Got something awesome everyone needs to know about? Email your “The Know” ideas to Jill@collegecandy.com and I’ll pass them along to everyone right here, right now. Everyone’s got something to share..

Biodegradable Trash Bags:
Did you know that those white plastic bags currently housing beer cans and so-dirty-and-covered-in-dust-bunnies-that-they-can’t-be-salvaged beer pong balls take a thousand years to biodegrade, if ever? Didn’t think so. Lord knows I’m not thinking about how long my trash bag will hang out with Mother Earth when I’m throwing up in it on a hungover Sunday morning.

Well now you can puke with a green conscience. Green Genius has come up with a line of garbage bags that are edible by microbes. The (green) geniuses realized that combining plastic with an additive that bonds organic nutrients to the plastic’s molecular structure miraculously turns the evil material into sugars, fatty acids, and amino acids while it sits in the landfill.

And in English that means one thing: these bags are better for Mama Earth.

iPod/iPhone gloves:
For all you iPhone/touch phone users, I know walking and texting/online shopping/scrolling through your music until you find something you actually like is addicting.  (I get it, but please, for the love of my un-scraped heels, watch where you’re going!) But with winter, well, here, no text is worth frostbite on that finger of yours. After all, after they amputate it texting will be a hell of a lot more difficult (even if your manicure is suddenly cheaper…). While tons of companies are now making gloves where you can peel bag the fingers to allow for phone manipulation, that’s not good enough for me. Thankfully, Tavo has created these gloves that have traction on the actual glove tips so that you can keep keep your hands inside the toasty gloves and text your bff about the totes awk encounter you just had w/ ur ex! They may not be as cute as those gray wool mittens you’ve been eying at Target, but, let’s be real, there’s nothing cute about missing fingers.

Gap Cozy Slipper Booties:
If there’s one thing you should know about this winter, it’s these. In approximately three weeks you will find me on my couch (assuming you know where I live…) watching every season of Gossip Girl (I’m so behind, I know!) in comfy sweats and these bad boys. And not leaving for DAYS. Once you’ve slipped into a pair, you’ll be more than happy I told you about them.

Bernadette Rebienot, 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, SF 2009

I had this unforgettable dream several years ago.. probably right around 2003 or 2004..  I dreamnt I was either witnessing or a part of or both — of a tribal reunion.  We were in some sort of canyon- looked very much like the SouthWest– perhaps in Hopi Nation.  It reminded me of the story of how the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers got together…  perhaps I was there.. perhaps this is all a part of the waking and calling… for the next sevengenerations.. it is after all the namesake of this blog…

MY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES RISE UP!  LEAD THE WAY…

• FOR THE NEXT SEVEN GENERATIONS TRAILER
• THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF THIRTEEN INDIGENOUS GRANDMOTHERS
• THE GRANDMOTHERS SPEAK CLIP
• FOR THE NEXT 7 GENERATIONS

—————————–

On October 11, 2004, 13 Indigenous Grandmothers from all over the world—the Alaskan Tundra, North, South and Central America, Africa, and Asia—arrived at Tibet House’s Menla Mountain Retreat amidst 340 acres of forests, fields and streams in upstate New York. Within a few days of convening, the grandmothers agreed to form a global alliance; to work together to serve both their common goals and their specific local concerns.

The first council gathering was a time of hope and inspiration. The grandmothers are both women of prayer and women of action. Their traditional ways link them with the forces of the earth. Their solidarity with one another creates a web to rebalance the injustices wrought from an imbalanced world; a world disconnected from the fundamental laws of nature and the original teachings based on a respect for all of life.

