For some people, giving is a life’s purpose. This was the case for Grace Groner who died last January:

Grace Groner lived frugally but was happy to spend money on things she found important. Since she had lived through the Depression, Groner bought clothes from rummage sales and lived in a sparsely furnished one-bedroom house. But she also traveled widely after her retirement, frequently helped needy parishoners of her church and even set up a small scholarship fund for her alma mater, Lake Forest College in Illinios.

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Her plan was always to contribute more upon her death, the Chicago Tribune reported. When that time came earlier this year and her attorney informed Stephen Schutt, the college’s president, how large the gift was, Schutt’s response was, “Oh, my God.”

Groner’s estate, which was seeded with a $180 stock purchase in 1935, was worth $7 million.

The money is going into a foundation that will enable less-advantaged Lake Forest students to pursue internships and study-abroad programs.

Groner, who never wed nor had children, has also bequeathed to the college her small home, which will be turned into housing for women receiving foundation scholarships and will be renamed Grace’s Cottage.

Grace's Home, which she also donated.

This story is a great reminder that sometimes even facts lie. Sometimes things are still living, just barely there, when we’re sure they’re long since gone. Sometimes miracles do happen:

An elephant gave birth to a calf at Sydney’s main zoo on Wednesday, surprising vets and keepers who two days earlier declared the baby had died in the womb.

“When the keepers learned the calf had survived this morning, the looks of disbelief on our faces were quite a picture. We couldn’t believe that this could be true,” said Taronga Zoo’s elephant manager Gary Miller.

Officials said they now believe the calf was in a coma throughout the labor. They said the calf had since taken its first steps, but it was too early to know if it would survive.

The Asian elephant mother delivered the male baby in the early hours of Wednesday in what Taronga Park Zoo officials said was “unbelievable good fortune”.

“Dedicated keepers reported the amazing news early this morning that the calf had been born and was showing signs of life,” said zoo director Cameron Kerr.

On Monday, Kerr said despite an expert team of vets who had prepared for every eventuality, the calf had not survived after six days of labor, and ultrasounds found there was no chance of a successful birth.

(Reporting by James Grubel, editing by Miral Fahmy) Source: Reuters

World, meet “Mr Shuffles”

Sometimes we hang on to pain so dearly, it begins to define us. We don’t know what we’d do without it. We get used to it, like an old, moth-worn blanket that never really keeps us warm.

This week, we offer up quotes on letting go:

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

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

“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.”

“When you become good at the art of letting sufferings go, then you’ll come to realize what you were dragging around with you. And for that, no one else other than you was responsible.” Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

“It’s all right letting yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back.” Mick Jagger

“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.” Jim Morrison

“Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong- sometimes it's letting go.”

Image Source: TheEnvisage

Most of us have heard about the dangers of taking antibiotics for every sniffle and scrape. But Norway just proved, on a countrywide scale, that not using antibiotics can save a nation. This is a must read:

BY MARTHA MENDOZA AND MARGIE MASON

OSLO, Norway — Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner.Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia last year, soaring virtually unchecked.

The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs.

Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway’s public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics.

Now a spate of new studies from around the world prove that Norway’s model can be replicated with extraordinary success, and public health experts are saying these deaths — 19,000 in the U.S. each year alone, more than from AIDS — are unnecessary.

“It’s a very sad situation that in some places so many are dying from this, because we have shown here in Norway that Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] can be controlled, and with not too much effort,” said Jan Hendrik-Binder, Oslo’s MRSA medical advisor. “But you have to take it seriously, you have to give it attention and you must not give up.”

The World Health Organization says antibiotic resistance is one of the leading public health threats on the planet. A six-month investigation by The Associated Press found overuse and misuse of medicines has led to mutations in once curable diseases like tuberculosis and malaria, making them harder and in some cases impossible to treat.

Now, in Norway’s simple solution, there’s a glimmer of hope.

ANTIBIOTICS MISSING

Dr. John Birger Haug shuffles down Aker’s scuffed corridors, patting the pocket of his baggy white scrubs. “My bible,” the infectious disease specialist says, pulling out a little red Antibiotic Guide that details this country’s impressive MRSA solution.

It’s what’s missing from this book — an array of antibiotics — that makes it so remarkable.

“There are times I must show these golden rules to our doctors and tell them they cannot prescribe something, but our patients do not suffer more and our nation, as a result, is mostly infection free,” he says.

Norway’s model is surprisingly straightforward.

