Here’s the Month of January Awareness Events post.

A list with links to more Care-Aware posts for month of January Day/Week/Month observances is available here (click on “Newer Posts” at the bottom for additional pages).

NEW THIS YEAR: Have you heard about the Truth 365 film and social media campaign to help spread awareness about childhood cancer? It’s for all of us, all year! Go here  (www.thetruth365.org) to discover simple minute “missions” that’ll make a difference!

All the best to you all, in 2013!

Related articles

• January’s Monthly and Weekly Notable Celebrations. (babyboomersandmore.com)

So, I just wanted to give you-all a heads-up about that fact, since if nobody is aware they’re out there (and therefore nobody follows/likes/adds, etc.) it kinda blows the whole point, doesn’t it?  I dunno, it’s always weird for me to ask people to follow and stuff like that; it’s against my nature, personally.  But then it only takes a second to remind myself that this isn’t about asking for me, after all: Care-Aware’s an effort to help others get the word out about what’s going on out there with other people… what their problems and issues are… what they’re going through… what they don’t want you to go through… things we can do to help prevent health and safety issues and help others with various humanitarian and human rights issues …help families with kids who have cancer or heart defects or rare diseases… support bullied &/or abused people, and so many other things. So, for awareness’-sake and on behalf of all those kids, families and adults who are affected by some really tough stuff, I’ve no qualms about saying “GO: FOLLOW CARE-AWARE EVERYWHERE, AND TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO DO IT, TOO!” Sorry, didn’t mean to “shout” at you… it also happened to be CAPS LOCK DAY, when I started writing this post, so I thought I’d go with it. ;0)

Here are the links to everywhere Care-Aware is, now:

http://careaware.wordpress.com (Blog/Main Website)

Care-Aware Calendar related sites:

http://twitter.com/Care_Aware (Main Stream/Most Posts/Daily)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Care-Aware-Calendar (NEW: Facebook Calendar Page)

http://www.youtube.com/user/CareAwareCalendar (NEW: Videos related to the Days/Wks/Months)

http://pinterest.com/CareAware (NEW: Observance Pics & Infographics, with Info & Links)

http://klout.com/#/Care_Aware (I just linked the Facebook & YouTube accounts in)

Care-Aware Wellness related sites:

http://twitter.com/iCareAware (@iCareAware on Twitter)

http://www.facebook.com/iCareAware (NEW: Care-Aware Wellness on Facebook …although, quite frankly, this 1 may )

http://www.youtube.com/user/iCareAware (NEW: Assorted Awareness/Inspiration Videos)

http://pinterest.com/icareaware (NEW: The @iCareAware Wellness Assortment in Pictures!)

http://klout.com/#/iCareAware (Hey, a better score here than my other account?)

You can also find these links in the “About sections of the Care-Aware Calendar & Care-Aware Wellness Facebook pages (like, here …along with a bit more about Care-Aware) or on the YouTube channels (where I think they are a bit clearer, with the icons included, like they are HERE).

I will hopefully also get buttons up for all of them on the Care-Aware WordPress homepage, soon, also (there are a few, at the moment, but not all).

About right-after I got the Facebook pages opened (which I’d tried to do a few years back, but messed up/crossed wires somehow, and also had later figured out I’d needed “pages” rather than personal pages, for them), they announced that they’d only let 10% of the followers of pages get notified/see the posts unless page-administrators coughed up bucks to release the other 90% (which sounds a little like strong-arming techniques in certain neighborhood “associations” to me; but okay, I get that they’re a business and all).  Ironic.  Anyway, that sorta blows both the whole awareness aspect as well as the fact that I feel compelled to do this for free (& not pay out-of-pocket/additional expenses).  Luckily, there’s a workaround, and it only takes a couple of seconds/clicks to set up a stream/list where ALL of the status-updates from your favorite organizations (and Care-Aware accounts…) will come through.  Just follow the instructions in this post: http://on.fb.me/Sf0Xko.  It also appears that I need more followers, there, before I can get a customized link and/or “insights”? I’m not sure I’ve totally nailed down exactly what that means or whether I need them, but at the very least, it’d help to have people and org’s who are trying to spread awareness follow, there, so that I can help you do that, too (& “like” your posts, etc. too)!

YouTube seems like a great opportunity to spread more awareness, as well.  I remember reading somewhere that we learn/remember best when we have both the info and visuals; so video-formats likely help the info stick better, in people’s minds.  I’ll be trying to like and “add” videos I run across that are either awareness-oriented or observance-related to my accounts, there, whenever I’m able.  Of course, that also makes a good landing-zone to keep them for reposting to Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest, as well.  (Now all I need to do is either clone myself or get an army of Oompah-Loompahs to manage all my social media accounts!  Although I’m pondering delegating to some non-Willy-Wonka volunteers, at some point; tho I haven’t a chocolate factory of benefits to entice them with.)

