GLOBAL OM THIS SUNDAY!

The worlds largest synchronized sound event!!!!


Earth Dance 2010 is hosting events all over the world on September 19, 2010. People are coming together to pray for peace and harmony. The vibrational frequencies of Mother Earth WILL raise due to the massive number of intentions and hearts praying. At 7pm(EST) everyone will be participating in a Global OM. If you would like to tune into this transformational ,harmonious sound, OM along with hundreds of thousands of your brothers and sisters around the world!

DREAMCATCHERS!

Long ago when the world was young an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain and had a vision. In this vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and teacher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider. Iktomi the spider picked up the elder's willow hoop which had feathers, horsehair, beads and offerings on it, and began to spin a web. He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life; how we begin our lives as infants, move on through childhood and onto adulthood. Finally, we go to the old age where we must be taken care of as infants, completing the cycle. "But," Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, "in each time of life there are many forces; some good and some bad. If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction. But, if you listen to the bad forces, they'll steer you in the wrong direction, and may hurt you. So these forces can help or can interfere with the harmony of Nature."

While the spider spoke, he continued to weave his web. When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the elder the web and said, "the web is a perfect circle with a hole in the center. Use the web to help your people reach their goals, make good use of their ideas, dreams and visions. If you believe in the Great Spirit, the web will catch your good ideas and the bad ones will go through the hole."

The elder passed on his vision to the people, and now many Indian people hang a dream catcher above their bed to sift their dreams and visions. The good is captured in the web of life and carried with the people, but the evil in their dreams drops through the hole in the center of the web and are no longer a part of their lives.

DreamCatchers Incorporated is a non-profit, charitable organization founded by the officers of Kitaru Productions to promote cross cultural communications emphasizing environmental respect, social justice and civic engagement. The organization's work is rooted in the belief that within the spiritual traditions of the ancient cultures of the Americas, lie values not only viable in today's world, but absolutely vital to the regeneration of Earth's life cycle. In cooperation with other culturally based organizations, DreamCatchers fosters the creation of documentaries, feature films, educational events, school curriculum and other media based pieces which inspire, motivate and teach values of respect for nature and people by disseminating information about issues such as health care, the environment, immigration, civil rights and other topics to promote civic engagement.

MARYLAND'S BEST DRINKING WATER!

The health benefits of spring water have been widely known for centuries. People travel miles to obtain pure, fresh spring water. Natural spring water rises to the land surface naturally. Some health experts feel that this means it is ready to be consumed as opposed to the artesian water that is brought to the surface prematurely. Spring water contains antioxidants and is a natural anti-inflammatory agent. Spring water is alive as is artesian water. When it comes straight from the ground it has nourishing qualities that are not present in purified water.
Springwater has a better taste than tap water. In addition to its poor taste, tap water includes potentially dangerous chemicals and rainwater runoff. There's simply no comparison to the clean and crisp taste of springwater when it's held up to the chlorinated, iron taste of city tap water.


There is a gorgeous naturally occurring spring on Marriotsville Road, which is about 30 minutes outside of Baltimore. Take your bottles, glasses, jugs, and jars!


Directions:
695 West towards Pikesville
70 West toward Frederick
Marriotsville Road exit
Bear right onto Marriotsville Road
Turn Left on Henrington Road
Spring will be on right!

Habitat Restoration!

Help restore a healthy natural environment in Cromwell Valley Park for the benefit of a rich variety of wildlife and the enjoyment of people of all ages and interests.

Help eradicate the non-native invasive plants creeping across Cromwell Valley Park's beautiful meadows, into it's woods, and down it's stream banks.

Help plant native species to re-establish natural habitats for the Park's many birds and animals and to restore the park's natural beauty for all to enjoy.

The Habitat Restoration Team has work sessions on the second Saturday of every month, 9:00am to 12:00 noon. Meet at Sherwood Farm. Refreshments, tools, and training are provided.

2002 Cromwell Bridge Road
Baltimore, MD 21234

For further information, call 410 877 2503

REMEMBER THE WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE

Hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children were killed or displaced as a result of our "founding fathers" greed.

