Even amidst the rubble, the pain, the hopelessness, hope still exists in Haiti. And no better exemplified than this story in Gimundo:

More than two weeks after the earthquake in Haiti that destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives and homes, search-and-rescue operations had seized. Rescuers had given up hope for those trapped in the earthquake rubble, instead focusing their efforts on helping the quake’s survivors, many of whom were injured and had little access to food or water.

But yesterday, while walking past the rubble of a home in Port-au-Prince, someone heard a weak voice calling out beneath the gravel. French rescue teams were alerted, and immediately set to work lifting the debris to find the person who had cried for help.

Soon, they had dug a hole to uncover

Darlene Etienne, a 17-year-old student at the nearby St. Gerard University, whose home had collapsed on top of her during the quake. Though rescuers held little hope of survivors staying alive in rubble for more than a few days, Etienne had lasted over two weeks, and was still conscious when the authorities pulled her out of the wreckage.

Authorities believe that Etienne was able to survive for so long because she may have had access to water from the home’s bathroom, and had a small amount of soda with her. Nonetheless, she wouldn’t have lasted much longer.

“She was in very bad shape,” rescuer Claude Fuilla told ABC News. “We had to rehydrate her for 15 minutes.”

Etienne was quickly flown to a hospital, and thanks to the rescuers’ assistance, it looks like she will be able to recover from her long ordeal.

“Now, her condition is stabilized,” said Fuilla. “She ate. She is speaking … She is not very lucid, but she is OK.”

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

If we take a moment each day to examine the natural world, undoubtedly there is some beautiful and profound lessons to be learned. This pioneering architect has found a way to observe nature and utilize aspects of its design to build sustainable buildings, readymade for our future:

Michael Pawlyn is a pioneer in the field of biomimetic architecture, responsible for some of the world’s most intriguing designs. He was a core part of the team behind the design of the Eden Project’s giant greenhouse biomes, for which it is famous. The idea for the structures came from analysing dragonflies’ wings. By mimicking the blueprint of this small but highly significant creature, the result is a building lighter than the air it contains.

In 2007, Michael founded Exploration Architecture to focus exclusively on sustainable design inspired by the natural world. Respecting nature as our Elder, whom we turn to for solutions, can, he believes, reduce our impact on the earth and slow the effects of climate change. “Nature has an amazing storehouse of ideas,” he says, “and it has had a long research and development period – 3.8 billion years in fact, so most of its faulty products have already been withdrawn from the market place.”

In recent projects, Michael has looked to the Namibian fog-basking beetle for answers. An ingenious creature, it thrives in the heat of the desert by harvesting water from air. At dawn, when fog rolls in from the cold Atlantic Sea, it turns to the wind and performs a kind of hand-stand. Microscopic troughs in the beetle’s back, catch the tiny fog droplets, which drip down into its mouth.

When Michael became involved in the design for the Las Palmas Water Theatre, in Gran Canaria, he was inspired by this resourceful fog-harvesting process. The open-air structure takes full advantage of its proximity to sea water, prominent winds and abundant sunshine. So, while serving as a grand amphitheatre for local entertainment, it doubles up as a wind-facing desalination plant – providing the town with green energy and clean water.

Currently, Michael is working on the Community Ecology Centre, inspired by Amsterdam’s De Kas restaurant. At the heart of the complex, a greenhouse will grow fruit and vegetables for the guests. Food waste will go to feed a wormery. The worms are fed to Tilapia fish, and the fish are then served fresh to diners.

Micro-organisms will break down the centre’s rubbish in an anaerobic digester, producing biogas to heat the greenhouse and generate electricity for the site. Meanwhile, a ‘living machine’ will mimic the filtration process that occurs in natural wetlands to turn sewage into clean water.

“By accommodating all these activities in one building, it’s possible to get the benefit of a closed-loop design that mimics the remarkable efficiencies of ecosystems,” Michael explains.
“Although there are some worrying times ahead in terms of climate change and so on,” he adds, “for every problem that we face, whether it’s creating energy, finding fresh water, or manufacturing in a benign way, there’ll be examples from nature that we can follow – and I bet you, that all those examples will be closed-loop, solar powered and non polluting.”

Website: www.exploration-architecture.com

Source: Positive News from Around the World

This New York Times excerpt tells an amazing story of perseverance and hope amidst the Haitian crisis and intense bureacracy:

Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania played an instrumental role in bringing the first planeload of children out of Haiti, and the bureaucratic difficulties his team faced underscore the legal and moral complexities of transferring hundreds of children to a new country in the middle of a catastrophe that has crippled the Haitian government.

“There were many times we thought we were coming back with no one,” Mr. Rendell said Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

After an all-night journey on two planes, the children — some wrapped in blankets, some carried by nurses and doctors, some walking and waving — came off a donated jet at Pittsburgh International Airport just after 9 a.m. and were taken by bus to the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of U.P.M.C. with a police escort.

