Brummet's Conscious Blog

-- Quote of the Day -- "Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." ~ Rachel Carson -- Conscious Discussions Radio -- Cancer survivor, mother of 4, Julie Silver is with us today. In her profession as a physiastrist (physical medicine and rehabilitation) she has helped patients recover from a wide variety of injuries and ailments. In today's interview, Julie explains how each and every one of us can become a part of a solid support system for those who are diagnosed with Cancer. She is the author of 2 books: What Helped Get Me Through – Cancer Survivors Share Wisdom and Hope. - & - After Cancer Treatment: Heal Better, Faster, Stronger. Her children are also authors, and have created 2 books titled: Our Mom is Getting Better. - & - Our Daddy's Getting Better. All of these are published through the American Cancer Society. Julie has been on the medical board of Harvard for about 10 years - an...

-- Quote of the Day -- "Poetry has to be something more than a conception of the mind. It has to be a revelation of nature. Conceptions are artificial. Perceptions are essential." ~ Wallace Stevens -- Authors Read Radio -- Come listen to poet Lillian Brummet sharing excerpts from Towards Understandin g on Authors Rea d today. Towards Understanding is a collection of 120 non-fiction poems written in chronological order. It is a true story of a young pre-teen female growing up on her own, struggling to survive, breaking the chains of inner demons and finally growing towards understanding of her value & purpose in life – but not quite reaching it. Thus the title… Towards Understanding. The reason behind the book was to show other victims of abuse, violence and neglect that they can live a wholesome life without baggage from the past. Second to that Lillian wanted to provide a road-map that showed the healing process that victims go through, letting others know they are not a...

-- Quote of the Day -- “…People no longer have to suffer in silence… if you look at the state of the social internet today there are 3 main pillars: the oldest - forums, then blogs, then the behemoth sites like myspace, facebook, etc. The Experience Project is placed right in the middle of these. …Blogging (like journaling) is very therapeutic, I’ve seen studies that show huge benefits… but the blog is public. I’ll use myself for an example: I had a blog, loved it, but then I found out that my mom was reading, then my boss’s wife was reading it and I found myself really curtailing and editing what I was sharing there. But at the Experience Project our members are anonymous so they can really be themselves. You can talk about the things that make you who you are – some of those are triumphs and some of those are challenges …Sometimes we might be lucky enough to have a circle of friends of family who are helpful to a certain extent, but there are a lot of issues that would be taboo to ...

-- Quote of the Day -- “ …As a business owner you have a responsibility to your shareholders in regards to properly manage the business not only top line revenue but also the costs and part of the costs is waste management. …(Businesses) should engage in a waste management/waste reduction program not because it makes you feel good but also because it has a positive influence on your ability to manage not only your business but your profitability. …The (Renovos) program takes waste from the coffee industry – coffee is the 2nd largest next to oil in the world! Many of these roasters bring in pallets and pallets of these burlap bags of beans. …The main roaster that we have today discards 4-8 tones of burlap a month. So we work with that material (to create products that) …promote the use of reusable products.” ~ Douglas Farquhar – Feb 5, 2009 This interview, with Douglas Farquhar, aired on the Conscious Discussions talk radio show on Feb 5, 2009. We focused our discussion on The Business...

-- Quote of the Day -- "No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking." ~ Ruth Benedict -- Lillian on Green-T Hour Radio ! -- Dave & I were invited to appear on the Green-T hour radio show with host, Guy Chapman, which airs at 7 PM (Pacific): www.blogtalkradio.com/Green-T-Hour " Toboa Radio is operated via the Toboa Energy Resources LLC - a renewable energy company with focus on private and commercial electric power resources through the application of wind and solar power. ...Our goal is to help others by empowering the right of life, liberty, and self determination through self reliance and personal awareness ." - http://toboaenergy.com -- Today on Conscious Discussions Radio -- Legally blind from birth and a two-time breast cancer survivor - Donna Hill is a writer, speaker, singer and has 3 albums of original music so far. Her volunteer efforts and speaking engagements ...

