A friend of mine and her husband do ministry work on the streets of Phoenix.  Every week they help give those who are homeless a bit of dignity and hope.  Life on the street has unfortunately become familiar to more people, young and old and more families. 

In an effort to raise awareness here in Arizona, wonderful organizations such as Valley of the Sun United Way, Desrt Mission Food Bank, City of Phoenix, Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness and others have created opportunities for us to make a difference this week starting on November 16.  Below is a summary of the ways we can work together to make a difference in many lives:

Monday, November 17: There is an awareness walk to th Capitol with Food Drive for Desert Mision, St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance and United Food Bank.  The walk starts at 9:00 a.m. at City of  Phoenix City Hall in the Plaza to the Capitol.  Presentations will be given around 10:15 at the Capitol, including a Proclomation for Awareness Week given by the Office of the Governor Janet Napolitano.

Tuesday, November 18:   Appreciation Day — Here’s your chance to recognize people who are making efforts to end hunger and homelessness by giving a thank you card, gift certificate or lunch.

 Wednesday, November 19: Volunteer Day: the Phoenix Fire Department will serve breakfast at St. Vincent de Paul, 1075 W. Jackson Street, Phoenix, to kick off the volunteer day.  Please consider spending part of your day working on a project to end homelessness and hunger.

Thursday, November 20: End Childhood Hunger — There are over 740,000 children who go hungry in Arizona.  Join the Arizona Partnership to End Childhood Hunger and learn how you can help.  Also on this day, the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness Legislative Summit wil be held from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at University of Phoenix, 4605 E. Elwood Street, Room 309, Phoenix, AZ. There is a fee of $10 members/$20 non-members.  If you’d like to attend the summit, save yourself a space by calling 602-340-9393.

Friday, November 21: At noon, there will be a Faces of Homelessness Speakers Bureau at City Council Chambers, 200 W. Jefferson St.  Here you can learn from those who have been homeless and their experiences.  If you are unable to make it, visit IAM SAM on Facebook to learn about those in our community who are dealing with hunger and homelessness issues.

Saturday, November 22: Display a lit candle or a light in one of your home’s windows as a reminder of all of the men, women and children who are experiencing hunger and homelessness.

I hope you are able to find a way to participate.  Let us know how you participated and share you experience with us here or on Twitter. Namaste.

In honor of Veterans’ Day, I wanted to share this story I read on the New York Times about how therapy dogs are helping out the brave men and women who have suffered physical injuries and mental stress while serving our country. These therapy dogs help out their humans by cheering them up, giving comfort and assisting them to become independent again. Animals just want to love humans and they help us to become the best we can by showing us how to receive love and give love. In addition, we want to say Thank You to those Americans who have and continue to serve in our military. We salute you for your courage, bravery and sacrifice. Namaste.

This was a great concert. These guys are real troopers — they played through the rain and it pretty much rained the entire time. They’re from Seattle and apparently the rain followed them into the desert. Afterwards, they hung out with fans at the bar. When’s the last time you could say that about your favorite band? Their latest CD “Into The Sun” is fabulous and we’re so glad they are back on tour after a ten-year hiatus. Namaste.

IT’S FOR YOU:

FAR BEHIND

COME TOGETHER (Beatles partial cover)

COVER ME

I’M STILL ALIVE (Pearl Jam partial cover)

CHANGE

I love watching documentaries. Two weeks ago I watched John Adams — totally awesome series. This week I watched Michael Moore’s film “Sicko”. Without getting into a debate about how the healthcare for citizens in countries such as Canada, France, Great Britain and Cuba “really is”, after all I don’t live there nor do I know of anyone who does, I prefer to turn your attention to the “Special Features” portion of the DVD where there are interviews with Marcia Angell, M.D., former Editor in Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Law professor. These interviews caught my attention and really lit a proverbial fire under my ass to write this post.

I really haven’t checked into the proposed universal healthcare system that is being talked about, but after watching the interviews given by Dr. Angell and Professor Warren, I will do that now. Professor Warren mentioned that if you think having health insurance means you are safe, then you have just bought into one huge myth. Professor Elizabeth Warren’s data from her research study show that about 50% of the families that declared bankruptcy did so after having to pay for expensive healthcare costs for a major health problem. And the kicker is that most of these families had health insurance! These families racked up $40-$50,000 in credit card bills and took out second mortgages on their homes to pay for doctor bills, medication and continuing treatment. As Prof. Warren also states in the interview, these people played by the rules, they got a good education, a good job, and had health insurance, yet it wasn’t enough.

