Hau`oli Makahiki Hou - Happy New Year!

Green Day - Xmas Time Of The Year

Blessings on the Solstice!

How to Celebrate A "Buy Nothing Christmas"

If there’s one thing about the holiday season I love, it’s the connection with my loved ones. If there’s one thing I dread, it’s the warping of the season into an unhealthy obsession with buying stuff and going into debt. How many times have you given a gift which you felt obligated to give and suspected the receiver never really needed? How many times have you been on the other end of that equation? Why is it that we get so fixated on stuff?

One way to counter the consumerism hysteria is to reduce how much we buy and integrate more homemade gifts into our plans. Yet, some have chosen to forego buying stuff altogether and instead celebrate a “Buy Nothing Christmas.” You may have seen the hashtag flying around, as the new tradition is becoming a popular alternative to the usual holiday grind. Originally created by Canadian Mennonites, the movement has become a truly enticing way to skip the nonsense and get back to connecting with loved ones.

How can you celebrate a Buy Nothing Christmas? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

For Those Who Want to Give Gifts

1. For your gardening buddies, giving seeds from your own garden, homemade compost or canned fruits and vegetables is a great way to protect your budget and give the gift of connecting with the Earth and how it nourishes us. You can also create “seed balls” for guerrilla gardening, so folks can “bomb” abandoned lots with beautiful wildflowers!
2. Handmade books or ebooks! Do you have cherished family recipes to share or tutorials highlighting your skills? Make a booklet for your loved ones with colorful photos. If you do it electronically, there’s zero waste!
3. Organize a gift swap! Whether it’s with co-workers, family, your place of worship or your neighborhood gym, hosting an event for people to trade their gently worn clothing or last year’s untouched gifts is a free way to shop and a chance to socialize. Whatever isn’t swapped can be donated to those in need, or the whole event can be donation-based and the funds given to a shelter.
4. Try your hand at making something new. Have a recipe for fancy brownies sitting around that you’ve never tried? Always had an interest in learning how to make candles or bath bombs? Curious about crafting homemade jewelry or knitting scarves? Why not use this time of year as a reason to tap into your creativity and try something new—you just may discover a new skill.

For Those Who Want to Give Experiences

1. Offer to teach a skill! Whether it’s cooking techniques, jewelry making, guitar lessons, making DIY green cleaning agents, or tips on running for beginners, we all have something that we do well which others could benefit from learning.
2. Host a baking party or a cookie exchange. Having a bunch of people over to share their favorite holiday morsels is a wonderful memory for the scrapbook, especially if you open up your kitchen and bake the treats together. Swapping recipes and the baked cookies will provide lasting joy throughout the season.
3. Coupons. This is not a new concept, but one that can be very much appreciated. If there are new parents in your life, offer a night of babysitting so they can go out on the town. If a family member is taking on a big home improvement project, offer up some of your time. Give the gift of preparing a home cooked meal for the busy loved ones in your life.
4. Give the family a meaningful, memorable experience. For instance, taking a hike through the forest can become either a mindful meditation or a fun contest for kids—identifying bird calls and other wildlife or collecting leaves for pressing into a scrapbook is a great way to create lasting impressions.

Low Waste / No Waste Packaging

1. Make your own cards or gift tags from recycled paper or cardboard. I have a friend who makes her own cards from cutting out small, colorful strips from old magazines and gluing them onto cardboard—the possibilities are endless.
2. Get creative with your wrapping materials. Instead of pricey paper that mostly ends up in the trash, wrap with reusable tea towels or compostable newspaper. Or, you could present gifts in useful cloth bags so the receiver can buy groceries without plastic bags later.
3. Instead of wrapping, you could present gifts inside of other gifts. Bundle up your gift in a homemade scarf or rustic basket from the thrift store. Clean up glass containers for recycling, transform them into a flower vase with paint or other materials, and stuff them with other homemade gifts.

Cheers to enjoying a stress-free, “buy nothing” holiday!

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-you-can-celebrate-a-buy-nothing-christmas.html#ixzz3tqpiIl4U

Happy Thanksgiving - Happy Holidays

Twirl On~

Tolerance = Peace

the ann wilson thing - fool no more

10 Habits To Give Up If You Want To Be Happy :)

FROM MINDBODYGREEN.com: 
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-15992/10-habits-to-give-up-if-you-want-to-be-happy.html

While happiness may not be possible all the time, in many cases our happiness depends on choosing to be happy. It's as simple as that.

Unfortunately, we complicate our lives to the point that we're unable to recognize happiness when it appears right in front of us.

So how to clear the slate? Here are 10 things you'll need to give up in exchange for your happiness.

1. Give up caring what other people think of you.

I know it may feel counterintuitive, since humans are social animals, but spending time worrying what others think is a waste of energy. You'll never please everyone, and it's none of your business what others think of you.