Aama Bombo – Tamang – Nepal
Margaret Behan – Arapaho/Cheyenne – Montana, USA
Rita Pitka Blumenstein – Yup’ik – Alaskan Tundra, USA
Julieta Casimiro – Mazatec – Huautla de Jimenez, Mexico
Maria Alice Campos Freire – Amazonian Rainforest, Brazil
Flordemayo – Mayan – Highlands of Central America/ New Mexico
Tsering Dolma Gyaltong – Tibetan
Clara Shinobu Iura – Amazonian Rainforest, Brazil
Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance – Oglala Lakota – Black Hills, South Dakota, USA
Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance – Oglala Lakota – Black Hills, South Dakota, USA
Agnes Baker Pilgrim – Takelma Siletz – Grants Pass, Oregon, USA
Mona Polacca – Hopi/Havasupai/Tewa – Arizona
Bernadette Rebienot – Omyene – Gabon, Africa

Sometimes I feel like I live on a movie set or in a fairytale – it’s just so amazing!

Tools ‹ Cogsgreen’s Blog — WordPress.

I had a morning walk with Sage and Kristen, lunch with Lauren and Penelope and Sally, and an afternoon walk with Claire. It was a beautiful and wonderful day!

“The Power of Kundalini, which is your own Mother, has to rise and manifest itself, because of your Pure Desire. In your introspection, … and in your meditation, you should see for yourself, why are you in meditation.

It is for Pure Desire of compassion and love

to be awakened within us.”

“It’s so remarkable how the Nature is so much within us and how this, whatever is within us, guides outside and receives the blessings. We are not something separate. This Mother Earth is our home. We have a home in Her and She has a home within us.”

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

It’s that time of year again where we give thanks… thanks to the people we love, thanks for all of the nice things we have in life, and thanks to the ones who guided our lives in the right direction. (I remember in the fourth grade Tim Earle and I were fighting on the playground during recess — probably over who got to be quaterback next or something like that…  Our teacher, Mrs. Stanton, had witnessed this and when we came back inside — she made us both stand up in from of the whole class and hug each other.  Sounds weird to be thankful for a teacher who used public humiliation as a deterrent, but I went to school with Tim for 12 years and I don’t think me or Tim ever got into another fight with anyone ever again after that.  Thanks Mrs. Stanton.). Come to think of it, there are so many things that we could be thankful for.  Some are universal things that everyone generally understands, but some personal thoughts of thanks are ones that mean something unique that perhaps only you can understand.

Here’s what the people at Runde’s are thankful for today:

Here at Runde’s, we want to wish you and the ones you love a great Thanksgiving. In preparation for the holiday to come I’ve put together a mini Thanksgiving survival guide for our readers:

Conflicting interests: Having multiple cooks in the kitchen could mean one of two things; 1. You will have a feast you will never forget with food beyond sight, or 2. There will be a conflict of interest between the cooks and you will reap the potentially devastating outcome.  Let’s try to maintain a culinary sense of peace in the kitchen this year!

Solution: To protect your assets (food) participate in the kitchen and make sure everyone is having a good time and getting along. A harmony of thought will lead to a delightful meal.  (Easier said than done sometimes, eh?)

The day breaker: Eating too much at the biggest feast of the year (for many) may lead you to waste some of your day. Most people have experienced it, it’s probably the most common symptom of Thanksgiving-itis:  drowsiness.  Turkey has a natural chemical called tryptophan (it’s one of my sister’s favorite words — she just has the mention it every Thanksgiving.)  which is an amino acid that causes drowsiness. Mix this with overeating and under-activity and you got the perfect excuse to hit the couch for a couple hours.

Solution: Avoid this by prepping your stomach with some light food before gobbling down the turkey - the tryptophan’s sleepy symptom doesn’t work well on a stomach that isn’t empty.  And, seriously, put down the 3rd helping of smashed potatoes and gravy, geesh. Doing these simple steps should have you active for the rest of the day while everyone else takes a nap under the watchful eye of Mother Earth.  And if you’re still not sure what exactly a giblet is — then join the club!

Stay tuned for next month’s Christmas blog entry where we’ll try to explain what those little green things in a fruit cake are…

Hat tip to Jack and Jill Politics.

(The Brits, like Eddie Izzard, are the first to call bullsh*t on our myth-making. Especially the true reasons why we really broke away from the Mother Country.)

