Life often requires sacrifice. But as you’ll read in this story, sacrifice can help both parties.

But before you read this story, do you have an organ donor card? Is it on your driver’s license? Go check or visit this website:

Organ Donor Website

What others thought was just an exercise routine to lose weight was, for Chen Yurong, a way to save her son’s life.

The 51-year-old Hubei native knew she had to improve the condition of her liver in order for doctors to cut part of it out - and transplant it into her son’s body.

So in February she went on a diet and marched about 10 km a day.

The result, even broadcast yesterday by State television CCTV, was a successful 14-hour operation to save her son from a life-threatening liver disease.

“In order to give my young granddaughter a complete family, I’d like to do everything to save my son,” Chen said before the operation.

While Chen and her 31-year-old son, Ye Haibin, are now in stable condition at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan. He suffers from Wilson’s disease, or hepatolenticular degeneration. Health experts said a living organ donation was not the best way for Chen to save her son, given that about 1 out of 1,000 liver donors die after the transplant surgery.

“Living organ donation is just an alternative when there’s no suitable deceased organ donated,” said Chen Shi, an organ transplant expert with the Institute of Transplantation at Tongji Hospital.

“It’s kind of a dilemma facing transplant doctors worldwide whether to do living organ transplantations, which involve potential health risks for the donor, particularly in countries like China without robust voluntary organ donations after death,” he told China Daily yesterday.

Last December, when Ye was again rushed to hospital, doctors said that a liver transplant would be the only way to prolong his life. That’s when Chen made the decision to give part of her own, as it’s even harder and more expensive to get a match from others.

More than 1.5 million people in China need organ transplants each year. However, only 20,000 finally get one, official statistics show.

Last year, living transplants accounted for at least 40 percent of the nationwide total, experts estimated.

Vice-Health Minister Huang Jiefu previously warned that living organ donations involve risks for both donor and recipient.

In the worst cases, both could die, he noted.

“We have had such tragedies in China before,” he said.

“The best way is to set up a nationwide deceased organ donation system and encourage more people to donate organs for life-saving transplants after death,” he said.

In 2007, China issued the Regulation on Human Organ Transplantation to ban all forms of organ trade and request that living donations be restricted to spouses, blood relatives or people sharing family bonds.

Meanwhile, a nationwide deceased organ donation system held by the Red Cross Society of China and the Ministry of Health is being established.

Chen Yurong's worn-out shoes.

Source: People’s Daily Online

That’s right…just when one holiday passes, another one is staring us right in the face. So this Positive Quote Wednesday is all about the New Year.

May it be happy and full of grace and light…and positivity!

Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve.  Middle age is when you’re forced to.  ~Bill Vaughn

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in.  A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.  ~Bill Vaughan

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.  ~Benjamin Franklin

No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference.  It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left.  It is the nativity of our common Adam.  ~Charles Lamb

New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday.  ~Charles Lamb

Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it’s twice as onerous a duty.  ~John Selden

The merry year is born
Like the bright berry from the naked thorn.
~Hartley Coleridge

New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.  ~Hamilton Wright Mabie

The Old Year has gone.  Let the dead past bury its own dead.  The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time.  All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!  ~Edward Payson Powell

The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk.  This drunkenness culminates on New Year’s Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you’re married to.  ~P.J. O’Rourke

Every man should be born again on the first day of January.  Start with a fresh page.  Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.  ~Henry Ward Beecher

New Year’s Day:  Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.  ~Mark Twain

The new year begins in a snow-storm of white vows.  ~George William Curtis

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.  ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

I made no resolutions for the New Year.  The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.  ~Anaïs Nin

Anais Nin

Some people believe that Internet access is more than a service, it’s a human right. As we all know, the Internet provides us with a plethora of information and connection, some of it invaluable. Simply put, it can change lives. And one man plans on making it available to everyone:

One man’s bankrupt satellite company is another man’s opportunity to spread free Internet across the world. That’s the hope of Kosta Grammatis, CEO and founder of ahumanright.org, who sees having an Internet connection as a basic necessity — in fact, a human right — for every global citizen.

