Taking Back Our Money!

In Copenhagen last December, Dr. Vandana Shiva asserted that locally-oriented organic farming could solve up to 40% of the global warming problem. Sounds simple, right?

Well, that same localized approach applies to our money, too. Keeping it out of corporate hands takes a little bit of logistics but is worth it!

At long last, I just switched my cell phone to CREDO, part of the Working Assets company. It feels nice not to be giving the Plutocracy my money anymore.
Over the holidays, they started running a special that is (finally) do-able: free phone, 1000 talk minutes, 1000 texts for $49.99 a month. They're even buying out folks' current cell phone plans. I picked it up a few weeks ago. So far, so good!

(Oh so hey, email me at gotgoddess@yahoo.com if you're thinking about signing up. I think they're handing out cash for referrals!)

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Found on Huffington Post: MOVE YOUR MONEY. Video and articles about how and why to bank locally, invest locally, get your money to work WITH you, not AGAINST you!

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And sent in by my friend, Woody:

Stop Using your Credit Cards.
UseCashMovement.org
By Bernard Schaer

If you have credit cards, like most of us, you˙ve probably been
getting mail from your card-issuing bank lately. A letter per card is
what I˙ve been getting during the course of a few weeks, advising
me of changes they are going to make to the terms and conditions
that govern the use of my card. Adjustments, they call it.
In light of the second phase of the Credit Card Act of 2009, kicking
in in February, card issuers are raising interest rates and fees even
on customers who have been paying their monthly payment regularly
and without fail to stay ahead of the new law.

Another thing that will be outlawed by February 2010 is the
universal default scam which has been applied generously
and profitably in the past. Today, with universal default, if
you˙re late paying your credit card bill, your insurance, mortgage
or car loan rates can also increase says Heather McGhee of Demos,
a New York public policy research group. A single late payment can
raise auto insurance rates as much as 50 percent.

Big Banking is out of control. Many corporate financial
institutions received a share of a trillion dollars of taxpayer
money as bailout. At the same time banks hiked interest rates on
existing credit card debt, lowered and/or canceled small business
credit lines, and imposed more and higher fees and penalties with
near impunity.

As taxpayers, workers, citizens and merchants we can fight
back. There is an easy, immediate and direct path toward banking
and monetary reform that benefits people, not corporations, through
everyday transactions in the marketplace.

Use cash.

Today, one of the biggest moneymakers for Big Banking are credit
and debit cards. Users of debit and credit cards pay for the
convenience these cards provide through fees, penalties and
interest. Merchants pay fees that average about $3.50 on every
$100, plus the cost of those days they wait to be reimbursed by
the banks. The merchants pass these fees on to their customers in
the form of higher prices. Every time we buy something we pay that
fee, whether we know it or not. It˙s this simple: Every time we
use cash instead of plastic, we will deprive banks and financial
institutions of the profits that purchase the influence and power
that has corrupted our financial and monetary system. Together we
can change the balance of power by doing just two things: Use
cash instead of plastic and the local merchant might even give
you a break for paying cash. Enlist others to do the same. Go
to http://www.UseCashMovement.org

Bernard Schaer
Las Vegas

Nature Boys

This kid is so in love with Nature and apparently doesn't care who knows it! He is so goofily un-self-conscious, I just had to share it with you.

And here: my favorite (so far!) musical interpretation of Nature Boy, the song that Nat "King" Cole immortalized. Legend has it that early Capitol Records was practically built on the proceeds! Watch as these two seemingly extraterrestrially talented musicians turn this tune on its head in the best way imaginable...

A Unique Destiny

It's amazing to consider the intriguing IDEA that we each have a very specific individual destiny - one that plays itself out over the course of lifetimes, and which ALWAYS has a happy ending...eventually! Because everything comes from Source, articulated very individually, quirks and all, and returns to Source. In that process is a unique story for each of us.

Right? No other possibility!

"Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence."
Og Mandino 1923-1996, American Motivational Author, Speaker
(Sent in by Don Strong)

A homegrown motivational video by Chuck Cirino "to myself," Sent in by Steven Overstreet. Its final phrase jarred me, got me thinking.

Wonder how it would be for people to create motivational art for themselves...Interesting idea!

A Thousand People Singing HU!

HU is a sound, like OM, which is a representation of the energy stream that flows through all of life. Using it can put you in touch with the Flow very quickly. It is an ancient mantra, and is found in many mystic traditions throughout the world. Some people use it as a meditation aid: to still the mind, to feel life's Oneness or even for help in making a decision.

It is pronounced either hoo or hue (hue being the more preferred version that I'm aware of). It can be sung at any time, in any situation. It can be sung at any tone, with any variation, in breaths long or short. The spiritual path of Eckankar ("co-worker with God") refers to it as "A Love Song to God." There is evidence that this may have been the first word humans used to address the divine.

You can even sing it silently. There are many interesting tales about things that happen with people when they're singing HU, for themselves or for others. It usually serves to calm someone's distress or to reorient a situation. Occasionally it creates a connection to some interesting visual/sound/meditative phenomena.

This is a link to an audio clip from the website for Eckankar. It includes a recording of over 1000 people singing HU.

Some Real New Year's Resolutions

I really like what these two girls did. And I hope you will, too!

In this first very rockin' video a young woman confronts all the mean things she's been told, or has told herself, about herself. She decides to love herself anyway, completely "as is."

In this second one, another young woman takes this inspiration and runs with it. It's possibly even better than the first video.

I greatly admire their technique and think it's worth trying. Therapeutic, definitely!

Christmas Eve Birthing Miracle

On Christmas Eve of 2009, Mike and Tracey Hermanstorfer were at the hospital in Colorado Springs as Tracey was giving birth to the couple's third child. Then, suddenly, everything went wrong. Mike watched helplessly as both his wife and unborn son died - and then later revived - in the delivery room.

Click here for the video story.

"My legs went out from underneath me," Hermanstorfer said. "I had everything in the world taken from me, and in an hour and a half I had everything given to me."

Which reminds me...the first, best and cheapest way to enhance our lifestyle is to keep track of our blessings: everything that we already have, and everything that's going RIGHT!

Spiritual Vitamins: The Starbucks Love Project

Yes, I know it's Starbucks, thus potentially trite and superficial...but in the spirit of playing all-out I simply must post this video as our first Powerful Happy Thought for 2010! It is just that wonderful.

This video is so full of detail and perfect purity, I'm pretty sure I can watch it every day this year and still feel its amazing effects. See if it does the same for you!

Also, if you go to the search engine and type "Starbucks Love Project" you will see all sorts of interesting links related to how they made the video and why.

Happy New Year! How it progresses is largely up to us. And, splendidly, we've all got each other!