"Activism, GMOs, and the Law of Attraction" by Raphaella Vaisseau

I believe in choice and free will. However, as I've become aware of the introduction of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) into our food supply, I've learned from the Institute for Responsible Technology and other sources that "the FDA does not even require the labeling of GMOs in food ingredient lists." Thus, until GMO labeling is required, the choice to avoid GMOs is not an easy option for consumers in the US.

Making a difference matters to me, and contributing to the greater good is important to me, as it is to many people. Several years ago, Gregory M. Lamb wrote in the Christian Science Monitor: "Nearly nine in 10 [Americans] (85 percent) agree they can make the world a better place through their actions, 91 percent say it's important that individuals get involved in positive social change, and 77 percent say getting involved is personally important to them, according to a [2011] survey of more than 2,000 American adults conducted by Walden University, an online university, and Harris Interactive, a market research firm."

At the same time, I believe in the Law of Attraction, that where a person puts his or her attention will attract more of the same. So it would follow that fighting against something would make it stronger. How then can one navigate this universal law to effect change? How does activism mesh with the Law of Attraction. These are questions I've been pondering of late.

Much of my Heartful Art inspires people to stand tall, speak up, be brave, and walk the talk of whatever it is each person believes. Marianne Williamson's words from A Return to Love speak to the power we each have when we "let our own light shine."

Perhaps the key in this instance (instead of fighting against Monsanto and similar companies who have been creating genetically engineered food for over 20 years) is to focus on what I want more of, which is to have mandatory labeling of products containing genetically modified organisms in the US.

According to The Center for Food Safety, 64 countries around the world currently require labeling of genetically engineered food. I would like the US to be on that list. Labels offer consumers the choice to buy GE food or not. To join in this effort, or to learn more about this issue and "let Washington know that Americans want labeling of genetically engineered foods" explore Just Label It.
- Raphaella Vaisseau

New Fe Bailey PSA from Tropical Healing: What can you do to reduce plastic consumption?

Fe Bailey's new Tropical Healing PSA video (below), "What Can You Do To Reduce Plastic Consumption?" states that "we all have the choice, power, and responsibility to reduce plastic consumption." This is something I have been more and more committed to in recent months since I learned that recycling simply isn't taking care of the problem. Conscious people have been carefully recycling for decades, believing we are making a positive difference in our world. Yet much of the plastic we think is being recycled is not. Some is down cycled or simply shipped to third world countries.

I discovered this while listening to an interview with Annie Leonard about her book, The Story of Stuff. Here's a link to one of  Ms. Leonard's videos: The Story of Bottled Water.

As this relates to the Tropical Healing PSA below, The Story of Bottled Water also answers the question, What can you do? In the notes below the video is this suggestion: "Before the bottled water craze hit, we took it for granted that public fountains were part of any public building: schools, offices, sports stadiums and parks. Let's bring them back! In the U.S., many state building codes mandate that there be one source of public water for every 1000 people the building has capacity for. Why not subsidize public water fountains as part of local efforts to build green?"

As for me, personally, what I've done (am doing) is using cloth bags for groceries, and I fill glass water bottles to have in my fridge and to bring with me instead of buying the little disposable plastic bottles. It takes an extra effort and planning ahead, but it's working for me and I feel good about it. Next step for me: I will discontinue using plastic merchandise bags even if they claim to be made with recycled bottles, and switch instead to paper bags.

Please share your thoughts and comments about this and your actions and ideas about reducing plastic consumption in your life. Bravo to Fe Bailey and her crew for making this film, and to Annie Leonard for her work on reducing consumption in many areas of our lives. Thank you to both of these women for their proactive contributions to making a better planet for us all.
-Raphaella Vaisseau

Kelly Light's Ripple Project - Artists and Donors Help the Animal Victims of the Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill

So far Kelly Light has facilitated over $9,000 in donations to help animal victims of the Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill. "We don't have to feel helpless. We can help. Our small actions together will ripple outward," Kelly says.

Artists (me included) donate sketches which Kelly posts on the Ripples blog. People buy the art by making a donation to one of the four nonprofits listed below the instructions for making the donation. Read the whole blog to see how it works. Some of the art requires a $50 donation and some a $10 donation.

Two of my ACEO paintings sold yesterday and two more are still available .Click HERE to see the post and buy one for the cause. I plan to donate more ACEO originals in September if the project still continues. Every penny goes to the animals.