Impacts of Industrial Farming

In today's society, most people are not aware of the origin of the food they put into there bodies. Yes it is convenient to go to the grocery store and get what you need in five quick minutes, but this "food" has a huge negative impact on our Earth and our bodies. Much of the agriculture practiced today is industrial style. This does not mean enormous operating farms. In fact, they are not farms at all. They are prisons where animals are subjected to disease, standing ankle deep in there own feces, and overall cruel and abusive treatment. It has had complex effects on our environment, our economy, and our urban and rural social fabric. These factories use huge amounts of water, energy, and chemicals, often with little regard to long-term adverse effects. Where are on the verge of having a water crisis and we still pump numerous gallons of water through irrigation canals. Chemicals and herbicides are accumulating in our ground water. Run off of nutrients is creating eutrophication in the Chesapeake bay. Even though industrial farming yields all of these negative impacts, we continue to put the product in our bodies. Whether we are aware of it or not, it is severely unhealthy.

Industrial farms that produce meat and poultry are the largest contributor to climate change and global warming. Greater than cars, greater than CFC's, greater than anything else. This can be changed! Eating meat and poultry is not a necessity, it is a choice or a "privilege' is some people's eyes. One can live in perfect health from eating solely fruits, veggies, grains, and nuts.

KNOW WHERE YOUR FOOD COMES FROM AND HOW IT WAS PRODUCED!

PICK UP AMERICA!

I heard about Pick Up America from my good friend Dylan. The people who started Pick Up America are friends of his. Pick Up America is a local, regional, and nationwide initiative committed to reducing plastic waste in our communities and waterways. The Pick Up Artists will coordinate community trash clean-ups while walking across the country to encourage alternatives to our nation’s throwaway mentality. The year-and-a-half-long trek begins from Assateague Island, MD., on March 20, 2010, and spans 13 states to the San Francisco Bay, Calif., sometime in August 2011. The people involved in this beautiful act of respect, community and love are incredibly ambitious. I admire their heart and determination to make our mother Earth a cleaner happier place.

Support these Pick Up America and support our only home by donating your time, money and blessings!

http://pickupamerica.wordpress.com/

STOP EUTROPHICATION!

HALT THE USE OF INORGANIC FERTILIZERS CONTAINING NITROGEN AND PHOSPHATES! USE ORGANIC COMPOST! STOP FERTILIZER RUN OFF! PREVENT EUTROPHICATION! SAVE OUR BAY!!!!

NEW MOON CEREMONY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the moon lies between the Earth and the sun, it is not visible from Earth, because the side of the moon that is facing us is not being lit by the sun. Other than this being a magnificent and breath taking phenomenon, it has significant symbolism. The new moon is a spiritual time of new beginnings. You can create new goals, recharge old ones, and set specific intentions.

We will gather at my house ( 2 Hyacinth Rd Baltimore Md 21234) and celebrate this moment of a new beginning.

We will preform a new moon ritual, which entails certain herbs and other supplies, a group of people, a grounding exercise, loving communication, and finally celebration!

Bring your intentions, meaningful thought, and a loving heart!

Come at 9:30pm!

MARCH 20th MARCH AND RALLY!

People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.

On Saturday, March 20, 2010, there will be a mass National March & Rally in D.C. We will march together to say “No Colonial-type Wars and Occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine!" We will march together to say "No War Against Iran!” We will march together to say “No War for Empire Anywhere!” Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.

A day of action and outreach in Washington, D.C., will take place on Friday, March 19, preceding the Saturday march. There will be coinciding mass marches on March 20 in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Cindy Sheehan and a coalition of groups have announced a new initiative set to begin in March 2010 called Peace of the Action, an integral part of which will be a camp that will be set up beginning March 13. This camp will be a staging area for people coming to DC to take part in anti-war activities.

March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the criminal war of aggression launched by Bush and Cheney against Iraq. One million or more Iraqis have died. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have lost their lives or been maimed, and continue to suffer a whole host of enduring problems from this terrible war.

This is the time for united action. The slogans on banners may differ, but all those who carry them should be marching shoulder to shoulder.


