Study Validates Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Therapy
A study published recently in JAMA Psychiatry found a structured course in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction to be as effective as Lexapro in reducing the severity of symptoms of anxiety disorder. Of course, a person should never stop taking such medications suddenly, but the study gives validation to alternative forms of therapy with the hope of insurance reimbursement. NPR has details.
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Baby Born Weighing Just Over One Pound is Home
Baby Isla was born weighing just 1.18 lbs. with a 10% chance of survival. Now, she’s finally home after 4 months in the Hospital in England. Here’s more from the Good News Network.
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CNN’s Top Ten Heroes
CNN has announced their top 10 CNN Heroes for 2022. Each will receive a $10,000 prize, and the public can vote for hero of the year to be announced in December. Thanks to CNN for honoring hardworking heroes. You can find a video overview and highlights of each hero in this article from CNN.
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A Senior with Alzheimer’s has a Very Special Fan Club
Gene McGehee has Alzheimer’s. His short-term memory resets every 15 minutes. Every weekday afternoon, he waits outside his house without consciously knowing why. Then a bus arrives with kids who greet and spend time with Mr. McGhee. They enrich each other’s lives. This heartwarming story from Upworthy includes lots of photos and a sweet video at the end that you don’t want to miss.
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World Leaders Meet for Climate Summit and Promise to End Deforestation
Last year’s world climate summit was cancelled due to covid. Now, over 120 leaders have come together in Glasgow, Scotland to reduce the negative impact of humans on planet Earth. BBC reports that over 100 leaders from around the world, including Brazil, have promised to sign a pledge to end and reverse deforestation by 2030. Read more about the two week COP26 Climate Summit and the deforestation pledge here.
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Two Middle School Students Act Quickly to Save Bus Driver
Conner Doss and Kane Daugherty are two Atlanta middle school students whose quick thinking saved their bus driver. Read more about it here.
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Top 10 CNN Heroes
CNN is in its 15th year of celebrating heroes. On December 12, they’ll be recognizing their top 10 picks for 2021 who each receive $10,000 and announcing who received the most votes for hero of the year. Read more about the top 10 heroes from CNN.
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A Dog Named Bear has been Recognized as a Hero for Saving Koalas
A dog named Bear recently won an award from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) for saving 100 koalas from Australia’s bushfires last year. Before being trained to rescue koalas, Bear had been rescued himself from a shelter where his former family gave him up due to behavior issues and his “boundless energy and obsessive enthusiasm for play.” You can read more from the Good News Network and watch the video:
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After the Biden’s younger rescue dog, Major, caused minor injuries to a secret service agent who who surprised him, the dogs went away to training. Now they’re back in the white house with plans for a feline sister. One thing I love about this story is that the Bidens didn’t give up on Major. They got him the extra help he needed to come back and be part of the family. Here are details from USA Today.
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Baby Turtles Rescued from Storm Drains
Over 825 baby diamondback terrapin turtles have been rescued from storm drains in New Jersey and are being cared for at the university until they can be released into the wild. Here’s more from CNN.
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Paralyzed Man Achieves New Record Writing with His Mind
Using a “brain-to-text” system, a paralyzed man typed 18 words per minute – more than doubling the the previous record for typing with this type of interface. CNN explains how the process works.
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Honoring All Our Heroes
Nine-year-old Noa was assigned to write about Amelia Earhart. But Noa wanted to write about Bessie Coleman, the first black (and Native American) female pilot in America. Since there were no opportunities for Ms. Coleman’s training in America, she saved her money and went to France for her pilot training. Like her hero, Noa was persistent. Here’s what happened:
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“… as Lebanon reels from multiple tragedies, conservationists are pointing to one bright spot. They say a record number of endangered green sea turtles have come to nest on the country’s shores.”
When George Ahearn found out how much produce was being wasted due to COVID 19 slowing food supply chains, he wanted to get food to the people who needed it. Farmers were ready with truckloads of potatoes and onions, but food banks need food that’s washed and bagged. With help, George co-founded EastWest Food Rescue. Mobilizing farmers and volunteers, the non-profit has moved nearly eight million pounds of produce across the state of Washington to food banks and meal programs. Here’s more from CNN Heroes.