To read more about how it all began, read the School Library Journal's July 20, 2010 article by Debra Lau Whelan, "Children's Illustrators Help Save Gulf Oil Spill Wildlife Victims."

I'm honored to play a small part in this important rescue project. I appreciate Kelly Light's vision (and her time) to make a difference in our world. Bless the art, the artists and the donors who are in turn blessing the animals of the Gulf. Thanks, Kelly!

TUBFRIM - helping the children of Norway

I first learned of TUBFRIM in 1998 while living in Ashland, Oregon. The local Sons of Norway there collected used postage stamps and sent them off to Norway to help raise money for the children. I loved that it was such a simple way to participate in making a difference. I've been saving my postage stamps ever since and once a year I package them all up and mail them to Norway.

Postmaster Ditlef Frantzen in Nesbyen established TUBFRIM in 1928. The aim was to collect and sell used stamps and use the proceeds to aid the eradication of tuberculosis among Norwegian children. TUBFRIM is owned by the Norwegian Health Association (Nasjonalforeningen for folkehelsen). Today the profits are used to help handicapped children and youth in Norway, and to finance the efforts to eradicate tuberculosis.

If you'd like to join in the fun, send your stamps and used phonecards to TUBFIRM, N-3540 Nesbyen, Norway. You can also mail them to a participating Sons of Norway lodge in the U.S.A.

UCLA Study on Friendship Among Women - By Gale Berkowitz

The article I’ve copied below was sent to me by a friend (how lucky I am). I found it interesting so I’m passing it on to you with my thoughts. I enjoyed reading most of Gale Berkowitz article on the UCLA Study: Taylor, S. E., Klein, L.C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A. R., and; Updegraff, J. A. Female Responses to Stress: Tend and Befriend, Not Fight or Flight. I loved the findings of the study and Ms. Berkowitz’s comments about that. However, I don't agree with her consensus with Ruthellen Josselson in the final paragraph. I would respectfully say to both Gale and Ruthellen, please speak for yourselves. Enjoy the new study, align your friendships with what we can empower women to create for themselves/ourselves and please … don’t perpetrate another negative stereotype of what women do on the rest of us.

I, for one, don’t accept it. I value my friends and my friendships as I value my self, my family and my work. I’m careful to choose friends I can make that kind of commitment to. For me, valuing my women friends and friendships is a conscious choice I made long ago when I realized that if I wanted a friend I had to be a friend and that meant honoring my friends with my time and energy as I honor myself and would like to be honored by them. It was after a thoughtful discussion in 1997 with a friend about friendship that I wrote my poem, “A Friend.” Here’s Gale Berkowitz’ article about the Taylor-Klein study at UCLA so you can explore the conversation in your own mind, and among your women friends.

UCLA STUDY ON FRIENDSHIP AMONG WOMEN - By Gale Berkowitz

A landmark UCLA study suggests friendships between women are special. They shape who we are and who we are yet to be. They soothe our tumultuous inner world, fill the emotional gaps in our marriage, and help us remember who we really are. By the way, they may do even more.

Scientists now suspect that hanging out with our friends can actually counteract the kind of stomach-quivering stress most of us experience on a daily basis. A landmark UCLA study suggests that women respond to stress with a cascade of brain chemicals that cause us to make and maintain friendships with other women. It's a stunning find that has turned five decades of stress research---most of it on men---upside down. "Until this study was published, scientists generally believed that when people experience stress, they trigger a hormonal cascade that revs the body to either stand and fight or flee as fast as possible," explains Laura Cousino Klein, Ph.D., now an Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State University and one of the study's authors. "It's an ancient survival mechanism left over from the time we were chased across the planet by saber-toothed tigers.

