Memorial Day Events: How to Be a Superhero for Planet Earth!

This Monday kids can find inspiration and empowerment at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum at the FREE workshop, "How to Be a Superhero for Planet Earth!" Register Here.

For kids from Kindergarten to 3rd grade, this workshop is a fun and interactive way to teach kids how they can make a difference for the planet through their everyday actions. They listen to a story, play games, and take home their own Action Plan to remind them how many ways they can make a difference and help the planet.

What's unique about this program is it focuses on what the children can do themselves. This isn't a project for parents with plans to create compost centers, rain gardens, or renewable energy systems at home.

Alexandra Gnoske, mother of three and Environmental Expert, designed "How to Be a Superhero for Planet Earth," so kids could be environmentalists with or without their parents. "We live in a busy time and parents aren't always available," says Gnoske. "I certainly can't do everything with my kids or have time for them to do all the things they are interested in."

So Gnoske devised a way for kids to do it on their own. Empower and inspire them. She shows them that no matter how young they are, their actions make a difference to the planet and wildlife and there are many things they can do without help. To reinforce this, she sends them home with an Action Plan and has them sign up for CLUB LOUI, a monthly newsletter aimed at kids and their families with an eco-tip of the month and information on eco friendly activities and sales in the Chicagoland area.

Well, admittedly most Kindergartners don't have email accounts and aren't tech savvy. But it's a start. We need this generation to get it, whether their parents do or not.

World Turtle Day - 2011

You may not know it, but Monday, May 23rd, is World Turtle Day. And this isn't even the first year!

World Turtle Day began in 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue in an effort to bring attention to and educate people about turtles and tortoises. It is also a day to encourage people to help turtles and tortoises thrive and survive.

So how can you help? 

No matter where in the world you live, your everyday actions are affecting turtles and tortoises. Everything you put on the land ends up in the water. So here are a few simple things you can do to help them "thrive and survive":

1. Cut up anything and everything with a circle or hole, before it goes in the recycling or garbage. Example; nets and bags for fruit, handles on plastic bags, six pack and multi pack plastic rings. We don't want these items to get caught on and hurt our turtles.

2. Recycle. Find a way to get your plastic into a recycling facility and out of the landfill where it is more likely to end up in a waterway.

3. Use reusable bags wherever you go! Don't just bring them to the grocery store, take them everywhere. In other words, give up the plastic bag. Even when you cut up plastic so it doesn't get caught on turtles, they still may eat plastic. It looks a lot like their food - jelly fish and squid.

4. Don't Litter! Most litter ends up in the water, and it eventually flows into the ocean.

5. Pick up litter. This can be messy so it's best to have some gloves. But sometimes you find yourself facing litter when it's not a planned pick up. Make sure you wash your hands. You are doing everyone a favor when you pick up litter.

Some Local Celebrations

1. Meet 14 different species of turtles at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago on Sunday, May 22nd.

2. Enjoy a discount on organic cotton produce bags at Peaceful Parlour in Geneva, IL to celebrate World Turtle Day!

Thank you for caring about turtles, tortoises, and everyone on the planet! You are a great example and more people will care because they see you care.

Simple Balance Holistic Center: Experience a little Heaven on Earth

Would you like to experience a little heaven on earth? Dr. Jaena wants to help you do just that.

Dr. Jaena Stanley-Gonzaga is a Holistic and Transformation doctor, (with degrees and certifications in Human Cell Biology, Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Bioenergetic synchronization Technique, Psych-K, and Neurostructural Technique) who assists and teaches people how to heal themselves and master their lives. She is the owner and founder of Simple Balance Holistic Center in Elgin, Illinois.

Dr. Jaena's goals are simple:

1. Educate: Our mind and our ability to imagine creates our world.

2. Empower: We do matter and we can make a difference.

3. Create relationships: True wealth stems from pure and authentic relationships we create.

4. Create a community that is loving, supportive, and nurturing: This is the platform that is the catalyst for miracles and possibilities.

Dr. Jaena achieves these goals through workshops, classes and retreats. Her workshops include Spiritual Studies courses, Free Meditation workshops, Reiki Certification workshops, and yearly mind, body and spirit wellness programs.

She also offers monthly  classes on The Art of Sustainable Living, Healing Mastery Intensives, Awaken Your Healing Nature and Inspiration Awareness Mastery Gatherings.

The Centers' first women's retreat is scheduled for June 4th and 5th. Registration is currently open and more transformational weekend retreats will be offered.

Dr. Jaena believes, "the more we can support each other and share each other's message to help make the world a better place, the more we can get our message out their in a bigger way which will automatically make our businesses thrive."

That is why she has included other like minded businesses to join her Center:

• Fusion Mind Body Yoga Studio
• Hear the Earth Store - green essentials and sustainable living 
• Eastern Groove Belly Dance

Her desire to create Simple Balance Holistic Center was inspired and she says, "My vision is to see the world embrace a conscious and proactive wellness lifestyle that creates a healthy and sustainable mind, body, spirit and planet. We are here to live and play out our purpose and passion with enthusiasm, humility and authenticity. I feel it is time to consciously create our heaven on earth within and without."

