Last night, I had a dream of flying. Such magical dreams are these. You wake up, feeling slightly disappointed, as if your wings were clipped and reality has forced you back to earth. Here’s some quotes on flying to get your spirits soaring:

I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious.  And why shouldn’t it be? - it is the same the angels breathe.  ~Mark Twain, “Roughing It”

You haven’t seen a tree until you’ve seen its shadow from the sky.  ~Amelia Earhart

How strange is this combination of proximity and separation.  That ground - seconds away - thousands of miles away.  ~Charles A. Lindbergh

There is an art, or rather a knack to flying.  The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.  ~Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

There are only two emotions in a plane:  boredom and terror.  ~Orson Welles

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society.  The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute.  ~Gil Stern

Flight is the only truly new sensation than men have achieved in modern history.  ~James Dickey

O! for a horse with wings!  ~William Shakespeare, Cymbeline

The butterfly is a flying flower…  ~Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun

More than anything else the sensation is one of perfect peace mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost, if you can conceive of such a combination.  ~Wilbur Wright

There’s always hope, even in the most trying circumstances. Read more about this miraculous recovery in Gunnison, Colarado:

2-year-old Gore Otteson disappeared from the family cabin on the evening of July 6th, while his mother was getting her other children dressed for bed. Immediately, she began to panic and search the grounds of their Gunnison, Colorado cabin. But it was 25 minutes before they found him—lying cold and pale, facedown, in a nearby irrigation ditch.

Gore wasn’t breathing. “He was just pale, like someone — frankly, someone that’s dead. And that’s what he was,” Gore’s grandfather, Dr. Kirk Fry, told The TODAY Show.

“I thought I had lost him,” said his mother, Amy Otteson. “I thought for almost an hour that he was dead.”

Gore’s family members began CPR on his cold body immediately, and called for an ambulance, but his chances seemed dim. His heart had stopped beating.

At the hospital, though, doctors restarted his heart, and then decided to try an experimental treatment in which the body temperature was lowered to 90 degrees, which they hoped would protect him from permanent brain damage.

As the doctors gradually brought Gore back up to normal body temperature, no one was sure what the toddler would be like, and if he would ever be a normal child again. But as soon as the boy opened his eyes, he signed the word “hungry,” using the symbol his parents had taught him.

An MRI exam was even more reassuring: there were absolutely no abnormalities. Several days later, Gore walked out of the hospital, as good as new.

The Ottesons have the experimental treatment to thank for their son’s good fortune. Therapeutic cooling has been shown to increase the odds of adult heart attack patients, but its effects on children were unknown. Fortunately for the Ottesons, science saved the day.

Check out this TODAY Show video about the family’s amazing story.

Source: Gimundo

The organic movement is positive news unto itself. Yet it constantly battles bigger entitities, where money making, not public health, come first. Here’s the latest in the soymilk battle:

In a real-life example of the mythical story of David vs. Goliath, organic soybean producers and The Cornucopia Institute are claiming victory over Dean Foods, the maker of Silk soymilk drink.

The Cornucopia Institute, a public interest group that promotes family scale farming, first reported in May 2009 that Dean Foods had switched its soybean sources from American farms to cheaper organic beans from China.

Following publication of the report, the natural/organic foods retailer Whole Foods Market switched its organic soymilk source from Dean Foods to Earth Balance. In August, the national retailer told the Denver Post it wanted Earth Balance’s soymilk products to contain only domestically grown soybeans carrying the organic label.

Continue reading on Food Safety News

Here at Only Positive News, we’ve written about The Homeless World Cup in the past, one of our favorite organizations. The eighth annual Homeless World Cup, held this year in Rio de Janeiro from Sept. 19 to 26, uses soccer as a vehicle to help homeless people come together and make positive changes in their lives.

Russia is really cleaning up this year:

Team Russia have shown a 100 per cent result in their group at the Homeless World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, scoring 30 goals in four games.

Russia thrashed Switzerland 9-3 in their latest games, beating Greece (5-2), Lithuania (7-4) and the Czech Republic (9-4) in their previous clashes.

Read more

“In Rio de Janeiro, the Russian national team starts every match with a strong winning attitude. There are different ways of people getting into distress, but the thing that unites everybody who came here is the desire not to be a loser,” Arkady Tyurin, Russian team’s leader, said.