Don’t buy that propaganda about the Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock. If anything, we should give thanks because Mother Earth, despite all the atrocities against her, is still giving forth her bounty so that people can live, instead of her raising her skirts and shaking us hard off this planet. We should give thanks that brother/father/uncle is back in one piece from the killing fields of Iraq or Afghanistan. We should give thanks that dad or mom still has their job, or a roof over their heads and that the family is not broken or homeless. We should give thanks that sister or cousin is off drugs for five years, or has moved to be closer to family, or that grandma or granddad is still among us in this world.

Abraham Lincoln had a good idea in the middle of the Civil War, but don’t you believe that the Pilgrims created Thanksgiving, or anything like it. Alternative historian Scott Berkun could quickly change your mind. The only thing Thanksgiving and Abe Lincoln have in common is blood, war and suffering.

The success of the Mayflower settlement depended more on smallpox than the Pilgrims. Years before the Mayflower landed, Europeans had already brought smallpox to America, killing most of the indigenous population (An event the Pilgrims called “an act of god”). This made the early settlements possible, and forced the remaining natives (most notably Squanto) to consider cooperation with settlers, teaching them many survival skills. The Pilgrims stole corn and other supplies from natives during their first year.

Half of the Pilgrims died in the first 5 months. They were untrained, unprepared, did not know how to farm or hunt in America, and chose a difficult location for their first settlement (they wandered off course crossing the Atlantic). By the time of the first thanksgiving those still alive were happy not to be dead – the fact that they had food to eat was more than worthy of celebration.

The pilgrims did not eat turkey, mashed potatoes or pecan pie. Thanksgiving was not an official U.S. holiday until the 1860s, and we are celebrating the eating habits of people from the 1860s, not the 1600s. It’s not documented what was eaten on the first Thanksgiving, though it’s pretty certain they ate their meal with their hands.

Thanksgiving is an ancient native concept, not Pilgrim or American. As you’d imagine, the folks who actually knew how to work with the land, the natives, had their own set of customs for giving thanks back to nature: some tribes had 6 festivals every year dedicated to giving thanks, only one of which we know as Thanksgiving.

The Pilgrims were not Puritans. Both groups were radicals who wanted to escape persecution in England. But the Pilgrims were more egalitarian and tolerant – they had non-believers on the Mayflower, and even more in their settlement (they came over later). The Puritans wanted reform, but wanted the Church to change to reflect their views (whereas the Pilgrims abandoned the Church entirely). The Pilgrims were on the Mayflower, but the Puritans didn’t arrive in America until several decades later.

The Indians and Pilgrims did not get along very well.  Around the time of the first Thanksgiving, the Plymouth settlement was converted into a fort, hardly an act of thanks or giving. As you’d imagine, the relationship between these two groups was complex, with different skirmishes and crimes by factions on both sides. While there were times of peace, tension grew over the years and led to King Phillip’s War, the end of any pretense of peace, a few decades later.

So when some wingnut relative or friend starts off with too much beer or cocktails in their belly about how lucky we are and the freedom we enjoy, set his ass down with some facts. You may start a mini-riot between the dressing and the sweet potato pie (and it’s expected anyway–holidays and family gatherings are the season for The Stupid). However, it’s worth it to just get a modicum of silence while they’re in mid-flight trying to parse out what you just said with all the alcohol and food inside them. And shut them up entirely by thanking them for just being there.

Nature and Animal Conservation

 

     Preserving species and their habitats is important for ecosystems to self-sustain themselves. Yet, the pressures to destroy habitat for logging, illegal hunting, and other challenges are making conservation a struggle.

Visit : http://www.globalissues.org/article/1…

 What is Biodiversity ?

 

    The variety of life on Earth, its biological diversity is commonly referred to as biodiversity. The number of species of plants, animals, and microorganisms, the enormous diversity of genes in these species, the different ecosystems on the planet, such as deserts, rainforests and coral reefs are all part of a biologically diverse Earth.

