I haven't been able to spend the holiday season with one of my daughters in quite a while (she lives with her family in deep south Texas) but it was amazing how we caught up this year in no time at all.  We have always done special things during the holidays like play games, watch seasonal "feel good" movies and bake special things (both my daughter and granddaughter are great cooks - me not so much...but I help with things that don't demand tremendous ability).  

One of our favorite things that we have done in years past has been to make holiday decorations to put on a big family tree. And we did it again this year.  This is a tradition that has gone on for probably fifteen years and it was nice to continue it.  

​Positive family traditions are so wonderful and family memories are so precious.  It doesn't take much - just togetherness..

​Togetherness and family come in many forms - it's all about sharing and expressing love.  In this season, I wish everyone wonderful family gatherings and much love...with whatever your family structure is and however you express that love....love is powerful and is the glue that holds us together as a humanity.

Above: Some of the decorations that we created this year: an adorable holiday troll, a bluebird of happiness on her nest, a happy mug of holiday cocoa, a heart of holiday love; a wonderful holiday dinner feast, and a cute holiday owl with his Santa hat.

Below: Some of the ornaments from holidays past: a holiday wreath, a holiday elf and a holiday boot to get you through the "mush of life with harmony in your heart."

I haven't posted in a while because I have been traveling to various places and to see various people.  My little dog Inspector Gumby gets to go sometimes.  He has learned the signs of impending travel....when the suitcase comes out and I start rushing around.  And sometimes he gets a bath to look his best.  This past week I was getting ready to go on a trip and had my suitcase out in preparation.  It was also bath day for Gumby (not related to travel except in his mind).  As I was moving around Gumby vanished.  We could not find him anywhere and he wouldn't come when we called (but that's not too unusual as he only minds when he wants to anyway).  

But after looking for a while I went back to getting my clothes to pack and brought them to the open suitcase on the sofa where I always pack and there he was, in the suitcase, ready to go!

I think that it is so interesting how intuitive dogs are.  They sense energies and they know expressions and a few words - like "car ride", "walkie-walkie" and "breakfast".  And they know people - those who have positive energy and those who don't.  They can even sense illnesses like cancer and they know when things aren't right.  They are special messengers sent here to be our life companions and we need to treat them with the love they deserve.  

​I love Gumby (and his companion Nunzi) very much but, in this case, I could not take him and he was left at home.  He will be sad, but only temporarily because he will have lots of love while I am gone. And he will be there when I get home, jumping up and down, running in circles and shaking his toy around to let me know that he's happy that I found my way back once again! 

The western bluebird, the "Bluebird of Happiness"...local to southern California and especially beautiful because of its vivid color, is a wonderful representative of our natural world...  Whenever I see one it makes me happy - they are so bright and so colorful...and it makes me think of how special all of our feathered friends are. They are the super creatures of the world and they have survived and adapted to climates from the ice of Antarctica to the heat of the tropics ..... and they know no political boundaries. Watch the amazing documentary "Winged Migration" for a beautiful and powerful depiction of this. 

But there are 1,300 bird species facing extinction according to National Geographic and the status of others is deteriorating.  While birds are survivors and adapters, we need to do more to protect them and eliminate the contaminating pesticides that we use in our daily life which are highly toxic to the pollinators, aquatic fish and birds. The biggest contaminator of all is the high-carbon world that we have created through the burning of fossil fuels for energy.  Find out more at National Geographic online or at one of my favorite charity sites, the Center for Biological Diversity.

But now that we know the perils that we must eliminate for our birds to survive, I want to concentrate on what the birds give us and what we would be without if they weren't here.  Birds give us wings to our dreams and a connection to the bigger world of all nature that we exist within.  If we take care of our birds we will save our planet.

Every spring I love to hear the cheery chirping of the little baby birds.  It is the promise of new life and spring already here and summer coming. I have many bright flowers in my yard, particularly red ones, and in the evening I love to watch the hummingbirds gather around my flowers. They are little energy sprites as they dive into one red flower after another.  I think how sad my world would be if I couldn't have the experience of discovering with my granddaughters a little nest with a momma wren and watched as her babies learned to fly  or discovering a momma loon nesting in the rushes along the boundary waters between the U. S. and Canada with my son.  Birds are magical, defying our earthly limitations and cultural boundaries.  They are the conduit between earth and the heavens and they add color, pattern and sound to our world. When we think of them and enjoy them, we must do what we can to protect them; our life and our world will be richer because of it.

Below are some of the beautiful and diverse birds that I photographed with my daughter on a birding trip to Veracruz, Mexico.

I was cleaning out my office and I discovered a vision board that I had made in 2009 and was surprised to see how much my life had taken the course that I had outlined and envisioned 10 years ago. 

At one time I kept it on my desk where I could see it every day but, since moving to a new studio, it had been stored with other things that I did not need on a daily basis; but it had not been  discarded.  In looking at it again,  it was interesting to see how much my life had followed my dreams as outlined on my vision board. 

