The time has come for everyone to have more Eco-friendly sensibility
Eco-fact: Commercial car washes are better than washing your car at home in the drive.
Commercial carwashes reuse/recycle their water. They are also required to treat their water. Using a commercial carwash eliminates potential chemicals and toxins being added to your lawn or the neighborhood drain.
Like many people these days, I'm trying to become more educated about the environment and eco-friendly practices. Periodically, I will be sharing some of the knowledge and resources I find with you here.
One information source is Sara Snow, a Natural Living Expert who host the Discovery-Home show, "Get Fresh with Sara Snow." It is very informative, entertaining, and covers a myriad of topics including cooking and fashion. "The Green" is another such program hosted on the Sundance Channel.
Eco-Practice (fashion):
1. Wear vintage clothes and recycle old clothes by finding new uses.
2 Buy clothing that uses sustainable textile fiber. These can come from organically grown (chemically free) crops or unusual plants that are not normally used in the fiber and textile industry like bamboo. Bamboo is now being used in textile industry to produce very fashionable fabrics and garments.
On your next shopping trip, don't just like at the price tag but take a closer look at the fabric content label. Or instead of heading to the mall or big chain store, try visiting and sampling the wares of a local vintage clothing or thrift store.
Make it point to began educating yourself and incorporating more eco-friendly practices in your daily life. We can no longer afford to leave this task to a few "tree-hugging" nonprofit organizations. I believe it's vital we all began to take a more active personal role in sustaining the planet earth. Although we're making more frequent trips to the moon, so far, we're still only living here on earth. Let us all pitch in to preserve it. Start today, if not for yourself--then do it for your grandchildren and our future generations.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Cafe Reconcile
Wynton Marsalis, jazz musician and reknown chef John Besh were featured on one of my favorite Sundance Channel programme's "Iconaclast." Both these artist have volunteered and sponsored many benefits to help the city they grew up in--New Orleans. During the the program I learned about Cafe Reconcile, a nonprofit oganization that helps at-risk youths of New Orleans. Cafe Reconcile provides a safe supportive place for the youth to have the option of receiving the life, work and educational skills necessary to turn their lives on a productive path toward thriving and complete citizens of the city.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Tribute to a Lifetime of Work
My Mother recently retired from Nursing after 34 years of service to the same hospital. The hospital where I bore my first child. While there was no gold watch, there were many well wishing co-workers bearing gifts and well wishes. Amidst a myriad recanting of past shared work experiences came the repeated question of how she would spend her new found free time. It was most surprising when she really had no answer. After a lifetime caring for others she didn't know what would come after that. She will have to learn the new art of caring for herself and relaxing--a difficult task for a "born" nurse. I've always said that my mother was a nurse before she ever went to nursing school.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Anything’s Possible
I decided to blog as a way of sharing, writing, creating, interacting with the world via what ever avenue or subject matter I choose. How cool is that?
This is my soapbox, my day in the sun so to speak. Here, I can speak my truth about the things that matter to me. Perhaps there’s someone else out there that is also thinking the same way or maybe not…hey this person could be introduced to a totally new idea or concept--by me. That could be a new radical good thing. Anything’s possible.
I like to read, create things with my hands and words. I enjoy solitude but I’m also a very social being--another reason for blogging. I have always secretly dreamed of becoming a published writer someday… well here I am all published and everything…Look at me now Ma! Top of the World Ma! Anything’s possible!
My passions are photography, landscape and nature. I dabble in alchemy, making soaps, candles and other bath and body products from scratch using my own recipes. I also love to design and make jewelry. I currently work in the medical field but dream of making a living doing what I love. So by day I work for a surgeon in a sports medicine clinic. But by night I read and toil to create magical designs and recipes. My design studio website is currently under construction. You can check the progress at
Why did you decide to blog?
“The Well of Providence is Deep, it is the buckets we bring to it that are small.” ~Mary Webb
This is my soapbox, my day in the sun so to speak. Here, I can speak my truth about the things that matter to me. Perhaps there’s someone else out there that is also thinking the same way or maybe not…hey this person could be introduced to a totally new idea or concept--by me. That could be a new radical good thing. Anything’s possible.
