Feline friendship on the frontlines

Timothy Kuklis, Brian Chambers, and other soldiers in Afghanistan, have recently shared their inspiring stories of finding and rescuing kittens that had been deprived the chance of a loving home due to the war.  These pictures seem to uniquely capture something about the human capacity to offer love and kindness, as well as the human need to receive it.

More about Timothy, Brian, Simba, Kiki and others at LoveMeow.  Photos Courtesy Love Meow.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Permalink: http://centerforlivingpeace.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/423

Girls need more than mirrors to know their own beauty

As noted on WebMD, “by the time most girls reach their teens, they’ve consumed years’ worth of messages about what a female body should look like.”

According to Renee Hobbs, EdD, associate professor of communications at Temple University, “the average teen girl gets about 180 minutes of media exposure daily ,” compare to “only about 10 minutes of parental interaction a day.”  For too many American girls, being “model thin” is a very real aspiration, and it starts at a shockingly young age.  In one recent study, researchers found that TV programs focused on appearance are swaying the self-esteem of girls as young as 5.  Read the entire article on WebMD, including what parents can do to help their daughters develop a healthy attitude about their own bodies.

Justine Amodeo, mother and CLP instructor offering the class Tapping the Body’s Wisdom, is doing everything she can as a parent to help her daughter explore and express her feelings in relation to her own beauty and media and society.  She recently shared the expressive art piece made by her daughter recording the feeling of “smallness” she felt in relation to her dolls.  She writes, “take a step forward towards being your own person.”

Image courtesy Justine Amodeo and  Ms. Magazine.

Using creativity to contemplate and examine visual culture, girls are able to break down the images solidified by the media of what a body is “supposed” to look like, and arrive at their own ideas of what is beautiful and healthy.  Doctors conclude that more than anything else, dialogue and critical thinking about what is healthy and truly beautiful can serve young girls more than any other activity.  The needs of her daughter to have a creative outlet to develop her own ideas about beauty and body image inspired Justine to develop Tapping the Body’s Wisdom, which combines ritual, writing, art, dance and music to bring out the true spirit of each child while examining the pressures they experience from their peers, the media, and society.  Click here for more information on Justine’s class, which happens every Saturday morning at 10am, for a suggested donation of $5-$10.

Images courtesy Center for Living Peace.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Permalink: http://centerforlivingpeace.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/412

Bookmaking presented by OCMA

Tunnel books truly avoid being judged by the nature of their cover!  Inspired by theatre stage sets, the pages of tunnel books are generally images layered together to create a 3-D scene by way of an accordian-like binding.  Dating from the mid-18th century, tunnel books are regaining popularity for their unusual and creative means to express your thoughts, memories, and aspirations.  Children and adults find it easy to touch in to their own creative spirit when making these unique picture books.

Palm leaf journals, an even older book form (15th century BCE), offer us a chance to unplug from modern technology and connect with ourselves via pen and paper.  Built to contain writing, drawings, and mementos, these journals can be a means of incorporating ‘living peace’ into  your daily routine.

Join us for our second bookmaking workshop by the Orange County Museum of Art, this Sunday, July 25th at 1pm. Sign up!

Instructor Veronica Soto, M.F.A. uses recycled materials to create these book projects.

Boys and girls, children and adults, all enjoy Veronica’s workshop.

Photos above are from bookmaking on July 11th, 2010.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Permalink: http://centerforlivingpeace.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/bookmaking-presented-by-ocma/

Drawing a green line from point a to point b

Here’s a novel idea that just makes so much sense I can’t believe it wasn’t already established before Spencer Brown founded Rent A Green Box in 2005:

all our moving boxes can be recylced, reused, and completely sustainable.

Spencer’s company drops off their zero-waste moving boxes, aka “Recopacks,” a week before you move, and picks them up a week after you relocate.  The Recopacks are actually more like “negative-waste” products, since they’re composed only of plastics pulled from local landfills.  They are practically indestructible and each spares 12 trees.

Photo Courtesy of OC Metro’s feature on the 2010 Green Team.  Check it out for more local company’s like Spencer Brown’s Rent A Green Box, who are gaining attention for their attention to our world.