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Reviving Ancient Seeds Adds Fruit to Cooperative Learning for Arab and Israeli Students
Fifteen years ago, scientists Elaine Soloway and Sarah Salon were able to germinate date seeds that lived around the time of Jesus. One seed grew into a male tree they named, Methuselah. In 2014, ancient seeds dating back close to the same time were unearthed in the Judean Desert and near the Dead Sea. Six of those seeds grew into trees at the Kibbutz Ketura campus of the Arava Institute located on the Israeli-Jordanian border where Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian college students learn and work cooperatively to solve regional and global challenges. One tree, a female named Hannah, flowered. In the spring of this year Hannah was pollinated using the powdery grains from Methuselah. She produced 111 dates that were recently harvested. For pictures, details, and a deeper look into the significance of these events, please read this article from the Good News Network.
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Fire Cat Rescue
The ground smoldered as fire fighters worked to make sure a fire in Northern California did not re-ignite. LA Fire Department Captain Daniel Trevizo heard a meow. Then he saw a kitten running toward him. For more of the story and feel-good pictures, click this piece from redding.com
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Gloria’s Gladiators
When 72 year old Gloria Scott called electrician John Kinney to fix her light, she had no idea what it would lead to. John saw that Gloria’s house needed a lot more work, so he returned to do other repairs at no charge. He created a Facebook page, “Old Lady Needs Help,” to rally support. The response was overwhelming in a good way.
Little White and Little Grey are two beluga whales who were captured at a very young age off the coast of Russia. After spending years in a Chinese aquarium, they are currently transitioning to an 8-acre sanctuary at Klettsvik Bay in Iceland. Your can read more about the journey of Little White, Little Grey, and the Beluga Sanctuary Project at this link.
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Central Park Gets its First Statue Honoring Real-Life Women
New York’s Central Park is finally getting a statue honoring real-life women. The statue of Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and Elizabeth Caty Stanton will be unveiled tomorrow, Aug. 26. There are statues of animals, authors, scientists, and historical figures, but for 160 years, the only female statues in Central Park depict fictional characters like Alice in Wonderland. Here’s more on this story from ABC News.
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Anonymous Caped Crusader Delivers Food and More
“Solidarity Batman” takes food, kind words, and a sense of humor to homeless people in Santiago Chili. There’s a short video with cool music near the end of this article from The Good News Network.
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Young Heroes
Marcus Harvey and Tre Jones from Marion, Indiana risked their lives to save a stranger from a burning house. Here’s the story:
Long Term Relief for First Responders and Victims of 9/11
On Monday, the US president signed legislation authorizing money for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund through 2092. This was the result of a long hard climb by supporters of the bill since the fund was in danger of running out of money and benefits had been cut significantly. I’m thankful that people were able to come together to support the victims and heroes of 9/11. Be sure to watch the MSNBC interview with John Feal in this article from NBC news.
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Gentle Ear Canal Stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease
A recent study showed that gentle stimulation of the ear canal twice a day significantly reduced the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Patients continued to take their regular medication during the study. The additional therapy was applied using a portable headset produced for clinical investigations. While this equipment might not be available for the general public yet, it makes me wonder about other non-invasive therapies. Here’s the article from the Good News Network.
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Ethiopia Plants over 350 Million trees in one Day
Citizens and leaders of Ethiopia set new records by planting over 350 million trees on Monday. The planting led by Prime Minister Ably Amed is part of the Green Legacy to reforest the country and fight climate change. Public offices were shut down so that civil servants could help with the initiative. Wouldn’t it be great if instead of fighting wars, we all competed to see who could plant the most trees in one day? The Guardian tells us more.
Help on the Highway
Bystanders rushed to help after this truck flipped over. The following short video gave me good goosebumps. Better yet, hop over to Looking for the Lightwhere Melinda shares a more in-depth report for #WATWB.