To find out more please visit their website at Simple-Balance.com and the Simple Balance Facebook Page. Look for Simple Balances new You Tube Channel, createheavennow.tv.

 

FIRST POSTED AT Mindful Metropolis Blog.

Alexandra Gnoske is an Environmental Expert. She is the Author/Illustrator of "Loui Saves the Earth" and Founder of RECYCLE ME.

Emerge and See: 2011 Chicago Green Festival

Today I was having tea with two creative and inspiring women to discuss our panel "Urban Green Living" for the Chicago Green Festival May 15th, at 3pm.

As conversations usually do, ours went in a different direction as we were discussing the timing of other panels. We talked about The 2012 Prophecy, a presentation by John Perkins, and what 2012 means. If you've been paying attention to Hollywood, 2012 means the end of the world.

I was talking to an 8th grade class last month and a student asked me,"Is it true? 2012?" I said, "What do you mean by 2012?" "You know," she said. "The end of the world." I told her and the class that every ending is a new beginning. You can chose to see the end, or you can chose to see the beginning.

My co-panelist Diane Ponder brought up the fact that when a group of people believe in something, they have the energy, the power, to make it happen - good or bad. And my other co-panelist Mimi Clayton said there are different ways of looking at the same thing. "Some people say 'emergency' and others say 'emerge and see!'"

The Chicago Green Festival, May 14th and 15th at McCormick Place, offers many different ways to 'emerge and see.' From national and international keynote speakers, to local folks making a big difference in your neighborhood, businesses to non-profits and everything in between. Chicago Green Festival is an event full of ideas, action, and inspiration. (See guide here.)

How do you perceive our future? A positive transformation into a new world of collaboration and harmony. Emerge and See.

Alexandra Gnoske is an Environmental Expert who inspires and empowers people to live healthy, safe and environmentally responsible lives through her work as a green business owner, author, writer and speaker.

Birdwatching in Chicago

We are in peak birdwatching season in Chicago. Spring is here, migration is in full swing, and over 300 species are flying in, around, and through our town.

Today I went over to the spillway with my five year old son and we saw 30 different species. The black crowned night heron is listed as endangered in Illinois, but a few make this spot their nesting place. They sit on the spillway intensely hunting for fish and eventually their chicks do too.

We also caught a brief glimpse of the belted king fisher, one of my personal favorites, along with black and white warblers, yellow warblers, brown creepers, blue gray gnatcatchers and northern water thrushes.

We kept hearing a woodpecker pecking and by the sound of it we were sure it was something big. So my son and I hunted it down. We found a tiny downy woodpecker on a dead branch. He was making a great racket.

This great spot starts at Albany and Carmen, by the North Park College track, and goes to Lawrence Ave. and the river.

Don't delay! Spring migration doesn't last forever.

Peace, Freedom and Gratitude

I remember that morning so vividly. I was pregnant with my first child and sitting up in bed waiting for my husband to come home from work as a Police Officer. I turned on the news and saw the first plane crash into The World Trade Center. My husband walked in and then the second plane crashed and I knew something was very wrong. And it was.

It seemed in that moment everything changed. I wondered was it a good idea to be having a baby now...ever? How would I protect my child from the dangers of the world? I was asked to read a passage at church that week for at a special mass for the victims of 9/11.

In the coming months and years there were changes everywhere to be felt by everyone to make sure we were safe. My husband had several trainings on how to deal with various kinds of attacks on Chicago. And yet I had two more children. Apparently I had hope.

In our country of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness I haven't not been faced with war, with attacks on me personally, my city. I have lived a life of relative peace, happiness, and privilege. Privilege because I live in a place where even if I am in need I can find help. I am free from focusing on survival and able to dream and plan the life I want.

I was never happy about us going to war. I was torn between believing in a life of peace and love, but wanting the safety and freedom that our troops were so courageously giving me. I discussed this with only a few close people, but never felt I had an answer. I don't live a life in fear, but I haven't really been challenged like so many other people who have had their life and freedom threatened, or their loved ones taken away. 

But when I heard that bin Laden had been shot and killed my reaction wasn't joy. I was stunned that it had happened. It brought me back to 9/11 and all the fear, sorrow and horror. I wondered would someone else step into the role of leadership and continue pursuing vengeance against the United States? I thought of all the people who lost their lives on 9/11, people who lost their loved ones, fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, children, lovers, friends. And I thought of all the people who died to find this one person, whether they were in the military or innocent civilians overseas.

I still don't feel joy or even peace from this event. But I know that as an American I will continue to be grateful for the freedoms I have every day and grateful that all of my loved ones near and far are alive and grateful that people I don't know and will never meet are making sure we all have choices and a chance to pursue our dreams.

In gratitude,
Alix