Grammatis is raising $150,000 to create a business plan for buying a communications satellite and moving it to a new orbital slot to provide free Internet service to developing countries. He has his sights set on the TerreStar-1 satellite: a spacecraft the size of a school bus that launched in 2009 and is owned by a company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October.

The idea of making free Internet available to all may sound like a pipe dream, but Grammatis has the right combination of technical background and ambition for the job. His resume includes working as an engineer for private spaceflight company SpaceX, as well as creating a bionic eye camera to transform a one-eyed filmmaker into “Eyeborg.”

Top 10 Countries that say Internet access is a basic right

Grammatis and his team plan to pay the bills by allowing telecommunications companies to buy and resell high-speed bandwidth, even as they provide a slower connection speed for free to everyone. They have also begun to develop an open-source, low-cost modem that could provide developing countries with their link to the satellite and the rest of the world.

To achieve this dream, ahumanright.org launched a “Buy This Satellite” initiative on a new website.

Q: SPACE.com: What are the basic goals of ahumanright.org?

Grammatis: ahumanright is charged with promoting Internet access as a human right. The organization also promotes endeavors that can ensure everyone has a chance to get online. We try to do this in three different ways:

• Connect with businesses and governments and discuss the creation of a “free” segment to their networks
• We have been envisioning our own free network with our friends at NASA and other industry experts
• We attempt to buy and re-purpose underutilized infrastructure to bring free Internet to the people

SPACE.com: How much geographical coverage can TerreStar-1 provide in terms of Internet? Could it provide service to all of Africa?

Grammatis: Currently it can cover all of America, southern Canada and northern Mexico. Not entirely Africa.

SPACE.com: What considerations are going into the choice of where to park the satellite? How will you weigh public or donor opinions?

Grammatis: That is a very complicated question that has no simple answer.

SPACE.com: How much do you envision the open-source, low-cost modem might cost?

Grammatis: We’re aiming for less than $100, but that’s dependent on a lot of factors.

SPACE.com: Do you have any business partners or larger-scale funders in mind?

Grammatis: Plenty. Google comes to mind first, Richard Branson second. People and organizations who like taking big risks and doing things that have a lot of positive impact.

SPACE.com: Are there any possible plans to repeat this process for other satellites, if this ultimately proves successful?

Grammatis: Already in the works! We’ve got another collaboration coming together that should be announced soon if things go as planned.

To contribute to “Buy This Satellite’s” goal of raising $150,000, go here.

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

If you live where I do, you wouldn’t be able to open your front door this morning, the snow drifts are so high. The idea of doing anything outside is overwhelming when simply opening a door is a challenge! Plus, there are the cold temperatures. And the whipping winds. In short, it’s a good day to stay indoors…or is it?

A full-fledged snow day brings out that little child in us, where heavy snowfall meant no school and outdoor fun. So what does it mean as an adult? How can you benefit from a grown-up “snow day”?

1. Get out in it! There’s a tendency as adults to withdraw from the cold and to stay in artificial heat until it’s “safe” to go outdoors again. It’s good to take some time and adjust to the cold temperatures, feel the crisp air, walk around and get some circulation. (This doesn’t just mean snow shoveling, which is far more strenuous.) Take a short walk around first. You’ll be surprised that it’s not as intolerable as you think. And walking in the snow is a great workout!

2. Revisit your books. Books have a naturally therapeutic effect on our bodies. We breathe more rhythmically and genuinely relax into a good story. Find that book you’ve put aside. Get in touch with the act of reading again. Remember it’s meditative effect on our minds and souls and imagination.

3. Boil that water. Non-caffeinated teas and other warm beverages are a wonderful way to hydrate and warm us up naturally. Teas also possess a naturally calming effect on our systems. There’s a ritual each of us have when we drink teas, whether we’re aware of it or not. Get in touch with yours again.

