it, and 3.5 million Americans live with an autism spectrum disorder. Between 2000 and 2010, autism in our nation’s children increased by 119.4%, and it’s still increasing. In fact, autism is the fastest-growing developmental disability in the U.S.
You probably know someone with it but think of the person as “a little off” because you don’t recognize his or her autism. Today is World Autism Awareness Day, and April is National Autism Awareness Month–a great time to learn about it.
http://www.whathealth.com/awareness/event/nationalautismmonth.html gives an excellent summary of how autism affects a person, the characteristics you might notice, and how the American Autism Society is trying to spread the word about this condition with no known cause (no, vaccines don’t bring it on).
Another very good site is offered by Easter Seals, “Autism Signs and Symptoms,” including a list of behaviors with which you can evaluate your own child.
These sites are worth looking at, if for no other reason than they may lead people to be more tolerant and understanding rather than writing someone off as “odd,” “cold,” or “stand-offish.”
Where is it all? According to Oxfam, 1% of the world’s population now owns as much as the other 99% put together. Seems a bit topsy-turvy to me, considering all the poverty, disease, and starvation in the world.
You can read the details in “Oxfam: 62 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of world’s population.”
Today is the 12th annual World Day Against the Death Penalty. This year the focus is on mental health. The message the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty hopes to get across is that too many prisoners who are mentally ill or intellectually disabled are being executed rather than receiving treatment to address the condition that is the underlying cause of the crime. Many of us wish that our country would join other industrialized countries in abolishing the death penalty totally; many others view executing a person who is mentally ill or the mental age of a child as barbaric.
For more information about this day and topic, and for what you can do, go to http://www.worldcoalition.org/worldday.html.
Are you and your friends looking for a job to do in 2014? Margaret Mead gives us a strong hint:
On this Thoughtful Thursday, on the second day of a brand new year, let’s get started!
Bono rocks with this Thursday Thought: “The world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape.” –Bono
[Let’s all get our hammers and work on smoothing out the world’s rough, jagged edges.]
Anne Frank suffered in mind, body, and soul in a dark, dangerous world and still had this to say:
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
[There’s a meaty idea for Thoughtful Thursday and every day.]