Pinterest seems to be largely untapped awareness-wise, and that’s kinda sad.  It’d really be great to see more people/org’s get set up on there and start pinning/re-pinning things for causes and awareness!  Again, the pictures/visuals are more attractive to people and gets the info through better (and remembered longer); plus the recent trend I’m seeing is towards “infographics” which do a good job of organizing facts and statistics and awareness eye-openers in ways which catch our attention.  These can not only be re-pinned there, but linked to, within Twitter and Facebook updates.  I’ve been pinning whatever I can, from websites; but I’ve noticed that not all webpages have a picture that’ll Pin; so, if you have a webpage (or even do a blog-post), DO be aware of trying to “optimize” it for people on Pinterest, by including some pin-able photos/graphics to them (…which just reminded me that I’d better do that for this, too, right?)!

Thanks to those of you who are about to follow, share and/or otherwise spread the word! …and thanks, always, for being here. YOU’RE the hope, you’re the family core that helps others cope, and you’re the spark of awareness which can help spark a new day of prevention and health and healing.  Big things begin with seemingly-little ones.

Anyway, just thought I’d throw in the last-minute links… April is showered with enough awareness to flood the rest of the year! You may want to stop through from time to time & browse through the many issues &/or prep for spreading some awareness for next year’s events.

Here’s the link to my earlier Month of April post.

For more previous April postings, go here (clicking “Older posts” at the bottom will bring you to a couple additional postings, for that year).

One awareness-month item that isn’t mentioned in those links is the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge, which WEGO Health (@wegohealth) hosts.  They created writing prompts for each day of the months, and there were lots of good tips sprinkled liberally throughout.  They also did weekly chats and highlights.  Of course, the real highlight was all of the great writing and awareness-spreading people did with those seeds that were planted: They totally ‘watered’ them, & they sprouted into a great awareness effort through ripples of blog-posts and wall-posts and tweets and Pins all over the place.  Most of the “activists” are also the people who’ve been most-affected by major health issues: Either the people who have had/are living-with health-challenges, themselves, or the parents of children or other caregivers of loved ones.  So many of them are incredibly eloquent and talented, & full of humor & hope & faith, with a good dose of tell-it-like-it-is, to boot.  DO go browse amongst the postings from this year, if you get a chance (and plan on joining in, next year, if you hadn’t already, this past month)!

Of course, there’s plenty of awareness for MAY, as well: It’s basically BLOOMING with it (April showers DO bring May flowers you know …or so they say)! Just click on some month of May links on the right side of the Care-Aware WordPress home page, & explore (&/or the link in this paragraph, above).  And, for the most-recent daily/weekly events and links, follow on Twitter @Care_Aware & @iCareAware (see you there)!

Here’s the link to Month of March Awareness Event info (from earlier posts on Care-Aware): http://careaware.wordpress.com/2009/03/ (hint: be sure to click on “Older posts” at the bottom of those listings, for more).

If you’re just looking for the month-long awareness list for March, go here: http://careaware.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/month-of-march-awareness-events/ (hopefully I’ll add to/update that,  one of these years!).

Remember: For daily awareness observance postings to fill in the gaps (somewhat, anyway), you can follow Care-Aware on Twitter @Care_Aware and @iCareAware (the latter’s for year-round awareness items, special hashtag-days & other assorted wellness tweets).

And, don’t forget: you can find out what our current month’s national health observances for 2012 (in the USA – all events mentioned on Care-Aware are in the USA, unless otherwise-noted, by the way) by going to Healthfinder.gov (&/or @healthfinder on Twitter).

Whew… just made this post fit into the “March” blog-index category by the skin of my teeth.☺

There are a bunch more serious-topics to address in April …but be aware that, though March’s Mirth Month has melted into history, it morphs into April’s Humor Month &/or Holy Humor Month (so, yeah: you’re probably stuck with my weird jokes slipping into the mix, in odd moments, for starters).

Happy April, Everyone (no foolin’: it’s now April 2012 already …mind-blowing)!☂  Thanks for continuing to learn along with me, and for helping to teach me more each month …and, especially, for caring about others and helping to spread awareness!

This year the heat is on for caregiving, as well, which I need to and want to help with.  We have some extended-family in town of the eldest/great-grandparents-age generation who are in need of some extra help and help-with-getting-help (and likely also help with transitioning to a different place to live, in the nearish future).  They don’t have other in-town family who can serve as interim carers/coordinators, etc., so we’ll be standing in the gap for all-that, for a bit, until things get set up and more stable for them, with additional care.  (Yep, I/we deal with many of the same situations in our family/community which you-all do …which is why I ‘get’ it).  Just wanted to make you aware!