4. Remember that nothing is alright! We’ve become almost robotically programmed at this point to stay busy. But it’s alright to do nothing; to contemplate, dream, nap, doodle, stare out a window without a thought in your head. We’re not machines. We’re people. And “lazy” isn’t always as bad as we think.

Snow days can be magical days, if we remember how. What can you do in the midst of this Winter to remind yourself of its magical qualities and peaceful effects?

Sure, the holidays are supposed to filled with good things: family, friends, love, gratitude and giving. But they can also be a real sore spot for some, evoking memories of holidays past when things seemed better. Or it can also be a time when people feel overwhelmed and stressed by overspending and a frenzied state of busyness.

Here are a few pointers to keep your feet on the ground during this wonderous but often trying season:

FORGIVE ~Make a list of everyone in your family and immediate sphere of influence that you are “out of sorts” with. Then either write a sincere letter making amends for your part in the situation, or sit quietly every day for the next two weeks for 3-5 minutes and pray for that person (people), wishing them everything they want for themselves (my definition of love). One of the fastest ways I know to free up your spirit so you can enjoy the magic of the season with a more open heart. You are also less inclined to medicate or do self destructive things when you feel and begin to heal and deal with the truth rather than cover the pain!

GET IN SERVICE~ Pick someone you know who is hurting (or suffering more than you) and reach out to them and see what you can do to make their season more filled with light and joy! If you don’t know anyone, there are a huge number of food and clothing drives you can contribute to or get involved in directly. Just go online. Including women’s and homeless shelters!

MOVE YOUR BODY~ Make sure you are moving your body every day and make it fun. Maybe sign up for a dance class, join the 5 Rhythms dance community, take up ice skating or tango. Or if you know how to do any of these, go teach a class at an a school or old folks home. As my friend Gabrielle Roth says the best way to heal the psyche is to put the body in motion!

EXPRESS YOURSELF~ Gift-giving can make anyone feel overwhelmed, resentful or even insecure. One easy and fun thing to do is make something from your heart! I wrote and recorded a song once and gave it as a gift. There are really inexpensive ways to do this now! Or if gifts aren’t an issue, join a church choir or start a caroling group!

PRAY FOR GUIDANCE~ Meeting our shadows head on is no easy task, especially since the holidays can conjure ghosts of holidays past (or future) like the dickens. So having a daily practice of self inquiry is key to healing and lessening the tendency to ignite the inner saboteurs. While self-inquiry takes discipline there are many forms that will work; pick one (or a combo) that you love and give yourself to it with all your heart! For example: meditation, yoga, walking the labyrinth, moving meditation, shamanic dance, sitting and chanting, or just getting on your knees. You will be amazed at how the sincere devotion and attention you give yourself and the divine within you holds the power to ground you and give you real hope, in such a way that true love and joy will shine in you and through you, a beacon of the divine!

Source: AboutMaryann

It doesn’t always take a lot to make a child happy. Especially Matt, who is suffering from a rare neurological disease. He wants a Christmas card. That’s all. At the end of this post, you’ll find his address.

Like many kids his age, 11-year-old Matthew Mickelson Butman was eager to meet Santa Claus. Most of his friends would line up at the mall for hours—but in Matthew’s case, Santa was willing to make a house call.

Matt has a rare degenerative neurological disorder called Leigh’s disease. It claimed his brother’s life in 1996—and soon, it will take Matthew’s life too.

“To make it easy to understand, it’s a very rare disease that affects the [cell’s] ability to make energy,” Matt wrote on his Facebook page. “Once a cell is affected, it dies. There are also brain lesions. Unfortunately it is terminal and there is no treatment or cure. … My parents make sure I’m comfortable and have no pain.”

He is no longer able to speak or lift his head, but that hasn’t stopped him from celebrating what will likely be his last Christmas.

When Santa came to visit him on Wednesday, he didn’t have any gift requests. Instead, he presented Saint Nick with a big bag of gifts to deliver to needy children.

