Impossible to imagine that art could be a mechanism to bring peace and prosperity to the Afghan community. However, in the midst of war, terror by local militia, food shortages and domestic violence, artisans are finding peace and hope by crafting silk scarves, jewelry and even modifying traditional tent lining felt into home interior products for the American market.

Rameen Javad, founder of the Afghan Communicator, is tirelessly reaching out to anyone who will listen to do business with the Afghan artisans. On a visit to Washington, D.C., Rameen took the chance to introduce his products to the manager of the Freer & Sackler Galleries of Art gift shop. With the curator’s approval, Rameen received an order for hundreds of products made by Afghan artisans. Rameen has created a successful link between Afghan artisans and the American market. The Freer & Sackler Galleries of Art shop hosted a trunk show and is now selling items on their web site. Luxurious silk, felt and jewelry items are for sale. Rameen urges people to know that by purchasing just one item they will make a difference in the life of an Afghan artisan and create a little bit of peace.   Read more...

I witnessed many geysers spout glorious plumes of hot water, yards into the air on my recent visit to Yellowstone National Park.

The best-known geyser, Old Faithful, draws a large audience of tourists waiting for the show, which occurs like clockwork every 75 minutes. It's not the biggest geyser in the park, but is most assuredly the most predictable.   Read more...

I imagine that tracing humanity’s average Ecological Footprint would be much like tracking Bigfoot’s trail through the forest. Now, where the size of this cryptid’s foot is debatable, the size of humanity’s Ecological Footprint is not. Each year Global Footprint Network calculates the Ecological Footprint of more than 100 nations and humanity as a whole. An Ecological Footprint is basically the calculation of how many resources nature is able to provide, how much is being used, and who uses what.

The results of this year’s report are quite sobering.   Read more...

Measures to stop global warming risk being as harmful to tribal peoples as climate change itself, according to a new report from tribal rights organization Survival International.

The report, "The most inconvenient truth of all: Climate change and indigenous people," sets out four key "mitigation measures" that threaten tribal people. They are as follows:   Read more...

An unprecedented number of neighbors in communities around New England are working together to create the communities they envision!

Hundreds of local energy committees are helping to reduce their town's carbon footprint; thousands of community gardens and local food hubs are developing robust local food systems; smart growth policies are being implemented across the region; and water in the public trust is fast becoming a topic at the local level.   Read more...

In May 2009 my six-figure real estate job came to end, and I knew I had to embrace the change like so many others. My husband and I had been sitting on a trademark intellectual property for several years. We wondered, "if not now, then when?"

I believe that all changes happens for the greater good of the soul.   Read more...

Have you ever noticed how the work week tends to build up a dust of separation and isolation between you and your significant other? You’re doing your thing. Your partner is doing their thing. You’re both busy, doing your best to juggle the demands of work, home, family, kids, money, carpools, workouts, homework, meals, cleaning…basically managing the constant demands of modern living. You already know from experience that it’s so easy to fall into the trap of living together and “missing” each other at the same time. If you’re not careful, this dust of separation and isolation can build up over time into lasting soot that discolors your relationship. The result is a loss of intimacy, love and connection.

Happy couples make a commitment to regularly wash away the dust and renew their closeness, affection and bond. How do they do it? One way is a weekly ritual practiced by couples across the land: Date Night. Dinner and a movie. A walk in the park. Drinks at the club. A romantic night in. You name it. Couples engage in dates of all kinds as a way to spend time together, reconnect and hopefully enjoy each other’s company. But let’s be honest…some dates are better than others.   Read more...

Investing In Women (IIW) has awarded a $500 “stimulus package” to a female-owned business, The Underground Railroad To Success (URS). URS was started by Tanisha Cunningham in 2009 and helps foster care children prepare for adult life. Growing up in foster care herself, Cunningham saw the need for additional support, especially when children are no longer eligible for state run services. Soon after her foster care ended she began a career in child welfare, “I wanted to stay there because my passion had always been to give back, because I knew the struggles of living in foster care, and the fear of leaving unprepared, not having a place to go or having the skills to obtain a job.”   Read more...

Meditation is a process of listening and purification. In quietude, we connect to deep moments of calmness, stillness and openess. We come in contact with a soft power that can be used for self healing and realization that can transform pain into progress.

There are many ways to meditate. I regularly practice sitting, walking and writing meditation. Often times, my writing practice will begin with an exercise in detailing. I simply list what sits in front of me which becomes a process of listening with my eyes. Then, I pick an item off the list and conduct a ten minute timed writing practice. I let the pen flow without crossing out. I allow raw thoughts to surface and don't worry about editing. This form of writing practice separates the editor from the creator.   Read more...