I like to read, create things with my hands and words. I enjoy solitude but I’m also a very social being--another reason for blogging. I have always secretly dreamed of becoming a published writer someday… well here I am all published and everything…Look at me now Ma! Top of the World Ma! Anything’s possible!
My passions are photography, landscape and nature. I dabble in alchemy, making soaps, candles and other bath and body products from scratch using my own recipes. I also love to design and make jewelry. I currently work in the medical field but dream of making a living doing what I love. So by day I work for a surgeon in a sports medicine clinic. But by night I read and toil to create magical designs and recipes. My design studio website is currently under construction. You can check the progress at
Why did you decide to blog?
“The Well of Providence is Deep, it is the buckets we bring to it that are small.” ~Mary Webb
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
Something to fight about
We just finished celebrating the 4th of July...American Independence Day. Now, that was a war worth fighting for. A war based on principles of freedom and participation for all although as a nation we still often stumble living this out, I believe the basic motives were pure.
Next take a close look at our "War Money" counter in the upper right for real-time visual on the actual money being currently being spent on the Iraq War. Better yet, add a link to your blog or web page by going to Cost of War: National Priorities Project. You can even compare the cost of war to other things that money could have bought like health and education. What are we fighting for--democracy (for who), greed, hatred, fear? Here's an emanate idea worth fighting for--protecting and preserving our earth which is in grave danger no matter what the skeptics say. This is a war where everybody can win. Isn't that worth fighting for? " Check out Live Earth
to find out what's going on or get involved. You can even make a pledge that doesn't actually cost you. How cool is that? Check out the interview with former Vice President, Al Gore and advertising guru and motivational entrepreneur, Donnie Deutsch at The Big Idea: Donny Deutsch questions people/
Next take a close look at our "War Money" counter in the upper right for real-time visual on the actual money being currently being spent on the Iraq War. Better yet, add a link to your blog or web page by going to Cost of War: National Priorities Project. You can even compare the cost of war to other things that money could have bought like health and education. What are we fighting for--democracy (for who), greed, hatred, fear? Here's an emanate idea worth fighting for--protecting and preserving our earth which is in grave danger no matter what the skeptics say. This is a war where everybody can win. Isn't that worth fighting for? " Check out Live Earth
to find out what's going on or get involved. You can even make a pledge that doesn't actually cost you. How cool is that? Check out the interview with former Vice President, Al Gore and advertising guru and motivational entrepreneur, Donnie Deutsch at The Big Idea: Donny Deutsch questions people/
more truth
While I believe it important to speak my truth I,m reminded of another truth by which to temper it…
“While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation. ~Maya Angelou
On Speaking Truth
“There’s an old saying: only little children and old folks tell the truth. When you get real old, you just lay it on the table.” ~Bessie Delany
Why is that? My ninety year old grandmother has suddenly become this funny vocal expression of truth and courage. Having grown up one step away from slavery in a rural southern religious patriarchal society she married a sharecropper and they had ten children. My grandfather was not the easiest man in the world to get along with and my understanding is that he was much worst when my mom and her siblings were growing up at home. Although I loved him dearly I still remember his demanding inpatience toward my grandmother and women in general. While I’m sure he too was a product of his time and his environment. I have no proof partly because I belong to a people that loves to keep secrets. However, it was no secret that my grandfather was at the very least verbally abusive to my grandmother and his children. In his defense later in life he became the elder deacon of his local Pentecostal church and this transformation mellowed him considerably but reminiscent flickers of his past carnal nature often came through. I remember one such incident when he and my grandmother had come into town to visit us and bring some goodies from the farm, and they were leaving. My grandfather was out in the truck honking and bellowing for my grandmother to hurry up and come on. My grandmother had no sooner made it to the truck, had one leg in and was about to lift the other when granddaddy took off down the drive with granny’s other leg and her door flapping in the wind. It infuriated my mom to no end. She was so angry that she called her father and basically gave him what for and forbidding, no daring, him to treat her mother that way again. He never did, at least in our presence. In contrast, my grandmother was a quite soft spoken homemaker and obedient wife. I never heard her raise her voice or say anything in her own defense when granddaddy behaved unseemingly. Ok I said all that to paint the backdrop to my quote for today. Fast forward twenty years, and my grandmother is now this vocal little 4’9” bundle of spunk. She doesn’t take any disrespect from anyone especially her kids. Recently, my aunt and grandmother were in the kitchen preparing some dish when my aunt began to tell my grandmother what and how she should do things with little regard to how granny felt about it. My grandmother reminded her oldest daughter, who is a lot like her father, that she endured thirty something years of abuse from her late husband--her father and now that he’d been dead for twenty years , she wasn’t about to be bossed around by anyone else, especially her children. It was because of her children that she had stayed. As she laments today, “where was she going to go with ten children?” My grandmother told my aunt she could leave if she didn’t abide by her wishes. And there are many, frequent such instances where my grandmother speaks her mind with boldness and without hesitation these days.