• Norwegian doctors prescribe fewer antibiotics than any other country, so people do not have a chance to develop resistance to them.

• Patients with MRSA are isolated and medical staff who test positive stay home.

• Doctors track each case of MRSA by its individual strain, interviewing patients about where they’ve been and who they’ve been with, testing anyone who has been in contact with them.

“We don’t throw antibiotics at every person with a fever,” says Haug. “We tell them to hang on, wait and see, and we give them a Tylenol to feel better.”

A close-up look at staph

Much has been said about Gabourey Sidibe’s weight. Being one of the heaviest women in Hollywood in a place to blatantly encourages thinness at all costs, it’s no surprise.

But Gabourey has maintained her positivity in the face of naysayers. And she has consistently kept her focus on her talent and positivity, not her weight.

While she lost the Best Actress award to Sandra Bullock, today we celebrate somebody in the media spotlight who is non-traditionally radiant and throws a wrench in what we consider “beautiful.”

That’s positive news!

“I used to get hurt so badly. Any bit of criticism, I would cry. But at some point I just realized, I count more than anyone else, or anybody’s opinion, because I’m living my life — I’m captain of this ship, without a first mate. And I really, really like who I am. I really, really dig me.”

- Gabourey Sidibe

Love endures. At least that’s how the saying goes. But this couple proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Not only does love endure, it heals and conquers and enters triathalons:

In 2007, Beth Kallok joined a Los Angeles area triathlon group for fun. Although she’d always been athletic, she soon realized it was more extreme than she’d expected: she’d been accustomed to staying out late at bars, but that was definitely not part of the training regime. And her coach, Lawrence Fong, let her know that such behavior wouldn’t be tolerated.

At first, Beth thought Lawrence was a pain. But before long, she grew to understand his rigorous training techniques, and started taking the practice seriously.

She realized there was a lot more to Lawrence than she’d initially realized, too: they began dating, and when Beth crossed the finish line of her first triathlon, Lawrence proposed. Despite her exhaustion from completing the 141-mile race, Beth was happier than she’d ever been in her life.

After the young couple got married in April 2007, they’d planned to compete in the Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii together that fall. But life had other plans.

Two weeks before the race, Beth received a phone call from a friend. Her new husband had been at a restaurant when he’d collapsed on the floor and hit his head in the bathroom. He was bleeding profusely, and had been rushed to the hospital.

When Beth arrived, the situation was even worse than she’d expected. Although he was conscious, Lawrence didn’t recognize his own wife.

Soon, the doctors realized that Lawrence had a blood clot against his brain stem that would need to be removed. After the surgery was performed, Lawrence slipped into a coma. A doctor told Beth that Lawrence was brain-dead, and that she should think about removing his life support system.

But Beth didn’t believe the doctor. “I was scared, but deep down I always knew that this was not how our story would end,” she told the Los Angeles Times.

Beth visited Lawrence every day in the hospital, talking to him even though he wasn’t able to respond. She believed that he could hear her—and on Christmas Eve, she discovered that she had been right all along. When she asked him if he was cold, he nodded at her. She repeated the question; he nodded again.

In the two years since then, Lawrence’s progress has been slow, but steady. He has learned to speak again, to stand up, and to walk with support. Though he still needs to use a wheelchair, he has ambitions of racing again one day—but for now, he is content to support his wife. He has become her coach, cheering her on from his chair.

The experience has transformed Lawrence’s life. “He got to come back in the world we met in and we both thrived in,” said Beth.

Her husband’s love and support has helped her, too. Last fall, with Lawrence’s encouragement, Beth finally raced in the Ironman Competition, knowing that Lawrence was waiting for her at the finish line—believing in her, just as she’d believed in him.

Arizona Ironman finisher Beth Fong celebrates with her husband Lawrence after crossing the finish line last November, more than 14 hours after she started.

Source: Gimundo & Los Angeles Times

In dedication to the profound loss our global neighbors of Chile suffered on February 27th. Please take a moment to pray for them today.

Source: The Boston Globe AP Photo/ Aliosha Marquez

A tragedy is a representation of an action that is whole and complete and of a certain magnitude. A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end.

- Aristotle

Here at Only Positive News, we want to create in our readers a more positive outlook organically. Surprisingly that can come about in some seemingly inauthentic ways. It’s an outside-in approach to positivity, often referred to as “fake it until you make it.”