2. Give up trying to please everyone.

Unless you're living life to the beat of your own drum, your tribe won't be able to find you. Be the best version of YOU you can be, and you'll naturally attract the people who are supposed to surround you.

3. Give up participating in gossip.

Those sharing gossip with you will gossip about you, 100% of the time. Believing gossip is like gambling everything on a horse sight unseen. It's naive.

4. Give up worrying.

Where thoughts go, energy flows. When you worry, you invest time and energy in something you don't want to have happen. Learn to let go and trust.

5. Give up feelings of insecurity.

When you take yourself too seriously, you think everyone else does too. There's one version of you on the planet. Be it, own it and quit worrying about it. No one really cares or watches you that closely.

6. Give up taking everything personally.

Truth is, most people are too consumed with their own life to really consider what you're doing. As my first boss said so well, "The world doesn't revolve around you. Most people's reactions have nothing to do with you, so let them go."

7. Give up the past.

We've all been hurt, we all had parents who made mistakes and we've all been through hell. Every experience in life has taught you something or made you stronger.

8. Give up spending money on what you don't need in effort to buy happiness.

Living simply allows the space for life to flow. We complicate our lives by spending too much money and filling our home with things. Less is truly more.

9. Give up anger.

Anger burns a hole in the hand of the person still holding on to it. Move it out once and for all.

10. Give up control.

Control is an illusion, as we live in an out-of-control world. Learn to embrace the new and welcome change; otherwise you'll grow old through your own rigidity.

Happy Birthday John Lennon!

Lady Gaga - Til It Happens To You

Harding Family Video A

Michael Franti & Spearhead - Once A Day (Music Video) ft. Sonna Rele

Happy Anniversary 2015 to my magnificent DJ Man! oxox

Aloha to the Blues Master~

Women's Health on Kauai!!!

Encouraging all women to take care of their health. You are worth a quality life. Physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health. Some great resources on Kauai!

Hua Moon Women's Health
http://huamoonwomenshealth.com/

Ho`ola Lahui
http://www.hoolalahui.org/

Natural Health Clinic
http://nhckauai.com/

mau`li`ola Yoga - Patricia Howard
Kapahi - 821-0219

Iron Lotus Core Fitness
http://www.ironlotuscorefitness.com/

Nonviolence as Compliance from The Atlantic~

"When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse."
Read the article: 
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/nonviolence-as-compliance/391640/

What Indiana Could Learn from Hawaii

LINK to Article and Trailer for Kumu Hina
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-hamer-and-joe-wilson/what-indiana-could-learn-_b_7001856.html?ir=Gay+Voices&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000050

By Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson
Huffington Post

As Americans grapple with the firestorm of controversy ignited by the passage of the divisive "religious freedom" bill in Indiana, they would do well to turn to the nation's 50th state for inspiration. In Hawai'i, the right of LGBT people to live free of discrimination is viewed not as an attack on faith but as an intrinsic part of the spiritual belief in aloha -- love, honor and respect for all. 

Typical of Hawai'i's embrace of diversity is their view of māhū -- people who embody both male and female spirit, or what Westerners refer to as transgender. As shown in the accompanying animation from our upcoming PBS documentary Kumu Hina, māhū were valued and respected not "despite being that way," as you might hear on the continent, but precisely because their gender fluidity helped them in their roles as healers, caretakers and teachers of ancient tradition, passing on their knowledge through hula, chant and other forms of wisdom.

When Christian missionaries arrived in the islands in the 1800s, they failed to comprehend the spiritual and cultural significance of māhū, and did everything they could to abolish them. But Hawaiians have great reverence for their ancestral beliefs, and so, māhū have continued to play an important and visible role in society.

Hina Wong-Kalu, the main subject in our documentary, is a striking example. The film chronicles a year in her life as a kumu (teacher) at a public charter school where she empowers her students, many from economically disadvantaged families, through traditional culture, including one remarkable young girl who she helps to become leader of the school's all male hula troupe. In the community, Hina serves as the chair of the Oahu Island Burial Council, protecting Native Hawaiian burial sites and ancestral remains against the constant threat of development and desecration. And last year, she announced her candidacy for a position on the board of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, an agency that works to better the conditions of native Hawaiians through programs supported by the revenues earned from lands taken during the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Tellingly, several of Hina's election campaign supporters were classmates from her high school days at Kamehameha Schools, where she was still Collin Wong. Were anyone to disrespect their friend on the basis of her gender identity, they would see it not as exercise of religious freedom but as the exact opposite: a serious breech of the spirit of aloha, tantamount to sacrilege.

Viewers across the United States will have their first wide exposure to Hina's teaching and the Hawaiian understanding of māhū on Monday May 4 with the national broadcast premiere of Kumu Hina on PBS's popular documentary program Independent Lens. Folks in Indiana, Arkansas and everyplace else where people think that religious and LGBT rights are an either/or proposition, should take a close look. There is a lot to learn from Kumu Hina's Hawai'i.

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

10 Rules of Daily Living