I choose to explore and express my truths now. Who knows if I’ll make it to ninety. By then I’m sure I’ll have new truths to express or at the very least, an opinionated daugther to keep in check.
Why is that? My ninety year old grandmother has suddenly become this funny vocal expression of truth and courage. Having grown up one step away from slavery in a rural southern religious patriarchal society she married a sharecropper and they had ten children. My grandfather was not the easiest man in the world to get along with and my understanding is that he was much worst when my mom and her siblings were growing up at home. Although I loved him dearly I still remember his demanding inpatience toward my grandmother and women in general. While I’m sure he too was a product of his time and his environment. I have no proof partly because I belong to a people that loves to keep secrets. However, it was no secret that my grandfather was at the very least verbally abusive to my grandmother and his children. In his defense later in life he became the elder deacon of his local Pentecostal church and this transformation mellowed him considerably but reminiscent flickers of his past carnal nature often came through. I remember one such incident when he and my grandmother had come into town to visit us and bring some goodies from the farm, and they were leaving. My grandfather was out in the truck honking and bellowing for my grandmother to hurry up and come on. My grandmother had no sooner made it to the truck, had one leg in and was about to lift the other when granddaddy took off down the drive with granny’s other leg and her door flapping in the wind. It infuriated my mom to no end. She was so angry that she called her father and basically gave him what for and forbidding, no daring, him to treat her mother that way again. He never did, at least in our presence. In contrast, my grandmother was a quite soft spoken homemaker and obedient wife. I never heard her raise her voice or say anything in her own defense when granddaddy behaved unseemingly. Ok I said all that to paint the backdrop to my quote for today. Fast forward twenty years, and my grandmother is now this vocal little 4’9” bundle of spunk. She doesn’t take any disrespect from anyone especially her kids. Recently, my aunt and grandmother were in the kitchen preparing some dish when my aunt began to tell my grandmother what and how she should do things with little regard to how granny felt about it. My grandmother reminded her oldest daughter, who is a lot like her father, that she endured thirty something years of abuse from her late husband--her father and now that he’d been dead for twenty years , she wasn’t about to be bossed around by anyone else, especially her children. It was because of her children that she had stayed. As she laments today, “where was she going to go with ten children?” My grandmother told my aunt she could leave if she didn’t abide by her wishes. And there are many, frequent such instances where my grandmother speaks her mind with boldness and without hesitation these days.
I choose to explore and express my truths now. Who knows if I’ll make it to ninety. By then I’m sure I’ll have new truths to express or at the very least, an opinionated daugther to keep in check.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Our life's work
I think we were all born with unique skills and talents and hose skills were meant to be our life's work. Problem is we get so caught up in the noise of the world that we fail to make our love our work. I read a book about twenty years ago titled something like "Do what you love and the money will follow." I have always embraced that ideal. The problem most people face is trying to pay the mortgage and keep bread on the table while doing what they love. As a born entreprenuer still working on her lifes work, trying to make a living doing what i love, I will share some of my sources of continued inpiration. One such TV show is "The Big Idea: Donny Deutsch" . Check it out. He interviews so many interesting entrepreneurs. They share their stories and I find it informative and inspiring. Thanks Donny keep doing what you do.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Optimism...a passion for life
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. ~Chinese Proverb
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