This summer, my garden has provided me with such pleasure. I’m not a great gardener. Heck, I’m not even a good gardener. But somehow, herbs managed to grow as well as some carrots, tomatoes and…weeds. Lots of weeds. Here’s a young girl who took her gardening a bit more seriously:

Alexandra Reau, of Petersburg, Mich., tended to her rainbow chard.

Lawn mowing and baby-sitting are standard summer jobs for the enterprising teenager. Alexandra Reau, who is 14, combines a little bit of each: last year, she asked her dad to dig up a half acre of their lawn in rural Petersburg, Mich., so she could farm. Now in its second season, her Garden to Go C.S.A. (community-supported agriculture) grows for 14 members, who pay $100 to $175 for two months of just-picked vegetables and herbs.

While her peers are hanging out at Molly’s Mystic Freeze and working out the moves to that Miley Cyrus video, she’s flicking potato-beetle larvae off of leaves in her V-neck T-shirt and denim capris, a barrette keeping her hair out of her demurely made-up eyes. Who says the face of American farming is a 57-year-old man with a John Deere cap?
Read more at The New York Times

I wanted to share a recent email from a friend of mine, who has been making some definite eco-friendly changes in her life:

I haven’t bought new clothes in years! And as a lawyer who frequently must dress to impress, you’d think this would be hard, right? Not at all. I have two thrift stores in my areas that I “pillage” every few months. I find designer names occasionally or at the very least, a simple, elegant and professional outfit. The funny part is, I’m often complimented on my clothing.

The way I see it: there’s enough clothing on this planet. Why buy new stuff? Use what’s out there. I also really enjoy going to second hand stores: I feel like I’ve really scored when I find something cool and the money I save can go toward things in my life I genuinely need.

This philosophy has also transferred to other aspects of my life. I just repaired an appliance that I normally would have tossed  (it was so simple.) I don’t feel the need for “new stuff” as much in general. I feel alright with what I have.

Michael J. Fox continues to be an inspiration to all of us, with his unbeatable attitude and tireless efforts put forth toward his cause and his disease, Parkinson’s Disease.

Michael J. Fox recently granted the wish of Gideon Strohaver, a 16-year-old from Michigan suffering from cystic fibrosis, by spending some quality time with him at the Central Park Zoo in NYC where they bonded over being “Incurable Optimists.”

Gideon caught Michael’s “The Incurable Optimist” special on television in his hospital and his teacher referred him to the Kids Wish Network in hopes Gideon could meet his hero Michael.

His wish came true and his family went on a special trip to NYC.  Gideon and Michael spent a day together at the zoo and Michael and his family were given tickets to the premiere screening of Shrek Forever After at the Tribeca Film Festival!

“He [Michael J. Fox] was so nice,” Gideon’s mother Kim said. “They just talked and talked as the zoo people kept bringing in animals for them to meet and pet. The one I think Michael and Gideon enjoyed most was the hissing cockroach. They both really enjoyed petting it and listening to it hiss.”

“He [Michael J. Fox] was just so sincere and so sweet. He even told us to call him Mike. He was just Gideon’s new friend, Mike,” she added. “It was a lot more than we ever expected. My daughter Olivia put it best when she said it was an ‘over the rainbow wish.’”

Source: OK!

Here at Only Positive News, we’ve talked about forgiveness a lot - and it’s for a good reason. Many people get stuck in a state of anger and pain in their lives. It’s hard to see the positive when you feel mired in the negative.

These techniques are deceptively simple but I like them for just that reason. Sometimes forgiveness is simpler than we think. Or we forget that there are actually techniques that can help us move forward today.

1. Allow yourself to experience anger, but don’t hold onto it for months or years on end. When the anger starts to consume you, you’ve held onto it for too long.
2. Express your feelings in a positive way through writing a journal or talking to a professional, close friend or family member who can help you make sense of the situation.
3. Try to step into the shoes of those who hurt you in hopes you’ll see the situation from their perspective.
4. Write a letter about your feelings to the people who hurt you. Using “I feel” or “I felt” are productive ways to start sentences.
5. Most importantly, have patience with yourself: “Remember, forgiveness doesn’t have to happen in a day.”

Like the simple but effective yogic advice to “be kind, starting with yourself,” we can always benefit from being reminded of these basic, healthy premises.

Source: YourTango.com

Take a look at this fact:

Worldwide, women receive only about 5 percent of agriculture extension services and own about 2 percent of land worldwide.

An obvious discrepancy, this article proves that when female farmers are empowered, it benefits the community as a whole.

Although women farmers produce more than half of the food grown in the world-and roughly 1.6 billion women depend on agriculture for their livelihoods-they are often not able to benefit from general agriculture funding because of the institutional and cultural barriers they face-including lack of access to land, lack of access to credit, and lack of access to education. Worldwide, women receive only about 5 percent of agriculture extension services and own about 2 percent of land worldwide.

