The oil spill in the Gulf is now considered one of the worst ecological disasters in the history of the U.S. It’s such a painful and horrible (and ongoing) problem, many of us don’t know what to do and where to begin. We become overwhelmed with shock and dismay. We are disheartened by big business and empty promises made by our government. It’s hard not to retreat in the face of such an epic horror.

Personally, I pray every day for the healing of our ocean, the giver of life. I pray for its protection, its purity. I do believe if we all spend one moment doing that we can make a difference. So if you can do nothing else, please pray to whatever higher power works for you. Our beautiful waters deserve it.

Here are some ways we can help.

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The Gulf: 3 Ways You Can Help

Written by Mark Tercek
Published on May 6th, 2010
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It’s hard to express how much all the phone calls and emails in the wake of the Gulf oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico mean to me and to all the Conservancy’s staff — especially those working long hours in the Gulf states.

Many of you contacted us again after reading our Alabama director of conservation’s latest blog posts about our efforts there, asking what you can do to help Bill and his team respond to the spill.

Here are three things you can do today to help the Gulf coast, its wildlife and the people who depend on it:

• Make a donation to help our restoration efforts in the Gulf – your contribution to our Fund for Gulf Coast Restoration will help us determine both the extent of the spill and the necessary long-term restoration work in the Gulf and states along its coast.
• Second, tell your friends about what’s at stake for the Gulf Coast. Share our work by posting it to Facebook or tweeting on Twitter. Get the word out that the plants, animals and people in one of North America’s most treasured places will need our help.
• Third, consider being a volunteer. The Conservancy is still assessing what volunteer opportunities will be needed and coordinating with groups like the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.

Already, we’ve put to work The Nature Conservancy’s best knowledge and expertise in the Gulf region.

Our Fund for Gulf Coast Restoration will help us do even more and will be put to use by the Conservancy and its marine scientists and staff knowledgeable about the Gulf and about oil spill impacts to help the long-term restoration of this critical ecosystem.

Currently, our Louisiana staff is conducting flights over the coast with federal, state and some of our non-governmental partners to help determine the extent of the spill and are working to protect critical oyster reefs in the Grand Isle, Biloxi Marsh and Vermilion Bay areas.

I am in the Gulf region today to assess what more the Conservancy can do to respond and support our staff members who live along the Gulf and work every day on conservation here.

As you know, this is not just about the shrimp, the oysters, and the crabs. It is about both the Gulf’s marine ecosystem, as well the local economy and the people who depend on it.

I hope you will continue to follow Bill’s work and our progress on our blog, Cool Green Science.

Thank you for your offer to help and your critical support.

I’m particularly excited about this series of quotes. The more I study ancient history, the more I realize that we’ve been facing the same issues for a long, LONG time! These quotes most definitely stand the test of time.

Let our old sages guide you today!

“Every man is the architect of his own future” - Sallust (86 -35 BC) Roman Historian

“Your life is an expression of all your thoughts.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180) - Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher

“Men are not troubled by things themselves, but by their thoughts about them”.
Epictetus (C. 55 - C. 135) - Greek Stoic Philosopher

“He has half the deed done who has mad a beginning”.
Horace (65-8 B.C.) - Roman Poet and Satirist

“First say to yourself what would you be; and then do what you have to do”.
Epictetus (C. 55 - C. 135) Greek Stoic Philosopher

“The nature of man is always the same; it is their habits that separate them”.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.) - Chinese Philosopher

“Take charge of your thoughts. You can do what you will with them”.
Plato (428-327 BC) - Greek Philosopher and Prose Writer

“They can do all because they think they can”.
Virgil (70-9 BC) - Roman Poet

“Where fear is . . . happiness is not”.
Seneca (4BC - AD65) - Roman Philosopher and Playwright

“Give me where to stand and I will move the earth”.
Archimedes (287-212 BC) - Syracusan Mathematician, Astronomer and Inventor

“Learn what you are and be such”.
Pindar (522-438 BC) - Greek Poet

“What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do”.
Aristotle (383-322 BC) - Greek Philosopher

“Our life is what our thoughts are make it”.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180) Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher

“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he”.
Solomon (10th Century BC) - King of Israel & reputed author of Biblical Books

“When the mind is thinking, it is talking to itself”.
Plato (428-327 BC) - Greek Philosopher and Prose Writer

“What we are is what we have thought for years”.
Gautama The Buddha (560-480 BC) - Indian Spiritual leader and Founder of Buddhism

“How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself”.
Publilius Syrus - (1st century BC) - Latin Writer of Mimes

“Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be a time. Let it first blossom then bear fruit, then ripen”.
Epictetus (C. 55 - C. 135) Greek Stoic Philosopher

“Practice yourself for heaven’s sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater”.
Epictetus (C. 55 - C. 135) Greek Stoic Philosopher

“Perseverance is more prevailing than violence and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little”.
Plutarch (C. A.D. 46 - C 120) - Greek Biographer and Essayist

Source: TrevorCrookBlog

We live in a fast-paced world. Things are changing all the time and we want it done yesterday! Well, usually we refrain from catering to that frantic pace here at Only Positive News but today, we’re breaking our own rules and offering up tips to keep up with the busy lifestyle.

