All Posts Tagged With: "world"

You may have noticed that I’ve added a new graphic in my sidebar with a cow wearing a Santa hat. It’s a public service announcement for Heifer International, an organization that I’ve supported for the last few years because its innovative practical approach to addressing poverty in the world. What I like most about this charity is that when I make a donation, it becomes a gift that keeps on giving. Here’s a brief explanation from Heifer.org:

What would be the better gift for someone you love this holiday season — another present that gathers dust on a shelf? Or a donation that represents a heifer and training in its care, that brings health and hope to struggling families?

Better still, every gift multiplies, as the animal’s first offspring is passed on to another family — then they also agree to pass on an animal, and so on.

A good dairy cow can produce four gallons of milk a day — enough for a family to drink and share with neighbors. Milk protein transforms sick, malnourished children into healthy boys and girls. The sale of surplus milk earns money for school fees, medicine, clothing and home improvements.

And because a healthy cow can produce a calf every year, every gift will be passed on and eventually help an entire community move from poverty to self reliance. Now that’s a gift worth giving!

An Associated Press article about the organization summed it up this way:

The idea behind Heifer … is similar to the notion that it’s better to teach a man to fish so he can feed himself than to give him a fish that will feed him just once. One animal could eventually benefit an entire community.

Both as a family and as business owners, we have purchased Heifer gifts — like a water buffalo — in honor of family, friends and clients. We would then send a special card that explained the donation made in their name and what the gift meant. And when we’ve done this, the reaction by the recipients has been overwhelmingly positive, with many of them going out of their way to call us to express their sincere appreciation for such a unique and inspirational gift — something that happens less often with more traditional gifts.

As you’re considering gifts to give this holiday season, consider giving a gift that keeps on giving. Consider a gift from Heifer.

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My very good friend from college put together a pretty cool time lapse video that I enjoyed and wanted to share. He’s a very talented photographer and this video is an extension of that.

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I love videos because they seem to capture our lives in a unique way. Thousands of snapshots linked together to give us a different perspective on time and the world around us.

Sarah over at BritGal in the U.S.A. wrote about her observations as a British transplant to Oklahoma about our political process. I like to hear the perspective from “outsiders.” We tend to get myopic about the world that surrounds us and that can taint our perceptions and judgments. I almost always benefit from getting another’s perspective to help me fine tune my own viewpoint.

In addition to exploring the differences between the U.S. and the U.K. in their national elections, she also offers some of her own insight about the current American candidates vying to be our nation’s leader. The entire post is worth reading, but one paragraph stood out above the others, and it’s something that’s discussed very little in the campaign… Continued