But research has shown that when women’s incomes are improved, when they have better access to resources like education, infrastructure, credit, and health care, they tend to invest more in the nutrition, education, and health of their family, causing a ripple effect of benefits that can extend to the entire community.

In Kibera - sub-Saharan Africa’s largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, where anywhere from 700,000 to a million people live - women farmers, with training and seeds provided by the French NGO Soladarites, are growing vegetable farms in sacks filled with dirt. More than 1,000 women are growing food in this way. During the food crisis in Kenya during 2007 and 2008, when conflict in Nairobi prevented food from coming into the area, most residents did not go hungry because there were so many of these ‘vertical farms.’

In Zambia, Veronica Sianchenga, a farmer living in Kabuyu Village, saw improvements in her family’s quality of life when she began irrigating her farm with the “Mosi-o-Tunya” (Pump that Thunders), a pressure pump that she purchased from International Development Enterprises (IDE). In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the task of gathering water - in the driest parts of the continent this can require up to eight hours of labor per day - usually falls to women.

Explaining that her children are eating healthier, with more vegetables in their diet, Mrs. Sianchenga adds that she is also enjoying increased independence. “Now we are not relying only on our husbands, because we are now able to do our own projects and to assist our husbands, to make our families look better, eat better, clothe better - even to have a house.”

In Rwanda, the Farmers of the Future Initiative (FOFI) helps to empower young girls and other students by integrating school gardens and agriculture training into primary school curriculums. More than 60 percent of students in Rwanda will return to rural areas to farm for a living after graduating, instead of going on to secondary school or university. While both young boys and girls benefit from the training, it is especially important for young girls to learn these skills, says Josephine Tuyishimire, so that they can avoid dependence on men for food and financial security. And so they can share what they learn.

Equality isn’t just a women’s issue, it’s a world issue.

Source: WorldChanging.com

Here’s a piece one of our writers, Beth Mann, submitted to Open Salon about the miracle elephant, Mr. Shuffles:

Mr. Shuffles is a miracle elephant.

After almost 2 years in his mother’s womb, the vets could find no vital signs and he was presumed to be stillborn.

At a press conference, the staff at Taronga Zoo in Australia announced the sad news.

Katharina Theodore was one of the first keepers in the elephant barn the morning after Porntip, the mother elephant, gave birth.

“We went to greet all the elephants, walked up to Porntip and she didn’t react at all.” Theodore said.

“She seemed to be in a stupor and so I started to cry literally. I noticed blood on her legs and the bulge that was holding the calf was missing. So Gary and I walked into the paddock and we found a calf.

“I was kind of happy that at least she’d expelled the calf and I was thinking that’s great, we can move on and look after her.

“And then, mind-blowingly enough, the calf raised its head.”

20 vets and keepers quickly went to work, round the clock, administering to the calf who they feared suffered brain damage.

When Mr. Shuffles was well enough to take his first steps, they were heavy and unsure, like that of an old man, hence the nickname “Mr. Shuffles.”

He was officially renamed Pathi Harn in a ceremony held by Buddhist monks to celebrate his Thai culture. This caused a minor uproar online (by people like me) who really, really like his nickname.

Parthi Harn is the Thai word for miracle.

Pathi Harn is getting stronger day by day, feeding heartily from his mother and playing with his cousin, Luk Chai .

And while his beautiful Thai name reflects his regal status which he rightfully deserves, he will always be known as Mr. Shuffles to many.

He’s a little wide-eyed and goofy - a creature who has gone through something. A creature who is happy to be alive.

Follow Mr. Shuffles on Twitter.

Sources:
Brisbane Times
ABC News Australia

This story gives new meaning to women reaching new heights…quite literally!

Congress is awarding the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor, to members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, a civilian branch of the Army Air Force. Fewer than 300 of the 1,100 survive. Relatives of those who have died or could not attend will also get medals.

When Jean Springer (above) joined, “it was kind of a lark,” she says. She had been taking flying lessons. “It was patriotic. And boring at home. I loved flying.”

The WASP was created to allow more male pilots to go to the war front.

Prohibited from flying in combat, the female pilots transported military personnel, towed targets for gunnery practice and shuttled planes from factories to bases.

They flew every military plane model flown in the war.

“Sometimes the guys who gave us weather predictions in the morning when we left weren’t particularly accurate,” Springer says. “In snowstorms, it was scary.”

Yet no military honors were granted to the 38 women who were killed during service to the program.

In December 1944, as the war was ending and male pilots were coming home, the program was disbanded.

