Awe Expansion

This little light of mine...

My sense of awe is expanding. 

Travel, the interweb, social networking sites, and the recognition that a lot of inspired people are sharing, and acting upon, a lot of great ideas are all contributing to the exponential growth of my awe.  It's like a garden of mind and spirit. "Food for Thought" security and sovereignty.
This is a compilation of some of my recent sources of inspiration  in diverse topic areas categorized broadly within:

• outside the box lifestyle,  
• sustainable living and farming, 
• growing kids  
• personal growth.   

Updated as of January 4, 2012.



Outside the Box Lifestyle


 The Betterness Manifesto- "Real change doesn't begin with governments, presidents, or prime ministers. It begins with each of us. In the 20th century, never-ending mass-marketing, monopoly, and mega-politics came together to convince us, each and every one, that we're not really free: just free enough to choose between different flavors of the same old toxic junk. It was a trick, a ploy, a television hallucination. We're the freest people in history. It's time to use it like we meant it. "


 Puttylike.com - Embrace and carve a living out of your multiple talents and interests!  What do you want to be when you grow up? Refuse to choose!

The Crisis of Credit, Visualized - an interesting, animated, explanatory 11 minute video.

Four Hour Work Week Blog  - so much out-of-the-box, pragmatic, querky, wonderment inducing information.  Love it!

Marketing for Hippies - Newsflash, capitalism can help instead of hinder! Lots of innovative ways to help conscious, green, local businesses grow. 

Shareable - sharing resources to create community, build local economies, and live better.  Check out the ''Little Free Library'' idea!  So cool!!!



Sustainable Living and Farming

Element Eco-Design- Naramata, BC.

vergepermaculture.ca-  permaculture in Calgary. Neato resource!


 Treehugger.com - a discovery company.  Transportation, design, energy, business, living.

 NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Project A wealth of information on multiple aspects of sustainable farming!

 Reinvent Everything - thought provoking blog about how we can reorganize our lives, our cities, our government for greater benefits to everyone. A blog by my good friend Jamey Coughlin, a great innovator and Nova Scotia farmer/father/civil servant!

How to Feed the World?  - Such a great, simple, enlightening video! For all those who have been asking me about food security and food sovereignty...here it is, explained simply and thoroughly. 

Let me Enlighten You  - Nothing but sun, 2 teaspoons of bleach, a 2 L pop bottle filled with water, and a film canister on top to protect the lid from the sun...and voila...the equivalent of a 50W lightbulb, no electricity required.

Hesperian Foundation- free PDF resources providing tools for community empowerment and development on health, environmental health, dentistry and many more.  Translated in English, French and Spanish.

Yurts and Tiny Houses!-  www.yurts.com , www.yurtco.com , http://tinyhouseblog.com


Growing (Healthy, Happy) Kids

Homeschooling Blog- Penelope Trunk's outspoken,  practical, sometimes conterversial point of view is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

The Innovative Educator-  really outside the box thinking on education.  Among other interesting resources, there's a downloadable book for guiding teenagers how to "opt out" (vs. drop out), of traditional, ineffective, highschool and succeed in life.


Free Range Kids- counteracting the destructive coddling so pervasive in our society.  Maybe this site can convince, and help, overprotective caretakers to loosen their grasp and get a grip!



Personal Growth

Ted Talks Brene Brown: The power of vulnerability  for awhile I self-identified as a researcher, I still identify with the banana nut muffin part, and this talk spoke to me in all kinds of other intangible ways. Powerful. video.


Ted Talks Tim Ferriss: Smash Fear, Learn Anything - a logical, effective approach to learning practically anything.  What's the worst that could happen? video.

Martha Beck, Life Coach-  Wow.  I just bought her new book, "Finding yo ur way in a wild new world" and it is knocking my knickers off.  I'm going to save up the $7000 and take her coaching course. Yes I am.