What is a vision board?

As defined by psychologists, spiritual leaders and anthropologists, a vision board is a tool used to help clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on a specific life goal. Literally, a vision board is any sort of board on which you display images that you have found and which represent whatever you want to be, do or have in your life.

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Vision board history dates back to the Cave Man era where anthropologists have determined that the cave paintings were created to 'envision' the success of the upcoming hunt. Down through history visioning has been used by people in many fields to realize their goals whether it be athletes or leaders in various fields by encompassing the power of the subconscious mind. 
 
A vision board keeps you focused. No matter what happens during your day, your vision board is a constant reminder of where you intend to be. Appealing to you on both conscious and subconscious levels, a vision board can work wonders toward keeping your mind focused on your goal and your attention on your intentions,
 
The vision board starts working on your unconscious mind, where your real mind-power resides. You begin to open up and see opportunities where you normally wouldn’t… because the vision board has given you permission to work in your deep subconscious mind.  

I have used a vision board for myself and have worked with children and teens to create their own vision boards
At the least vision boards are fun to make, and at their most powerful, they can be valuable tool for life fulfillment.
 
 

I saw this beautiful poster and wanted to post about it.  Children always want to be "cool" and sometimes they follow the loudest "cool" voice whether it leads them in the right direction or the wrong direction.  It's important for children to be taught to be strong and follow their own "cool" voice inside and do what they think is right to do, not what everyone tells them to do.

 As I posted a few weeks ago, my book "My Friend Timmy" is about being kind and inclusive to a child with special needs and how it is the "cool" thing to do.  This book is my statement about inclusion not exclusion and having love and understanding for someone who is perhaps different or who has special needs.  That book just won a Book Excellence Award for children's education and I am very proud of that.  However, I am most proud that the staff of Literary Excellence.com agrees with me about the importance of being caring and kind.  A good mantra to remember whether you are young or not so young in age (but always young in heart) is the mantra below.

When you want to say something...stop and THINK:

T  - is it True?

H  - is it Helpful?

​ I  - is it Inspiring?

N - is it Necessary?
                                             
​K - is it Kind?
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​If it's not, maybe it's better unspoken.  That's the Cool thing to do!

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I do NOT believe we are all born equal. Created equal in the eyes of God, yes, but physical and emotional differences, parental guidelines, varying environments, being in the right place at the right time, all play a role in enhancing or limiting an individual's development. But I DO believe every man and woman, if given the opportunity and encouragement to recognize their potential, regardless of background, has the freedom to choose in our world. Will an individual be a taker or a giver in life? Will that person be satisfied merely to exist or seek a meaningful purpose? Will he or she dare to dream the impossible dream? I believe every person is created as the steward of his or her own destiny with great power for a specific purpose, to share with others, through service, a reverence for life in a spirit of love.
— Hugh O'Brian, The Freedom to Choose

At left Zoe and her friends at the Hugh O'Brian World Leadership Conference (WLC) on the campus of Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois. Students in their sophomore year are chosen from all over the world and represent all fifty states and 19 countries and regions. Founded in 1958 by American actor Hugh O'Brian, to date more than 460,000 students have attended HOBY programs.  Mr O'Brian was inspired by a visit with Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the renowned theologian, humanitarian and Nobel Laureate to create an organization dedicated to training and nurturing the young leaders of tomorrow.  Its mission is to provide lifelong leadership development opportunities that empower youth to achieve their highest potential and gain knowledge of leadership skills.  This summer, my granddaughter Zoe was chosen to attend the Hugh O'Brian World Leadership Conference. She met students from all over the world and has come back inspired to do great things.  Knowing my granddaughter and her determination and desire, she will do just that.

Do you believe in serendipity?  I believe that Zoe experienced a little serendipity at the conference, when, without knowing who she was, Zoe invited a lovely lady who seemed to be by herself to come and sit at Zoe's table which the lady did.  They struck up a long and in depth conversation about Responsible Consumption and Production and the lovely lady turned out to be Ms. O'Brian, Hugh O'Brian's widow.  Since Zoe has been home they have stayed in touch and Zoe has found an organization at home that focuses on home cooking and healthy eating that will be a perfect collaboration for Zoe who is quite a cook, a health food consumer and a big environmentalist and conservationist. At right are Zoe, another student and Ms. O'Brian.  

Zoe told me that two of her best friends from WLC were a young man from Beijing and a young girl from Hong Kong and they introduced Zoe to the political unrest between their countries from their separate perspectives but in respectful conversation with each other.  That is what the world should be like, where we all have our differences but are able to peacefully coexist and take care of our shared world.  

​Way to go Zoe and all of the young students, growing, sharing and working for a better future! 

After perfecting the origami star pattern below, I made two stars and pasted the one with a special quote on top to "wish upon".

The quote is by the French writer George Sand (born Aurore Dupin) and it states: "It is never too late to be what you might have been."  Food for thought ... I interpret it to mean "Always keep trying in life to be the best that you have ever dreamed of being".

