right now:

There are Tibetan Buddhist monks in a temple in the Himalayas endlessly reciting mantras for the cessation of your suffering and for the flourishing of your happiness.

Someone you haven't met yet is already dreaming of adoring you.

Someone is writing a book that you will read in the next two years that will change how you look at life.

Nuns in the Alps are in endless vigil, praying for the Holy Spirit to alight the hearts of all of God's children.

A farmer is looking at his organic crops and whispering, "nourish them."

Someone wants to kiss you, to hold you, to make tea for you. Someone is willing to lend you money, wants to know what your favourite food is, and treat you to a movie. Someone in your orbit has something immensely valuable to give you -- for free.

Something is being invented this year that will change how your generation lives, communicates, heals and passes on.

The next great song is being rehearsed.

Thousands of people are in yoga classes right now intentionally sending light out from their heart chakras and wrapping it around the earth.

Millions of children are assuming that everything is amazing and will always be that way.

Someone is in profound pain, and a few months from now, they'll be thriving like never before. They just can't see it from where they're at.

Someone who is craving to be partnered, to be acknowledged, to ARRIVE, will get precisely what they want -- and even more. And because that gift will be so fantastical in it's reach and sweetness, it will quite magically alter their memory of angsty longing and render it all "So worth the wait."

Someone has recently cracked open their joyous, genuine nature because they did the hard work of hauling years of oppression off of their psyche -- this luminous juju is floating in the ether, and is accessible to you.

Someone just this second wished for world peace, in earnest.

Someone is fighting the fight so that you don't have to.

Some civil servant is making sure that you get your mail, and your garbage is picked up, that the trains are running on time, and that you are generally safe. Someone is dedicating their days to protecting your civil liberties and clean drinking water.

Someone is regaining their sanity. Someone is coming back from the dead. Someone is genuinely forgiving the seemingly unforgivable. Someone is curing the incurable.

Thanks to Danielle LaPorte for this!

Peace, Love & Happiness,

Sandy

What are you grateful for this glorious July day? Visit our Facebook wall or our Twitter page and let us know.

It all began in third grade, when Katie Stagliano's 40-pound cabbage fed 275 homeless people. Now, Katie's six gardens have produced over 4,000 pounds of vegetables to feed the needy.

When Katie Stagliano was in third grade, she planted a cabbage in her family's small garden. When it grew to an astounding 40 pounds, she donated it to a soup kitchen, where it was made into meals for 275 people (with the help of ham and rice). "I thought, 'Wow, with that one cabbage I helped feed that many people?'" says Katie, now entering sixth grade. "I could do much more than that."

So Katie started planting vegetable gardens as part of her nonprofit Katie's Krops — she has six right now — including one the length of a football field at her school in her hometown of Summerville, S.C. Classmates, her family and other people in the community help plant and water, and Bonnie Plants donates seedlings. This past year, Katie took her commitment to a new level: she has given soup kitchens over 2,000 pounds of lettuce, tomatoes and other vegetables. Katie and her helpers are now harvesting the spring planting, and another 1,200 pounds will be donated by October.

"She just walks in like a proud little girl with her treasures in her arm," says Sue Hanshaw, CEO of Tricounty Family Ministries, the soup kitchen in Charleston, S.C. where Katie first brought her 40-pound crucifer. "I love what she exudes, caring for others. It's made a big impact on a lot of people."

Says Elois Mackey, 49, a formerly homeless mother of two who has received a weekly vegetable delivery from Katie since September: "She is showing that you can help other people no matter how young you are. I love the vegetables she brings."

Katie is a well-spoken 11-year-old who juggles the life of a school child with that of a world-changer. Swim practice, tennis matches, and studying (she has had the highest GPA of her class for the last four years) are sandwiched between daily waterings and tending.  "It makes me feel good," says Katie. "I feel bad for those people who have to go to Palmetto house [a homeless shelter where she and residents recently planted a garden], but I feel good that I'm helping people."

Katie's desire to help as well as create sprouted early. "She's always been very inquisitive and wants to go above and beyond," says her mom, Stacy, 41. "It's like, 'What about this and why aren't we doing this?"

Since the age of four, Katie has placed first in competitions that include inventing a toothbrush now on sale that teaches water conservation, for the Dr. Fresh company. "When you put the toothbrush in your mouth to brush," says Katie, "it plays a rap song that says, 'Turn off the water when you brush your teeth, and you can save eight gallons of water.'"

As a third grader, upset about a local drought, Katie decided her school, Pinewood Prep, needed to conserve water. Katie wrote the headmaster over Christmas break, suggesting how the school could better conserve. Soon after, the high school's advanced placement environmental studies teacher called to meet with her and work on a water conservation project. Katie's suggestions for rain barrels to catch water and other ideas were soon implemented throughout the school. "As a parent, I am so moved," says Stacy. "I say to her, 'I hope some day when you are a parent, you have a kid who is as amazing as you so you can see it from a mom's perspective.'"

