The power of the Internet can be an amazing and daunting thing. In the case of blogger Eva Markvoort, she used it as a tool to inform people about her debilitating disease. Thanks Gimundo for taking note of her. Please check out their page for Eva’s video as well.

Read on about this special woman:

Eva Markvoort, a beautiful, vivacious 25-year-old woman with dyed ruby-red hair from Vancouver, wrote a popular blog by the name of 65 Red Roses. Contrary to what you might think, the blog wasn’t about gardening: the title was her childhood mispronounciation of the disease she suffered from throughout her life, cystic fibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a hereditary disease caused by a gene mutation, and can cause extreme difficulty breathing, sinus infections, and many other painful side effects. It affects about one in every 2,000 people. Although CF can often be managed by medications and medical treatments, most people who suffer from the disease live in frequent discomfort, and often die in their 20s or 30s.

Although Eva spent much of her life in the hospital, kept away from other patients because of the risk of infection, she was a constant presence in the lives of friends and strangers alike through her blog. She began posting on her blog in 2006, and began connecting with CF patients around the world through her writing. Soon, her blog drew an even larger audience, and she used it as a platform to show the world what it was like living with CF. It’s now reached over a million readers.

Despite the pain the disease caused her, Eva felt constantly blessed. She loved her family, her friends, and the readers who embraced her. Nearly every day, she’d post messages sharing her happiness for all the ordinary moments of life that so many of us take for granted, as well as her fear and frustration in coping with her disease.

In 2007, a group of filmmakers took an interest in Eva’s blog, and created a documentary movie of her life, also called 65 Red Roses, in which Eva allowed to see the harsh realities of CF like frequent coughing, vomiting, and month-long hospital stays. The film had a happy ending: Eva, who had been progressively sicker over the course of the shoot, got the double lung transplant she had been waiting for. She would be able to breathe again.

Sadly, things eventually took a turn for the worse, and her body began to reject the new lungs. In January, Eva uploaded a YouTube video to her blog: “I have some news today. It’s kinda tough to hear, but I can say it with a smile,” she said. “My life is ending.”

But Eva had none of the self-pity that you would expect from someone who’d been handed a death sentence at such a young age. “I think I’m very lucky, because I’ve loved more than you could possibly think, could possibly imagine,” she said. “So I’m celebrating that: celebrating my life.”

Eva passed away on March 27th, but before her death, she was honored with the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s prestigious Doug Summerhayes Award for her work raising awareness of the disease through her blog and documentary. She was also awarded a college diploma from the University of Victoria, which she had fallen a few credits short of graduating because of her constant illnesses. But neither of these honors meant as much to her as her “wall of love”: the thousands of letters, pictures, and gifts she received from her supporters around the planet, many of whom suffered from CF themselves.

Many of us try - and perhaps we succeed - for a few minutes, maybe an hour. Living in the present is great in theory but often tough in practice. Life is harried and we’re often “future tripping” about a million things at once.

Here are some quotes to remind you of your natural state, the state you existed in as a child - living in the here and now:

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future.  I live now.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no distance on this earth as far away as yesterday.  ~Robert Nathan, So Love Returns

You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.  ~Jan Glidewell

Would you keep a chive on your tooth just because you enjoyed last night’s potato?  ~From the television show Boston Common

No man is rich enough to buy back his past.  ~Oscar Wilde

It’s but little good you’ll do a-watering the last year’s crops.  ~George Eliot, Adam Bede, 1859

We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today.  I don’t think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years before admitting today was great.  If you’re hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time.  ~Art Buchwald

Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.  ~Cherokee Indian Proverb

The past is a good place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.  ~Author Unknown

Living the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles, causing you to bump into people not going your way.  ~Edna Ferber

I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.  ~Carl Sandburg, “Prairie,” Complete Poems, 1950

Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.  ~Euripides, Alexander

The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post.  ~L. Thomas Holdcroft

We cannot carry our father’s corpse with us everywhere we go.  ~Guillaume Apollinaire, The Cubist Painters, 1913
People are always asking about the good old days.  I say, why don’t you say the good now days?  ~Robert M. Young

Having spent the better part of my life trying either to relive the past or experience the future before it arrives, I have come to believe that in between these two extremes is peace.  ~Author Unknown

“Old times” never come back and I suppose it’s just as well.  What comes back is a new morning every day in the year, and that’s better.  ~George E. Woodberry

Opportunities fly by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone.  ~Jerome K. Jerome, The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, 1889

Eternity is not something that begins after you are dead.  It is going on all the time.  ~Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Forever is composed of nows.  ~Emily Dickinson
Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.  Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart.  Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.  Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.  One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.  ~Mary Jean Iron

You have to wake up a virgin each morning.  ~Jean-Louis Barrault

Only Positive News is part of a growing team of online professionals choosing to highlight the success stories in this world of ours. But positive news has a stigma attached to it; some consider it “faux” journalism or soft journalism.

