I rejoice the day that this site was born. It literally came about through my own spiritual and emotional searching.
To give you a brief introduction to myself. My name is Deborah Brookes. I live in London, am married with three children and studied law in my younger days. I am not a doctor nor medically qualified in any way.
In November 2003, at the age of 47 I was diagnosed with advanced ductal carcinoma in situ. After considering two opinions and medical advice I had a mastectomy. My mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer nine months before which had unfortunately metastasised. It was very traumatic but somehow became less so once we decided to join forces to try to beat this horrible disease rather than just sit back and remain vulnerable. We had to get on with life and in doing so set out to gather as much information as possible on both orthodox and complementary treatments despite the distance between us ( she resides in Portugal). Neither of us had any idea what had hit us and we bonded again in a whole new way. We were somewhere else! My husband also found it difficult. There was so much that one needed to learn and continue to learn but time was of the essence and it took time, time and energy. So this is what led to the site being born. The realization that this information is needed by us all as quickly as possible so that we can tap into it straight away and start cleansing and caring for ourselves in a whole new way that can still be enjoyable and fulfilling.
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8 June 2007
Finding light in the shadow of death
This week was certainly among "the worst of times" what with the funeral of an old, yet in another sense, surely not old enough, friend, who was cut down by cancer. Barbara was in her late forties and I had known her for around the last twenty. She was a friend who I'd not seen that often in recent years - an artistic and thoughtful eccentric who drew a large shocked gathering of family and friends, for what was her last show.
Death is the last taboo not least in the chronological sense and Tuesday brought me face to face with it. Again, I was reminded that we live like it's not going to happen, yet in our hearts we all know it's an undeniable part of the "deal" when it comes to turning up for this brief earthly existence. Those taken before what we see as "their time" give us the biggest shock – if at our peril – we make assumptions about longevity and live like there IS a tomorrow that we can comfortably – yet on this occasion painfully - take for granted.
There was a palpable and deep sense of shock among the grief-stricken assembly outside the brutally-architectured church - a cold monstrosity offering little material comfort to the raw and vulnerable. People who I remembered from my nightclubbing days – the energy core of our peer group - were amassing, today clothed in dark, sombre colours and not the upbeat finery of old, often the subject of Barbara's now legendary photographic skills.
Seeing one familiar face after another, I tempered the joy of reconnecting with an old mate remembering that we were all there to say goodbye to one of them. Dutifully, I adopted the universal solemnity that is normal at such functions, despite an urge inside me to let some light into the proceedings and relieve the pain. Not in any way to be disrespectful, you understand, but according to anther cliché of seeing off the departed – I wondered if Barabara would really have wanted us all standing round, feeling useless, doing the usual dismal thing. And whilst I thought she probably wouldn't, the pressure to conform was undeniable.
I couldn't help saying it was good to see people. I asked them how they were, and felt obliged to add: "under the circumstances".
As we filed in, I again felt a wave of grief – an emotional tsunami that would take me by surprise several more times that day, highlighting my ignorance and "poverty of understanding" as spiritual teacher Barry Long put it before his exit from this worldly stage. Again and again, I composed myself with the rationalisation that death is an integral part of life, but still it shocked me. How on earth, I wondered, can we make this bitter pill any easier to swallow?
Whilst I mean no disrespect to the purveyors of the ritualised ceremonies that shepherd our dead into the next whatever, I know their ways and ideas are not my own. Too many questions are left unanswered. Death – as we currently know it in our rational, yet near spiritually-bankrupt world – has been industrialised to an unhelpful extent. It's become a formality that helps us get back to normal ASAP, each time that awkward bump that we swept under the carpet is shockingly revealed.
Whilst we live in denial of death, it will surely traumatise us when it rears its ugly head, and we need time and space to face it; not a conveyor belt and platitudes.
For my part, I'm looking to stay with the love and not the loss. I'm endeavouring to hold to the truth of life that physical death was always part of the deal. I'm also betting the shirt on my back that the love I feel for Barbara (and anyone in my life) - right now as I write - is the eternal and unchanging, saving grace that never dies – even if, once again and perhaps many more times, the physical vanishing trick almost fools me.
Death is the last taboo not least in the chronological sense and Tuesday brought me face to face with it. Again, I was reminded that we live like it's not going to happen, yet in our hearts we all know it's an undeniable part of the "deal" when it comes to turning up for this brief earthly existence. Those taken before what we see as "their time" give us the biggest shock – if at our peril – we make assumptions about longevity and live like there IS a tomorrow that we can comfortably – yet on this occasion painfully - take for granted.
