Sunday, October 3, 2010 A Farmer's Market... in the Hospital?  In health professions, the kitchen is as crucial as the clinic. At least according to Dr. Preston Maring, a gynecologist and obstetrician with three decades as a surgeon. Food is at the center of health and illness, he says, and so doctors must make all aspects of it, "growing, buying, cooking, eating," a mainstay of their medical educations, personal lives, as well as their practice. A man who walks his talk, Maring is a regular at the weekly farmer's market, which he started with his son in 2003, just outside the front door at the Kaiser Permanente medical center where he works. He's even bringing local food onto hospital trays and cafeterias! Read More >>
back to top  Saturday, October 2, 2010 Inspiring a Community of Hope  When Nancy Sieglar was diagnosed with breast cancer, sunflowers saved her life. With no reason other than, "they make me feel good and give me inner strength," Sieglar began growing the regal flowers with love, an act that helped her get through some very scary times. Now, her garden - brimming with 26 species of sunflowers, some as tall as 16 feet - is burgeoning into a vibrant sanctuary of hope. With the idea to raise money for the American Cancer Society, Siegler recently opened her garden to the public. True to the flower's radiant magnetism, 600 people showed up. Many had their own sunflower stories to share. "We weren't sure if anybody would come," the cancer surviver admits. But like anything with love, care and faith, growth is inevitable. Read More >>
back to top Friday, October 1, 2010 The Green Guerrillas  India has developed its own version of guerrilla gardening - the greening of spaces without asking for the owner's permission. It seeks to thwart the builders' grasping reach by buying plots of land before the builders, in order to preserve green spaces that are still not swamped with concrete. Actor Atul Kulkarni teamed up with four cousins to build a forest on 24 acres of barren land in Maharashtra. Two other groups of friends have greened their land through the techniques of ahimsa farming (no plucking, pruning or harvesting). From an impoverished piece of grazed grassland with its soil eroded, the land first showed signs of stabilization with the arrival of white ants, and then rats, snakes, red ants, butterflies and spiders. Now the land produces mangoes, 23 species of bananas, apples, cherries, chikoos, celery, basil and other herbs. Read More >>
back to top Thursday, September 30, 2010 Why Racism is Bad For Your Health  When we think about the victims of racism, we typically think of the immediate targets of racial prejudice: Those who have suffered at the hand of discrimination and oppression. But new research has identified another, unlikely group of victims: the racists themselves. This article from the Greater Good magazine explains how we can build healthier, racially diverse interactions. Read More >>
back to top Wednesday, September 29, 2010 Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter?  One memorable Swedish study found that, among more than a million 18-year-old boys who joined the army, better fitness correlated with higher I.Q.'s, even among identical twins. Hoping to learn more about how fitness affects the developing brain, a recent study found that fit children had significantly larger basal ganglia, a key part of the brain that aids in maintaining attention and "executive control," or the ability to coordinate actions and thoughts crisply. Even more compelling is that aerobic exercise might just produce specific growth factors that stimulate the brain! Read More >>
back to top Tuesday, September 28, 2010 Packing Lunch with Love  For years, Marcia Merrick began her day making lunches for her two children. Her kids are grown up now, but Ms. Merrick still makes lunches every morning - 400 of them. Each decorated paper bag contains a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich or a bean burrito, chips, fruit, and two homemade cookies. She also includes a note of encouragement - and then distributes them to the homeless of Kansas City, Missouri. For Merrick, it's not just about feeding and clothing the homeless. "Really, the food and clothing I give them is just a way to get into their hearts," she says. "A lot of them want to change, but they don't have ... the knowledge and the emotional support to do that." Read More >>
back to top Monday, September 27, 2010 Live Boldly  It's easy to get discouraged. Taking the risk to manifest our ideas has always been just that: a risk. With so many daily challenges and voices of caution, the space between our ideas and their manifestation in the world can feel like an abyss. Yet, as Wendy Strgar notes, "Living with one foot out the door is the silent and common disease that infects us often without our knowing it." She suggests one practice to live the life we want to lead: daily acts of boldness. "Boldness that puts thoughts into action are day by day choices that honor our commitments; that is why they are so hard. The victories are small and mostly internal. In the end, it is truly how things get done." Read More >>
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What do you call a lawyer who helps people share, cooperate, barter, foster local economies, and build sustainable communities? That sounds like the beginning of a lawyer joke, but actually, it's the beginning of new field of law practice. The evolving nature of our transactions has created the need for a new area of law practice. We are entering an age of innovative transactions, collaborative transactions, crowd transactions, micro-transactions, sharing transactions- transactions that the legal field has yet to cover. Attorney and author Janelle Orsi describes the emerging field of "sharing law" that reflects the emerging social systems based on sharing. [ 
A gem from the man behind the film, Koyaanisgati: To be is to fly the flag of one's own shadow. That's what I try to tell students who are graduating, "Don't let your diploma be your death certificate." It's endemic for all of us to get caught into mass ways of living, yet we have the gift of life. There is no limitation on that other than the real power of limit, and limits give us power. It's like isometrics. We don't have to be the models of what is offered to us by the left, by the right, by society. We have the ability to be unique, because originality is who each one of us is. That's our vocation. [ 
Watch a movement happen, start to finish, in under 3 minutes, and glean some lessons: A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. The first follower is critical in showing everyone else how to follow. The second follower validates. A movement must be public. After the nth follower tipping point, it becomes risky not to follow, and more join in. And the commentators take-away from all this: "We're told we all need to be leaders, but that would be really ineffective. The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow." [ 
For two years, University of Miami student Kemy Joseph has been wearing signs around his neck with uplifting messages like "U R Awesome," and "Persevere." He recently celebrated his second anniversary of spreading goodwill by spending 15 hours on campus giving high-fives and hugs. His goal: to make 800 people feel a little bit better in one day. "I tell them they are not alone. We go through the same turbulent times, and the most important thing is that we are all in this together," Joseph remarks. Despite a hectic schedule, the humble grad student still makes time for high-fives, hugs, and handing out chocolates on a Thursday night. His family calls him "Mr. Awesome". [ 
The rise of the social web has created a flood of information over the past few years. With this influx of life and data streams comes a desire to stay on top of it all. For many people, this means multi-tasking. While it's intuitive to think that handling so many tasks at once makes us more productive and efficient, multi-tasking actually does quite the opposite. According to Stanford Professor Clifford Nass, those who multi-task often seem less able to distinguish relevant from irrelevant, manage their memory, or switch from task to task. So, in the age of Twitter, email, and text messaging, what is one to do? Do one thing at a time, for 15 minutes each, Nass offers. "Then, take a quick scan at all the streams, and decide which one you're going to allocate the next 15 minutes to." [ 
For some, Monday night is about football. For others, it's dance class or a favorite television sitccom. But for Richard Semmler, it's an evening of soup and service. After serving Thanksgiving dinner at a homeless shelter one year, Richard Semmler thought, "Why not serve every week?" Since that fateful day ten years ago, Semmler, a mathematics professor, has been a steady Monday-night anchor at his local soup kitchen. He lives modestly and even works two additional jobs so he can earn enough money to give away half his income every year! [ 