Since this will be like taking on an add’l part-time job for a while, Care-Aware will be taking a semi-sabbatical of sorts (expect more-sparse &/or sporadic tweets on both of the Care-Aware twitter accounts (@Care_Aware and @iCareAware), as well as here? … if I can restrain myself, that is.   Don’t worry, it’d probably require giving up sleep altogether, if I kept trying to keep up or got carried away, and that’s totally not an option (and just so you know, I still do plan on continuing to take care of myself and maintain balance …we can’t help others if we don’t take care of ourselves, 1st, right?)! ☺ I don’t think I’ll be able to give it up altogether, tho, so don’t expect a total leave of absence, by any means, just lighter-than-usual …perhaps more like sorbet or snow-cones rather than ice cream cones or hot fudge sundaes (…of course, now that I’ve written that, who knows …and, now that I’ve written that, I’m hungry)!  I do have a pretty good archive of last years’ tweets, tho, so it’s possible that I’m just making you all-too-aware for nothing, and most folks won’t even notice the difference, anyway.

Please make sure that YOU stay cool in August, too, okay? ☃   Take a break before things get too heated; stay in the shade,☁ and don’t forget to hydrate!☂

You might even decide to take a bit of a vacation, yourself (try for a non-working one, tho)!

Keep spreading awareness while I’m away; it makes such a difference for so many causes and people and research and funding!✩

See the next/upcoming post for some Month of August Events.☼

There will likely be a learning-curve involved, as well as minor-to-major-ish adjustments, as I delve more fully into this extra “learning opportunity”!

Meantime, I’m just hoping that most of the former info & links transferred over, intact.

Thanks for your patience!

Upcoming
Blog-Changes: Windows Live Spaces Migrating to Word Press

If
you don’t have a Windows Live Spaces blog, you may not have heard
that they’re in the process of being transferred over to Word Press
blogs/formats.

At
any rate, I just wanted to give you a brief “heads-up”, here.

Over
the last couple of months or so, many Live Spaces bloggers have begun
to change their pages over to the Word Press formats. My
understanding is that most content will be transferable – other than
perhaps lists & various extras? – & the link/URL may remain
the same, also, if I recall correctly.

Here’s
a couple links to more info about it, should you need it:

WordPress.com and Windows Live partnering together and providing an upgrade for 30 million Windows Live Spaces customers

Over 500,000 Windows Live Spaces blogs migrated to WordPress.com

We
will no longer be able to post new posts on the Spaces Live format
after the end of this year; but there will be a few more months of
grace after the beginning of the year to finalize
decisions/changeovers.

In
other words, things will continue to be largely-the-same, here. I
plan to simply transfer everything-possible, here, into the WordPress
format, before March of 2011, & continue on.  Mostly, I’ve just
been posting less, for the past few months; & probably won’t be
adding too-much else (other than perhaps a “Month of December”
list, & a couple other things) until I get things fully switched-over.

Happy
Holidays, Everyone; & thanks for continuing to follow, both here
& on Twitter (@Care_Aware & the newly-added @iCareAware)!

]]> http://careaware.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/from-%e2%80%9cfamine%e2%80%9d-to-feast/ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:40:11 +0000 Care-Aware http://careaware.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/from-%e2%80%9cfamine%e2%80%9d-to-feast/

Welcome to "Care Aware"!  Thanks for being here! 

There are many health & life issues which need more awareness due to a variety of reasons.  The first step to resolving an issue is to become aware of it.    The first step to acting is being aware of the various options which are available to act on.

So, I’ve opened this space intending to post things which I’ve become aware of, because I’ve realized that the things I’VE learned, myself, have made a difference to me & others.  I’d started posting some self-researched awareness pieces, links, & events on a private health site, some time ago… after seeing the need.  But as the very point of awareness is to have more people come to know about things, it finally occured to me that it made more sense to put it-all in a place which can be seen by everyone on the internet.  I know… ironic, isn’t it?! — I’m pretty slow, sometimes,  when it comes to becoming aware of the obvious, myself!!   LOL  I look forward to continuing to learn more while I share things with all of you who visit here. 

Awareness can be serious stuff — especially when it related to health issues or preventing awful accidents & such.  On the flip-side, you’ll find that I also enjoy the lighter side of life, awareness-&-events wise… in the form of odd holidays &/or bizarre or simply-commonplace events.  So look for some of those, interspersed throughout my blog-postings.  Laughter also helps with healing, depression, & stress-relief, after all, right?!   

Congrats, too – ’cause – just by coming here & reading - YOU have already helped spread awareness! 

PS  Please keep in mind that any "facts" & things posted here are things which I’ve found out on my own (by surfing the internet or which have crossed my path in day-to-day life).  I cannot guarantee the accuracy of all of the information (although I make a concerted effort).  Information is not meant to diagnose any healt condition; please consult your own medical professionals about any information which may relate to your own health situations, &/or do additional research, on the information provided here, on your own.

Blog content is the copyright of the author & Care Aware, & is not intended for others’ publication (or copying/pasting to other webpages) or profit.  Please feel free to pass on this website(http://care-aware.spaces.live.com)  to others in order to help spread awareness (& hopefully a few smiles, as well).