Every time you buy food, you're voting for the world you want.

"Every time you buy food, you're voting for the world you want. When you choose corporate processed foods, you're paying for a food system gone awry, including the massive environmental cleanup of runoff from industrial farms. When you buy good Grub, you're supporting the production of food that doesn't poison our farm workers or the environment, but preserves biodiversity, rural communities, and food security. Every time we choose Grub, we're making the healthy choice, not just for our bodies, but for the planet as well." ~Anna Lappe

#14. Today I'm grateful for the healthy, organic food choices that nourish, heal, restore and regenerate my body daily.

What are you doing with your time today?

As the years go by, time flies away and slips away faster and faster. I have so many things I want to do, experience & accomplish in this lifetime, some involving others, some not. It's easy to feel frustrated when things don't happen as quickly, efficiently and effectively as I would prefer but that doesn't accomplish anything good. 

Lately I've been having so many creative ideas, the thought of turning them all into reality can almost seem overwhelming. Each thing takes time, work and resources to complete and I ask myself how I'm ever going to get it all accomplished. The answer: take a deep breath and redirect myself into focusing on one thing at a time in the right order. Be patient. Be willing to ask for help on the projects that need it and better utilize the resources available to redistribute the work and move things along in a timely fashion.

Once time's gone, I can never get it back and I don't want to waste it. Throughout each day I find myself asking myself, "Is this the most important thing to do right now to move forward with my long-term goals, priorities and values?" If the answer is no, I know to stop and refocus.

I'm also carefully scheduling and spending my time, effort and energy on activities and experiences that matter the most now and for the future to not waste this precious gift of time on things that don't really matter.

#12. Today I'm grateful for each moment of time spent doing the things that will matter most in the bigger life picture with the people I love and cherish most.

Goals are dreams with deadlines.

Goals are dreams with deadlines. ~ Diana Scharf Hunt

#2 Today I am grateful to stay focused on the tasks that will ensure I meet my larger goal objectives by creating and keeping deadlines for myself.

The older I get, time seems to slip by faster and faster. Sometimes I have felt like hours have gone by and I know I was busy but I'm really not sure where the time went. Knowing that I have a tendency to become easily distracted, this year I'd like to improve upon setting and keeping deadlines to ensure success. As I wrote down my 2013 goals last week, I added deadlines to completing each project.

When I break down my long term goals into daily tasks, one way to ensure I am staying focused on meeting my deadlines is to set timers for each task. At home as I awake in the morning and my coffee is brewing, I spend that time cleaning the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher, wiping down the counters and tidying that area. By the time the coffee is brewed 10 minutes later, I have a nice clean space ready for preparing my meals for the day. I then sit down with my coffee and spend the next 30 minutes planning my day. I know from past experience that if I don't do this daily, my highest priority items will not be my focus and I'll continue to wonder where the time went.

While working, I set a timer to stay focused on each project. For example, a daily goal is to spend 1 hour a day on research and collecting data for an idea that I've wanted to implement for a while but haven't made time to do so as of yet. I now set a timer. When the timer ends, I move on to a different task. This helps me stay productive and organized while handling multiple priorities and obligations and keeps me from getting sidetracked by distractions.

As a recommendation, I really like this great egg timer project by David LeMieux. It's a great tool to stay focused on a task for a set period of time. I hope you enjoy using it as much as I do. :)

Native American Code of Ethics

1. Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.

2. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance.

3. Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your path for you. It is your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.

4. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor.

5. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community, the wilderness or from a culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not yours.

6. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth - whether it be people or plant.

7. Honor other people's thoughts, wishes and words. Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to personal expression.

8. Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative energy that you put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.

9. All persons make mistakes. And all mistakes can be forgiven.

10. Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit. Practice optimism.

11. Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us. They are part of your worldly family.

12. Children are the seeds of our future. Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life's lessons. When they are grown, give them space to grow.

13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of your pain will return to you.

14. Be truthful at all times. Honesty is the test of ones will within this universe.

15. Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental self, Spiritual self, Emotional self, and Physical self - all need to be strong, pure and healthy. Work out the body to strengthen the mind. Grow rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.

16. Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you will react. Be responsible for your own actions.

17. Respect the privacy and personal space of others. Do not touch the personal property of others - especially sacred and religious objects. This is forbidden.

18. Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first. 

19. Respect others religious beliefs. Do not force your belief on others.

20. Share your good fortune with others. Participate in charity.


This originally appeared in the "Inter-Tribal Times," October, 1994

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Changemakers

Here's a great article by Huffington Post!

Connections

I first met Steve Connell early on a Saturday morning 

when he and Sekou Andrews woke me up with words  

by opening the LA Idea Project Conference with beautiful poetry in 2009. 

I've been enjoying the truth, inspiration and energy of their Spoken Word ever since. 

Steve speaks here about the real meaning of CONNECTION!

Love this!

Technology advancement has provided us with incredible instruments to share, connect and gain knowledge easily accessible at our finger tips. When I saw this I paused, humbly reminded that my grandma never had a cell phone or used a computer and our connection was deep, real and in person. The best and most rewarding & memorable experiences of my life didn't happen while browsing the internet, but while I was out enjoying the moment, fully present. Some of my best and most interesting friends in the world don't participate in online social media or even have Facebook accounts and one of the most important lessons I've discovered from the 140 character limit on Twitter is that brevity is not my forte. I've been procrastinating seeing one of those friends for a while now so this week I'm going to make time for her as well as turn off the distracting background noise for a night and make my playlist of 2011 favorite songs.

Stay connected without getting lost.