To learn more on how you can get involved in the March on Washington, visit http://www.March20.org or http://www.AnswerCoalition.org

Operation Defus

A forum to help the public better understand the police/surveillance state by educating them about Fusion Centers and the role they play in both militarizing and federalizing our police forces. Speakers will include Catherine Bleish - Executive Director of the Liberty Restoration Project, John Bush - Executive Director of the Texans for Accountable Government, Max Obuszewski - Baltimore Nonviolence Center (listed as a terrorist on a fusion center database), Harvey Eisenberg - Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (Maryland's fusion center), US Attorney and coordinator of MD Anti-Terrorist Advisory Council. The event will be held March 11th, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the Pikesville Branch of the Baltimore County Public Libraries.


Pikesville Branch, Baltimore County Public Library
1301 Reisterstown Road
Baltimore, MD 21208
410.887.1234

My good friend Mallory is working for a non profit organization called Falling Whistles. Please read these beautiful words and help the Congolese children

http://www.fallingwhistles.com/splash/index.php




I want to share it with you.



A couple years ago a man named Sean Carasso was in Africa doing a shoe drop for TOMS shoes. When the mission was over, he and a couple buddies decided to explore Africa. They ended up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Here Sean stumbled along an illegal prison where he met five young boys. After talking with the boys. The boys were escaped child soldiers—whistleblowers.

Boys too small to hold a gun were given a whistle. Their sole objective was to blow the whistle to make enough noise to distract the enemy and absorb the first round of bullets with their bodies. In falling, they acted as a human shield for the other boys.



Through madness and tears, Sean wrote in his journal, “With falling whistles, their only choice is to feign death, or face it.” He sent out a blog entry with extreme urgency to his family and friends, who forwarded the story with the same urgency. Kids were dying. Read closely: children were dying. I can’t convey this properly, it’s something you kind of just have to think about I guess.

Returning to America, Sean didn’t have a fucking clue of what to do. All he knew were these kids were defenseless, women were being brutally, brutally raped, and that this was now the largest war in the world since WWII. And no one knew any of this.

Sean’s friend Marcus came to him with a whistle: a simple whistle, providing the unique opportunity to speak up for the whistleblowers in Congo. We now knew that their weapon could be our voice.

It has. We are working with 270 war-affected Congolese children in a Congolese founded, owned, and operated rehabilitation program.

That’s what we’re working for, slowly but surely. We are also educating ourselves. Here are some of the atrocities purposefully swept under the rug:

-Women are being raped. Not once, but multiple times. Many of the soldiers in the rebel groups, the extremists, the terrorists, ‘re-rape’ in order to prevent a woman from being able to reproduce, leading to the extinction of her lineage.

-Children are forced to the front lines with a whistle.

-Children are forced to the front lines with AK-47s.

-If they run, they are tortured. Brutally tortured.

-The ‘civilized world’ as we like to call ourselves, is the cause of the problem. The war exists largely due to ‘conflict minerals’ which are found in our electronics. Our -consumerism=their war.

-Children are cut open and injected with drugs to smuggle across borders.

I am at a loss for words. I just keep thinking. We said “Never Again” after the Holocaust. In the past 10 years, an documented 5.4 million Congolese have died, while countless other deaths go unreported. Many more will live, suffering from the affects of the war.



Never again?



I cannot justify the death of one child. I cannot defend those who turn a blind eye for their inaction. Frankly, I think it’s ridiculous.

What is the difference between a 5-year-old here and a Congolese 5-year-old? Is there not a common moral fiber running through the veins of every human being? My life is NOT more valuable. Neither is yours. These are humans dying. For me, this is not an Africa problem. It’s not an America problem. The blame game is over. It is childish and it is time for everyone to set aside their vendettas and look at the bigger picture.



If you can give me a reason about why these human-on-human atrocities are permissible, I welcome it.



For now, this is what we are up against. I would rather think you will not dismiss this letter, it has taken many drafts and many hours. I don’t like telling these stories. I don’t like telling them because they are not stories, they are truths. It’s so sick.

My request is simple. I want you to buy a whistle. It costs about $22 to feed one kid for the whole year in the program. To put one child through the rehabilitation for the year, it’s only $90. 100% of whistle sales goes to these programs in Congo.

Buying a whistle gives you the opportunity to share this story and use their weapon of war as a weapon of peace, and a tool to elevate common conversation. It shows your protest for whatever injustice you stand for.

Please buy a whistle and help me tell others what’s going on.