   

    Appropriate conservation and sustainable development strategies attempt to recognize this as being integral to any approach. Almost all cultures have in some way or form recognized the importance that nature, and its biological diversity has had upon them and the need to maintain it. Yet, power, greed and politics have affected the precarious balance.

Does it really matter if there arent so many species?

Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play.

For example, a larger number of plant species means a greater variety of crops; greater species diversity ensures natural sustainability for all life forms; and healthy ecosystems can better withstand and recover from a variety of disasters.

And so, while we dominate this planet, we still need to preserve the diversity in wildlife.

Who Cares?

  Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play. For example, a larger number of plant species means a greater variety of crops; greater species diversity ensures natural sustainability for all life forms; and healthy ecosystems can better withstand and recover from a variety of disasters.

And so, while we dominate this planet, we still need to preserve the diversity in wildlife.

Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions

It is feared that human activity is causing massive extinctions. From various animal species, forests and the ecosystems that forests support, marine life. The costs associated with deteriorating or vanishing ecosystems will be high. However, sustainable development and consumption would help avert ecological problems.

 

  

I feel blue ! (remember that famous song?) I think feeling blue may not always be a bad thing especially if you love the color blue. I don’t know about you but i have always loved it. Blue and yellow were my favorite colors as a kid and blue rightly so. I guess I needed that blue to cool me down. I think I was a hot headed kid most of the time. On the topic of blue – Mother earth has cool blue things to dress your environs up. Wanna take a look? Go to www.motherearth.co.in

On my way back from Vail today I was on I-70 and there were elementary aged kids on an overpass waving at all the cars – it made me laugh out loud (and of course wave back!)

Even though I’ve done this drive more than once I still have different experiences and take note of different things each time

The weather was beautiful for the drive

Her house is always so welcoming and has great decorative touches

And it was a really restful and mellow time

Thanks Em, for being a part of my life

I have always admired the Native Ameicans for their honoring and blessing the earth.  This is my giving thanks to the Native Americans for their teachings that we must relearn to save the animals, people, and our planet.

I am thankful for mother earth as she has provided nourishment and sustenance for our bodies and souls.

I am thankful for the oceans, the rivers, the streams, the ponds, and the lakes, as they have provided us with water to keep our bodies flowing.  I am also thankful for them, as they nourish the plants, the flowers, and the crops.

I am thankful for the grasses, the plants, the herbs that provide us the food we eat, the decoration, the beauty, and the medicinal properties to keep us healthy.

I am thankful for the animals, as they are our healers, teachers, and nurturers.  They teach us how to bond and to trust.

I am thankful for the trees as they provide us the oxygen we breathe, as well as provide shelter from the storm, a place to rest, and the food we eat.

I am thankful for the birds.  When we hear their lovely songs and communication, they are our reminders that we need to listen, to pay attention, and most importantly, be still.

I am thankful for the Winds of the Four Direction who continue to blow, purify the air, and clear the clutter of our minds.

I am thankful for the thunder and lightening, “as they welcome the Spring with their loud voice.”1

I am thankful for Grandmother Moon for honoring and uniting all the women of the world to celebrate their cycles and regulate the tides.

I am thankful for Grandfather Sun who brings us light, energy, and allows for the food to grow.

I am thankful to the stars who also provide lightness in the evening, and also gives Grandfather Sun a rest!!!  I am also thankful for the planets, as they hold mysteries of the unknown.

I am thankful for all the unseen things that make everything move, like the “powerful forces, such as atoms, molecules, and spiritual forces.”2

1 Mohawk Sub-Chief Tekaronieneken Jake Swamp, “The Worlds before all else.”

2English, Barbara, Vermont Wilderness School, Art of Mentorship Seminar, October 16, 2005

Great thanks to the many Native American elders, teachers, holy men and holy women and medicine people of this beautiful North American continent, Turtle Island, who so freely opened their hearts and their minds to all of us who would come seeking a better way.  Thank you for your patience, love and understanding, for your willingness to guide and support us in walking a beauty path.  Thank you for treating us as individuals and for recognizing our willingness to learn, grow and honor you, your teachings, mother earth and all of her beautiful beings.  Thank you for trusting us to honor and cultivate our own visions as part of the intricate, delicate and wondrous web of life.

