• Map It or Scrap It: The Real Secret to Success
• Obesity is contagious?
• Find inner peace and gain world peace
• The Daily Love
• Set an intention
• Your resurrection begins with you
• 8 ways to join the local food movement
• How to fall in love with life again

General provisions:

A – Whereas the saying “all is fair in love and war” is absolutely correct;

B – Whereas for war we have the Geneva Convention, approved on 22 August 1864, which provides for those wounded in the battle field, but until now no convention has been signed concerning those wounded in love, who are far greater in number;

It is hereby decreed that:

Article 1 – All lovers, of any sex, are alerted that love, besides being a blessing, is also something extremely dangerous, unpredictable and capable of causing serious damage. Consequently, anyone planning to love should be aware that they are exposing their body and soul to various types of wounds, and that they shall not be able to blame their partner at any moment, since the risk is the same for both.

Article 2 – Once struck by a stray arrow fired from Cupid’s bow, they should immediately ask the archer to shoot the same arrow in the opposite direction, so as not to be afflicted by the wound known as “unrequited love”. Should Cupid refuse to perform such a gesture, the Convention now being promulgated demands that the wounded partner remove the arrow from his/her heart and throw it in the garbage. In order to guarantee this, those concerned should avoid telephone calls, messages over the Internet, sending flowers that are always returned, or each and every means of seduction, since these may yield results in the short run but always end up wrong after a while. The Convention decrees that the wounded person should immediately seek the company of other people and try to control the obsessive thought: “this person is worth fighting for”.

Article 3 – If the wound is caused by third parties, in other words if the loved one has become interested in someone not in the script previously drafted, vengeance is expressly forbidden. In this case, it is allowed to use tears until the eyes dry up, to punch walls or pillows, to insult the ex-partner in conversations with friends, to allege his/her complete lack of taste, but without offending their honor. The Convention determines that the rule contained in Article 2 be applied: seek the company of other persons, preferably in places different from those frequented by the other party.

Article 4 – In the case of light wounds, herein classified as small treacheries, fulminating passions that are short-lived, passing sexual disinterest, the medicine called Pardon should be applied generously and quickly. Once this medicine has been applied, one should never reconsider one’s decision, not even once, and the theme must be completely forgotten and never used as an argument in a fight or in a moment of hatred.

Article 5 – In all definitive wounds, also known as “breaking up”, the only medicine capable of having an effect is called Time. It is no use seeking consolation from fortune-tellers (who always say that the lost lover will return), romantic books (which always have a happy ending), soap-operas on the television or other such things. One should suffer intensely, completely avoiding drugs, tranquilizers and praying to saints. Alcohol is only tolerated if kept to a maximum of two glasses of wine a day.

Final determination:
Those wounded in love, unlike those wounded in armed conflict, are neither victims nor torturers. They chose something that is part of life, and so they have to accept both the agony and the ecstasy of their choice.

And those who have never been wounded in love will never be able to say: “I have lived”. Because they haven’t.

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Ladies and gentlemen, you have just witnessed the genius of Brazilian writer extraordinairePaulo Coelho, who has sold more than 100 million books worldwide, including his infamous The Alchemist. He is also quite a joy to follow on Twitter, as @PauloCoelho.

Source: Paulo Coelho’s blog
Image source: Enlighten Your Day

Ahhh…the simple things in life. Two weeks ago, I walked into a grocery store greeted by the unexpected: Children’s Health Magazine. My bright eyes widened as my lips parted into a blinding smile. “YES!”

The alarming rates of obesity and diabetes among children are unfortunately rising, especially amongst groups of low socioeconomic status. As a whole, the health of children in this country could definitely improve, hence my excitement about a pubication geared towards that purpose. There’s some pretty good information in it. I’m hoping this isn’t a one-time deal and that the editors consistently provide useful and thought-provoking content.

Also deserving of attention is Healthy Schools Campaign, an organization working to create healthy school environments. One way they do this is through their Cooking Up Change program annual healthy cooking contest for Chicago Public Schools culinary students. Students create a healthy meal option designed to meet nutrition standards and a tight budget. The winning meal is then served in schools nationwide.

I see the tides changing. For tips on affordable healthy eating, go here.

In 2007, New Yorker Colin Beavan embarked upon a dramatic project: reduce his environmental impact to zero. But it wasn’t just his project–he brought his family along for the ride. No electricity. Transportation limited to walking and biking. Buying nothing but locally grown food. No elevators.

The big question Beavan wanted to answer was could reducing his environmental impact lead to a happier life. The answer  he discovered was a resounding yes. During the process, he started a blog, which turned into a book, which turned into a movie and a nonprofit that seeks to help people lower their environmental impact.

The movie is doing a screening circuit right now and looks pretty entertaining.  After seeing this, I wonder if I could do it.  The trailer doesn’t address how he wrote a blog without electricity. I’m curious because there are certain things in life I’m not entirely willing to give up.

Here’s the invitation to participate in the No Impact Experiment for one week:

There’s something almost zen about this project. Countless tales rave about the joys of simplifying. Perhaps it’s time to embark upon that path.

Help charity: water provide clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. Their “Born in September” campaign asks people born in September to forgo gifts and ask friends and family to donate to charity: water. For those not born in September, charity: water asks that they donate $33 to the organization in honor of the founder’s 33rd birthday.

Last year, those funds were used to build wells in Kenya. This year, the money will go to building wells in Ethiopia. The goal is to raise $1.5 million to help 300 villages access clean water.