James Rainey from The Los Angeles Times talks about the negative reputation of positive news…and how the trend is changing (hence why positive news websites are increasing!)

I’d say a bit of the traditional good news deficit comes from the misguided conviction among some news people that happy endings and serious journalism don’t mix.

But I’d lay some of the blame with audiences too. There’s more good news out there than some of you have recognized.

Let’s start with one of the most basic tenets of journalism — that “news” is what we don’t expect. We pull out our notepads for the unexpected: Man bites dog. Plane cartwheels off runway. Jon Stewart goes Mike Wallace on interview subject.

To that old rule most big outlets apply a corollary: A complete paper or newscast must include a “mix,” of breaking news and features, of photos and words, covering subjects both trifling and transcendent.

Most networks, cable outlets and big newspapers try to cover the entire spectrum, but their hearts really soar for the weighty, heavy stuff. That means lots of focus on dark stories, regardless of whether they hint at a resolution, or even much hope.

Prize-winning investigative reporter Frank Greve of McClatchy newspapers talked about the queasy reaction he got from some colleagues a couple years ago when he announced he would start a “good news” beat.

“Some of my old friends, when I told them what I was doing, reacted as if I’d told them I had cancer,” Greve told the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for professional journalists. “Most, but not all” of those reporters encouraged Greve when they saw that he still reported and wrote with rigor.

Greve has noted how delayed licensing of drivers has driven down the teenage accident rate. He’s written about how many old people remain sexually active. He’s raised doubts about whether we should really need to worry about pharmaceutical contamination in drinking water.

That list of topics might seem like a hodgepodge, but there’s a common theme. Bad news grows out of conflict or loss. Good news often means just following the conflict through to a resolution.

With Earth Day a few days behind us, I wanted to share with with you this particularly powerful piece by Corbyn Hightower of Daily Good that really showcases what one family can do to make a difference.

Earth Day has always been my favorite holiday as a parent. I am known for my Scrooge-like tendencies in regards to the big Hallmark-card occasions, and only attempt to quell that predisposition for the sake of my children.

Well, the younger ones don’t care anyway, and I’m probably responding to guilty feelings based on grandparent expectations. I resist those. I resist the sense of obligation to get gifts and most of all to buy the decorations, trinkets, and crappy treats. Earth Day suits me because all that garbage is an anathema to the spirit of the holiday itself.

Earth Day is a time when my kids can feel proud of our family for the lifestyle that we’ve recently chosen. We went to a festival the other day (arriving on bikes after a four-mile ride) and the kids got an opportunity to say, “We don’t drive a car at all, anymore.”

And people exclaim, smile, share kindnesses, and it feels good. Not just like our fortunes have taken a turn for the worse. I look at what our days lately entail, and it’s nice that we can go a really long time without any money changing hands. It’s gardening season, and even my four-year-old is turning the soil and doing real work.

We are trying to keep ourselves strictly budgeted, even after the cash influx from the car sale. We need to stretch as far as we can, until we can get the younger ones into childcare, or otherwise free me up to contribute to the family finances. I have been thinking of putting together an environmentally-friendly housecleaning business, something I can do on the weekends, perhaps. I picture lugging my vacuum, assorted essential oils, baking soda, lemons and vinegar in my bike trailer, and I like that vision.

Recently, my husband has been fixing our appliances rather than chucking them when they break. We have this cool old fan that we bought at a garage sale for a dollar–heavy as an anvil and covered in grease and dust. We rebuilt it piece-by-piece, and buffed it to a shine and now it hums like a Cadillac. That’s it, pictured left.

Now when you buy a fan, an iron, a toaster, they’re made of lightweight plastic and meant to be thrown away when they stop working. But here’s my husband fixing an iron. Imagine that, fixing it instead of just tossing it in the garbage:

Our needs are modest, our overhead has been lowered, and life has become about simple, sustainable pleasures. Also about the work required in a life without the little luxuries. I don’t have to step out of the rat race; the only rats I deal with are in our basement, and it seems the neighborhood cats have taken care of those.

It’s been a beautiful spring, and we are learning how to do this. Today I pedaled up a steep hill with my babies in the trailer, and I could feel my strong legs carrying the load.

What does balance mean to you? To me, it means recognizing the various aspects of yourself and tending to each one of them. It means that work needs play and seriousness needs laughter. It means allowing the negative sides of you to exist, sometimes right along side the positive parts.