Thank you for your wisdom and your knowing that as we approached you in our awkward innocence, we hoped to learn from spiritual elders who could teach us how to reconnect and deepen with the natural world in our deep seated longing to help bring it all back into balance.  Thank you for seeing beyond the color of our skin and past our ethnic backgrounds, for recognizing that we are all truly one.

Thank you for including us in your sacred ceremonies and for sharing the stories, songs, legends and teachings with us.  Thank you for entrusting us with your own life’s stories, so full and rich in experience, joy and beauty as well as in pain, suffering and loss.  For strengthening our ability to have deeper levels of compassion and to hold all people in the highest regard no matter what their journey is.

Thank you for teaching us how to support others in finding their return to their sacred, authentic selves, just as you supported us.  Thank you for letting us fall and get back up on our own.  Thank you for letting us know that it’s okay to make mistakes.  Thank you for teaching us to trust that spirit will move through us as long as we surrender, get out of our own way and give it over to the higher good.

Thank you for empowering us to find and cultivate our own medicine and how to work in balance with the earth, the spirits, the ceremony and the people as a result of our strengths and confidence of each of our gifts.  Thank you for entrusting us with your sacred ceremonies and for trusting that we would do a good job bringing your legacy forward in a good way for all people to come together in truth, harmony and oneness, with respect and honor for our ancestors, mother earth, father sky and all our relations.

The True Peace

The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship,
their oneness, with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize that at the center
of the universe dwells Wakan-Taka (the Great Spirit),
and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.
This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this.
The second peace is that which is made between two individuals,
and the third is that which is made between two nations.
But above all you should understand that there can never
be peace between nations until there is known that true peace,
which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men.

Black Elk, Oglala Sioux & Spiritual Leader (1863 – 1950)

Mitakuye Oyasin.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,662092,00.html

Climatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time-Out, By Gerald Traufetter

“Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.”

“Otherwise, however, not much is happening with global warming at the moment. The Earth’s average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year.”

“Ironically, climate change appears to have stalled in the run-up to the upcoming world summit in the Danish capital, where thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, business leaders and environmental activists plan to negotiate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Billions of euros are at stake in the negotiations.”

This is a very inconvenient truth for the Gore/Gaia/GE/Obama crowd who expect to become billionaires from forcing legislation on this.  The computer models were wrong.  Gore was wrong.  We didn’t die in ten years and we’re not going to die in the next ten years.  The sincere chicken littles were duped and don’t need to run for cover.

Yet, there are still those politicians who intend to force this down our throats and clean out our bank accounts, while they remove our freedoms ten at a time.  Do everything you can to stop this.  Contact your elected officials today.

It has been a while since I’ve scanned the world wide web for shamanism in the news.  These few cover quite a bit of territory:

Release of the movie 2012 has generated interest in the Mayan calendar.  The Los Angeles Times ran an opinion column quoting shaman/priest Calixta Gabriel who said Mother Earth — Madre Tierra — would suffer “hunger, wind and thunder,” but rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated.

A news source in Australia, The Age, reports that a man purporting to be a ”North American Indian shaman healer” with the power to cure cancer has  falsely represented himself as a shaman healer and had breached professional boundaries by initiating sexual relationships with female clients.

With the debate on health care reform at a fever pitch in the United States, I thought it was interesting that Mongobay.com recently ran a story about how rainforest shamans treat disease.

Finally, I’m sorry I’d missed a story earlier this month announcing a lecture on Shamanism by Dr. Stanley Krippner, professor of psychology at Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco.  “Shamans: The First Psychologists,” explored the various ways in which shamans receive their “call” and some of the elements of Shamanic practice that are therapeutic in nature.

That’s all for now.  Feel free to share other stories in the comments section.