Here are 3 fast and easy ways to increase your positivity!

1) Pay Attention to your Self-Talk. We all talk to ourselves in the head. And when things don’t go our way, we get frustrated and often start to diminish ourselves: “I knew it, I can’t do this…” or “I’ll never make it”. Paying attention to your self-talk (and knowing that such self-talk only harms you) will allow you to disarm such destructive thoughts.

2) Meditate. Sit in silence for 5-20 minutes a day. Smile. Studies show that meditation:

- increases happiness
- decreases anxiety and depression
- increases alertness
- can improve memory and attention
- strengthens the immune system
- lowers blood pressure/ can help lower blood sugar

3) Be grateful. Every day, before you go to bed, say to yourself “I’m thankful for…Today I accomplished…”. Don’t take things you already have for granted, learn to appreciate things. Be grateful for your family, good friends, health…Complete this list. Focus on giving as this way your mind will focus on what you have and not what you don’t have. Recent studies show that grateful people are happier, less stressed, less depressed and more satisfied with their lives. Grateful people also have more positive ways of dealing with the difficulties they experience in life. This might explain why they also sleep better.

Now go seize the day!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexander_Storm

You might be experiencing it as you read this (though I hope not!) Boredom is so commonplace that we don’t think of it as a mental state from which can learn. But there’s a way to embrace boredom, even grow from it. And what better way to start the week (Mondays can be notoriously boring!) then with some tips on how to use boredom to your advantage!

This is from The Happiness Project, a blog we’ve referred to several times on Only Positive News. Check out the site when you get a moment!

One “little thing” that can be a source of unhappiness is boredom. Sitting in traffic. Doing laundry. Waiting in a long line at the grocery store.

I’ve found that the more I focus on my boredom or irritation, the more I amplify that feeling. Here are six strategies I use to “re-frame” the moment; even if I can’t escape a situation, by re-framing my emotions about it, I can transform it.

– Put the word “meditation” after the activity that’s boring you. (This is my invention.) If you’re standing in a slow line at the drugstore, you’re doing “Waiting in line meditation.” If you’re cleaning up after a party, you’re doing “Cleaning meditation.” Just saying these words makes me feel very spiritual and high-minded and wise.

-– Dig in. Diane Arbus wrote, “The Chinese have a theory that you pass through boredom into fascination and I think it’s true.” If something is boring for two minutes, do it for four minutes. If it’s still boring, do it for eight minutes, then sixteen, and so on. Eventually you discover that it’s not boring at all.

In my life, I’ve found that if part of my research isn’t interesting to me — for example, studying the Dardanelles campaign for Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill — I read a whole book about it, and then it becomes absorbing. The same principle holds when doing boring or irritating tasks, like washing dishes.

– Take the perspective of a journalist or scientist. Really study what’s around you. What are people wearing, what do the interiors of buildings look like, what noises do you hear? If you bring your analytical powers to bear, you can make almost anything interesting.

– Find an area of refuge. Have a mental escape route planned. Think about something delightful or uplifting (not your to-do list!). Or maybe review photos of your kids on your phone; studies show that looking at photos of loved ones provides a big mood boost.

– Take your time. I realize that when information bores me, like trying to understand a change-of-service notice from the cable company, I try to rush through it. This makes things worse, though, not better, because I feel not only bored, but also impatient and confused. Now, when I have to make sense of something that’s both boring and bewildering, I deliberately slow myself down and take all the time I need. My resolution to Put myself in jail is helpful.

– Most important: always have something good to read!

How about you? Have you found strategies to deal with boredom?

How much has music served your life? How much has music helped you today? it’s only a note away. Sing, dance, be free…save yourself, like this wonderful and creative boy:

When asked how long he has loved music, 8 year old kidney transplant survivor Rishi Nair will told the Today Show’s Bob Dotson – “Since I was zero.”  Maybe that’s why this remarkable boy, who prefers to go by his superhero name The Peaceful Warrior, was able to find the power to make the world better in his music.