-- Quote of the Day -- “…The bottom line is there are no guardians. Period. …There is nobody watching over us. We have been lulled into this sense of security… What controls our countries is the almighty dollar; …people are concerned with making larger profits. …You cannot rely on other people to tell you that a product is safe because it is not… Out of 100 products on lining a shelf …I have to plan ahead when I go on vacation so that I can go to a natural health store and by a safe brand (of sun screen). …We don’t have to change our life, we just have to change our brands …Take bread for instance, bread has a lot of chemicals in it. …They’ll have things like potassium bromate, I even saw parabin recently; there is crap in our bread! …You have to go through the whole bread isle read every ingredient and pick the brand that is safe …and that will be your brand. …That’s going to keep you much safer and healthier, just by switching brands - not necessarily mean overhauling your life. …I ...

-- Quote of the Day -- "Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." ~ Carl Jung, psychologist -- Water, Water - Everywhere??? -- Ok, I promise this is the last post that I will do to help honor the World Water Day awareness celebrations that occurred recently. In this short post, I'd like to offer dates to you of special episodes on the Conscious Discussions radio program that focused on water. July 10, 2007 - Rain Collection Systems Aug 7, 2007 - Water Conservation in Summer Jan 10, 2008 - Clean Water-ways Jan 31, 2008 - Flushable/compostable Infant & Adult Diapers Feb 26, 2008 - Composting Toilets July 27, 2008 - Wye Marsh Wildlife Center Jan 22, 2009 - Desalination Plants: Answer to Water Woes? -- Conscious Discussions Talk Radio -- Today's featured guest: Kristi Jones operates a ranch for abandoned dogs & horses in Southern Missouri (USA). Her book, Stories from Black Dog Ranch,...

-- Quote of the Day -- I chose the quote below due to last week's blog posts on conscious eco-travel and stay-cation alternatives: “…And you don’t have to be a trained teacher by any means… you just need to speak the language. …Whatever you are good at they may branch out to include that, but typically there is very little training involved [in volunteer adventure travel]. …Most of these organizations know how important safety is – in many cases they provide insurance for you. …They are going to lean over backwards to make sure that everything is prepared; you are in their hands. Now it is different if you do your own solo volunteer adventure. I would check the travel safety warnings online, follow heath precautions – you know take the necessary shots, take malaria medication with me, etc. …I tend to go to developing countries where the value of a dollar goes a lot farther. I find them more interesting also. …I am not into buying souvenirs, but I do try to bring back some memory-pr...

-- Quote of the Day -- "Our primeval Mother Earth is an organism that no science in the world can rationalize. Everything on her that crawls and flies is dependent upon Her and all must hopelessly perish if that Earth dies that feeds us." ~ Viktor Schauberger -- World Water Day continues... -- World Water Day happens annually in March on this weekend, some regions celebrate it all week, others celebrate the holiday for one day, usually just Saturday or Sunday. Here, as I mentioned yesterday, we are celebrating this important day of awareness all weekend long. There are a number of activities we can do to honor of this important day of water awareness. Here’s a great resource that offers numerous tips for reducing wasteful consumption of water: http://lighterfootstep.com/2009/03/weekend-project-reduce-water-waste It can sometimes be difficult to visualize the importance and direct effect simple conservation efforts can have when we are bombarded with negative information regu...

-- Quote of the Day -- “…That is why it {water} comes down to armed conflict in the end… People feel that strongly about it. And it becomes an ethics issue; deciding if this is an issue of who can afford the water or a basic human right… Everyone has the right to a clean environment and the right to life. And without food, water & shelter you loose your right to life. …It becomes a class verses human rights issue. That is why I advocate Desalination technology - it is not just people along the ocean that can use the technology, people inland can use it too. …Desalination plants take up a lot of area. …It involves the removal of salt from seawater. They can also clean brackish ground water. …One of the oldest {methods of desalination} is simply solar evaporation, which is what they used to use on ships in the old days. Around the world there are at least 1500 that use the distillation (a.k.a. evaporation)… this is a longer process, but …is one of the simpler methods that does not c...

-- Quote of the Day -- “…Being a busy person doesn’t necessarily mean that you are stressed… But when you are living for the next task in the future, you approach your busyness with a loose mind, …you are distracted, you are an inattentive listener, you feel guilty taking time out for yourself – Now we are talking about someone who is stressed. And there is a reason for all this busyness – it means you are escaping the deficits of your own personality. It is an unwillingness to sit quiet because then you would have to confront things like: ‘Why am I not unhappy?’ - ‘Why am I escaping with all this business?’ …I think that society now is facing a change because we are in this recession/depression and it is a terrible thing for people to loose their jobs - and so their identity. But this adversity is here to teach us something – to get back to the core personality. How much do we really need? Is that what defines us?” ~ Debbie Mandel – Feb 10, 2009 This quote was taken from an interview ...