I love you, thank you.



Mallory

stumbled upon this...

"We have to get beyond the artificial division we've created between human community and the rest of the planet. There is only one community, and it lives and dies as a unit. Any harm done to the natural world diminishes the human world, because the human world depends on the natural world not only for it's physical supplies but for its psychic development and fulfillment. This is most important, because people talk about the need to destroy the natural world in order to advance in the human world. Well, anything that diminishes the wonder and fulfillment we receive from the natural world spoils the human enterprise."

"That is the tragedy of our children. They don't see the stars because of light pollution, they play on grass poisoned with pesticides, the experience the world as circumscribed by so much human made material. Our children have been taken away from any kind of normal human/earth relationship."

"Imagine a drink of water when you are thirsty. It is as a spiritual experience as it is a physical one. You see a river. You drink from it. The river takes care of you physically and spiritually. That is everything right there."

- Thomas Berry

SATURDAY MARCH 6TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope that all of you want to be part of this!

Eastern Family Resource Center is a homeless shelter for mostly women and children located in Essex. On March 6th, we will be volunteering at this shelter for most of the day. Anyone who would like to be part of this has options! You can choose to cook
food, serve the food, play music with children, or make art with
children.

There will be anywhere from 120 - 170 hungry mouths to feed.
We need a lot of help with cooking and serving. I have been talking
with the Marketing Manager about getting healthy food into the bellies
of these people. No one should be deprived of healthy nutritious food.
If she can not manage, it would be wonderful if everyone spared $5. We
could then buy organic produce and much more for people who need it.

If you would like to make music or art with the children, please bring
your own supplies! Bring crayons, paper, paint, brushes, chalk,
guitars, drums, tambourines, shakers, bongos or anything you would like!!!

If you would like to make music and art come at 2pm!
If you would like to cook and or serve food come at 4:30pm!

If you have any more questions please ask me!
sadnessgardens@gmail.com

TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!!!

March 6th 2:00pm - 8:00pm
Eastern Family Resource Center
9100 Franklin Square Drive
Baltimore, MD 21237-3903
(410) 887-0400

SAVE THE ORANGUTANS IN SUMATRA!!!!!!

http://abcnews.go.com/video/video?id=9262226

While Sumatra's Bukit Tigapuluh rainforest is prized as one of the biologically richest habitats on Earth, it is also one of the most threatened.
Endangered orangutans in Sumatra are taught to survive in shrinking habitat.

Nestled deep inside what is the last remaining lowland forest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra are thousands of plants and animals. Until recently, the green foliage was a safe haven for these species, including the critically endangered orangutan.

In May 2009, the Indonesian government granted new logging concessions to one of the world's largest paper companies, Asia Pulp & Paper. As a result, a massive logging operation is underway and deforestation has devastated what was once a flourishing habitat.

"If you look at the island of Sumatra, as much as 70 percent of the forest has been lost," Annette Cotter of Greenpeace told ABC News.

Cotter, the non-governmental organization's forest campaign manager in Indonesia, is certain that the loss of forest is pushing the Sumatran orangutan to the verge of extinction.

"As you get further deforestation, you decrease the size of the habitat for your orangutan and they actually need a very large area to live in," Cotter said.

As a result, the number of orangutans is decreasing rapidly. "Fifty years ago, we must have had 100,000 orangutans in Sumatra, and now we are down to 6,000," Peter-Hinrich Pratje, the Frankfurt Zoological Society project leader in Indonesia, said.

Pratje's organization has found a way to fight back. The Frankfurt Zoological Society established an orangutan rehabilitation camp to try to save the red apes.

Sanctuaries for Orangutans

To get to this camp tucked in the middle of the jungle, ABC News' Bob Woodruff and his news team waded through knee-high mud and waist-deep, leech infested, river water.

At the sanctuary, the apes being held for rehabilitation were playful and gentle, although one managed to grab a handful of Woodruff's hair.

Their curiosity and intelligence can be a lot to handle, so they must be kept occupied at all times.

In between the playful interaction, Woodruff was able to teach the apes, with help from the trainers, a few of the core tactics they must learn to survive on their own in the rainforest.

Written by By CHRISTINE ROMO and STEPHANIE WASH