Some of their adoptive parents waited anxiously while doctors examined the children, most of whom are under the age of 4.

“We just kept expecting the worst-case scenario, that they wouldn’t survive, that they’d be looted, that they’d run out of water,” said Jill Lear of Watertown, S.D., who arrived with her husband, Bruce, to wait for two children they were to adopt.

Mr. Rendell and Representative Jason Altmire flew Monday to Haiti on a chartered plane carrying medical supplies and 20 doctors and nurses. The plan was to drop off the supplies and pick up children from an orphanage run by two sisters, Jamie and Alison McMutrie from a Pittsburgh suburb, Ben Avon, Pa..

The orphanage was so badly damaged that the McMutrie sisters and the children were living in a courtyard. With a borrowed cellphone, they sent out appeals for help, saying they had only enough provisions for a few days.

Having lobbied the White House for several days, the Pennsylvania delegation had obtained United States visas for the children and had expected to be on the ground one hour.

But Haitian officials would let only 28 of the 54 orphans the sisters had brought to the airport to leave; the rest had not cleared all the hurdles for adoption. Seven had yet to be matched with adoptive parents, the Haitians said.

Then the sisters dug in their heels. “They just said no, they wouldn’t leave without all of them,” Mr. Altmire said.

For five hours, the delegation worked furiously to get the Haitian government to agree to let all the children go. The governor’s wife, Judge Marjorie O. Rendell of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, went to Port-au-Prince to meet with American diplomats. Mr. Rendell and Mr. Altmire lobbied the White House, which pressured Haitian officials.

The chartered plane was forced to return to Miami before a deal was reached, Mr. Rendell said, but the delegation stayed in Haiti. But at 11 p.m., the Haitian officials relented and the children were evacuated on a United States military cargo plane to Orlando, Fla., where they transferred to the jet to Pennsylvania. One child was found to be missing at the last minute in Haiti, and Jamie McMutrie stayed behind to find her. They were expected to arrive here Wednesday.

James C. McKinley Jr. reported from Miami, and Sean D. Hamill from Pittsburgh.

I found these sage words of advice on a page for people recovering from alcoholism. Whether you are dealing with an addiction or just need to let go of some dead weight that’s been holding you back for a long time, these words apply. Resentment can be a needless burden we carry around for years, decades…even a lifetime.

Isn’t it time to get your life back?

1. Approach resentment as the addictive state of mind it is.

2. Realize that you are using resentment to replicate your family drama and maintain a connection with those dramas, a necessary acknowledgment before you can let them go.

3. Examine how your resentment may come from mentally confusing people in your present life with people in your past.

4. Acknowledge that you cannot control those who have rejected you.

5. Recognize that your resentment give you only illusions of strength. Instead, highlight and validate your real strength and power.

6. Learn to identify the signals that provoke resentment.

7. Practice cognitive behavioral techniques to stop indulging in resentment. Put a thought between your feelings of resentment and indulging in ruminating about them.

8. Acknowledge your part in allowing the abuse to occur, forgive yourself for that, and make a decision to not let it occur again.

9. Declare an amnesty - with your family and with yourself.

10. Forgive when you can, and practice willful and deliberate forgetfulness when you cannot, keeping in mind that these acts are gifts to yourself rather than capitulation to those whom you resent.

Source: The Sober Recovery Network

Today I decided to pick positive quotes about a particular subject: healing. We’re in need of global healing, especially after the Haitian disaster. And personally, many of us harbor painful feelings for years, leading to partial state of being and a lack of wholeness.

May these quotes start the healing:

A lot of people say they want to get out of pain, and I’m sure that’s true, but they aren’t willing to make healing a high priority. They aren’t willing to look inside to see the source of their pain in order to deal with it.
Lindsay Wagner

A lot of victims, for example, have become addicted to alcohol and drugs. It seems to me that the church’s healing ministry is going to be enhanced through this in much broader strokes. That’s good, it’s all positive.
Roger Mahony

America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.
Warren G. Harding

Any education that matters is liberal. All the saving truths, all the healing graces that distinguish a good education from a bad one or a full education from a half empty one are contained in that word.
Alan K. Simpson

Beauty saves. Beauty heals. Beauty motivates. Beauty unites. Beauty returns us to our origins, and here lies the ultimate act of saving, of healing, of overcoming dualism.
Matthew Fox

But I’m going to focus on salvation as well as physical healing.
Benny Hinn

Coming to terms with the fear of death is conducive to healing, positive personality transformation, and consciousness evolution.
Stanislav Grof

Even the people who come our way look upon us in amazement, that we run only for the healing of Mother Earth.
Dennis Banks

Evil is the shadow of angel. Just as there are angels of light, support, guidance, healing and defense, so we have experiences of shadow angels. And we have names for them: racism, sexism, homophobia are all demons - but they’re not out there.
Matthew Fox