As Rishi puts it, “My special power is to fight fear, sadness and pain with music.”

This superhero was born with no working kidneys.  He was stuck in Seattle Children’s Hospital, tethered to machines, until his mother gave him one of her kidneys, just a few days before his fifth birthday.

“I could hear him shout,” mom Mary Lyn Nair recalls to Dotson. “ ‘I’m free! I’m free! I’m absolutely FREE!’ They took the IVs out and he asked, ‘Where’s my drum?’ ”

That freedom is only temporary, Mary’s kidney will not last forever.  Ten years is the minimum, according to Rishi’s doctors.  While Rishi’s family can only hope that another solution can be found before the kidney gives out, in the meantime they’ve decided to focus on their little boy’s irrepressibly joyful spirit.  And their getting a little help from his friends.

In the years before his kidney transplant gave him his freedom, Rishi learned how to play instruments from all over the world.  He was even taught how to use the Australian didgeridoo by an Aborigine.  Lots of remarkable people have helped Rishi learn to use his superpowers, including Grammy winning composer Mateo Messina, who met Rishi when he was visiting the hospital to entertain the children there.

Mateo, like everyone else who meets Rishi, was instantly drawn to the child.  He asked Rishi to help him compose a song in the “Symphony for Superheroes” that he was writing.

“We both had an idea what the song should be about,” Mateo says. He nods at Rishi, who proceeds to sing: “When I play the world feels better … Everyone is soothed.”

Mateo and Rishi performed their work with the Seattle Symphony, and that one performance raised $189,000 for sick kids whose families can’t afford treatment.

Just a couple of superheroes out saving the world.

Watch him in action!

Regardless of your denomination (or lackthereof), prayer can be a powerful tool. For a refreshing, non-religious look on prayer, please check out this wonderful article by Sally Kemptom on prayer.

And take a look at these quotes on prayer throughout history:

Some people pray just to pray and some people pray to know God. –Andrew Murray

There is a mighty lot of difference between saying prayers and praying. –John G. Lake

You may pray for an hour and still not pray. You may meet God for a moment and then be in touch with Him all day. –Fredrik Wisloff

I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it.—John Wesley

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go. — Abraham Lincoln

Always respond to every impulse to pray. The impulse to pray may come when you are reading or when you are battling with a text. I would make an absolute law of this – always obey such an impulse. –Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Wishing will never be a substitute for prayer. –Ed Cole

One can believe intellectually in the efficacy of prayer and never do any praying. –Catherine Marshall

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?– Corrie Ten Boom

The only way to Heaven is prayer; a prayer of the heart, which every one is capable of, and not of reasonings which are the fruits of study, or exercise of the imagination, which, in filling the mind with wandering objects, rarely settle it; instead of warming the heart with love to God, they leave it cold and languishing. –Jeanne Guyon

We must alter our lives in order to alter our hearts, for it is impossible to live one way and pray another. –William Law

When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don’t pray, they don’t. –William Temple

Do you know what prayer is? It is not begging God for this and that. The first thing we have to do is to get you beggars to quit begging until a little faith moves in your souls. –John G. Lake

Those who do not believe do not pray. This is a good functional definition of faith. Faith prays, unbelief does not. –John A. Hardon

Pray, and let God worry. — Martin Luther

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your task. –Phillips Brooks

If you can’t pray a door open, don’t pry it open.– Lyell Rader

Here are a few tips I came up with to make some positive news into you life, your home and your community:

1. Pick up Trash - It may seem small but every time you do it, you’re displaying a sense of concern and pride for your community. Others may notice and realize that people do care.

2. Sing a song - Singing is a natural way to shift your energy. Like dancing, you can only feel so down when you sing. Sing around others - don’t be shy. The more we’re able to openly express ourselves, the more it gives others permission to do the same.

3. Clean up your Mess - Cleaning a messy area in your house does wonders for your mind and soul. Purging old stuff, airing out a room, refreshing a space - all can do more than hours with a therapist!

4. Listen - We often have a tendency to overthink, our minds whirring away like a blender. When you talk to somebody today, genuinely listen to what he or she has to say. Give your mind a break. Validate others. Listening is a practice that opens us up and quiets the mind.

5. Share good news - even if it feels forced, tell someone about a positive event or thought you had today. By doing this, you set a trend - being positive, even about something small, creates a ripple effect. Positivity can be contagious.

Here’s my example today:

My friend Vince came over for coffee today. I forgot how nice it is to sit down and chat with someone in the morning about any old thing. It gave me a chance to reconnect with a friend and enjoy those smaller moments in life. Plus the coffee was delicious!