Along with the Santa visit, Matt’s only Christmas request is for strangers to send him greeting cards. He’s eager to receive messages of good will from people around the world, and he’s already receiving up to 80 cards a day. After Matt reads them, his mother hangs them up around the room in a chain of Christmas cheer.

Want to contribute to Matt’s happy Christmas? Greeting cards can be mailed to him at: Matthew Mickelson Butman, PO Box 1865, Wylie, TX, 75089.

Check out the video of Matt’s story.

We have no affiliation with this company. But I wanted to take a moment to recognize the wonderful works of Ten Thousand Villages. I stumbled across them last night when I was looking for a last minute gift. During a time of the year where commercialism is rampant, remember, there are places to buy gifts where your dollars really make a difference.

Nationally recognized for our commitment to social responsibility, Ten Thousand Villages creates opportunities for artisans around the globe to earn a fair wage. Artisans use this income to pay for food, education, healthcare and housing for themselves and their families. Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit program of Mennonite Central Committee.

Our Vision

One day all artisans in the developing countries will earn a fair wage, be treated with dignity and respect and be able to live a life of quality.

Our Mission

Ten Thousand Villages’ mission is to create opportunities for artisans in developing countries to earn income by bringing their products and stories to our markets through long-term fair trading relationships.

Here’s the story of one merchant:

The cooperative Candelas La Luciérnaga (“Firefly Candles”) is a Hondura's project of the nonprofit women’s organization Actions for Popular Development (ADP). The work of ADP, an organization dedicated to the empowerment and welfare of women, includes a shelter for abused women and their children, a home for pregnant women and a microlending program. La Luciérnaga supports ADP financially while providing the women artisans with income. La Luciérnaga artisans produce a variety of candles, decorated with natural materials like dried flowers and leaves. Candelas La Luciérnaga was established in 1999. Women of the ADP abused women’s shelter decided to make decorative candles after having difficulty raising funds for the shelter. Ten Thousand Villages purchases candles from La Luciérnaga. Ten Thousand Villages has purchased products from La Luciérnaga since 2002.

Artisan Group: Gospel House Handicrafts Ltd
Country: Sri Lanka

Gospel House provides training and work to youth with little education, financial means or prospect of employment—those most at risk in the midst of Sri Lanka’s political uprisings. Employees are hired without regard to race, caste or religion. Artisans are trained on the job, and receive monthly wages.

Holidays in general breed unrealistic expectations. The minute you start wondering, “Is it going to be wonderful enough?”, it never will be.
Pepper Schwartz

I also hate those holidays that fall on a Monday where you don’t get mail, those fake holidays like Columbus Day. What did Christopher Columbus do, discover America? If he hadn’t, somebody else would have and we’d still be here. Big deal.
John Waters

I had done a fair bit of traveling during the holidays in my school days with my guitar and discovered that I could live on it. Admittedly, I traveled with a sleeping bag but I could always find somewhere to lay my head.
Jeremy Irons

I ignore Hallmark Holidays. And this comes from a guy who has sold a million Opus greeting cards.
Berke Breathed

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no holidays.
Henny Youngman

It’s like your children talking about holidays, you find they have a quite different memory of it from you. Perhaps everything is not how it is, but how it’s remembered.
Denis Norden

Just as a puppy can be more of a challenge than a gift, so too can the holidays.
John Clayton

My feelings are those of a schoolboy getting in sight of the holidays. Or more seriously, my feelings are perhaps those of a matador who has decided not to enter the bull ring.
Geoffrey Fisher

Nothing says holidays like a cheese log.
Ellen DeGeneres

November is Jewish book month, so Jewish Community Centers all around the country have book fairs where they invite authors and sell books in advance of the holidays.
Anita Diament

Orphans, dead parents, lonely children at Christmas, morose spoken word recordings, everything you love about the holidays. Move the turkey over so you can fit your head in the oven.
April Winchell

Passover and Easter are the only Jewish and Christian holidays that move in sync, like the ice skating pairs we saw during the winter Olympics.
Marvin Olasky

That’s what the holidays are for - for one person to tell the stories and another to dispute them. Isn’t that the Irish way?
Lara Flynn Boyle

Wilson A. “Snowflake” Bentley (1865–1931), born in Jericho, Vermont, USA, is the first known photographer of snowflakes. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or evaporated.