There was a palpable and deep sense of shock among the grief-stricken assembly outside the brutally-architectured church - a cold monstrosity offering little material comfort to the raw and vulnerable. People who I remembered from my nightclubbing days – the energy core of our peer group - were amassing, today clothed in dark, sombre colours and not the upbeat finery of old, often the subject of Barbara's now legendary photographic skills.
Seeing one familiar face after another, I tempered the joy of reconnecting with an old mate remembering that we were all there to say goodbye to one of them. Dutifully, I adopted the universal solemnity that is normal at such functions, despite an urge inside me to let some light into the proceedings and relieve the pain. Not in any way to be disrespectful, you understand, but according to anther cliché of seeing off the departed – I wondered if Barabara would really have wanted us all standing round, feeling useless, doing the usual dismal thing. And whilst I thought she probably wouldn't, the pressure to conform was undeniable.
I couldn't help saying it was good to see people. I asked them how they were, and felt obliged to add: "under the circumstances".
As we filed in, I again felt a wave of grief – an emotional tsunami that would take me by surprise several more times that day, highlighting my ignorance and "poverty of understanding" as spiritual teacher Barry Long put it before his exit from this worldly stage. Again and again, I composed myself with the rationalisation that death is an integral part of life, but still it shocked me. How on earth, I wondered, can we make this bitter pill any easier to swallow?
Whilst I mean no disrespect to the purveyors of the ritualised ceremonies that shepherd our dead into the next whatever, I know their ways and ideas are not my own. Too many questions are left unanswered. Death – as we currently know it in our rational, yet near spiritually-bankrupt world – has been industrialised to an unhelpful extent. It's become a formality that helps us get back to normal ASAP, each time that awkward bump that we swept under the carpet is shockingly revealed.
Whilst we live in denial of death, it will surely traumatise us when it rears its ugly head, and we need time and space to face it; not a conveyor belt and platitudes.
For my part, I'm looking to stay with the love and not the loss. I'm endeavouring to hold to the truth of life that physical death was always part of the deal. I'm also betting the shirt on my back that the love I feel for Barbara (and anyone in my life) - right now as I write - is the eternal and unchanging, saving grace that never dies – even if, once again and perhaps many more times, the physical vanishing trick almost fools me.
7 June 2007
Declaration of Wholeness
Thank you to John Springer who sent me this:
Declaration Of Wholeness
We, the peoples of the Earth, are one family aligned in Spirit, empowering ourselves and each other to realize and manifest our humanity. Each of us has opportunities to experience and model wholeness to heal our world. By acknowledging the Spirit in all of us, we naturally Love each other and experience ourselves as members of the Global Family.
TOGETHER WE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Carl adds: Whatever we do it makes a difference)
Declaration Of Wholeness
We, the peoples of the Earth, are one family aligned in Spirit, empowering ourselves and each other to realize and manifest our humanity. Each of us has opportunities to experience and model wholeness to heal our world. By acknowledging the Spirit in all of us, we naturally Love each other and experience ourselves as members of the Global Family.
TOGETHER WE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Carl adds: Whatever we do it makes a difference)
6 June 2007
The Future: Green Fashion
Fashion Design Goes Green
by Marianne Salina
Fashion School Review Columnist
October 16, 2006
"When you enroll in one of the top fashion design schools you can expect to learn the ins and outs of pattern making, proper fabric selection, and a complete overview of the history of fashion trends. One element of your clothing design education that may come as a surprise, however, is the focus on eco-friendly and sustainable fashion design. Fair trade fabric production, lower usage of water, and recycling old clothing are concepts that are cropping up across the globe, proving that sustainability can indeed be fashion-forward.
How Does Eco-Friendly Clothing Design Sell?
Just because a designer goes green doesn’t mean that their fashions wind up lacking style or substance. In fact, for Los Angeles clothing designer Karyn Craven whose use of vintage fabrics and recycled pieces make up the bulk of her popular line Burning Torch, renewable energy and clothing history are part of what make her designs so appealing to customers. Whether it’s a cashmere sweater woven out of recycled cashmere, or an organic cotton blouse pieced together with vintage fabrics, Craven is one designer who proves that eco-clothing can still be glamorous.
While not every designer has renewable energy on the brain, many of the top fashion design schools throughout the world are invested in making ecology part of the creative process. In fact, if incorporating a holistic, sustainable approach into your design career is important to you, begin researching programs and fashion design schools that offer courses in sustainability and earth-friendly design.
Getting your fashion design degree will undoubtedly open doors and help you achieve your dreams in fashion. But when you go green too, the possibilities are endless…"
How Does Eco-Friendly Clothing Design Sell?
Just because a designer goes green doesn’t mean that their fashions wind up lacking style or substance. In fact, for Los Angeles clothing designer Karyn Craven whose use of vintage fabrics and recycled pieces make up the bulk of her popular line Burning Torch, renewable energy and clothing history are part of what make her designs so appealing to customers. Whether it’s a cashmere sweater woven out of recycled cashmere, or an organic cotton blouse pieced together with vintage fabrics, Craven is one designer who proves that eco-clothing can still be glamorous.