Russia is known as a powerhouse of homeless football, having grabbed the World Championship title in 2006 and reaching the finals two years later.

The UEFA-backed tournament is aimed to represent a lifetime opportunity for homeless and excluded people from more than 60 nations from all around the globe.

According to the statistics, more than 70 per cent of the participants of previous homeless championships were subsequently able to normalize their social status, and one of the players – Bebe of Portugal – even signed a contract with Manchester United.

Source: RT

In addition, a Palestinian team is in attendance for the first time:

Palestinian refugees formed a national football team to attend Rio 2010 Homeless World Cup in Brazil for first time during 19 – 26 September as a civilian move, in a move Palestinian youth tries to defy the walls surrounding them in both, homeland and refugee camps abroad.

Organised by the Palestinian Sport Office in Lebanon, The Palestine Homeless World Cup team was selected on 25 August from homeless people living in the refugee camps of Lebanon, Homeless World Cup Foundation said on its website.

Palestine will stand proud with 64 nations, hosted by Brazil, from 2010 at Copacabana Beach, Rio, Brazil.

President, Palestinian Office for Youth and Sports in Lebanon, Mr. Mohammad Zaidani, said: “These Palestinian camps have suffered hunger, murder and aggression. Today sport is the only outlet for these youths who have experienced such loss.”

Source: World Bulletin News

Did you ever think that there’s a real you, buried underneath all the pain and anger and grief you never released? The real you - whole, shining, at peace. Many of us have buried pain without truly realzing it. It comes out in strange places, like while driving your car or waiting in line at the grocery store. Remember to take time for your psychic and emotional life - or it makes times for you!

You leave old habits behind by starting out with the thought, ‘I release the need for this in my life.

-Wayne Dyer

“Sincere forgiveness isn’t colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don’t worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way and time.” - Sara Paddison

“Forget all rules, forget all restrictions, as to taste, as to what ought to be said, write for the pleasure of it — whether slowly or fast — every form of resistance to a complete release should be abandoned.”

- William Carlos Williams

“Yes, honey…Just squeeze your rage up into a bitter little ball and release it at an appropriate time, like that day I hit the referee with the whiskey bottle.”
dmg

- Dan Castellaneta

“I heard an Angel singing

When the day was springing,

“Mercy, Pity, Peace

Is the world’s release.””

- William Blake

“Softly and kindly remind yourself, ”I cannot own anything.” It is a valuable thought to keep in mind as you struggle to improve your financial picture, worry about investments, and plan how to acquire more and more. It is a universal principle which you are part of. You must release everything when you truly awaken. Are you letting your life go by in frustration and worry over not having enough? If so, relax and remember that you only get what you have for a short period of time. When you awaken you will see the folly of being attached to anything.”

Wayne Dyer

“It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we’re alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.”

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

“Our repeated failure to fully act as we would wish must not discourage us. It is the sincere intention that is the essential thing, and this will in time release us from the bondage of habits which at present seem almost insuperable.”

Thomas Troward

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.”

- Alan Cohen

This, at its best, is a mixed positive news story, but one that bears mention regardless. Please take a moment today to send your prayers or thoughts to the people of this area and the area itself, all in serious in need of healing.

BP’s blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has been permanently sealed, a U.S. government official said, five months after an explosion destroyed a drilling rig and led to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said Sunday that the well “is effectively dead.”

Crews began pumping in cement on Friday to plug the well, about four kilometres below the sea floor.

The cement had hardened by Saturday, and a pressure test conducted has confirmed that the plug should hold.

The gusher was contained in mid-July after a temporary cap was successfully fitted atop the well. Mud and cement were later pushed down through the top of the well, allowing the cap to be removed.

But the well could not be declared dead until a relief well was drilled so that the ruptured well could be sealed from the bottom, ensuring it never causes a problem again. The relief well intersected the blown-out well Thursday, and crews started pumping in the cement the next day.

An April 20 blast killed 11 workers and over the ensuing three months allowed an estimated 780 million litres of oil to spew into the Gulf.

The disaster caused an environmental and economic nightmare for people who live, work and play along the Gulf shoreline from Florida to Texas. It also spurred civil and criminal investigations.