Another quote that I love by George Sand "Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.

George Sand was an amazing woman and the most prolific author of her day.  She lived an independent and rule breaking life and left behind an astonishing library of literary work and a legacy of a rich and bohemian lifestyle for us to enjoy.......

I usually like to post positive messages but I am angry right now - at the use of glyphosate (market name Roundup®) in agriculture and landscaping.

A mysterious "bump" came up on my little dog Nunzi's foot and I thought that it was a fox tail burr imbedded in his foot as he is a short little fellow and he picks up things wherever we take walks.  However when I took him to the vet, she told me that it looked suspiciously like a mast cell tumor, which I had never heard of.  She took a biopsy and sent it to the lab and it came back as a malignant mast cell tumor which had not spread to any other organ yet but was in his lymph node.  He is an older dog but normally pretty healthy so I started researching what the cause of the tumor could be. I found a site discussing the use of  the chemical glyphosate (market name Roundup®) in the environment and its correlation to cancer in dogs.  I knew that Bayer who bought Monsanto the chemical's creator was recently hit with a $2 billion verdict losing their third straight Roundup® trial in relation to cancer in humans, but I did not know about dogs.  A lab at The University of California San Francisco reports that, in their testing, a whopping 93% of humans today have glyphosate in their systems, with children having the highest levels particularly in agricultural areas.  

Studies have found that dogs can have up to 5,000% more glyphosate than humans and it makes sense.  They are lower to the ground, they sometimes eat the grass that has been sprayed and they roll in it. A national laboratory was offering to test a pet's urine for glyphosate so I sent in a sample of Nunzi's urine.

After about a week I received the lab results and Nunzi had a effective glyphosate level of 35.7 ppb (ng/mL.) more than twice the average of other samples received by the lab.  I was appalled and I called the laboratory to find out more about glyphosate and cancer.  I was told that glyphosate, because of vast agricultural and landscape spraying, is everywhere.  I knew that I had to research further.  What I found made me sick and mad.

Many crops and food products for both animals and people are heavily contaminated. There is a list online of common and popular animal and human foods known to have glyphosate contamination.  Our large commercial farms, particularly with GMO crops, are being sprayed with Roundup® because it is the easiest weed killer.  It is now  leaching into our food, our water and our environment.  Looking at the list of dog foods, Nunzi did not eat any of the dog foods listed so that took me back to the spraying of the environment where we live.  I discovered that our neighborhood HOA had contracted with a landscape maintenance company that was spraying Roundup® on a regular basis.  It stays in the soil for a very long time and toxins are generally metabolized more slowly in animals, the fetus, small children and the elderly.  Our community has all of those mentioned.  I am now demanding that the HOA discontinue the practice of using Roundup®.  Many countries throughout the world and communities across the U.S. have already done so and it is time to join them.

What am I doing for Nunzi?  Our naturopathic vet has him on an immune building diet of supplements and a specially made food for dogs with cancer.  We are treating his tumor with laser "zapping" and.working hard to outrace and stop the cancer... and we are giving him lots of love.  He seems to feel fine and loves his food with all the supplements mixed in it.  Please keep him and other such glyphosate affected animals in your thoughts; be aware of the dangers of Roundup®; research the foods contaminated and try to avoid them; eat organic when you can and join me in trying to rid us of this horrible chemical.

A Lesson in Caring...

I am excited to announce that one of my books in the Lae Lae collection has just won a Book Excellence Award as a finalist in the category of children's education. This is the third book award that the collection has received and this one again has been chosen from hundreds of books submitted from around the world.  As stated in the Book Excellence Award press releases, the book was chosen for high quality writing, design and market appeal.

The subject matter was considered as well and this book is about learning to accept a child who has special needs.  It is one of my favorite books in the collection as I feel that bullying can come because of a child's fear of someone who is different or a lack of empathy and caring for a child who is different or who may have special needs.  

In this book Lae Lae meets Timmy, a little boy who walks with "canes" and who has special needs.  She wants to be a friend but doesn't know how to include him in her play.  Her mother tells Lae Lae that Timmy is just like she is inside and that he has the same needs and desires that Lae Lae has.  Lae Lae and her friends discover activities that they can participate in to include him and all are happier because of it.  This book is about accepting, not judging and learning how to develop empathy.  I have had parents who have told me that the book has helped their child with learning acceptance and caring and others who have said that it has helped their child who has special needs to develop his or her sense of self worth and acceptance.  There are lessons to be learned for children on both sides of the human connection.

I started my collection several years ago to express positive life lessons for young children .... about caring for each other, the animals and the world that they live in.  Most of my blogs are about positive fun things that have come from my own experiences.  However sometime, I approach subjects which need to be corrected like the killing of endangered animals or the desecration of our earth.  Those subjects are an unfortunate reality in today's world.  I am talking to children because they are the citizens of tomorrow and it is up to us to help guide them to be caring stewards of the world that they live in.  I am hoping that the parents hear the messages as well.  We all need to do our best.
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