How does one begin to understand the notion of impermanence? Perhaps the fall leaves, the death of a loved one, the sun rise in the morning…or words of wise spiritual teachers?

In the last weeks, the word "impermanence" has been used by three very different people. Rabbi Steinlauf used the word ‘impermanence’ when he welcomed everyone into the Sukkha tent built to represent the temporary nature of life and still being willing to live life fully. A week later in the very same spot stood the Dalai Lama who wished to learn how the Jewish community thrived in exile despite hardships and atrocities. Then an art gallery opening presented Eleanor Kotlarik Wang, whose collection of paintings titled “Impermanence” captured the faded cave paintings of Buddhists images in western China, the very end of the Silk Road.   Read more...

It’s the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.

I was eleven years old on November 9, 1989 and was living in an egg colored split-level home with burgundy trimmed windows out in rural Georgia.   Read more...

An advertisement for Malaysian palm oil has been banned in the UK, dealing a major blow to the credibility of Malaysia’s palm oil industry. Members of the hunter-gatherer Penan tribe in Borneo have welcomed the ban, saying, "Oil palm plantations have not benefited us at all; they have only robbed us of our resources and land."

The Penan live in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, and are fighting to stop the forests they rely on being cut down to make way for oil palm plantations. Survival International is calling on the Malaysian government to halt plantations and logging on their land without their consent.   Read more...

Our national nonprofit organization iLoveSchools.com matches America’s donors of new, used and in-kind resources with school teachers sorely in need.

In a nutshell teachers visit our site, go shopping in our store and create WishLists of anything they need. We then find donors including individuals, parents, alumni, local and national businesses to donate the resources. 97% of every dollar goes to the teacher of the donor’s choosing. That is, we keep 3% for payment processing fees and have a guilt-free ask for 10%. Donors decide if we get any contribution vs. our taxing them for our service.   Read more...

“The litmus test for self-realization is a constant state of gratitude. This gratitude is not something you can look for or find. It comes from another direction, and it takes you over completely. It’s so vast that it can’t be dimmed, or overlaid. The short version would be ‘mind in love with itself.’ It’s the total acceptance and consumption of itself reflected back at the same moment in the central place that is like fusion. When you live your life from that place of gratitude, you’ve come home.”

- Byron Katie, A Thousand Names For Joy   Read more...

May 16, 2009: Doomsday. With a degree in public relations and an economic environment of fear and hiring freezes, I found it hard to have faith in finding a decent job in public relations and even less faith in a job that shared my vision for progressive change. Then along came a job at Soap Hope: a company with a deeply integrated social mission to end global poverty.

The first thing we learn as an introduction to PR at school is "Don't Lie." As a PR practitioner, I am well aware of the traps and narrow roads that challenge our paths as communicators. But at Soap Hope I have never once felt the need to lie or twist the truth. *Sigh of relief* It's nice to work for a social responsible company.   Read more...

Join the People 4 Earth webinar on the 4th of November for an exclusive discussion with bestselling author, Daniel Goleman, on how a new wave of information on the sustainability impacts of products is shifting the balance from seller to buyer. The experts discuss how 'radical transparency' promises to mobilize sustainable consumption among consumers, reward sustainability leaders in business with competitive advantage, and help drive a higher standard of business innovation. The briefing will take us from the farmer's market to the capital markets to the corporate boardroom.

How to attend?
To attend, please register here. The Moving Markets Webinar Series is complimentary.   Read more...

Imagine you’re a participant on a new game show called “Your Life”. The host of the show presents you with two locked doors and two keys. The door on the left is labeled “External Substance.” The door on the right is labeled “Internal Substance.” The rules of the game are simple. You can choose only one door. Behind each door is an unlimited substance of its type.

External substance is all the material stuff of the universe. Whatever your heart desires; gold, riches, houses, cars, the new MacBook Air, food, wine, travel, chocolate, books, art, planes, boats…essentially any and every external, physical thing you can consume or experience.   Read more...

Humanitarian Dr Lyly Rojas is teaching the culture of peace to business students at the University of Applied Sciences and Technology in Vienna, Austria. Her challenge to future business leaders is to make waves in the corporate world and drive a culture change.

In the current economic climate, her message to the business world is particularly poignant. “I don’t think of the financial recession as a financial crisis, but as a human crisis,” she states. Rojas explains “The current economic situation is a consequence of the way the business world has conducted itself; economic greed has eroded the quality of human life and unraveled many of society’s structures. Now is a transformational moment”.   Read more...