Source: AOL News

These are considered depression supplements and may provide relief for those suffering with the blues.

Vitamin B9

Vitamin B9, also known as Folate has been associated with depression more often than any other dietary supplement or nutrient. Research shows that up to 38% of those diagnosed with depression are also deficient in folate.

This same research has found a link between effectively treating depression and low levels of folate. People with folate deficiencies don’t respond to SSRI’s and fluoxetine, common treatments for depression.

These conclusions have led to the use of folate as a depression supplement, both for treatment of depression and for helping to prevent it in the first place. Doctors suggest starting off with a multivitamin then increasing the amount of B9 over time and with doctor approval.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids

Omega 3 Fatty Acids are known for being crucial to good health for their antioxidant properties, however, they are also important in brain chemical functions which control serotonin and dopamine and play a role in depression.

Omega 3 fatty acids can be used as depression supplements to offset depression. It has already been proven that people with depression have low levels of these fatty acids and that supplementing to correct his deficiency is one step to alleviating depression.

Tryptophan

Tryptophan is another naturally occurring substance that is closely associated with serotonin production. This amino acid, when used in conjunction with tricyclic medications has shown to aid in the relief of depression better than using the tricyclic medications alone. Research is continuing in the use of tryptophan as a depression supplement. Due to some of the side effects, it should not be used unless under the care of a doctor.

Selenium

The mineral selenium has also been studied for use in depression as a natural remedy. In some patients, using selenium helped to improve their feelings of depression after a period of five weeks.

Selenium is available as a supplement and is also naturally found in foods like shellfish, garlic, sunflower seeds, liver, brewer’s yeast and nuts and grains. It has a significant impact on mood and can help to alleviate the symptoms of depression.

Depression comes in many forms, for some people it is debilitating while others see it merely as a bump in the road. There are many methods of treating depression, prescription medications and natural depression supplements are just two such ways.

Source: Supplement Cellar

Yes, I realize we don’t all experience Fall in the traditional orange and yellow leaf falling and chilly air way. But collectively we can appreciate the wonder of this time of year, even symbolically.

The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.  ~Albert Camus

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.  ~P.D. James

Bittersweet October.  The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.  ~Carol Bishop Hipps

Delicious autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.  ~George Eliot

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.  ~Stanley Horowitz

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face.
~John Donne

Besides the autumn poets sing,
A few prosaic days
A little this side of the snow
And that side of the haze.
~Emily Dickinson

October’s poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter.  ~Nova Bair

falling leaves
hide the path
so quietly
~John Bailey, “Autumn,” a haiku year, 2001, as posted on oldgreypoet.com

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
~George Cooper, “October’s Party”

Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes.  Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.  ~Samuel Butler

Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.  ~Elizabeth Lawrence

Ingenuity and eco-consciousness lead to smart inventions like solar trees, not only helping out the planet but revitalizing a community:

New solar powered street lights installed in Angkor Wat, Cambodia add much needed public lighting to the area, in a fun, low-energy design that increases night-time safety and facilitates greater earnings for local businesses. Nothing Design Group conceived of the tree-like design, and developed the lights in partnership with Asiana Airlines and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The project team wished to create lights that would both increase night-time safety and help elevate Cambodia’s image.

As a UNESCO World Heritage site, Angkor Wat attracts many tourists, but before the lights were installed, many did not venture out at night. Now, the added lighting encourages both tourists and residents to be out at night, which creates benefits for both: tourists can integrate more with the local community and locals can generate more income by keeping markets and other businesses open later.

So far, 16 solar streetlights have been installed, and the team plans to install 5 to 10 more a year until 2015.

Source: World Changing

Barbie and Martin Maldonado’s first house burned down in 1996, and the roof on their current house leaked every time it rained. They have also had their share of trials and tribulations as they care for children and grandchildren with health problems. Recently, the family was nominated to “Season for Caring” by the nonprofit agency WBC Opportunities. Now, Jimmy Jacobs Custom Homes will build them a 1,294-square-foot custom home, accessible to people with disabilities. Green building techniques should help it qualify to be certified by the national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Read the story by Katy Ballard in the Austin American Statesman: www.statesman.com/life/season-for-caring