Now the researchers suspect that women have a larger behavioral repertoire than just "fight or flight." "In fact," says Dr. Klein, "it seems that when the hormone oxytocin is released as part of the stress responses in a woman, it buffers the "fight or flight" response and encourages her to tend children and gather with other women instead. When she actually engages in this tending or befriending, studies suggest that more oxytocin is released, which further counters stress and produces a calming effect. This calming response does not occur in men," says Dr. Klein, "because testosterone---which men produce in high levels when they're under stress---seems to reduce the effects of oxytocin. Estrogen," she adds, "seems to enhance it." The discovery that women respond to stress differently than men was made in a classic "aha!" moment shared by two women scientists who were talking one day in a lab at UCLA. "There was this joke that when the women who worked in the lab were stressed, they came in, cleaned the lab, had coffee, and bonded," says Dr. Klein. "When the men were stressed, they holed up somewhere on their own. I commented one day to fellow researcher Shelley Taylor that nearly 90% of the stress research is on males. I showed her the data from my lab, and the two of us knew instantly that we were onto something." The women cleared their schedules and started meeting with one scientist after another from various research specialties. Very quickly, Drs. Klein and Taylor discovered that by not including women in stress research, scientists had made a huge mistake: The fact that women respond to stress differently than men has significant implications for our health. It may take some time for new studies to reveal all the ways that oxytocin encourages us to care for children and hang out with other women, but the "tend and befriend" notion developed by Drs. Klein and Taylor may explain why women consistently outlive men. Study after study has found that social ties reduce our risk of disease by lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol. "There's no doubt," says Dr. Klein, "that friends are helping us live." In one study, for example, researchers found that people who had no friends increased their risk of death over a 6-month period. In another study, those who had the most friends over a 9-year period cut their risk of death by more than 60%. Friends are also helping us live better. The famed Nurses' Health Study from Harvard Medical School found that the more friends women had, the less likely they were to develop physical impairments as they aged, and the more likely they were to be leading a joyful life. In fact, the results were so significant, the researchers concluded, that not having close friends or confidantes was as detrimental to your health as smoking or carrying extra weight! And that's not all! When the researchers looked at how well the women functioned after the death of their spouse, they found that even in the face of this biggest stressor of all, those women who had a close friend confidante were more likely to survive the experience without any new physical impairments or permanent loss of vitality. Those without friends were not always so fortunate.

Yet if friends counter the stress that seems to swallow up so much of our life these days, if they keep us healthy and even add years to our life, why is it so hard to find time to be with them? That's a question that also troubles researcher Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D., co-author of Best Friends: The Pleasures and Perils of Girls' and Women's Friendships (Three Rivers Press, 1998). "Every time we get overly busy with work and family, the first thing we do is let go of friendships with other women," explains Dr. Josselson. "We push them right to the back burner. That's really a mistake because women are such a source of strength to each other. We nurture one another. And we need to have unpressured space in which we can do the special kind of talk that women do when they're with other women. It's a very healing experience."

President Obama takes big step to fight global warming

According to a CREDO Action Alert: Today, President Obama set new national policy on climate change by making cars and trucks more fuel-efficient by requiring an average fuel economy standard of 35.5 mpg by 2016.

Today, President Obama announced the first national standard for greenhouse-gas emissions for automobiles, which will tighten emission and fuel economy standards that have been delayed for decades. The new rules, which will take effect in 2012, require an average fuel economy standard of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 and are built on California's tough tailpipe standards by requiring that cars be more fuel efficient. CREDO continually fought to pass these standards, but the Bush EPA illegally blocked them. The plan would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 900 million tons through 2016.

Earth Hour Around the Globe - pics via The Big Picture

Started in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour quickly grew into a global observance. More than 1,000 cities in over 80 countries observed Earth Hour 2009 on Saturday March 28th, as homes, office towers and landmarks turned off their lights for an hour starting at 8.30 pm local time to raise awareness about climate change and the threat from rising greenhouse gas emissions. Check out the pictures in javascript of cities and monuments going black via Alan Taylor's The Big Picture.

In Venice, Florida, I did my part and sat in the dark with the light of a candle and a smiley-faced crescent moon to light my journal as I wrote a stream of consciousness for 45 minutes of the hour. The last fifteen minutes I blew out the candle and meditated on global peace, harmony and wellness from the micro to the macro, from the core of the earth to the highest realms of spirit.

Note from the future: Ten years later and I'm still doing this every year. In 2019, 188 countries participated to inspire urgent action for the environment. Join us next year on Saturday, March 28, 2020 8:30pm local time.

Ada Lovelace Day - Pledge to Honor Women in Technology on March 24, 2009

I took the pledge along with 1,500 other people as of now. More information here. Join us.

clipped from anitaborg.org Ada Lovelace Day is the brainchild of Suw Charman-Anderson, a London-based social media consultant and digital rights activist. Recognizing that women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, she issued a challenge: “I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same.” — Suw Charman-Anderson

Playing for Change (peace through music)

Wow. A friend (Fe) just sent me this video and, after I enjoyed her gift of words and listened to the music, I checked out their website: http://www.playingforchange.com/ - "Playing For Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music." Take a listen, check out their website, and join if you want.