While not every designer has renewable energy on the brain, many of the top fashion design schools throughout the world are invested in making ecology part of the creative process. In fact, if incorporating a holistic, sustainable approach into your design career is important to you, begin researching programs and fashion design schools that offer courses in sustainability and earth-friendly design.
Getting your fashion design degree will undoubtedly open doors and help you achieve your dreams in fashion. But when you go green too, the possibilities are endless…"
Another great article: Fashion is going Green!
And a very interesting designer, Carol Young
It's World Environment Day Everyday!
Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight. Ever since the world began, things have been ordered by her decree in the selfsame fashion as are at this day, and as other similar things will be ordered to the end of time. How, then, can you say that it is all amiss, and ever will be so; that no power among all the gods in heaven can avail to mend it; and the world lies condemned to the thraldom of ills without end?
The substance of us all is doomed to decay; the moisture and the clay, the bones, and the fetor. Our precious marble is but a callosity of the earth, our gold and silver her sediment; our raiment shreds of hair, our purple a fish's gore; and thus with all things else. So too is the very breath of our lives - ever passing as it does from this one to that.
Marcus Aurelius
The substance of us all is doomed to decay; the moisture and the clay, the bones, and the fetor. Our precious marble is but a callosity of the earth, our gold and silver her sediment; our raiment shreds of hair, our purple a fish's gore; and thus with all things else. So too is the very breath of our lives - ever passing as it does from this one to that.
Marcus Aurelius
5 June 2007
Air-Car Ready for Mass Production
Written by Bob Ewing
The world’s first commercial compressed air-powered vehicle is rolling towards the production line. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre, will be built by India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors.
The Air Car uses compressed air to push its engine’s pistons. It is anticipated that approximately 6000 Air Cars will be cruising the streets of India by 2008. If the manufacturers have no surprises up their exhaust pipes the car will be practical and reasonably priced. The CityCat model will clock out at 68 mph with a driving range of 125 miles.
Refueling is simple and will only take a few minutes. That is, if you live nearby a gas station with custom air compressor units. The cost of a fill up is approximately $2.00. If a driver doesn't have access to a compressor station, they will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car’s built-in compressor to refill the tank in about 4 hours.
The compressed air technology is basically just a way of storing electrical energy without the need for costly, heavy, and occasionally toxic batteries. So, in a sense, this is an electric car. It just doesn't have an electric motor.
But don't let anyone tell you this is an "emissions free" vehicle. Sure, the only thing coming out of the tailpipe is air. But, chances are, fossil fuels were burned to create the electricity. In India, that mostly means coal. But the carbon emissions per mile of these things still far outdoes any gasoline car on the market.
Unfortunately, the streets of North America may never see the Air Car, though; it's light-weight, glued-together fiberglass construction might not do so well in our crash tests. However, that does not mean the Air car is confined to the sub-continent. Nègre has signed deals to bring its design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.
And this isn't the last we'll hear of the technology. The folks making the Air Car are already working on a hybrid version that would use an on-board, gasoline-powered compressor to refill the air tanks when they run low. Negre says that technology could easily squeeze a cross country trip out of one tank of gasoline.
A variety of videos (of varying quality) on this technology can be found on YouTube, or after the jump.
Via: Popular Mechanics
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/659
The Air Car uses compressed air to push its engine’s pistons. It is anticipated that approximately 6000 Air Cars will be cruising the streets of India by 2008. If the manufacturers have no surprises up their exhaust pipes the car will be practical and reasonably priced. The CityCat model will clock out at 68 mph with a driving range of 125 miles.
Refueling is simple and will only take a few minutes. That is, if you live nearby a gas station with custom air compressor units. The cost of a fill up is approximately $2.00. If a driver doesn't have access to a compressor station, they will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car’s built-in compressor to refill the tank in about 4 hours.
The compressed air technology is basically just a way of storing electrical energy without the need for costly, heavy, and occasionally toxic batteries. So, in a sense, this is an electric car. It just doesn't have an electric motor.
But don't let anyone tell you this is an "emissions free" vehicle. Sure, the only thing coming out of the tailpipe is air. But, chances are, fossil fuels were burned to create the electricity. In India, that mostly means coal. But the carbon emissions per mile of these things still far outdoes any gasoline car on the market.
Unfortunately, the streets of North America may never see the Air Car, though; it's light-weight, glued-together fiberglass construction might not do so well in our crash tests. However, that does not mean the Air car is confined to the sub-continent. Nègre has signed deals to bring its design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.