Much of the thanks goes to Stacy and Katie's devoted group of helpers, including her 7-year-old brother, John Michael, who has toiled in two of the gardens to plan pumpkin patches.

Since February of last year, master gardener Lisa Turocy has not only sat shoulder to shoulder with Katie planting and giving advice, she's transformed her entire front yard into a garden with 600 seedlings. "If I can help her change the world," says Turocy, "that's awesome."

Locals Linda and Bob Baker, golf professionals with 41 acres of farmland set along a rutted dirt road on the outskirts of Summerville, gave Katie some acreage for a garden. Bob lugged his John Deer tractor to Katie's school to till the soil, and taught Katie how to drive the machine. Says Bob: "It makes you feel so good to see someone that young with that amount of compassion, step in there and really make a difference."

As one of Katie's best friends told Tonic, most kids their age mainly like to watch TV and play on computers; they don't like to do what Katie does. Another friend, Anna Semar, 11, inspired by Katie to grow her own vegetable garden, says: "If there were more people like Katie the world would be a better place."

Katie wants to get more kids across the country growing gardens to help others, so she's holding a contest and offering the winners a grant. And, Katie will come and help start each garden. Click here to apply.


If you want to donate to Katie's nonprofit, Katie's Krops, she needs money for irrigation equipment, fertilizer and other supplies for her six gardens.

I can’t help thinking about that classic children’s album, Free to Be You and Me, while I read all of the stories on the movement to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. We’ve taught our kids for years that “one of these things is different and special,” but we don’t actually seem to appreciate different and special. Are we, as a society, stuck in some pre-pubescent haze that only allows us to feel good about ourselves if all the other cool kids are like us? Or maybe, we’re worried that all the cool kids are gay, like Cary Grant and Rock Hudson, and we’re left out because we’re old skool heterosexual.

Why does it matter who someone loves if they’re just trying to protect our country? What are we afraid will happen if we just say homosexuals are allowed in the military when, in fact, we already know there are gay service men and women? Why is it ok to give one group less rights than another?

Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a gesture of tolerance to those who choose to have romantic relationships with same sex partners. Whether you do or do not agree with the lifestyle has very little to do with the “inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” granted to us all by the Declaration of Independence.

Of course, the last time we decided some people did not qualify for these inalienable rights, we called them slaves and built a national economy on their blood, sweat and tears. Righting that wrong tore apart a nation, drove us to war, created an economic downturn and left scars still apparent today as Oakland processes the verdict in the Oscar Grant/Mehserle trial. Why can’t we agree to disagree and let people live their lives?

I would expect that those who wish to confide their lives and lifestyles to those who care should be allowed to remove the gag order. Just as we at Owning Pink fight to find our mojo, be ourselves and own all of the aspects of who we are, so should every member of society. After all, as Pinkies, we understand that as we express who we are, everyone will not like us, agree with us or want to friend us. And that’s ok because we get that we are heard and respected. We understand the healing encompassed in being seen and heard in our truth, as we are. And those who get us, get us. I think it is a shame that we as a country cannot support that for all our people.

Freedom of speech should include the freedom to speak who you love, no matter your job description. In fact, I would say those willing to risk their lives to keep us safe have more rights to express who they are and how they feel. We don’t all have to agree, but can’t we all just get along?

What do you think? Whether you agree or disagree this a forum where I welcome your free speech. Just, please, be respectful. We don’t have to agree, but I am asking and I hope you will tell what’s on your mind.
 

Love & Blessings,
Lakenda, a.k.a. Good Witch

1. You are invited to love yourself, others and life without condition - trusting that, in an evolving Universe, everything is unfolding perfectly.

2. You are invited to do whatever makes your heart sing and your spirit dance. Only that.

3. You are invited to live fearlessly and passionately - to step into your divinity, while embracing your humanity.

4. You are invited to treat yourself and others with extraordinary respect and kindness - reaching out with love towards all beings, and seeing the Light within everyone.

5. You are invited to honor everyone else's beliefs, feelings, values and choices - knowing these add to the variety of life, and that everyone's path or guidance is unique.

6. You are invited to honor the earth, your body and all creation as sacred and divine - and to celebrate life in all its richness.

7. You are invited to choose your own mission or purpose, expressing your creative gifts, talents and vision in whatever way feels most joyful.

8. You are invited to listen to the inner voice of Love, which always sets you free - knowing that your goodness and worthiness are never in question, and that you can do no wrong.