Here’s an excerpt from a great article that scientifically proves you can make a difference simply by playing a role of happiness:

If social psychologists have proven anything during the last 30 years, they have proven that the actions we take leave a residue inside us. Every time we act, we amplify the underlying idea or tendency behind it. Most people presume the reverse: that our traits and attitudes affect our behavior. While this is true to a certain extent (though less so than commonly supposed), it is also true that our traits and attitudes follow our behavior. We are as likely to act ourselves into a new way of thinking as to think ourselves into a new way of acting.

There is a practical moral here for us all. Do we wish to change ourselves in some important way? Perhaps boost our self-esteem? Become more optimistic and socially assertive? Well, a potent strategy is to get up and start doing that very thing. Don’t worry that you don’t feel like it. Fake it. Pretend self-esteem. Feign optimism. Simulate outgoingness.

In experiments, people have been asked to write essays or present themselves to an interviewer in either self-enhancing or selfdeprecating ways. Those who act as if they are exceptionally intelligent, caring, and sensitive people later express higher self-esteem when privately describing themselves to a different researcher. This saying-becomes-believing effect is harnessed by therapy techniques (such as behavior therapy, rational-emotive therapy, and cognitive therapy), each of which prods the clients into practicing more positive talk and behavior.

Yes, telling people to act or talk positively sounds like telling people to be phony. But, as usually happens when we step into some new role–perhaps our first days “playing” parent, salesperson, or teacher–an amazing thing happens: The phoniness gradually subsides. We notice that our uncomfortable sense of being a parent, for instance, no longer feels forced. The new role–and the new behaviors and accompanying attitudes–have begun to fit us as comfortably as an old pair of blue jeans.

The moral: Going through the motions can trigger the emotions. Surely you’ve noticed. You’re in a testy mood, but when the phone rings you feign cheer while talking to a friend. Strangely, after hanging up, you no longer feel so grumpy. Such is the value of social occasions–they impel us to behave as if we were happy, which in fact helps free us from our unhappiness.

Granted, we can’t expect ourselves to become more upbeat and socially confident overnight. But rather than limply resign ourselves to our current traits and emotions, we can stretch ourselves, step by step. Rather than waiting until we feel like making those calls or reaching out to that person, we can begin. If we are too anxious, modest, or indifferent, we can pretend, trusting that before long the pretense will diminish as our actions ignite a spark inside–the spark that will lead to happiness.

Source: PreventDisease.com

Global warming and greenhouse gas issues seem to be terms we hear on a daily basis anymore. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. It seems as if the biggest players don’t do anything, then how can we can up with a universal answer? On top of that, we have a crew of naysayers who don’t believe the problem exists in the first place.

You may not be the size of China but there are things you can do today to reduce your carbon imprint, such as ditching water bottles and unplugging appliances and riding a bike instead of driving. Remember, we’re all in this one together - every step counts!

China has finally taken a step forward and considering they are some of the biggest producers of greenhouse gas, let’s hope they stick to their word. According to Reuters:

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Sunday it will spell out greenhouse gas emissions goals and monitoring rules for regions and sectors in its next five-year plan, with monitoring to show it is serious about curbing emissions.

The Chinese government said in November it would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from human activity, emitted to make each unit of national income by 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels.

That goal would let China’s greenhouse gas emissions keep rising, but more slowly than its rapid economic growth.

The policy was a cornerstone of Beijing’s position at the Copenhagen summit on climate change late last year when governments tried with limited success to agree on a new global treaty on fighting global warming.

The United States and other powers said China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases from industry and other human activities, should have offered to do more to bring its domestic ‘carbon intensity’ goal into an international pact that would reassure other governments.

China said it and other poorer countries should not be obliged to take on internationally-binding emissions goals, and officials said Beijing would take steps to show the world it was serious about enforcing that goal.

Now the leading committee of China’s national parliament has gone some way to showing how the government plans, saying officials will carry out an ‘inventory’ of greenhouse gas emissions in 2005 and 2008, using that as a yardstick for setting emissions reductions goals across areas and sectors.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, or parliament, said the government would put in place a ’statistical monitoring and assessment system to ensure greenhouse gas emissions goals are met,’ Xinhua reported.

Those goals will be made part of the country’s next five-year development plan, starting from 2011.

‘Relevant departments and regions will form action plans and medium- and long-term plans to cope with climate change and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, based on the targets and requirements set out by the State Council’, or cabinet, the report said.

Scientists widely believe China has passed the United States as the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter, but Beijing does not release any recent official emissions data.

China’s most recent official inventory of emissions was submitted to a U.N. agency in 2004 and covered the year 1994.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by David Fox)