....if there were no more wars and people would stop fighting.
Peace and Love
Patty
Life is....
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Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans. ~ John Lennon
The photo in this post and the one below are by Craig Smith
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On Saturday, Oct. 2nd, 2010, Farm Aid celebrated it’s 25th anniversary in Milwaukee. In concert at this event, Farm Aid President Willie Nelson and Marty Dread performed their song “Lend a Hand to the Farmers”, written by Willie and Marty.
On March 10, 2010, I had the honor and pleasure of also doing this wonderful song and having it featured in video on Willie’s PRI website. Below is my video as it appeared on The “Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute” site.
On March 10, 2010, I had the honor and pleasure of also doing this wonderful song and having it featured in video on Willie’s PRI website. Below is my video as it appeared on The “Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute” site.
We need to learn a lot more about nature’s seasons, cycles, and rhythms of life that are so important to both our physical and spiritual well-being. When we don’t understand these basic things, we can become lost and out of sync with the natural world that supports us. ~ Patty Ann Smith
This Year The Autumn Equinox is on Wednesday, EDT, Sept. 22.
Peace Work
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If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
A Council of All Beings
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We are all embedded in the web of life, and it is your birthright to enjoy an empowering kinship with other species. There is a Council of All Beings and Evolutionary Remembering. Through practice, we must become familiar with Earth and All Beings. Don’t take yourself too seriously. We are now on the path of shifting from the industrial growth society to a life sustaining civilization. ~ Joanna Macy
Guitar Olympics
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Guitar Olympics offers insight to various levels of the "Art Of Guitar", as it is presented worldwide by guitarists who have, and still are studying and applying their skills on the instrument. While most of these artists are often highly trained, some have been non-traditional in their acquisition of their techniques... learning not always from written music, but from others by the transferal of abilities through observation and skilled listening. It is generally their high level of skill that sets them apart from the "Strummers and Pickers" of guitars that are so often seen, and therefore places them at the level of Olympic Guitarists.
"We Are The Guitar".
Those of you who play at the depth of the soul know exactly what this means. the guitar, in the hands of the player, is an extension of those hands, and the entire body... both physical and spiritual. We explore the music landscape that resides within and then present it to the world. Perhaps we even to some extent help shape that world. Music is a journey, the traveler "musician" ventures out to discover his or her own Holy Grail. That special series of sounds that are life changing, and perhaps often life extending. This YouTube channel is not about me, sure I am a guitarist too, butit is about the magic in music and the guitar. It is dedicated to the "Real" Sound Of Music that the truly inspired guitarist shapes as he or she plays, bringing out ethereal forms that float through the air and only materialize when there are ears to hear them. As Michael Angelo said about sculpture... he did not make the sculpture, but only released it from the stone... so it is with music and the guitar. The sounds are there just waiting to be released, all you need is a guitarist. www.youtube.com/GuitarOlympics
Rachel Carson - author of "Silent Spring" and "The Sea Around Us"
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"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe around us, the less taste we shall have for destruction." ~ Rachel Carson
Dance to the Rhythm of your Life
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Dance to the rhythm of your life.
"Inhale the light on water":)
Stand in your Truth,
Move and live in Joy,
Circulate freely,
and Love Life!:)
in Peace and Love ~ Patty:)
Independence Day
It would be nice if on this Independence Day, all Americans would help escalate the efforts that have already been being made to make amends to our first people here ~ our Native American Indians ~ whose wisdom has always held the keys to our sacred land and environment.
Iroquois Indian Museum
from the Iroquois Indian Museum"In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to remember seven generations in the past and consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people."
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The Streams Chanting
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Do you hear the flower-bells ringing.
The birds singing.
The wind's whisper.
The streams chanting.
Do you see the butterflies dancing.:)
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Mothers Day
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THE AMAZING MOTHER TIGER - INCREASINGLY RARE
With less than 4,000 tigers left in the wild, each new life represents hope for the future. A new tiger mom has her work cut out for her. The cubs are dependent on mom for nearly two years as she feeds, protects and educates them on how to survive.
THE AMAZING MOTHER ORANGUTAN
The highly intelligent orangutan is the ultimate do-it-yourself mom. She spends nearly all her life high up in the trees, where she builds a new nest every single night from branches and foliage, fashioning more than 30,000 homes in her lifetime! She also never puts her babies down, generally nursing offspring until they reach the age or 6 or 7—that's the longest dependence of any animal on Earth.
text from http://www.conservationinternational.org/
pics from National Geographic and Greenpeace
A Piece of the Earth
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I have been given a brief time of joy
to tend a piece of the earth;
to consider the flora and fauna there
like children entrusted to my care.
Peace and Love ~ Patty:)
EARTH DAY/EVERY DAY
My wish for you is that you will go outdoors and enjoy the wonders of nature and like it so much....you’ll do it Every Day.:) Peace and Love ~ Patty:)
Farm Aid
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photo by Craig SmithOn Farm Aid, I signed this wonderful informative petition. Please go to http://www.farmaid.org/ and sign it, too! US family dairy farmers are a big part of Hope 4 America, too. Thank You ~ Patty:)
To: Members of Dairy Industry Advisory Committee
Thank you for your commitment to examining price volatility and farm profitability for dairy farmers and for your efforts in providing the Secretary of Agriculture with critical recommendations on how USDA can best address these issues to ensure a viable future for our nation's dairy farmers.
