Living Generously

2010-07-30T02:28:00.003Z

Hate Late! Love Early! Time is your most valuable asset to invest. To be a world changer and fulfill your dreams you will need all the time you can get!So ladies, here is the definitive guide to being on time, being efficient and saving yourself an hour a day! Which all adds up to a whole bunch of success. In the morning: *Don’t put music or the TVon! Don’t check your

2010-04-21T18:25:00.002Z

CHAT BACK: STORIES FROM THE COMMUNITYIn response to the last enews:Quick Kindness>>> "Pick up the coffee tab for the next person in line at Starbucks"We did this Quick Kindness at a drive thru Starbucks in Redding California - The Starbucks staff later said that it went on continuously for 4 hours. We were impressed that once it got started, everyone in line kept doing it for the car behind them

2010-04-21T17:06:00.000Z

Earth Day 2010Celebrating 40 Years in 5 Minutes

2010-04-21T16:54:00.002Z

The Volt Age - Electric Cars.Everyone has an opinion on electric cars, but since they are always being changed and developed, isn't it time to take a second glance? So here are our top ten reasons to re-think electric. Why electric? 1. Inexpensive. Ever had a small heart attack when you saw the gasoline prices at the gas station?

2010-04-15T23:29:00.003Z

Retail Therapy.When we heard that Danielle Steel has 6,000 pairs of Louboutins we realized that we are not the only people who struggle with an unhealthy shoe addiction.So we took the Guardian's advice and signed up to consumer therapy of another kind...How to tackle a shoe addiction:1) Acknowledge the purpose.Does buying shoes numb you to the reality of your dull, suburban life? Admitting the

2010-03-22T23:32:00.000Z

Bottled Water

2010-03-10T03:50:00.013Z

Girls Riding on Bikes with Heels. Fashion and the environment go hand in hand. The most fashion forward cities of The West are also the greenest. The style centers of London, New York and San Francisco all compete for 'smallest carbon footprint' award, as well as playing host to droves of fashion's glitterati."But of course!" us city girls cry. It's a truth universally

2010-03-01T20:17:00.004Z

42pence for a dozen organic free range eggs.Lower stress levels.Zero food miles.Eggs so fresh Delia would approve.Hens are having their hay day in the city.(Minus the hay of course.)It may be the recession, it may be the need for organic, it may be the need for therapy without the therapist, or it may be Big Brother. One way or another, we are now officially into hens at home. It's true that with

2010-02-24T04:58:00.004Z

Yesterday I received an email from a friend in Rwanda. She's an Australian nurse and is both administering medical care and training community health workers in neighboring states. It's an essential role in an area with high medical needs and severely limited medical input. Her news that she was being reassigned to Haiti brought me to a question, not about her circumstance, but a general trend to

2008-12-28T03:32:00.002Z

The days preceding a new year are a time to dream.Every year, well all year actually, I set up new rules for myself and new demands for my time and character. Setting goals is good. Setting rules is not. Somehow rules kill you whereas goals bring life.For a rule-setter, goal-getter type like myself, New Years Resolutions used to provide an excellent opportunity to set even more self-imposed laws,

2008-11-15T23:43:00.001Z

Living Generously e-newsletter

2008-08-07T16:42:00.000Z

August Newsletter now available online!!Living Generously e-newsletterHappy reading

2008-07-17T11:30:00.004Z

www.livinggenerously.comalternative giftsngo'sarticlesgift listsnewswedding lists

2008-07-16T11:04:00.003Z

Relational Generosity: Love & LifeI just gave my father a book of short real-life stories form the War. When we hang out, or work on my boat, or have a meal, my dad will tell me another story from the book. It is full of heroes and miracles, because heroism is miraculous. A hero is someone who loves. Who gives themselves in life or death for other people. They give life, courageously.No one has

2008-06-07T15:18:00.006Z

Living a Life Worth Giving A Christian View of Generosity By Chuck Scott 6 And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. 8 But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste

2008-06-05T12:19:00.005Z

Do you think me cheesey whan I tell you ‘love is all we need’? When the Beetles and the Bible say the same thing it’s time to listen. Best selling band and best selling book, 20th century to 1st century, love revolution to love revolution. Love is all we need. I believe.If I speak in the languages of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have

2008-05-27T09:59:00.004Z

Burma CycloneReporting from Field Worker Thailand.Partners Relief & Development“The victims of this disaster need help now. For the many thousands who have died, this tragedy is over. But for the men, women, and children of southern Burma who have lost their homes, livelihood and in many cases, their loved ones, it has really only just begun. We at Partners are doing all we can to ensure the help

2008-03-26T15:26:00.001Z

Boxing day 2004. Cosied up in a country Pub in Dorset, England, I was unaware of the horror that was unfolding thousands of miles away. I was also unaware that the Boxing Day Tsunami was going to change my life.Eight months later, I found myself in South East India. Overnight I became mom to six children and began living 600 meters away from the ocean that killed their parents. Every morning I