Consider donating…either your gifts or your $33 and let others know. charity: water is a great organization that’s successfully used social media to bring awareness to itself and their mission. To learn more about why their work is important, go here.

Water security, like food security, is an incredibly important issue that we musn’t overlook or take for granted. Some of us use more water in a day than some people are able to use in weeks. Think about that.

Embrace is an infant incubator designed to save premature and low birth weight babies. Every year, 20 million infants around the world die because their families cannot geographically or financially access traditional incubators that cost up to $20,000.  To find out more about Embrace and how you can help, visit EmbraceGlobal.org.

While perusing CHEERUPNATION, I found this video from Operation Beautiful and was touched by its mission to remind women of their beauty and end “fat talk”.

For women, there is a serious body image crisis. Unrealistic expectations. Self-value determined by clothing size or numbers on a scale. Millions of women suffering silently from eating disorders. The conflation of one’s identity with one’s figure. Soaring numbers of body dissatisfaction among young girls ages 12-14, and even as young as 8. It’s ridiculous and needs to be addressed, remedied, and prevented.

Concurrent with that crisis is an obesity and overweight epidemic often times fueled by another epidemic–sloth and gluttony. I fully support efforts geared towards helping people realize their beauty and loving themselves. I also support efforts to get people healthy. I do not support the acceptance of a new, unhealthy standard simply because so many people choose to be overweight and obese. Diet industry figures ($33 billion dollar industry) indicate that there are millions of people who do want to lose weight. Often times, the approach taken is one-sided–diet only, short-lived, or both. Sure, let’s end the fat talk, but let’s replace it with a vocabulary centered on health and self-love. To completely remove any conversation about the body that centers on losing weight and simply replace it with “you’re perfect the way you are” is a surface solution; with 66.7% of Americans being overweight and obese, a lot of people do need to lose weight. The dialogue should be about health.

We all shine in our own way. There is a light inside of us and it’s our responsibility to make it shine at the highest wattage possible. Let’s support the mission of Operation Beautiful and deal with with this body image crisis by supporting one another in our efforts to love ourselves, love our bodies, and regain and maintain our health.

These little ones are defying expectations with stellar ideas.  Recently, there was the news of a 9 year-old in Singapore who’s fluent in six programming languages and created a successful iPhone application. 

Now meet 12-year-old Max Wallack who won a design contest by creating a yurt-like dome home with a built-in bed made of  plastic, wire, and packing peanuts.  The idea allows for cheap housing for the homeless, as well as addressing the problem of increasing landfills.

Gotta love innovation.
Source: TheDesignBlog.org

Pay it forward with Time Banking, an egalitarian concept where communities offer services to each other in exchange for time dollars, not real dollars. For instance, I build you a basic website, which takes me 6 hours. In exchange, I’m able to use that 6 hour credit in exchange for services some else offers. Perhaps, I need someone to babysit my brother for 3 hours, take me to grocery store for 1 hour, and landscape the front yard for 2 hours.

Time banks draw on a community’s resources by  listing the services every member can offer.  When in need of something, members log-in to the Time Bank’s website to find someone offering those services.  It’s an incredibly easy system that can reduce financial limitations and is inclusive to all members of society that have something to offer.

Given the economic climate, I’m curious to see if we’ll see an increase in Time Banks and other forms of alternative currencies.

To learn more about Time Banking, go to TimeBanks.org.  Below are a few articles recently written about them.

Detroit Free Press – Time banks pay off for community
San Francisco Chronicle – Sweat Equity:In this East Oakland community, time really is money
The Jerusalem Press – There’s no time to lose

The book she’s reading from is Thank you and You’re Welcome by Kanye West and j. SaKiya Sandifer.  SaKiya’s mission is to be a spark to those who want to create a positive change in their lives.  Being a friend of his, I can personally attest to the fact that he is definitely a spark and will make you think during every single interaction with him.  His first book is actually entitled Think Think Think and Think Again.  Both are worthwhile reads that are certain to be of inspiration to you on some level or another.

The UN established Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as part of the Millennium Declaration adopted in 189 nations and signed by 147 state and government heads in 2000. Those eight goals are as follows:

• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
• Goal 5: Improve maternal health
• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
• Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

One company that understands the roles of corporate social responsibility and social enterprise is working to address a few of those MDGs. The name is Vestergaard Frandsen and they offer several innovative life-saving and quality-of-life-enhancing products that would make any social entrepreneur or human rights activist proud.

The product I fancy most at the moment is the LifeStraw, available for individual or family use. LifeStraw Personal filters a minimum of 700 liters, while the LifeStraw Family filters a minimum of 15,000 liters of water. It would take 40 faucet-mount Brita filters to treat the amount of water just one LifeStraw Family can. And how much is it? $15, half of the cost of one Brita filter. Awesome.

At any given moment, about half of the world’s poor are suffering from waterborne disease, of which over 6,000 – mainly children – die each day by consuming unsafe drinking water.

Today, more than one billion people of the world’s population are without access to safe drinking water, causing lack of safe water supply to rob women and young girls of dignity, literacy and time.

Safe water interventions have vast potential to transform the lives of millions of people. Water filtration tools not only provide safe drinking water but also have a positive health impact on the most vulnerable populations, including young children, pregnant women and those with debilitated immune systems.

Go here if you’d like to help end the safe water shortage by donating a LifeStraw Family. Read more about the LifeStraw here. Discover other portable water systems here.