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In her post about the van attack in Toronto, Linda Hill wrote about the horror of desensitization.Her thoughts added to my ongoing sense that each new report of mass violence seems to lead to more of the same. Does each new report make these tragedies seem closer to normal? Hopefully not, because this is NOT normal! It might help if we give the killers as less attention. Yes, we need to ask questions to understand the motives and to try to prevent the killings. But we should do it in a way that never glamorizes the killers. I’ll never forget the sick feeling I got when a morning news program showed us two photos of the Columbine killers. Someone decided it would be a cool effect to slowly enlarge the photos while tilting them like glam shots.
What if we didn’t show the faces of the killers at all? Don’t give any hint of false glory. Don’t make them look important to the confused. What if we just showed a blank face and barely mentioned their name?
Shooter X
We need to honor the victims, focus on the heroes, and hold up the helpers.
If more bad news brings more bad news, could more good news bring more good news?
It’s like Mr. Rogers said: “If you look for the helpers, you’ll know that there’s hope.”
Speaking of helpers and heroes, I ended up watching the movie Hacksaw Ridgewith my high school girlfriends during our reunion weekend. The movie is about Desmond Dossa medic in WW2 who was also the first conscientious objector to win the Medal of Honor. You’d think we would have watched a romantic comedy, but when Hacksaw came up in Sally’s movie channels, Terry said it was a good movie. I said I wouldn’t mind watching it. Hacksaw Ridge was an excellent and inspiring film but horribly graphic in its realistic depiction of what war can do to human bodies. It didn’t help my stomach which was already upset for some mysterious reason. Still, I’m glad I watched it.
After the movie we needed to watch a little comedy, including reruns of The Big Bang Theory, because sometimes you need something light.
Heroes are everywhere! You just have to be on the lookout.
The first thing that popped into my mind was how Dorothy liquidated the wicked witch by throwing water on her. I wish someone big would throw liquid, ie water, on the fires in California. God, please give them some of this rain we’re getting in North Carolina, even the snow my son is getting in the mountains. Just move it on over there to the west. God, we don’t need any more rain here. Please?
Those fires are horrible. I hate to think of the loss of life – human and animal. And plants- the trees. Sad. I know they will come back in other forms. Thank you to the first responders who are battling those fires. I know your adrenaline runs out after a while. My prayers are with you in the west. Sending angels with water buckets, no angels to push the clouds together, punch holes in the clouds, make it RAIN over the fires.
Well, like I hinted at, we have plenty of rain lately where I live. And it’s cold. Have to bring the plants in tomorrow. I’ve been drinking a lot of liquids since I have a cold. Lots of water which I may take for granted, and soup. I like soup anyway in the winter or fall, or any time I have a cold. I’ve had Manhattan clam chowder from a can for lunch the past two days, mixed in some garlic and kale. Last night, I had miso soup at the restaurant, and I plan to make lentil soup Sunday night. Some tomato basil would be good tonight. If I wasn’t a vegetarian (well, almost cause I did eat clam chowder) I’d have chicken soup. But that’s okay. Maybe I’ll have a smoothie for lunch. Apple cider with cinnamon. Oh, I just remembered, I have some green chai tea! I wish I could send all these liquids to California.
Calm those fires, God, give the people strength.
Here’s to the everyday heroes:
I do believe we can make it rain there in California, sooner than later.
Georgia/California/Georgia/California Rain Rain Rain California RAIN rain rain………Southern California Rain. But not floods.
For more streams of consciousness on “liqu,” visit Linda Hill’s post at:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
The good news is that Texas has an abundance of helpers. I’ve been watching rescue videos and reading about the volunteers who jumped in to help the pros rescue people and animals from dangerously high water brought by Hurricane Harvey. What strikes me is that disasters can bring out the best in people.
The following article,”The Heroes of Hurricane Harvey,” contains several inspiring videos showing people doing good:
And in this video, Abe Minor didn’t know what he was getting into when he took his jon boat out, but he persevered to help as many neighbors as he could.
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Thank you to all the rescue workers and volunteers for your dedication and courage!
Got good news? Please share! It can be global, local, or personal.
Anything is Possible! 