2008-02-22T23:15:00.001Z

2008-01-16T10:04:00.001Z

2007-12-19T16:19:00.000Z

Christmas on a beautiful budgetFood:Instead of buying all the ready-made festive foods, start cooking from scratch now and freezing dishes for the Christmas week. go for traditional winter foods that include lots of nutritional vegetables to counter all the sugar of treats! casseroles, shepherd's pie, hearty soups and home-made breads and pastries. Raw materials for cakes, cookies, bread and

2007-12-19T15:56:00.000Z

Christmas is a beautiful festival and a time of traditions, excitement and well-earned celebration. Christmas adds value to our culture and can never be too big or beautiful. But, and there’s always a ‘but’, when the festivities overrun the festival, tragedy happens. And it happens every year. The hospitals are at their busiest, depression is at its worse and suicide rates are at their highest.In

2007-11-29T12:10:00.000Z

I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it, you know you know you know, living generously is full of surprises…ooooh yeah…So since we were leading up to Christmas, when lots of you like to buy your grandma a snail farm, your pool man (yeah I wish) a water well and your cowboy (hmmm – getting dubious) a cow, we thought we’d make getting an alternative gift from us loads better. We got new Gift Packs!

2007-11-20T11:51:00.001Z

Thanksgiving. I love how we give thanks by eating – it’s awesome. I love eating and I love people, so thanksgiving works for me – friends, turkey, that weird sweet potato and marshmallow thing – it’s all good. But, as a Living Generously and nose-flute enthusiast, I’m thinking that the best way to show our thanks is not by eating things (though please do that too, because it’s yummy

2007-02-07T17:53:00.000Z

Food Miles 0r Fair Miles?Just as consumers' enthusiasm to cut food miles is growing, some experts are warning that an over-simplistic view of the issue risks doing more harm than good. They are urging policymakers not to rush blindly into formulating "buy-local-only" campaigns for consumers which could prove disastrous for many poor African food producers... (read the article!)What do you think?

2006-08-01T11:38:00.000Z

Middle East – middle road?We know there are real people suffering across the world from natural and man-made disasters and poverty and they should not be overlooked. But lets for a moment chat about the situation in the Middle East…Are we to blame?Should we blame?Who is the threat, the aggressor?What’s the way out – long term?Can we trust the media or our own governments?Should we accept civilian

2006-07-28T16:38:00.000Z

GRAND WEEKLY CHALLANGE week4 (or 1 month - whichever you prefer!?!)Do something you think you are unable to doWho says you can’t?'Can't'It's such a destructive word.We all can't do something. Quite a lot of things actually. We're not all good at fire eating or Biomechanical Engineering. But, we could be. We just need to

2006-07-27T14:51:00.000Z

The end of week3 of THE GRAND WEEKLY CHALLENGE has come (even if a little late!!)It’s been good actually. I found out the reason why ‘I just have to have’ an oversized handbag.It’s genius! I don’t really take that much more around (though I’ve got into reading more as I can carry a book in it – hoorah). But when you’re trying to stick to the ‘no plastic carrier bag’ challenge, it comes in very

2006-07-18T14:21:00.000Z

Where's Your Footprint At? I consider myself to be very thrifty when it comes to cars. I run a £400 car on a wing and a prayer - it's great fun! So this means when it comes to insurance I seriously shop around. I have just compared the cheapest insurer out there, with the all new Climatesure. They offset your carbon emissions as part of your premium (planting trees etc.). But here's the wacky bit

2006-07-17T11:34:00.000Z

Week 3 of THE GRAND WEEKLY CHALLANGE is here and it's getting tricky!!?Old bags (of the plastic variety) get everywhere - rivers, roadsides and worst of all... bins! Bins mean the end of a poor bag's life, think of all that energy that went into creating the wee soul. They also mean landfill. The graveyard that grows faster than the living. Anyhoo. Here's the rub. Where it is humanly possible,

2006-07-17T11:14:00.000Z

The end of week two of THE GRAND WEEKLY CHALLANGE has come around. The important people who have admitted struggling to notice the wee little car trying to get onto the road have all laid their clocks aside and committed to let at least one car in on each journey. Horay for them!!This is all part of 'we are what we do' and changing the world (- one car journey at a time!!). So if you've done it -

2006-07-13T14:04:00.000Z

A bit of shopping?Marks and Sparks are bizarrely leading the way on fair-trade high-street clothing. But new to the game is the all French ‘Le Redoute’. My French aunt (always fabulously dressed) is now not the only overseas personage who has access to this great French secret. Having gone international, you can buy anything from anywhere and most importantly, you can buy fair-trade anywhere too!

2006-07-07T13:46:00.000Z

The Grand Weekly ChallangeAnother very achievable one this week: Let at least one car in on every journeyBeat road rage (suffered by 87% of drivers) by letting one person out of a junction on every journey even if you are very busy and important! You just need to do it for this week and then if you've done it click 'I've Done It!' next friday. We'll remind you!Peace out, chilled drivers!

