What’s News • December 2011
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Free Meditation Classes Five Times a Week
Become a Foster Child’s Advocate 12/14 in SD
Interfaith Pot-Luck Meal and Service 12/18
VISION Center Hosts “Year-End Process” Workshop in SD 12/29
Green Gift Ideas for the Holidays
Free Meditation Classes Five Times a Week
According to WebMD, “meditation can help control stress, decrease anxiety, improve cardiovascular health and achieve a greater capacity for relaxation.” Pilgrimage of the Heart Yoga, with two locations in San Diego, has the answer for the holiday blues: free meditation classes. Each week they offer 5 opportunities to unwind and relax using tried and true techniques.
Pilgrimage of the Heart founder, Sujantra McKeever, has taught stress reduction and relaxation techniques in 20 countries—to over 25,000 people—always at no charge. “Our simple, yet effective, 3-step method for stress reduction was taught to me by my teacher at no charge and I like to pass on the knowledge.”
Classes are held on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. “Five minutes of centering and relaxation,” says McKeever, “can do wonders for the rest of your day!” For more information call 619-640-4438 or visit www.pilgrim ageyoga.com.
Become a Foster Child’s Advocate 12/14 in SD
San Diego’s Voices for Children is determined to help each and every child in the foster care system. Meeting this ambitious goal means having a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer for every foster child who needs one. It means they must have the community’s help. It means†they need you.
If you are ready for the experience of a lifetime, if you are ready to create a child’s future, it is time to become a†CASA†and†make a difference†in the life of a foster child. The next CASA Information Session with Voices for Children will be held on Wednesday, December 14†at 5:30pm. Go to speakupnow.org or call 858-598-2235 for location.
Interfaith Pot-Luck Meal and Service 12/18
Come hear Favorite Holiday Stories told by representatives of the Islamic, Hindu, Sikh, Lutheran and Jewish traditions on Sunday, December 18, 1:45-4:45pm. Meet your Interfaith neighbors! Bring your Faith’s favorite food and enjoy foods from other cultures. A love offering will be taken. The All Faith Center is also collecting stuffed bears, called “Prayer Bears” to be given to patients at Palomar Hospital on Christmas Day. If you wish to participate, please bring a bear to give.
The All Faith Center holds interfaith services at Vision Center for Spiritual Living—housed in the 7th Day Adventist church—located at 11260 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., San Diego. Contact Rev. Abigail or Dr. Steve Albert at 858-487-8885 for more information or visit allfaithcenter.org.
VISION Center Hosts “Year-End Process” Workshop in SD 12/29
On December 29†beginning at 7pm, VISION: A Center for Spiritual Living hosts its annual Year End Process Workshop. Participants will have the opportunity to lovingly release and celebrate the events of 2011 and open up to the joy, abundance and inner peace of 2012. The abundance of the Universe is open and ready to flow to us easily and freely. This is the time to set intentions for the New Year to attract all that we want and deserve.
The workshop is presented on a love offering basis and is open to everyone. VISION is located at 11260 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., San Diego. For more visit www.visioncsl.com.
Green Gift Ideas for the Holidays
The holidays are a great time of year to share your enthusiasm for protecting the environment with family and friends. One meaningful gift—a fashion-forward t-shirt from Rain Tees—can help fight environmental destruction far away while raising awareness here at home. Every Rain Tee is hand-made in the U.S. from eco-friendly fabrics and features original artwork created by children living in countries facing rampant deforestation. For every t-shirt the company sells, proceeds help the cause and Rain Tees’ charity partner, Trees for the Future, will plant a tree in a critically endangered part of the world.
Another way to link your gifting and philanthropic tendencies is to donate to the Paradigm Project to help purchase clean burning stoves for poor families in Africa. Your donation goes toward reducing deforestation and respiratory disease in a developing country, and the Paradigm Project will send you a unique holiday ornament in exchange.
Many other non-profits also provide holiday season incentives to donate to their causes in the name of a friend or loved one. To wit, the NRDC’s Green Gifts Web site offers dozens of gift opportunities related to various campaigns the organization is conducting around the world. By donating through the Green Gifts program, you and your gift recipient can help defend polar bears, protect clean water, revive rainforests or promote renewable energy, among other options. Similar land and species “adoption” programs that can be leveraged as holiday gifts are available from groups such as the Nature Conservancy, WWF, Defenders of Wildlife and the Whale Museum.
If not spending money is a priority this holiday season, you can make artwork or functional items out of leftover materials otherwise headed for the trash can or recycling bin. Handmade gifts in any form are always appreciated and will likely be cherished for much longer than anything store-bought.
But if making your own presents isn’t your thing, a wide range of green gifts, large and small, can be found online. Some companies that specialize in fairly traded, sustainably sourced gift-worthy items include The Hunger Site Store, Branch, Low Impact Living, BGreen Apparel, A Greener Kitchen, Green Heart and Organic Bug, among many others. And once you’ve completed your green shopping, wrap up your gifts in the festive designs of Earth Presents, which sells 100 percent recycled/recyclable gift wraps. For still more ideas on where to source that perfect green gift, visit the Web site of the non-profit Green America, which provides links to dozens of firms that sell sustainable wares.
No doubt it feels good to go green over the holidays, given the excess we typically associate with gift-giving. And given the poor state of the economy, it makes sense to give gifts that will last, whether they involve furthering important environmental work or providing items that haven’t caused unnecessary environmental destruction in their manufacture and that won’t break down once the holidays are over.
Contacts: Rain Tees, www.raintees.com; Paradigm Project, theparadigmproject.org; NRDC Green Gifts, nrdcgreengifts.org; Nature Conservancy’s Holiday Giving, support.nature.org; WWF Gift Center, worldwildlife.org/gift-center/; Whale Museum’s Orca Adoption Program, whale-museum.org/programs/orcadoption/orcadoption.html; Green America, greenamerica.org
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