9. You are invited to trust in a loving and abundant Universe. Ask and it is given. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened.

10. You are invited to follow your dreams and desires - trusting your feelings, and using your imagination, to create your own heaven on earth.

This was brought to you by Gill Edwards!

Peace, Love & Happiness,
Sandy

After reading a blog post in the community I was represents to the concept of living in the now. I know that has become a popular phrase in world of the Law of Attraction, Eckhart Tolle and many other profound motivational speakers, writers and believers. But does it really resonate with you? Do you really get it? Or do you find yourself saying, "ya, ya, ya, all we have is now. Blah, blah, blah"? With a concept so trite it can be easily dismissible to some.

For just today, the next our or the next five minutes I want you to sit with the this; the moment you have been waiting for your entire life is right now. Some of you might have the urge to burst in to tears and others might be throwing their hands in the air thinking, "finally! Yes! YAHOO!" Whatever your reaction acknowledge it. If it rests on the negative side consider why you might be disappointed and do something to make your current circumstances better. If your reaction is celebratory- GREAT, keep celebrating. These are are the moments we have been waiting for- right here, right now.

There might not be a tomorrow, give thanks today.

________________________

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Join us July 11th for Owning the Planet Clothing Swap

Choose one and do it today! 

1. Pay for the persons coffee behind you in the drive-thru at Starbucks.
2. When in a confrontation with someone tell them you love them.
3. Out of the blue call a friend and tell them how grateful you are for them.
4. Send someone a huge compliment via text.
5. Buy a lottery ticket for a stranger.
6. Give another driver your parking spot.
7. Call a restaurant and tell the manager what a good job your waiter or waitress did.
8. Leave a copy of an inspirational book on a train or airplane.
9. Adopt a dog from the shelter.
10. Anonymously give $100 to someone in need!

Peace, Love & Happiness,
Sandy

I sit here at Stevi Loren Salon with my delicious cup of coffee eaves dropping on the conversations the stylist are having with their clients. In this moment, I am reminded of our extreme interconnectedness. No matter the age, sex or orientation of a person there is always a linear path from one person to the next. That line draws from the heart of each person and is directly connected to the divine.

When you get down to the nitty gritty of the our presence here on Earth it is clear that we are here to carry out the love of the divine through whatever skill set you have been blessed with (and believe me, we all have our own nitch.)

The next time you encounter a person that you feel there is no way you can possibly get along with, remember that there are here on there own mission, to learn there own lessons and evolve in their own time, not yours. Remember that they are your brother, your sister. They are here to love you and you love them. We are all made from and of the same love, we are all the same energy, we are all one.

Event Reminder
Don’t forget Sunday, April 25, 2010 in Waxahachie Texas we will be holding our monthly Pink Posse Event. Come join us; learn about how massage therapy and yoga can benefit you. Get a professional mini massage and learn various breathing and stretching techniques that you can do at home on your own. Everyone will be leaving with their own gift as well. Be sure to RSVP by replying to this email so we can know how many gifts to make! I look forward to seeing you there. Visit the website for more information.

The Success Principles
This past week I have been listening to Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles on audio CD. I love raking in the golden nuggets of information these motivational audio CD’s have to share with us. It is truly the cheapest form learning how to work your way to where you want to be. If you listen to enough of them, you will notice that many of these types of audio or literature share the same principles. At one point, I began to get irritated, thinking “come on, can’t you come up with some new material?!” And then it hit me.

Duh…
I have been listening to these CD’s for well over a year now. Some of the tips and tricks I have taken with me, some of them I have left behind. The ones that I chose to apply to my life, worked miracles. They let me lead a life I loved and I learned how to do it well. However I still have some road blocks I run into; one being my health, and the other my finances. As I listened to these CDs, knowing that I have heard this advice before, I realized that in order to truly succeed in every area I so desired I would need to apply all of these principles.

What was standing in my way?

Laziness.

That dirty mongrel had caught me by surprise again. The only thing that was standing in my way applying all the principles of these motivational CDs was laziness. Who I am to deny the teachings of so many triumphant, successful, leaders like Jack Canfield, Lissa Rankin, Wayne Dyer, Mike Dooley, Oprah, and Marianne Williamson? These people had been there and done it. They so generously share their life’s mission and work with us, giving us food for the taking on how to accomplish our dreams ourselves. Well, I don’t know about you, but that got my engine fired up.

I Got This
I know that in this moment, I can’t commit to a lifetime of not being lazy; I wish I could, but I know the promise would be left empty. I can however promise to wake up each day with 5 goals at hand to accomplish that day, that will take me a step closer (even if only a small one,) to me desired life. If the only thing that is holding me back from my optimum health and financial freedom is laziness, then I got this.

Gettin My Groove On,
Megan Monique