-- Quote of the Day -- Re: Emotion "The trouble with so many of us is that we underestimate the power of simplicity. We have a tendency it seems to over complicate our lives and forget what's important and what's not. We tend to mistake movement for achievement. We tend to focus on activities instead of results. And as the pace of life continues to race along in the outside world, we forget that we have the power to control our lives regardless of what's going on outside." ~ Robert Stuberg -- Interviews with Lillian -- I was invited to appear on the Toboa radio show on March 26th with host, Guy Chapman, which I believe airs around 7:00 PM (Pacific): www.blogtalkradio.com/Green-T-Hour "Toboa Radio is operated via the Toboa Energy Resources LLC - a renewable energy company with focus on private and commercial electric power resources through the application of wind and solar power. As a provider of wind generator and solar systems, Toboa Energy Resources can o...

-- Quote of the Day -- "To the Earth, a hundred years is nothing. A million years is nothing. This planet lives and breates on a much vaster scale. We can't imagine its slow and powerful rhythms, and we haven't got the humility to try. We've been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we're gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us. Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves." ~ Michael Crighton of Jerassic Park I struggled a bit with the quote of the day - as most of our readers are already aware, I make an effort to use quotes that are uplifting, inspiring or motivational... and this quote is a little on the darker side of things. However, Michael's "powerful rhythm" of crafting the words in this quote really strike a cord with me. -- Conscious Travel Tips -- In these times of ecomomic strife and envi...

* Happy ST. PATRICKS DAY, everyone ! :) * ...This year, instead of wearing green, live green ;) -- Quote of the Day -- "We think too small. Like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view." ~ Mao Tse Tung -- Eco-survey Results -- "MM Research Institute Ltd., a Japanese marketing research company, released the results of a survey on user's attitude toward green action on October 30, 2008, focusing on consumer monitors of goo Research, the national biggest internet questionnaire service company (1,052 people throughout Japan). Each respondent cited one to three company names in response to the survey. Toyota Motor ranked the highest (24 percent) as a company focusing on the green action. Panasonic Corp. was ranked second (8 percent), and a major Japanese retailer, Aeon Co., was third (7 percent)." * Source: Japan for Sustainability Organization's newslet...

-- Quote of the Day -- “(Writing and film) have something in common, which is they have the concept of a story line there is a narrative. …You can’t really describe it to people who don’t get it. One of my favorite quotes is: ‘Do you hear the music?’ It is something you cannot describe to someone who is not a writer innately. …You have to have something to say and you have to a strategy about how you are going to say it and strategy has to be something other people will be interested in. …One of the things about the documentaries I did – I wanted to KNOW, I really wanted to know. …When you interview people you realize that they were saying so much more than with words, with their body, with the way their eyes moved…there were voice inflections… but I think inherently it takes a writer to see there is a story.” ~ Nancy Fulton – Dec 11, 2008 Check out the interview with Nancy Fulton re: " Transition from Writing to Film " on the Conscious Discussions archived interviews und...

-- Quote of the Day -- “I don’t know if our parents can truly understand [employment downsizing]. …I think it is very interesting to see how my kids react. …They know they will be switching companies, to them it is a fact of life. For my parents generation – that thought just didn’t happen. For our generation – the boomers - it is really a mixture; I think we thought we were going to stay with the same company and in fact it does not happen like that. So I think we are kind of a combination of those. …This is the time when the universe is hitting you upside the head…to do what you are meant to do on this Earth. What I am doing now I am very happy with even though I am not making as much money as before, I am much happier and more myself. …It is a way of rediscovering yourself. …I looked at what I was doing that I enjoyed without getting paid for it, and worked with that. …Fear is the biggest thing that puts you down, in fact I think everything is driven by fear and once we let that go ...

-- Quote of the Day -- “…We do need to switch the way we produce energy… but what resonates about our message is that we can spend all our time yelling and arguing about what we can do to produce energy – or we can do things that give our life a richer tone and also take less energy so that we do not need to produce that energy in the first place. …You know, you wash with cold water, you can save as much as 80% of your washing bill, because heating water is so energy intensive. Hang laundry on a line and you save even more money. …The dryer is an incredibly energy intensive appliance, the second biggest in the household – only the refrigerator is higher. …The dryer is responsible for as much as 10% of North America’s energy consumption. …Generally the commercial washing outfit, where someone is in business to make money by washing someone’s clothes, they are going to purchase the most energy and water efficient model available, because their machines tend to be in use 5-10 times a day....