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/holidays.html#ixzz18HzOtaWA

During these rough economic times, some of us are experiencing a sense of shame. What did I do wrong? How do I tell people I’m losing my job? Or my home?

Shame is a difficult, complex and sticky feeling to manage. Mainly because it usually stems from earlier experiences, which are important to identify first.

Here’s what author Brene Brown has to say:

1. “Contextualize (I see the big picture)” - This means noticing how economic, social, and political forces are involved in the situation. It doesn’t mean to shift the responsibility in regards to solving a problem, but it does take the edge off the shame.

2. “Normalize (I’m not the only one)” - If you’re not the only one, then there’s less basis for feelings of personally inadequacy.

3. “Demystify (I’ll share what I know with others)” - Talk about the problem. And ask questions to get the info that will help. It may turn out several others in the neighborhood are keeping the same dark secret. We can help each other, or at least enjoy the company of people who understand.

One other tidbit of wisdom from this source: When other people say dumb things about the painful situation, don’t counterattack. Instead say something on the order of: that hurt my feelings. “It seems counterintuitive, but telling someone how we feel takes more courage and is often more powerful than verbally attacking them.”

A small personal application: I’ve railed repeatedly here about some bad treatment at the “hands” of a health insurance company. One part of this reaction is that I’m ashamed that I can be taken advantage of. One of my buried assumptions is that part of my job in life is to have the savvy to keep this from happening. When I fail at this, I feel like a schlump.

Looking at this with the Brene Brown system:

1. The context: the entire healthcare payment system is in severe disrepair, to the point of national crisis. One piece of that is that our medicine is so advanced that we have tests and treatment that almost no one can afford. That’s the big picture.

2. God knows, I’m not the only one.

3. I’m sure talking about it.

I still have the stupid assumption that I should be capable of throwing over such problems, and I haven’t. But this critical thinking process does take away some of the feeling of failure, embarrassment and shame. And getting rid of those probably makes me more capable of dealing with a problem.

Source: Peggy Payne

Another piece of helpful advice:

Shame needs to be worked at bit by bit. You have to be loving and kind to yourself; make your own affirmations and practise them religiously. You may have to seek professional help, if you feel that the scars run deep. Remember that causes of shame are usually not of your doing and that you don’t have to carry them for life. Stop beating yourself about what you had no control over.

- Abhy Medkul

As many of us begin our work week, let’s explore the idea of an ethical job. Making a sound professional choice has implications on the world around us.

An ethical job is a broad term to describe a job which accords with a person’s ethics or values.

Ethical jobs may include Green jobs, community sector jobs and jobs in the International aid sector. Survey data from various countries shows a trend for jobseekers to seek out ethical jobs:

• A 2007 opinion poll by Harris Interactive of 1741 US employees found that 73% of respondents said it was “important that your employer be environmentally and socially responsible”.^[1]

• A 2005 poll by The Guardian newspaper of 2000 undergraduates in the UK found that “over 70% of students said that a company’s ethical track record is a crucial factor when choosing their employer.” ^[2]

• A 2005 poll by High Fliers Research of 6227 final year students from Australian and New Zealand universities and found that 40% said it was “very important” that their first employer be socially responsible, and 30% said it was “very important” that their first employer be environmentally responsible. ^[3]

Ethical jobs are not simply “green” jobs but also the way in which you conduct business. It begins with a mindset that realizes long-lasting implications to professional decisions you make. It includes an expansive vision of the world around you and how you contribute.

No matter how small or seemingly inconsequential your current profession, let’s address our work day from an ethical standpoint, thinking outward, forward and positively!