inspiring people to spread good karma around the world

It’s unfortunately too easy to be so busy living life that you momentarily lose sight of just how fortunate we are to experience all the freedoms, all the choices, all the opportunities we are given.  We owe an eternal debt of gratitude to the courageous men and women who put their own lives on the line – all for the sake of securing a country, and a world where its citizens can live freely and make a better life for themselves and their families.

On Veterans Day, and any day, there are things we can do to pay our respect and show our support for these incredible people. Here are just a few ideas, please add yours in the comments:

Visit a national park commemorating where they fought and served their country.  This idea stems from the NPS and according to their site, “contains a sampling of National Park Service sites that can help visitors gain an understanding of what America’s veterans fought for, and provides a link to our past, present, and future.”

Send an E-Card through the Easter Seals expressing your gratitude for their hard work and dedication. Easter Seals offers community-based services and support for America’s military service members, veterans with disabilities and their families. As service members return from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Easter Seals Military and Veterans initiative is responding to the needs of  injured military service members transitioning to civilian life.

Work with the USO – become a partner, make a donation, become a volunteer. They proudly serve the men and women who serve our country.  Learn more here: United Service Organizations

Scan the web – take some time out of your day today and visit sites like Honor Our Veterans.  Read up on the history of Veteran Day on military.com’s page.  The least we can do is take pause and reflect on their bravery and dedication.

Support great causes and spread the word about them – one I love is the Honor Flight Network. It was created to give veterans the opportunity to travel for free to visit the memorials created in their honor, because they may not have the financial or physical freedom to do so.

Participate and support your local chapters of veterans service organizations like the American Legion and VFW.  Keep your eyes and ears open for events run by your local chapters, and come out when they run tricky trays, blood drives, food drives.

photo courtesy of Wigwam Jones

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Are you proud to be an American?  If you are, chances are you hold the country’s flag in very high regard.  You wouldn’t let it touch the ground, you would bring it to your local American Legion or VFW if it was “tattered and torn.” Chances are you would wear your red white and blue proudly on your body, you would get involved in projects to support veterans new and old and send packages to soldiers. You would take time out of your week to reflect on the sacrifice of our soldiers.  With pride comes respect and reverence – this is something most people who are deeply connected to their American pride understand.

How about this: are you *proud* to be a citizen of this earth?

Are you aware of how your daily life impacts the earth?  Seems a bit melodramatic, but when you add up all the lives and all the days, you get to a point where it’s big enough that 9,000+ bloggers are shining a light on the issue in an effort to affect change.

Climate change is the topic for this year’s Blog Action Day, and we’re hoping to reach out and encourage our readers to take pause and consider what’s happening around you and what you can do to lend a hand.

People use the word “GREEN” so much it makes me want to vomit.  No, scratch that – PROJECTILE vomit.  It’s so overused and so under-analyzed.  If you thought hard about it you could probably claim to be green for the littlest reason, and I honestly think a lot of companies and individuals hang their “green” hats on that baseline effort.  Winning sales by claiming GREEN is lame – and I challenge people to do their homework and hold companies to higher standards.

The idea is not to do as little possible and claim to be earth friendly. Individuals and companies alike can take some time to look at everything and try to go beyond the minimum.  I’m definitely no angel when it comes to conservation and preservation, but I’m arming myself with some knowledge to get in the game and try to make more of a difference.

Interested in seeing some of the effects of Global Warming?  Click to the Top 100 Effects of Global Warming.  Take it with a grain of salt, but be warned, some of this stuff is scary (and I’m not just talking about the possible eradication of pinot noir – read down to the parts about malaria, famine, natural disasters).

There are a number of resources on the internet for you to gauge your personal, household or company’s carbon footprint.  Check out some carbon calculators here:

At the end of some of these calculators, you are provided with options to offset your carbon footprint.  The first option typically seems to be making a donation – which is a very worthy and noble course of action.  But my first suggestion is to look at ways to minimize your impact on the earth.  Some things I can speak to that you might want to try include:

• Carry a tote bag to work every day with your meal(s) instead of grocery or brown bags.

• Invest in reusable grocery tote bags or at the very least, use plastic and bring them back to the supermarket for recycling

• Recycle cardboard, plastic, glass, aluminum and any household items that your city/town encourages.

• Buy one bottle of water on Monday and reuse it through the week, refilling it from the water cooler

• Save on gas and oil whenever and however possible. Carpool, buy more fuel efficient cars, use public transportation.

• Save energy and water when you can. Unplug electronics, don’t just power off.  Don’t keep the faucet running when you don’t need it.

For more ideas, visit Scientific American and be sure to click through the 4 short pages of solid information.

It’s October, it’s getting cold here in New Jersey.  You can bet your ass I’m freezing mine off when I emerge from underneath the very fluffy, very warm comforter in the mornings now.  But I’m resigning myself to the goal of sucking it up for as long as possible before begging for us to start up the heat That’s just one thing I’m going to try – but there will be more.

This blog is all about spreading good karma around the world – how about we take some time to read up on the world itself  and see how we can respect and nurture it?

No bit of difference is inconsequential.

earth egg image copyright azrainman

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