The good doesn’t stop there.  The Rent A Green Box delivery trucks are the largest alternative-fueled fleet in California, and the Recopacks are supplemented by 9 other green moving products, all changing the experience of moving as we, and our earth, know it.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Permalink: http://centerforlivingpeace.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/396

Peace is our gift

to each other.

~ Elie Wiesel

Have a great summer weekend!  Join us for Smiling Monkey Yoga at the Giant Orange Festival this Saturday, July 17th at the Irvine Great Park!

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

The typical carrot travels 1,838 miles to reach your dinner table.

Transportation, refrigeration, processing and packaging associated with the trip are major sources of air and water pollution – which can be mediated when you support your local farmers OR grow your own fruits and veggies! Info Courtesy of the Ecology Center.

Photo Courtesy of The Ecology Center

The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano has great programs and resources to help us find and create our own sustainable food sources!  Don’t miss “Sprouting” this Saturday at 1pm in the Center for Living Peace’s north wing!

Not just sustainable for the environment, but for the human body as well, sprouts are sources of all the nutrients essential for physical well-being:

digestible energy

bioavailable vitamins and minerals (like A, E, C and B complex)

amino acids and proteins

Because vitamins are extremely perishable, freshness is key, and you can’t get any fresher than harvesting from your own kitchen!  Sprouts also yield higher amounts of vitamins compared to mature plants, some say as much as 30 times higher!  Read more about sprouts and click here for program details!

The Ecology Center’s programming at the Center for Living Peace is reliably awesome.  Watch this clip from their previous class on Terrarium making!

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Permalink: http://centerforlivingpeace.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/378/

See For Yourself

See for yourself:  after just 2 months, the Center for Living Peace is a place where people are coming to make good happen.

Have you visited our Center?  How did you feel in this space?

Permalink: http://centerforlivingpeace.wordpress.com/2010/07/10/see-for-yourself

190 lbs of Generosity

The results are in!  Our Grand Opening Weekend service project – a community food drive – collected 190lbs of food for Orange County’s hungry.  We teamed up with volunteers from Team Kids and the Second Harvest Food Bank to encourage visitors to our University Town Center to donate.

Did you know…..

1 in 6 Orange County residents are at risk of hunger. Our unemployment rate still lingering above 12% and that does not include the underemployed, those individuals whose unemployment benefits have run out, or those that have been discouraged from job seeking. Due to the high cost of living in Orange County, an income slightly above the federal poverty level would still be insufficient in helping maintain economic stability and food security, which is especially important in old age when medical costs can be overwhelming. More than a third of those at-risk of hunger in Orange County are children. Children account for 35% of the 615,000 individuals in Orange County that have to worry about going to bed hungry.

Find more info about Hunger in the OC here.

Thank you to everyone who donated, volunteered and spread the word.  It is exciting to be a part of, and a part of giving back to, this wonderful community.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Permalink: http://centerforlivingpeace.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/190-lbs-of-generosity

Eco-Expression

What are ways that can we appreciate and honor our environment while simultaneously tapping into our own supplies of creative juice?  Check out this inspiring glimpse of Orange County Museum of Art’s recent program on Solar Art.  See more upcoming programs on our website!

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Permalink: http://centerforlivingpeace.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/358/

Charity Bake Sale, Reinvented

Panera, the corporate, nationwide bakery, recently launched a non-profit eatery based on the premise that ‘breaking bread’ is more important than breaking even.

Photo Courtesy of AP, by Jeff Roberson

Part social experiment, part charity, the “Panera Cares” bakery utilizes the model of the community kitchen at the most epic scale ever attempted.  After operating the “pay-what-you-wish” bakery for one month, the venture appears to prove that this model seems to work, that “people are basically good.“

Most impressive about Panera’s experimental business model are the statements made by their chairman Ronald Shaich.  He hopes this action will push fellow corporations to approach philanthropy in a more creative, palpable way than by just writing checks and passing the buck.  Staich hopes “Panera Cares” will urge other corporations to put their own services to work directly making positive change in the world.  Read the full story.  This is definitely thinking outside the breadbox.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Permalink: http://centerforlivingpeace.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/panera/ ‎