That’s my positive news! Nothing earth-shattering, right? But I wrote about it. I experienced it. You read it. Its that trajectory that can change the world, I do believe.

Well, this has to be one of our most unpleasant images yet on Only Positive News. What good could possibly come from cigarette butts, you ask?

Well for starters, it’s always good to pick them up and throw them out, whenever you see them. Even better, if you see the offending smoker, kindly hand them back the cigarette butt and say, “I think you dropped something.”

But enough of my not-so-hidden sarcasm! Take a look at what scientists in China are doing with these toxic troublemakers:

Chemical extracts from cigarette butts — so toxic they kill fish — can be used to protect steel pipes from rusting, a study in China has found.

In a paper published in the American Chemical Society’s bi-weekly journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, the scientists in China said they identified nine chemicals after immersing cigarette butts in water.

They applied the extracts to N80, a type of steel used in oil pipes, and found that they protected the steel from rusting.

“The metal surface can be protected and the iron atom’s further dissolution can be prevented,” they wrote.

The chemicals, including nicotine, appear to be responsible for this anti-corrosion effect, they added.

The research was led by Jun Zhao at Xi’an Jiaotong University’s School of Energy and Power Engineering and funded by China’s state oil firm China National Petroleum Corporation.

Corrosion of steel pipes used by the oil industry costs oil producers millions of dollars annually to repair or replace.

According to the paper, 4.5 trillion cigarette butts find their way into the environment each year. Apart from being an eyesore, they contain toxins that can kill fish.

“Recycling could solve those problems, but finding practical uses for cigarette butts has been difficult,” the researchers wrote.

China, which has 300 million smokers, is the world’s largest smoking nation and it consumes a third of the world’s cigarettes. Nearly 60 percent of men in China smoke, puffing an average of 15 cigarettes per day.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

© Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved

It’s grey and chilly where I am today. A good day for being wrapped up in an old, comfy sweater and sipping tea. It’s also a good time to meditate on deeper thoughts. So for Positive Quote Wednesday, I’m offering up some sayings that make you say, “Hmmmm….”

The day was counting up its birds and never got the answer right.  ~Author Unknown

And upsidedown in the earth a dead man walks upon my soles when I walk.  ~Bill Knott, “(End) of Summer (1966)”

Night and morning are making promises to each other which neither will be able to keep.  ~Richard Shelton

I imagine that yes is the only living thing.  ~e.e. cummings

Ink smears, as thoughts sometimes do.  ~Terri Guillemets

Never mind.  The self is the least of it.  Let our scars fall in love.  ~Galway Kinnell

Her hearing was keener than his, and she heard silences he was unaware of.  ~D.M. Thomas

Silence moves faster when it’s going backward.  ~Jean Cocteau

We are asleep with compasses in our hands.  ~W.S. Merwin

If only I could leave everything as it is, without moving a single star or a single cloud.  Oh, if only I could!  ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Sharp nostalgia, infinite and terrible, for what I already possess.  ~Juan Ramon Jimenez

[T]he departing world leaves behind… not an heir, but a pregnant widow.  ~Alexander Ivanovich Herzen, Other Shore

Two and two the mathematician continues to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five.  ~James McNeill Whistler, Whistler Versus Ruskin, 1878

We are never prepared for what we expect.  ~James A. Michener, Caravans

The universe is simmering down, like a giant stew left to cook for four billion years.  Sooner or later we won’t be able to tell the carrots from the onions.  ~Arthur Bloch<!–, in The World within the World by John D. Barrow, 1988, SS–>

As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today.
I wish, I wish he’d go away.
~Hugh Mearns

It has been said repeatedly that one can never, try as he will, get around to the front of the universe.  Man is destined to see only its far side, to realize nature only in retreat.  ~Loren Eiseley, “The Innocent Fox,” The Star Thrower, 1978

We have met the enemy and they are us!  ~Walt Kelly, Pogo, 1971

Our dream dashes itself against the great mystery like a wasp against a window pane.  Less merciful than man, God never opens the window.  ~Jules Renard, Journal, 1906

Fear is a cloak which old men huddle about their love, as if to keep it warm.  ~William Wordsworth

All that we know is nothing, we are merely crammed waste-paper baskets, unless we are in touch with that which laughs at all our knowing.  ~D.H. Lawrence, “Peace and War,” Pansies, 1929

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
~T.S. Eliot, 1943

The beginning of all wisdom is to look fixedly on clothes, or even with armed eyesight, till they become transparent.  ~Thomas Carlyle

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