And this isn't the last we'll hear of the technology. The folks making the Air Car are already working on a hybrid version that would use an on-board, gasoline-powered compressor to refill the air tanks when they run low. Negre says that technology could easily squeeze a cross country trip out of one tank of gasoline.
A variety of videos (of varying quality) on this technology can be found on YouTube, or after the jump.
Via: Popular Mechanics
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/659
4 June 2007
Zero Foot Print
This is a great Canadian based non-profit that offers a variety of business, social and engineering services.
It even has a tool to calculate your carbon footprint - but is currently limited to the USA and Canada!
Their mission:
"Zerofootprint started with an idea about ideas.
If future generations blame us for not responding adequately to the converging crises of this century, it won’t be because we didn’t have any good ideas at our disposal. It will be because we didn’t do anything about them.
Zerofootprint’s mission is to change the world by helping people reduce their environmental footprint. Our goal is to provide a forum for the massive and growing, but mostly unconnected majority of people – whether they think of themselves as citizens or businesspeople, parents or consumers, activists or theorists—who want to do the right thing.
Action is impossible without information. We are forging a community where those who have it can share it with those who are looking for it, and where those who can offer direction will come into contact with those who need it.
Zerofootprint: getting good ideas off the drawing board and into the world."
It even has a tool to calculate your carbon footprint - but is currently limited to the USA and Canada!
Their mission:
"Zerofootprint started with an idea about ideas.
If future generations blame us for not responding adequately to the converging crises of this century, it won’t be because we didn’t have any good ideas at our disposal. It will be because we didn’t do anything about them.
Zerofootprint’s mission is to change the world by helping people reduce their environmental footprint. Our goal is to provide a forum for the massive and growing, but mostly unconnected majority of people – whether they think of themselves as citizens or businesspeople, parents or consumers, activists or theorists—who want to do the right thing.
Action is impossible without information. We are forging a community where those who have it can share it with those who are looking for it, and where those who can offer direction will come into contact with those who need it.
Zerofootprint: getting good ideas off the drawing board and into the world."
Conscious Living Expo 2007
We seem to have just missed an expo on conscious living, but the website, conscious living forum, might be a useful resource for collaboration/speakers etc. in the future!
3 June 2007
Carbon labels to help shoppers save planet
· Government to develop measurement standards
· Air freight may not always be worst for environment Tania Branigan and Helen Carter
Thursday May 31, 2007
The Guardian
Shoppers will be able to tell how much damage their purchases do to the environment, under a government plan unveiled yesterday.
Products will display labels showing the greenhouse gas emissions created by their production, transport and eventual disposal, similar to the calorie or salt content figures on food packaging.
Consumers have little way of judging the environmental impact of goods and services, often relying on the miles such products have travelled from their country of origin.
But vegetables grown in Africa and imported by air may have a lower carbon footprint than those grown in heated greenhouses in the UK, said experts developing the scheme.
Ian Pearson, the environment minister, said ministers would work with the Carbon Trust and BSI British Standards to develop a benchmark for measurements over the next 18 months, allowing businesses to calculate the impact of their goods and label them accordingly.
"More and more, businesses are looking for ways to reduce their impact on the environment. To help them achieve that we need a reliable, consistent way to measure these impacts that businesses recognise, trust and understand," said Mr Pearson. "This will be fundamental in our efforts to move Britain towards a low-carbon economy in the decades ahead."
The scheme will be voluntary but major companies including Tesco and Marks & Spencer are working with experts on the project and the Carbon Trust is running a pilot project with Boots, Walkers and the smoothie-makers Innocent.
Walkers cheese and onion crisps now bear a label warning buyers that their carbon footprint is 75g a packet.
"We've already been approached by more than 120 companies from a range of sectors," said Euan Murray, strategy manager at the Carbon Trust.
"Anything you can do to reduce emissions normally means reduced energy consumption, which means you save costs. The newer element is that companies say their consumers are asking what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint."
He added: "The best way consumers currently understand that products have an impact on the environment is through the distance they have travelled, but just as important are the raw materials, processing in the factory and how they are disposed of.
"Looking at all those stages is really telling and that's where you get real insight and surprises - in some cases bringing in a product from overseas could well be better than producing it in the UK."
Major retail chains have been fighting to establish themselves as green retailers and cut energy costs.
Tesco, the UK's biggest retailer, promised earlier this year to put carbon labels on every one of its 70,000 products. It is also cutting the average energy use of all its buildings and believes it can reach its target by next year.
Marks & Spencer announced earlier this year that it aims to become carbon neutral within five years, and to use offsetting as a last resort.
In March, it introduced labels on some foods which had been imported by air. The label, a small aeroplane symbol with the words "air freighted", appeared on 20 products and will be extended to another 130 by the end of the year.
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