Brummet's Conscious Blog

-- Quote of the Day -- “… There are one billion adults in the world who cannot read at all… not even a simple sentence that involves things in their daily life – we want to help those adults learn new ways of farming or to learn how to take care of their children’s health. …The skills that people take away from school (in developed countries) are not matching the demand for the jobs available today. …So our standards have gone up here in Canada and the US, but the education has not. …We have designed the Literacy Bridge device so that it comes in four plastic pieces and a circuit board with 3 screws holding it together – we’ve made it so that someone in a very rural area can …develop a business and service these devices by swapping parts. …The content can come from large organizations far away… but really what is our focus is content that is created locally with local language. …These areas have no electricity, no running water, and very bad roads…That’s were we go, we find out who ar...

-- Quote of the Day -- “… If I don’t write, things just don’t feel right. I love being immersed in words, I’ve always had an overactive imagination and find myself asking “what if…?”. Which can get me in trouble sometimes, I’ll send stuff to my agent and she’ll say ‘No-no, no’. (she giggles). …When I was first starting out as a writer the people around me were not very understanding. …It can be very difficult when you have to explain that you can’t bake 250 cupcakes for the PTA and you are in the middle of a book. …And I still get that after all this time - from family members even: ‘Well Michael’s home all day, sitting around doing nothing’ (she laughs). Re: Finding a balance: It is always a daily struggle for me; the meals suddenly become simple, and my hair is lucky to get combed and I may not shop for groceries as much as I should. ” ~ Michael West – Feb 3, 2009 This quote of the day was taken from an interview with Michael West on the Conscious Discussions talk radio show, Feb 3 ...

-- Quote of the Day -- "Extinction does not only apply to giant pandas or tigers or exotic species that dwell in the Rainforests. Vegetables can go extinct too and when our food goes extinct then we follow." ~ The Henry Double Day Research Association, England Find Dave & Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, information about their radio shows & free resources & articles at www.brummet.ca

-- Quote of the Day -- “…Individual heroes never start out their lives or careers by saying – ‘I want to be a hero’. They saw a problem, or had an experience they wanted to change; an area that they wanted to make a difference. …They just said ‘I want to make a difference – I want to help this group of people’ – and they did it. I think that often we look to people with money or people with ‘power’ - but really the people with the ‘power’ are us. You know, if we all said here’s this problem in my community I’m going to get my neighbors or family together and we are going to do something about it. …If everyone said I’m going to spend an hour a week going to the church or the community center or going to read to a child – having you in their lives can make such a big difference. Anyone can make a difference, it is a matter of deciding what you can do. Can you spare one hour a week or ten hours a week? Do you want to work with children? …You just have to have a belief that you can do som...

-- Quote of the Day -- Re: health of the planet.... " The change of mind I am talking about involves not just a change of knowledge, but also a change of attitude toward our essential ignorance, a change in our bearing in the face of mystery. The principle of ecology, if we will take it to heart, should keep us aware that our lives depend on other lives and upon processes and energies in an interlocking system that, though we can destroy it, we can neither fully understand nor fully control. And our great dangerousness is that, locked in our selfish and myopic economies, we have been willing to change or destroy far beyond our power to understand ." ~ Wendell Berry, A Continuous Harmony -- Prize Winner This Week! -- Congratulations to Kathy H. from Oklahoma who is this week’s prizes: a hardcover children’s illustrated book titled: Sikulu and Harambe by the Zambezi River signed by Kunle Oguneye - & - Lisa Saunders humorous novel – Anything But a Dog . We have prize con...

-- Quote of the Day -- “I think we need to be more family oriented; be a part of our children’s lives. …Find a way to get the kids involved in a recreational center or something positive more than once a week… set a loving environment for the children.” ~ Patricia Yarbrough (Dec. 20, 2007) I chose this quote today from Patricia Yarbrough's interview on Conscious Discussions radio, where we discussed Youth Violence - What Can We Do . Simply click on the show title here or look to the right for the radio show link... This interview aired on Dec 20, 2007. -- Positive Eco-News -- According to the Project Laundry List’s ( www.laundrylist.org ) newsletter Hanging Out there have been recent studies that underline the importance of turning office equipment off when they are not in use. One study revealed that there is an estimated 2.8 billion dollars in wasted energy in the US alone – that equates to 20 million tons of carbon dioxide. So if everyone practiced green office habits just in...

Welcome back everyone :) I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend. Our weekend was crazy busy, but a lot of fun. We had a full mix of bright sun and warm weather moving to wind and even a rain storm - all in one weekend :) Today, we have bright sunshine, crystal blue sky and singing birds :) * Win a prize: this week 2 books available! Listen to the introduction to today's interview (see below for more info) to learn the question you need to answer, and then email me at: ldbrummet @ yahoo . com (*remove the spaces before emailing). Prizes : Young adult book - Anything But a Dog! by Lisa Saunders & Children's Book - Sikulu and Harambe by Kunle Oguneye Something to think about: The average NA car driving 10,000 miles per year releases 5.5 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere! Scientists are now saying that ice in the ocean in the summer will soon be something found in the history books. Fear and feeling overwhelmed are keeping some of us from doing all that we can in our l...