2006-07-07T09:19:00.000Z

The time has come my little friends for actions and many things...Yes a week has flown past and it's friday already. This means the end of week one of 'THE GRAND WEEKLY CHALLANGE' (dah dah daaaah!! etc. etc.)All this week the brave and adventurous have all been trying to smile (more) and smile back to the crazy folk who smile all the time. It's not just an inane exercise but part of 'we are what

2006-07-05T09:19:00.000Z

Bag it!One of your 5 a day fruit and veg, could well be a nice summer salad now it’s turned hot. Iceberg lettuce is one of the greatest sources of vitamin K. So they’re good to eat, but you might need to get green fingers if you want to munch them.A 50g bag of lettuce takes on average 50 litres of water to grow – that’s a whole litre of water for every gram of lettuce! What’s more, supermarkets

2006-06-30T11:33:00.000Z

First of 'The Grand Weekly Challenge' dah dah daah!!!ok, so what this involves is doing the weekly challenge (for a week) and then if you reckon you've done it, you can click, um, 'I've done it!' at the end of the week courtesy of www.wearewhatwedo.com. Don't worry we'll all do it together and give you a nudge in the right direction!This week, your mission, should you choose to accept is: Smile

2006-06-27T09:03:00.000Z

Thought for the DayPretty shoes are generous because...they cost a lotthey hurt a lotthey cause health problemsthey cause addiction problemsthey cause walking down hills problemsyou can't drive in them and they are leathel when combined with cattle gridsBut all this is suffered at great cost, so that others can take great joy in seeing very beautiful shoes.aah. Now that's generosity.

2006-06-23T10:49:00.000Z

To Be or Not to BeI think our little discussion on Mother Teresa v. Bill Gates had some interesting results. The general feeling is that Mother Teresa is the more generous because she gave 'of her self' her time, energy and compassion. Which is something we can all give, right?I'm not thinking 'join another social action group' when you don't have time to see your kids, but maybe we need to share

2006-06-19T16:27:00.000Z

Can you be generous to self without being selfish?Examples of the quandary much needed: answers on a postcard (by which I mean post a comment!!)I’m thinking a lie-in – generous to self with sleep, not necessarily selfish – just relaxing. Or generous to self with spending time with friends - as social necessity? Hmmm.

2006-06-16T10:32:00.000Z

The Problem of PooGet this for a wacky thing. A contact lense company and one of the world's largest car manufacturers have combined forces to make and distribute some magic chemicals that composts cow poo quickly and stops bad gases.The 50 kg per day output of a cow is a big problem in little Japan - I’m not sure whether it is sinking the island or raising ground level, but either way its an

2006-06-15T13:53:00.000Z

It is a fact, universally acknowledged, that banana’s are the most bought item in the supermarket. I fail to comprehend this. You’d have thought that milk, bread, um toilet paper, apples and of course Marmite would far exceed banana consumption. Hmmm. Why with so many other fruit choices and food tastes and basic necessities, would the foreign banana be top of the shops? Well, if (wo)man can live

2006-06-13T12:29:00.000Z

This 'lets discuss' thing is genius and much more fun (um, I mean, informative!!) check out the Teresa v Bill post below!Since we've already got heated debates going on the global warming thing (catch up on the article causing a stir http://www.livinggenerously.com/articles/56) lets hear it!!Q:Is Global Warming something we should be acting upon? Does it effect the poor? How can we do anything

2006-06-12T10:27:00.000Z

Who do you think is more generous? Teresa orBillDiscuss. !!

2006-06-08T11:46:00.000Z

WFP Director, on his motivation...Morris, director of the World Food Program, is driven not by a desire to burnish his reputation, but by the impact the work itself can have on the lives of others.“I’ve seen thousands of children who are hungry, on the verge of death because they’re sick, then I talk to a young man whose life was saved by the WFP.”Morris describes the story of Paul Tegat, a

2006-06-07T10:12:00.000Z

Mahatma Ghandi had it right when he said: 'Be the change you want to see in the world.' I may be a modern hippy and 'you may say I'm a dreamer' (but I think we've already established that - though not quite in the Lennon sense), but do we do nothing and not impact anything or at least be able to say that change has happened in me - in one person? Who knows at sometime in our lives we may even

2006-06-06T09:20:00.000Z

Generosity, Advocacy or Small Change?The first look at Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's baby pictures is going to cost some lucky newspaper or magazine a bundle -- but the money will go to charity.The couple announced on Monday that they have agreed to let photo agency Getty Images market pictures of their newborn, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, with all proceeds going to help the less fortunate.Experts

2006-06-05T11:00:00.000Z

Sometimes it feels like we have nothing left to give. We are under such time pressures with our hectic schedules, we have no more energy spare. In The West we can sometimes find ourselves ‘time poor’ where we are so busy we don’t have time to invest in what we really want to do or achieve.We want to do something meaningful and positively impact our world, but between long hours, grocery shopping,

2006-06-05T09:57:00.000Z

What could you do with...Apple Computers and Apple Corp. (The Beatles record co.) have just spent over $5m on a court battle over their logos. Jonathan Riley, an intellectual property lawyer with London firm Lawrence Graham said "It was watched with interest, but also some distance, because I don't think it's hugely significant for either the computer industry or the music industry."Now if we're