Paris Hilton, is a mess. Britney Spears... mess. Must work on changing the whole culture to reward those who are not a mess. Or become messier... :-) Now that's a disturbing little thought. One that I do not actually believe is in anyone's best interest, least of all, my own. Yet, I wonder if that kind of thought, in passing, is on anyone else's mind too... changing the world is tough to do, and if nobody notices all that effort, will we even bother? Do these celebrity people really deserve our collective attention at all? My feeling is not so much. To find a healthy solution to that unhealthy little thought before it takes root anywhere among my Zaadster pals, I want to reward the goodhearted, the noble, the endearing, and the virtuous kind people of the world. Zaadzsters... this could be your big moment... the lights, the cameras are rolling (even if they are imaginary ones.) So, collect your praise here.... right now in this little blog thread of mine. If you need some praise, and know in your heart that you have done something worthwhile, I am happy to give you a nod of appreciation for your efforts to save the planet, to change the world, and to make things better for those around you. What have you done lately that you are really proud of? Take a moment and shine....

I had a couple of ideas for new holidays this morning... 1) Random acts of Kindness Day - where maybe we could see what it would be like if everyone participated in creating Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Beauty. I propose that be every day... but in lieu of full participation of the population, we could try for August 15, because the end of summer is hot and people get cranky. :-) 2) And the second holiday I propose is "Global Energy Conservation Day" where everyone does their very best to flip the light switches off when they leave a room (or even do without) or install compact fluorescents, walk instead of drive, take public transportation, etc. The holiday would be sort of like Earth day, but with more of an emphasis on reducing carbon footprints as much as possible for one day, and making some changes that would be permanently helpful. Perhaps seeing the impact of that, might give us ideas for doing other things too. I propose that day be May 1, because it could be a follow up reminder for Earth Day, and the planet appears to be giving us a "May Day" hail that we need to change our behaviors and reduce our impact on the Earth's atmosphere. 3) Cookie day.... which is self explanatory. Bake your favorites and share them around. How about today for that? :-P

I ran across this in one of my Zaadzy pals blog.... took the test and came up with a stunningly wonderful Tarot card. I'm not much for fortune telling... mostly because I prefer to make my own way in the world. But this was easy and fun to do, and yielded up something really pretty to look at and a view of myself that would be certainly something to aspire to! It would be wonderful to think that the long dark night is yielding into day, and that things are falling into place at last. Oh yes. That is something to believe in....even if the thought originated from an unexpected source. Can I PLEASE suspend my skepticism?.... just this once.. give in to accept this. Is it perhaps even necessary to buy in whole-heartedly to this view to make it so? :-) Can I just step into the light... and be that? Can I now choose to move forward with ease? Have I become accustomed to skinned knees from scrabbling over the rocks and through the underbrush? Is that life long struggle so essential to my view of myself that I would refuse to give it up and take my place in the sun? Maybe it is time to just sing along with the 5th Dimension: "Let the sun shine... Let the sun shine in The sun... shine in...."

You are The Sun

Happiness, Content, Joy.

The meanings for the Sun are fairly simple and consistent.

Young, healthy, new, fresh. The brain is working, things that were muddled come clear, everything falls into place, and everything seems to go your way.

The Sun is ruled by the Sun, of course. This is the light that comes after the long dark night, Apollo to the Moon's Diana. A positive card, it promises you your day in the sun. Glory, gain, triumph, pleasure, truth, success. As the moon symbolized inspiration from the unconscious, from dreams, this card symbolizes discoveries made fully consciousness and wide awake. You have an understanding and enjoyment of science and math, beautifully constructed music, carefully reasoned philosophy. It is a card of intellect, clarity of mind, and feelings of youthful energy.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

In many of the conflicts of my life... and there have been some doozies, almost all of them have been resolved in one of two seemingly contradictory ways that actually amount to the same thing. 1) recognizing that the situation is intrinsically grey and will never be black or white 2) recognizing the situation is black or white, and not grey, and it needs to clarified to be one thing or the other. Which is to say, that almost all conflicts start to be resolved by looking at things the way they are, instead of how I might think they are or how I might like them to be. And that sometimes means clarifying a situation or learning more about it, sometimes it means understanding that a situation is going to be ambiguous and confusing, and will never be otherwise. Many people seem to get nervous about that in between grey ambiguous realm. I've gotten reasonably accustomed to it. I think of it like a coastal cove that frequently experiences foggy weather in the mornings. The grey areas don't bother me so much now that I know what it is and that it happens all the time. The Buddhist point of view is that things do not have inherent existence (although things do definitely exist)...and while I don't claim to understand that completely, one of the things that it means is that even the things that look black or white, may be just a really dark or light shade of grey, or they might look dark grey today and look light grey tomorrow! Still fog... just different fog. One of the things I try to do to resolve conflicts is to not to get too boxed into a fixed point of view that would lead to feeling so conflicted in the first place. I try not to dig my heels in too early. I try to avoid getting to the place where I think "I'm right! Right! RIGHT!" and "that person is wrong! Wrong! WRONG!" Because, neither of us may have the complete information on that situation. How could we, most of the time we know that we're peering through fog!? If we don't hang on to our viewpoints too tightly, we can open our hands and hearts, take in a breath and breathe all that conflict right out into that mysterious foggy grey realm. If we're patient with ourselves and the other people around us, now and then, that fog may just lift like the morning mist on the water, and we'll see sunlight sparkling on the incoming waves. Neither black nor white... but amazing shades of blue and green!

I registered for the Race for the Cure, 2007 for my aunt's birthday again for the Massachusetts race, even though she has now died from the disease. I can sill help other families to not have to go through what we went through, and are going through. Science will just have to figure out better treatments and gain ground in understanding what can go so very wrong in the body... because we just have to. My body is okay, thank goodness... so, I will put it to good use, and run the race again this year, in memory of my aunt. I was so pleased today that my hubby, Stuart also joined the gym today too. He participated in the race last year, walking with my mom and my aunt. Keeping them together and safe, while I raced ahead to get to the finish line. I have confirmed today at the gym that I can still run the whole distance... and I have an opportunity to run a 10K with a friend who is a cancer survivor! So, I have more ground to gain! So if you have the inclination to help, my pledge site is: http://komenmassrace.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=224056&u=224056-131865988&e=1100430732 When you click on the link, it should turn into an https, secure link... You can give any amount… it really adds up! Remember, the Komen promise is to save lives and end breast cancer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all and energizing science to find the cures. Proceeds from the Massachusetts Race for the Cure help fund important breast cancer research nationally as well as breast health initiatives on a local level. Thank you!