-- Quote of the Day -- March is Small Press Month and as promised I'll be sharing writer-related quotes and tips throughout the month of March here on this blog; Today's is taken from an interview with Katherine Scherer on the Conscious Discussions Show, which aired on March 17, 2008. The focus of this interview was embracing the power of gratitude in our lives, however as a published author Katherine was able to impart the following tip for writers: “…What will the final cost of the book be? If they (publisher) cannot answer that question I would be hesitant to go ahead. Because books are priced by how many pages, etc and if you get your book priced to sell you are never (going to make a profit)… It doesn’t matter who publishes it, you will be the one responsible for marketing the book….” ~ Katherine Scherer 03/17/08 To access this interview simply click on the hyper-linked show title or click on the link on the right side of this page for the Conscious Discussions talk radi...

-- Quote of the Day -- "Every walk to the woods is a religious rite, every bath in the stream is a saving ordinance. Communion service is at all hours, and the bread and wine are from the heart and marrow of Mother Earth." ~ John Burroughs -- Conscious Discussions -- An award-winning, nationally published journalist, Daniel P. Smith left his career as a high school teacher behind in 2004 to pursue the writing life. Less than five months removed from the classroom and 23 years old, Smith teamed with Lake Claremont Press to pen On the Job: Behind the Stars of the Chicago Police Department, his first book and one inspired by his roots in a Chicago Police family. On top of all of this Daniel is also a noted speaker and is presently working with photographer and fellow Chicagoan Brian Palm to share the stories and images of Chicago's fading buildings. Daniel also serves on the Chicago Writer Association's board of directors. It was a sincere pleasure listening to all the...

-- Quote of the Day -- “You have faced the worst; you have had cancer – now prepare for the best. Get on with your life! …The whole thing is don’t wait for tomorrow. …Make the best of the day, get on with it and prepare for the best.” ~ Bobbie DeCordova-Hanks 03/20/08 Today's quote was taken from an interview on Conscious Discussions on March 20, 2008 with Bobbie DeCordova-Hanks. During this interview we discussed how we can overcome adversity, finding peace with chronic illness and making the most of our remaining days on this planet. To access this interview simply click on the hyper-linked show title here or look to the right for a link to the Conscious Discussions talk radio show. From there look for the archives in March, 2008 to find this interview. -- Positive Eco-News -- There is nothing worse than seeing garbage blowing down the street of your neighborhood, or finding broken shards of glass at the local swimming hole where children play. Wildlife is just as vulnerable t...

-- Conscious Discussions -- President of Super Sized Cycles, Joan Denizot, shares how plus-sized people now have the opportunity to access bicycles that easily support heavier weight, while providing a comfortable and safe ride - encouraging healthy lifestyles rather than undermining their efforts. Did you know that 1/3 of the US population is obese... and another 1/3 is overweight? Similar numbers can be found for the UK, Australia and Canada. Super Sized Cycles allows bicyclists of all sizes and physical abilities to do their part to improve the environment and save money on commuting while spending time with their family and friends and improve their health. Find out more by clicking on the hyper-linked show title here or look to the right for the link to the Conscious Discussions talk radio show. Click "play" beside today's episode... -- Events this Week -- This week we are celebrating - Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is an international campaign that began in 1996, t...

-- Quote of the Day -- A lot of people are doing stay-cations (staying at home for vacation time) or touring within their country's borders, rather than facing the larger expences involved in international vacation travel, and the environmental impact that incurs. Today's quote is in regards to "Volunteer Travel" - meaning using the vacation time to volunteer in a important organization to delve deeper into the culture, learn incredible new things, experience things from the hands-on level and leave a lasting legacy at the same time: “Volunteer tourism involves a wide array of options. If someone wants to hammer nails… become a part of a conservation effort – they can do that. But you can also do things like teaching English to little kids, they can give bottles to little kangaroos or do what I did recently (in Bali with volunteering in Sumatran Orangutan Society’s office) which was all office work and didn’t involve hard labor at all. You don’t have to have experienc...