David Blaine - Secrets Revealed

Just this morning, I listened to a radio program about a boy in Arizona who plans on sending letters to the American troops overseas all summerlong - he wants to send as many letters as possible.

It got me thinking about the power of a letter. And my research wheels began spinning.

I stumbled across AnySoldier.com.

According to their site:

This effort is 110% voluntary.
You send your support, and maybe some stuff, directly to whatever unit or units YOU select.

And it doesn’t have to some elaborate care package. Letters are the most requested!

There is not one thing on this site, or anywhere, that requires you to send stuff. Letters are THE MOST requested thing by these Soldiers. So, all you need do is send a normal letter in a normal envelope with a normal stamp.

Good ideas: If you want, put your email address in your letter, many Soldiers can and prefer to reply that way. What to write? Too easy: like you are talking to a friend, because that is what that Soldier is going to be real quick. It is also VERY helpful if you leave your full return address as part of your letter, envelopes tend to get trashed quickly.

How great is that? Regardless of your political station, there is a soldier that would love to hear from you. Let’s send something today!

Alexandra Reau, of Petersburg, Mich., tended to her rainbow chard.

Lawn mowing and baby-sitting are standard summer jobs for the enterprising teenager. Alexandra Reau, who is 14, combines a little bit of each: last year, she asked her dad to dig up a half acre of their lawn in rural Petersburg, Mich., so she could farm. Now in its second season, her Garden to Go C.S.A. (community-supported agriculture) grows for 14 members, who pay $100 to $175 for two months of just-picked vegetables and herbs.

While her peers are hanging out at Molly’s Mystic Freeze and working out the moves to that Miley Cyrus video, she’s flicking potato-beetle larvae off of leaves in her V-neck T-shirt and denim capris, a barrette keeping her hair out of her demurely made-up eyes. Who says the face of American farming is a 57-year-old man with a John Deere cap?
Read more at The New York Times

“Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.”

~ George Eliot

An artistic impression of Epictetus

Before The Secret and other self-help books were the ancients, imparting the same philosophies, only thousands of years earlier!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

18.“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

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

20.“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: Trevor Crook Blog

30% of a solar-power system for your home. This perk has been available for a while, but tax credit for solar-power systems used to be capped at just $2,000—barely enough to make a difference on a typical $40,000 model. Now, the cap has been removed, so you’ll get big savings when you buy.

30% of a solar hot water heater. This rooftop box captures heat from the sun to warm water for your sink and bathtub, and once again, the Feds are chipping in 30% to make sure you can have a hot shower any time you like, guilt-free.

30% of a small wind turbine system. If your local zoning laws allow it, you could build a wind turbine to provide electricity to your house for about $40,000. Minus the government tax credit, you could end up with big savings over the course of your time in the home.

$7,500 towards an electric car. At the end of the year, Chevy’s introducing the Volt, which can run for 40 miles on a single electric charge. The price will be around $35,000, but the government’s tax credit will make it more affordable to eco-minded drivers.

Up to $1,500 towards green home improvements. If you’re adding energy-efficient roofs, windows, doors, insulation, or heating and cooling equipment to your house, the government will cover 30% of the costs up to $1,500 for purchases made through the end of the year.

Source: Gimundo

Cool Roofs (above), a growing trend

among business and home owners.

I wanted to share a recent email from a friend of mine, who has been making some definite eco-friendly changes in her life:

I haven’t bought new clothes in years! And as a lawyer who frequently must dress to impress, you’d think this would be hard, right? Not at all. I have two thrift stores in my areas that I “pillage” every few months. I find designer names occasionally or at the very least, a simple, elegant and professional outfit. The funny part is, I’m often complimented on my clothing.

The way I see it: there’s enough clothing on this planet. Why buy new stuff? Use what’s out there. I also really enjoy going to second hand stores: I feel like I’ve really scored when I find something cool and the money I save can go toward things in my life I genuinely need.

This philosophy has also transferred to other aspects of my life. I just repaired an appliance that I normally would have tossed  (it was so simple.) I don’t feel the need for “new stuff” as much in general. I feel alright with what I have.

1. Sit

   Find a comfortable place to sit. Sit with you back straight and feet on the floor. Be comfortable, but alert.

2. Close your eyes

   Just relax. Close your eyes. Let everything fall away.

3. Breathe in

   Breathe in through your nose. Feel the breath fill your body.

4. Breathe out

   Exhale through your nose. Feel your body collapse. Breathe out fully.

5. Repeat

   Continue breathing. After each time your breath in and out, say (or think) the word “One”. Continue for 20 minutes. You can change the word to anything meaningful for you.

6. Practice daily

   Repeat this everyday. Have a set time to do it. Don’t worry about setting an alarm, just have a clock nearby that you can see. If you start drifting in thought, gently return to your breathing.

7. Mini-relaxations

   During your day, stop a few times and ‘do a mini’. Just breath in and out for about a minute. This will relax you and begin to teach your body how to respond to stress in a calm way.

Source: How To Relax By Mark Stibich, Ph.D., About.com Guide

Scientists have discovered three previously unknown human antibodies that neutralize HIV, two of which target a broad range of HIV strains. The findings, reported online July 8 in two Science papers, come less than a year after another team of researchers discovered two other antibodies that bind to and neutralize HIV.

The discoveries may jump-start AIDS vaccine research. “The path forward isn’t as clear as we’d like it to be, but we are turning a corner, I think,” says David Montefiori, a viral immunologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., who was not involved in the research.

Nearly everyone infected with HIV makes some antibodies to it. But while HIV antibodies have been detected since the mid-1990s, none has had the properties to serve as a cornerstone around which to build a vaccine.

Source: US News

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our hearts are drunk with a beauty our eyes could never see.  ~George W. Russell

I’ve never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.  ~Author Unknown

By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.  ~Rabindrath Tagore

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.  ~Kahlil Gibran

Against Him those women sin who torment their skin with potions, stain their cheeks with rouge and extend the line of their eyes with black coloring.  Doubtless they are dissatisfied with God’s plastic skill.  In their own persons they convict and censure the Artificer of all things.  ~Tertullian

That which is striking and beautiful is not always good, but that which is good is always beautiful.  ~Ninon de L’Enclos

Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty - they merely move it from their faces into their hearts.  ~Martin Buxbaum

Tell them dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for being
~Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Rhodora”

It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.  ~Leo Tolstoy

Beauty comes in all sizes, not just size 5.  ~Roseanne Barr

I don’t like standard beauty - there is no beauty without strangeness.  ~Karl Lagerfeld