“One day I came back from a flight,” says Doris Nathan, 93, of Kalamazoo, Mich. “And the commanding officer said, ‘I just got orders to tell you to get off the base by tomorrow morning.’ ”

Some of the women kept flying as instructors in Florida or bush pilots in Alaska, says Albert “Chig” Lewis, a Washington lawyer and founding member of Wingtip to Wingtip, an association that promotes the fliers’ legacy. His mother was a WASP. Others raised families and accepted that most of the nation didn’t know what they’d done.

The fliers were already trying to gain recognition as military veterans in 1976 when the Air Force announced that “for the first time ever” it would teach women to fly military airplanes, says Kate Landdeck, an associate professor of history at Texas Woman’s University who is writing a book about WASPs and their lives after the war.

“They realized their Air Force had forgotten about them,” Landdeck says.

In 1977, after a “huge effort in Congress” and with the help of Sen. Barry Goldwater, who had flown with WASPs during the war, the women were recognized as military personnel and given partial veterans benefits.

“They get to go to VA hospitals, and they get that flag on the coffin,” she says. “That’s the most important thing to them.” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, co-sponsored the bill to honor the women with the medal.

“These women have yet to receive the recognition they deserve,” Hutchison says.

Source: USA Today

That’s right - after years of debating and in-house feuding, the United States of America has passed a healthcare reform:

The US House of Representatives has narrowly voted to pass a landmark healthcare reform bill at the heart of President Barack Obama’s agenda.

Under the legislation, health insurance will be extended to nearly all Americans, imposes new taxes on the wealthy and bars restrictive insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.

They represent the biggest change in the US healthcare system since the creation in the 1960s of Medicare, the government-run scheme for Americans aged 65 or over.

President Barack Obama:

“It’s a victory for the American people.”

Damn straight.

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and senior staff, react in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, as the House passes the health care reform bill, March 21, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Source: BBC News

We all now the dangers of clinging on too tightly or feeling the need to control others. It feels like an addiction, where we turn our focus away from ourselves and onto something or someone else, for which we have no control. If you’ve been there (and haven’t we all?) here are some quotes to lead you back to yourself:

As I started to picture the trees in the storm, the answer began to dawn on me. The trees in the storm don’t try to stand up straight and tall and erect. They allow themselves to bend and be blown with the wind. They understand the power of letting go. Those trees and those branches that try too hard to stand up strong and straight are the ones that break. Now is not the time for you to be strong, Julia, or you, too, will break.
– Julia Butterfly Hill



Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.
– Oprah Winfrey


By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.
– Lao Tzu


Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
– Raymond Lindquist


Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.
– Gail Sheehy


Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.
– Author Unknown


Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head.
– Ann Landers


Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions.
– Gerald Jampolsky


Let go. Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is not yours to judge. Why hold on to the very thing which keeps you from hope and love?
– Leo Buscaglia

Letting go doesn’t mean giving up, but rather accepting that there are things that cannot be.
– Anon

Loving someone is setting them free, letting them go.
– Kate Winslet


People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.
– Thich Nhat Hanh


Some think it’s holding on that makes one strong; sometimes it’s letting go.
– Sylvia Robinson

There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.
– Gloria Naylor


Stand up and walk out of your history.
– Phil McGraw

The harder you fight to hold on to specific assumptions, the more likely there’s gold in letting go of them. — John Seely Brown

True love doesn’t have a happy ending, because true love never ends. Letting go is one way of saying I love you.
– Author Unknown

Truly loving another means letting go of all expectations. It means full acceptance, even celebration of another’s personhood.


– Karen Casey

There are things that we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind. But keep in mind that letting go isn’t the end of the world, it’s the beginning of a new life.
– Author Unknown

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.
– Joseph Campbell

Source: Great Inspirational Quotes

We have been called to help the people of Haiti in whatever way possible, realizing it’s a poor country and their disaster has been so profound. This couple has used their medical expertise and household items to help their neighbors - a real reminder that you do what it takes to help:

They have few medical supplies, no nurses, and are using an armchair as an operating table—but Haitian doctors Claude and Yolene Surena make do with what they have to save as many lives as possible in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Ever since the earthquake hit last Tuesday, neighbors have been banging on the doctor couple’s door, pleading for help with urgent medical needs. Fortunately, their house didn’t sustain damage, but many of their neighbors’ homes had collapsed. Some were hurt by falling debris, and had suffered injuries like puncture wounds, gaping cuts, and broken bones.

Yolene Surena said that she treated her first patient about five minutes after the earthquake struck, and by Saturday, she and her husband had helped more than 300 injured earthquake victims, substituting household items like Krazy Clue to help close wounds when they didn’t have the appropriate equipment. They’ve worked tirelessly, night and day, with assistance only from friends with no medical training. Despite the makeshift nature of their operation, they have lost only six patients.

Though it’s tough for the couple to keep up their relentless pace, they are determined to help as many people as they can.

“Each time you get something to do further, you hope that you can save one more life.”

Source: Gimundo

Today, ask yourself, very seriously, “What More Can I Do?”