Marcia Angell, M.D. also had some interesting information to share. When Mr. Moore asked her what the deal was with insurance companies she essentially said that insurance companies are for-profit entities that are in the business to make money for their shareholders. Makes business sense but not people sense.

Now there was another tidbit of information she shared about the big drug companies aka Big Pharma. We hear from televsion ads that pharmaceutical companies are responsible for a lot of the innovation happening in medicine today. According to Dr. Angell, this is really not the case. The innovation happens at NIH and universities (publically-funded research). She explained it like this — before a new drug can come on the market, the FDA must aprove it — on basis of clinical trials that show it is reasonably safe and effective. But these drugs are compared to what? Big Pharma doesn’t have to compare a new drug with a drug that’s already on the market — a drug that is being used to treat a similar condition right now. The drug just has to be compared with a sugar pill or placebo to show that it is better than nothing. (That’s what she said, folks.) Dr. Angell said that with new drugs coming on market, we have no way of knowing if they are better or worse than existing drugs. For all we know, each new drug is worse. She mentioned that from 2000-2005, the FDA classified 80 percent of the 506 drugs that came out during this time frame as unlikely to be better than existing drugs. 73% (nearly 3/4) were not even new drugs all — just new forms of old drugs. The drug companies are creating new drugs so they can secure a new patent — the goal is to get another 20 year patent — particularly if old patent is about to run out. So again, it’s about money — keeping Big Pharma companies profitable. And just one more thing — check out the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which allow universities, researchers and Big Pharma to profit off of publically-funded (aka taxpayer money) research projects so they keep the money from these publically-funded discoveries instead of giving it back to the government. Are you scratching your head yet?? Dr. Angell also wrote a book entitled The Truth About Drug Companies. Very interesting.

So my message to my internet American family and friends is to vote. You don’t like how things are in this country, then vote for the candidates who have your best interests at heart. Learn about the universal healthcare system that is being talked about. Vote for the candidates who want to improve the standard of living for all Americans. Let’s boot out the ones who have been changed by Washington and have grown accustomed to receiving lobbying dollars. We are a wealthy nation (or atleast at one time we were) and now its time to hold accountable those who are spending our money. Thousands of people have died in order for us to have this opportunity to cast our vote. So, vote as if your life depended on it. Actually, it just might.

We’re huge fans of Cesar Millan and watch his shows anytime we can. Today I watching an episode that I had seen before; however, I heard these words for the first time: our body language and energy are the two most important things we have when working with dogs. So, immediately I began to take notice of my own. My body posture was not that good and my energy was not that great so I changed my posture and felt an instant positive shift in my energy. I started to pay greater attention to this episode. Cesar was trying to get a dog that was apprehensive about getting on a treadmill to become comfortable doing the task. He said that he had visualized the dog already doing the task and projected that energy. How many times have you heard that if you just visualize yourself doing something, then pretty soon, you’ll accomplish it? Cesar also noticed that the dog was not getting enough exercise, which led to her pent up energy. Once the dog was exercised, her mind was able to get focused and the extra energy was released. At the end of the episode, the dog owner was able to become the leader of the pack and everyone in the family was relaxed, happy and content. Within a TV hour, the “misbehaving” dog learned how to respect her owner, play well with others and become calm and happy. The dog changed primarily because the owner changed. Cedar said dogs want to be free, relaxed and calm. I believe that people also want to be free, relaxed and calm. However, people overanalyze everything and thus, slowly change. We get stuck in our energy patterns (aka beliefs), chase our own tails and all the while wonder why things are not changing. Our beliefs and environments contribute to our “sameness”. We become the “misbehaving dog.” So I wondered: How can I learn to be more like the calm, relaxed and happy dog? Well, I observed the following:

1. Sometimes it is necessary to change your environment to change your energy and your mind.
2. Be around people who also believe in you (i.e., Cesar believes all dogs are good dogs and holds no pre-conceived notions about any of them).
3. Regular exercise is important.
4. Good posture directly impacts your energy so be aware of it at all times.
5. Respect yourself if you want respect from others. This includes establishing boundaries with others. (e.g. the Rescue Dog owner established a boundary that dog was not allowed on bed unless invited.)
6. Feeling sorry (Pity) for someone does not help them get over their challenges. Rescue Dog owner felt guilty when telling the formerly abused dog that it could not have something.
7. Live in the present moment and move forward with love and respect (for yourself and others) while actively seeking and visualizing the positive results that you want.

Now I need to say that I get a lot of support from my husband and family, it’s just that sometimes I find myself chasing my own tail. In other words, just acting like a human. Do you find yourself relating to situations presented by Cesar Millan?? Please share.