Here’s what balance means to others:

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”~ Albert Einstein

“The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away.” ~ Barbara De Angelis

“Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.” ~ Plutarch

“Evermore in the world is this marvelous balance of beauty and disgust, magnificence and rats” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“There’s no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves” ~ Frank Herbert

“A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.” ~ William Arthur Ward

“The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.” ~ Euripides

When was the last time you saw live theater? It seems to be a dying art form, in this highly televised, rapidly edited lifestyle we’ve created for ourselves. But nothing replaces theater - live, visceral, deeply human.

This couple has certainly done their part supporting the arts. What can we do to support the arts this week? Check your paper for a local show or listen to a classical piece of music (really listen to it.) Do your part to support the arts. It matters.

Ever since they helped found Primary Stages in 1985 and took seats on its board of directors, Marvin and Anne Einhorn have also volunteered five days a week as the receptionists manning the phones at the Off Broadway theater’s offices. On Friday, Mr. Einhorn, 89, and Mrs. Einhorn, 86 — who have been married for 67 years — will receive an honor that usually goes to a millionaire donor: Primary Stages will name its theater school on their behalf in recognition of their longtime commitment.

Source: NYTimes

(above) Akeem Stephenson, a graduate of PACT's LifePlan coaching program, cautions others about his past transgressions.

I recently went to a rotary event in my neighborhood. While I had heard the term before, I had no idea what they actually did. Then I came across this great story and realized they do quite a lot!

The PACT Urban Peace Program, launched by Toronto-area Rotarians Dan Cornacchia and David Lockett in 2000, brings the teenagers, their victims, and local residents together to talk about the crimes and craft restitution plans. The program is modelled on a conflict-resolution technique used in Australian Aboriginal communities.

“Violence is a learned behaviour,” Cornacchia says. “By helping children today, we can stop the cycle of violence.”

Founding members of the Rotary Club of Parkdale-High Park, Cornacchia and Lockett opened the Redwood, a shelter for abused women and children, in 1993. That work inspired them to tackle the growing problem of urban violence. PACT (Participation, Acknowledgement, Commitment, and Transformation) helps more than 500 teens a year. Along with the mediation program, it offers vocational training and life coaching for teens who have been charged under the Youth Criminal Justice Act as well as for at-risk youth, such as those living in homeless shelters.

Visit the website below to learn more about “rotary power”.

Source: Rotary.org

With a weekend ahead of us, we have the opportunity to rediscover relaxation. And this is no easy task; sometimes relaxation can seem quite the elusive state of mind. Here are a few quotes to remind you how great nothing can be!

(How amazing is this first quote? Man was a genius!)

“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.” Leonardo da Vinci

“Relaxation means releasing all concern and tension and letting the natural order of life flow through one’s being” Donald Curtis

“It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes” St. Thomas Aquinas

“The happiness which brings enduring worth to life is not the superficial happiness that is dependent on circumstances. It is the happiness and contentment that fills the soul even in the midst of the most distressing circumstances and the most bitter environment. It is the kind of happiness that grins when things go wrong and smiles through the tears. The happiness for which our souls ache is one undisturbed by success or failure, one which will root deeply inside us and give inward relaxation, peace, and contentment, no matter what the surface problems may be. That kind of happiness stands in need of no outward stimulus.” Billy Graham

“One should not be too severe on English novels; they are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed.” - Oscar Wilde

“My ideal relaxation is working on upholstry. I spend hours in junk shops buying furniture. I do all the upholstery work myself, and it’s like therapy.”

~ Pamela Anderson

Did you ever try to encircle hatred with love? It’s not the easiest thing to do. This story shows how some love and The Beatles can stop hatred dead in its tracks:

There’s no doubt you’ve heard of Fred Phelps and his infamous Westboro Baptist Church. The group, which has absolutely no connection to the real Baptist church and has been officially classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is notorious for showing up with hate-filled signs and messages railing against Judaism and homosexuality at schools, military funerals, and various other sites around the US—including the town of Charleston, West Virginia, where 29 miners were killed in a tragic accident last week.

So on Friday morning, when six of the group’s members showed up with hate-filled signs on the campus of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa to protest a symposium discussing same-sex marriage, the school community was ready to fight them in the best way it knew how: with love.

More than 500 students, faculty, and community members showed up to counter-protest the group by holding up signs with messages of peace and acceptance while belting out the classic Beatles song, “All You Need Is Love,” drowning out the group’s jeers with the song’s hopeful message. The face-off lasted just 35 minutes, and was completely peaceful. Photos of the students’ signs, with messages like “Hate-free is the way to be” can be seen in Drake University’s slideshow.

Source: Gimundo