For me, singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open into the light, out of the darkness.
Reba McEntire

For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word.
Catherine Drinker Bowen

Healing in a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.
Hippocrates

Healing is a moral thing to do.
Jay Inslee

Healing rain is a real touch from God. It could be physical healing or emotional or whatever.
Michael W. Smith

Healing yourself is connected with healing others.
Yoko Ono

“Healing,” Papa would tell me, “is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.”
W. H. Auden

Healthy people are those who live in healthy homes on a healthy diet; in an environment equally fit for birth, growth work, healing, and dying… Healthy people need no bureaucratic interference to mate, give birth, share the human condition and die.
Ivan Illich

Henceforth the leaves of the tree of knowledge were for women, and for the healing of the nations.
Lucy Stone

I actually think sadness and darkness can be very beautiful and healing.
Duncan Sheik

I love sharing my story. It’s endlessly healing.
Ben Vereen

Source: BrainyQuote.com

It’s tough to know where to direct your efforts when it comes to Haitian relief. Everyone is concerned with online scams or questionable. organizations.

I found this guide online that really simplifies and clarifies what you can do now. ALL organizations have excellent reputations:
Thanks, Mashable:

Haiti Earthquake Relief: 9 Ways to Help Now

You have a lot of options on the web; here’s our list of trusted organizations. All of them will accept credit card donations through online forms.

The American Jewish World Service has set up the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund to respond to the crisis by supporting a network of organizations it works with.

AmeriCares has pledged $5 million to Haitian quake relief, and is soliciting donations to a general emergency disaster relief fund to help it accomplish that.

CARE is sending relief workers into the city of Port-au-Prince and needs funds to support its efforts. Suggested donations range from $50 to $1,000, but you can name your own amount if you prefer.

Catholic Relief Services has an office in Haiti, and luckily it’s still standing even though one of its neighbors collapsed. The organization is accepting donations of any amount.

Direct Relief International has committed up to $1 million in aid through two on-the-ground partners, and is sending containers of medical material aid.

Oxfam has 200 people on the ground to deal with the crisis, and began its efforts by trying to get clean water to victims of the quake. One of its staffers recorded a podcast describing the situation. You can donate on the American or UK site, depending on where you’re located.

Yele Haiti is sponsored by prominent Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean. You can donate through its website or via text message as described in the next segment.

UPDATE: Google Support Disaster Relief is a website Google has updated to respond to the crisis. Google has promised $1 million in support, but the site is also an easy place to donate money to either UNICEF or CARE. It also provides hospital addresses and links to sources for news on the situation.

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Donate With a Text Message

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Musician Wyclef Jean has used Twitter to rally web users to contribute to his grassroots Yele Haiti earthquake fund. He’s urged his followers to text “Yele” to the number 501501. If you send the text, the organization will receive $5. The amount will be added to your next cell phone bill. Consider retweeting Wyclef’s updates and get some of your Twitter followers to donate, too.

There’s another texting option spreading through Twitter. You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 via the Red Cross. Thanks to ABC News for pointing these out.

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?”

Today, we take a moment to celebrate The Onion.

The Onion is a satirical newspaper that has been making fun of the “real” news for years now. Poking fun of our current events allows us to take a step back and laugh - to not take it all too seriously. Laughter, of course, is the greatest medicine.

The staff consists of some ridiculously smart and daring writers who pride themselves in producing “faux news” and clever headlines.

Some of their headlines include:

Man With Apple Hovering In Front Of Face Sues René Magritte’s Estate

New VH1 Show Cancelled For Not Being Pathetic Enough

Woman Profoundly Moved By Lyrics Artist Put Zero Time Or Effort Into

Black Guy Asks Nation For Change

‘I Am Under 18′ Button Clicked For First Time In History Of Internet

Powerful ‘His And Hers’ Towel Lobby Stalls Gay Marriage Legislation

MTV Movie Awards Snubs Director Jonas Mekas Yet Again

Commas, Turning Up, Everywhere

Wealthy Teen Nearly Experiences Consequences

History Doomed To Repeat Itself, Reports Man Who Just Dropped Food On Pants

Hashing out headlines at The Onion: From left, Will Tracy, Dave Kornfeld and Todd Hanson.

Photo Source: NY Times (plus great article on their process)

To be upset over what you don’t have is to waste what you do have.  ~Ken S. Keyes, Jr., Handbook to Higher Consciousness

Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it.  ~Joe Clark

The only disability in life is a bad attitude.  ~Scott Hamilton

If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.  ~Vince Lombardi

My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants.  ~J. Brotherton

There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it reluctantly.  ~Publius Terentius Afer

I don’t like that man.  I must get to know him better.  ~Abraham Lincoln

Just because you’re miserable doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your life.  ~Annette Goodheart

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.  ~Albert Camus, Lyrical and Critical Essays

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.  ~Buddha

There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes.  ~William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues

Source: QuoteGarden