As you know, family dairy farmers are in a chronic cycle of crisis. In January 2009 alone, dairy farmers faced a dramatic 30% decline in milk prices, the result of a defective milk pricing system that is vulnerable to extreme volatility and instability. This downward spiral has continued with some farmers receiving as low as $9 per hundredweight for their milk — less than half the cost of production.
The dairy industry needs a commonsense pricing formula for raw milk that pays a fair price and accounts for cost of production on farms across the country. Dairy price support programs must also account for total cost of production. Until a reasonable pricing formula is established, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack must use his authority to institute an emergency floor price of $18 per hundredweight for milk to keep farmers on the land during the current crisis.
Furthermore, any supply management scheme created must factor in total cost of production in order to truly address the problems that put dairy farmers out of business. Otherwise, such measures will be counterproductive and ultimately harmful to the health of family farms.
Thousands of family dairy farmers are at risk of losing their homes, their land, and their livelihood. Please, act now to set a fair price for milk and save our nation's family dairy farmers.
Sincerely
Patty Ann Smith
Environmental Protection
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Protecting wildlife and all of their habitats is a very high priority for all of us to take part in.
(photo by Craig Smith)
My "Lily" poem
There is something about a Lily
that is so hope-filled;
the way the petals unfold
and the pistils and stamens push forward.
They grow so tall and bend with the wind.
They are so effortlessly beautiful
unafraid and accepting of all that life is.
FDR's Second Bill of Rights
Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights -1944
President Franklin D. Roosevelt created an "economic bill of rights" that would guarantee:
A job with a living wage
Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
A home
Medical care
Education
Recreation
Roosevelt stated that having these rights would guarantee American security, and that America's place in the world depended upon how far these and similar rights had been carried into practice.
Excerpts from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s State of the Union Address on January 11, 1944:
.....We cannot be content.... if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And.....we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.
The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life
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photo by Craig SmithStarting from the premise that we can no longer live in a disenchanted world, it has been found that a profound enchanted engagement with life is not a childish thing to be put away with adulthood, but a necessity for one’s personal and collective survival.
~ Thomas Moore
The Particles of Light
photo by Emily ByWaterThe particles of light naturally align themselves with the ultimate efficiency of energy and movement. There is a common spiritual bond between all things in the universe that makes us all part of the genius of nature's intelligence ~ which is in the innate knowledge that all species help every other specie naturally evolve towards a more complex organism.
Climate Change
From Repower America:
“Global warming theory predicts that global precipitation will increase, and that heavy precipitation events… will also increase. This occurs because as the climate warms, evaporation of moisture from the oceans increases, resulting in more water vapor in the air.” – Jeff Masters, meteorologist
Fact: Climate change causes more frequent and severe snowstorms
Record snowstorms need two things: temperatures below freezing, and very high humidity. On a planet warmer by a few degrees on average, the Northeast US will still have plenty of days below freezing; the big difference will be warmer seas producing higher levels of moisture in the air — and therefore more severe cold-season storms.
Fact: We can expect more extreme weather
Scientists tell us that climate change has already led to more extreme weather in the United States and we can expect stronger hurricanes, more wildfires, heatwaves and droughts, to name a few. The cost of inaction could reach half a trillion dollars a year.
Fact: The world is warming at a quickening pace
Weather in one region over days or months should not be confused with climate or the patterns of weather over decades and centuries. And the science is clear here: the last decade was the hottest on record. And to put this year’s weather in perspective, January was warmer than average for the continental United States.
photo from: http://www.reallynatural.com/
Marin Shelter for the homeless ~ The People and Ideas
For more information about Marin Shelter, click on Marin Shelter headline above.
The homeless in our own country
I found this picture via my friend Chris Highland’s Marin Shelter website in Marin County, California. Chris is the director of Marin County’s shelter for the homeless. His January post on the Marin Shelter website led me to the picture and article about the "Adopt a Meter" program where businesses in a city can donate money to have old parking meters refurbished "and install them in areas with a high volume of pedestrians. Money deposited in the meters will be given to the city’s homeless outreach programs. Sponsoring companies will have their logo prominently displayed on the decorated meters." The "Adopt a Meter" program is already going on in Nashville and Denver. For more information on the program, visit: http://www.thekeyalliance.org/.
from Al Gore ~ regarding Haiti Earthquake
part of an Email that I'm always honored to get from Al Gore:
"Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 85% of Haitians already living in desperate poverty. Now, with hospitals in ruin, dire shortages of even basic necessities like fresh water, and no way to find out whether family members are alive, the Haitian people urgently need our help.....
There are moments when we, as human beings, must come together as a global community and as stewards of each others' health and welfare. It is that sense of interconnectedness that brought each of us to the climate movement, and it is moments like this that bring out the best in us -- as individuals, as a nation, and as a movement."
If you'd like to DONATE, click on the title of this post.
map photo is from USGS http://www.usgs.gov/
from Conservation International...and "Patty"
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From Conservation International ~ 2010
Happy New Year
In the coming year, we’ll be taking on some of the great issues of our lifetime including:
working to secure a stable global climate;
understanding and protecting the sources and flows of fresh water;
ensuring nature's ability to provide food for human needs;
minimizing environmental pressures on human health;
valuing the role of nature in human cultures;
safeguarding the unknown and as-yet-undiscovered option values that nature provides; and
saving our oceans – which are threatened like never before by climate change, pollution and over-fishing.
photo by Craig Smith
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