Is the Weather too Cold for City Workers?

Well it's finally happened. The weather has taken its toll in Chicago.

For the last month workers have been tearing up my street to replace 100 year old sewer pipes. For the most part the weather has been mild. But recently we've had some extremely cold temperatures and several inches of snow, blizzard conditions.







This has proven to be too much for a few of the workers on my block. It may be days, even weeks before they thaw out! If you can identify these workers please let their families know they are here, on Bernard Street and hopefully they will be home soon.

Construction Snowpeople care of my Mom, who lives across the street from me.

Feel Revitalized with Solay Wellness

Have you ever visited the ocean and felt energized or gone deep inside a forest and felt you could breath easier? That is what is feels like when you walk into the new Solay Wellness Company (Solay) store on Main Street in Skokie. And there’s a reason why.

I visited with Isabella Samovsky, Owner and Founder of Solay (est. 2004), and she explained how pure mineral salt is important for health and wellness and how she decided to start her company seven years ago.

When Isabella saw her first natural salt lamps she was attracted to it immediately. Always interested in natural products and wellness, she brought her salt lamp home and decided this was a product and idea worth sharing.

Natural salt lamps help with all sorts of respiratory ailments from asthma to non-seasonal allergies. Most Solay salt lamps are made from the Himalayan salt beds from one of the oldest and purest mineral salt beds in the world. Their customers report improved breathing and immune system function, and an enhanced sense of well being from regular use.

I can attest to the immediate effects of Solay’s pure ionizing salt as my hay-fever symptoms stopped only a few minutes after I walked into the store. But today Solay is about more than salt lamps and that makes sense with Isabella’s sense of community and empowerment. Isabella has created Solay Lifestyle, an array of products made exclusively for Solay with pure ingredients and mineral salts for cooking, cleaning, beauty and health. She has also worked with artisans from around the world to bring additional products that share the same high quality and intentions as her salt lamps.

The storefront includes three spaces and offers more than products:

• a retail space where you can sample and test products
• a large community space for events, yoga, workshops, drum circles and more, and
• the most amazing salt room with salt tiles on the floor. This room offers salt treatments from foot beds to whole body beds where you can relax, detox and energize with mineral salt crystals cut in special geometric shapes for the most beneficial results (I tried the foot bed and the effects where instantaneous).

Solay is more than great products - it’s an experience.

For information on upcoming events please visit the Solay Blog. Solay Wellness is located at 4819-21 W. Main Street in Skokie. They can be reached at 847.676.5571; 866.497.0274 or info@natural-salt-lamps.com. 

 

Originally published for Mindful Metropolis.

 

Alexandra Gnoske is an Environmental Expert. She is the Author/Illustrator of "Loui Saves the Earth" and Founder of RECYCLE ME.

FOOD DAY 2011

Food Day is Monday, October 24, 2011. It is the first annual and is already gaining support from people and organizations all over the country.

What is FOOD DAY? It is an organization that seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way.

The 6 Food Day principles are:
1. Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy food;
2. Support sustainable farms & limit subsidies to big agribusiness;
3. Expand access to food and alleviate hunger;
4. Protect the environment & animals by reforming factory farms;
5. Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids;
6. Support fair conditions for food and farm workers.

Food Day was created by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The Center is a consumer advocacy organization whose twin missions are to conduct innovative research and advocacy programs in health and nutrition, and to provide consumers with current, useful information about their health and well-being.

There are events happening all over the country. But why should you care about Food Day?

• Currently is costs much less to feed your family a diet of junk food than one of whole foods, fruits, and vegetables (due in part to subsidies);
• There is no law to label foods with GMO's;
• Two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are overweight or obese;
• A healthy diet can lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood sugar, and prevent everything from tooth decay and obesity to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer;
• Just 10 percent of large farms rake in 74 percent of direct subsidies – with the top recipient getting $4.8 million in 2009. Most of that aid goes to growers of just five crops: corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, and rice;
• Over-fertilization of farm fields results in polluted rivers and streams, as well as "dead zones" as in the Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay.

Eating healthy and healthy farming should be a right, not a privilege. 

You can learn more at a local Food Day event - participate, or even hold your own event.

Check out these local events:
Mindful Mouthfuls - October 22/23 in Elgin, IL
Find a Local Event

Alexandra Gnoske is an Environmental Expert. She is the Author/Illustrator of "Loui Saves the Earth" and Founder of RECYCLE ME.

Counting My Blessings - One Pumpkin at a Time

So Peace Day, Peace Week and Gandhi's birthday are over, but I'm still counting my blessings, big and small (a lot has been happening).

Something that may not seem like much has brought a lot of joy for me and my kids. Earlier in June we discovered a "volunteer" pumpkin plant in our little Chicago backyard.

Volunteer pumpkin plant spreading through our back yard.

It's a volunteer because we didn't intentionally plant it. It's origins probably come from an old Halloween pumpkin I threw in the garden to decompose a few years ago. Amazing how life is patient and persistent.

My kids and I would check on the plant regularly with anticipation. We didn't know what kind of pumpkins would show up. I thought they would be small since I usually put the large pumpkins in  the front garden to decompose.

It took a while - and spread a lot - before we saw the first pumpkin take hold. We could tell it was going to be big. And it grew quite fast. We had a lot of fun checking on it and wandering around to see if anything else was growing - but no such luck.

Then one day the big round pumpkin started turning orange! That was a great day of excitement. Why? I don't know if I can really answer this - for me I just love the outdoors and I love to watch life happen. I'm not sure why the kids liked it so much. I suppose it's a little adventure in the backyard - I remember having lots of fun in my backyard as a kid - so why not?

About the same time we could see that two other pumpkins started to grow. Was it a miracle? (Did I mention I have 3 kids?). My son, 5 years old and the youngest, immediately proclaimed the big orange one was his. Fortunately for me - I had a pumpkin for each kid.

This Sunday I hacked down the large pumpkin vine that had taken over a third of my yard, growing over my tomatoes, knocking over my wildflowers. But it was time. We put the three large pumpkins out in front for Halloween. Not sure if I can bring myself to carve them.

Even luckier though - additional small blessings - my brother had volunteer pumpkins in his yard...about 20 or so, not miniature, but a smaller version. So to our delight we ended up with three more.

I don't know why it was such a thrill - but there is so much satisfaction in the experience of watching something grow, change, and come to fruition. A miniature life-cycle in my very own backyard. And to share that thrill with my kids, to watch them get excited about growing pumpkins, well, that is a big blessing to me. After all, what joy is there in life if you cannot share?

Peace - and so it continues

2nd-5th graders Riverview Int'l Academy, Lakeside, CA.

I learned something new last week. International Day of Peace, or Peace Day, is celebrated not only on September 21st, but continues until October 2nd, the birth date of Mahatma Gandhi. So you have several more days to join the world in focusing on peace!

I've been obsessing about peace this week. I check the International Day of Peace Facebook page every morning and every evening. I figured I can get my world news from there as people from all over the world are posting. And it's a great way to stay focused on peace. What a wonderful thing - connecting with people from around the world who share a similar goal of peace - the power of the internet and Facebook.

What do I think will happen by continuously checking the FB page? I'm not entirely sure.

Byron Bay Australia

I know that when I read the stories of peace, hope and love from around the world it makes me feel good. Then I am in a good mood and take that with me, to my family, to work...when I look at it at night I go to bed with a calm feeling in my heart. I am thinking of the stories and the faces.

But am I accomplishing anything?

On the one hand I am leading a healthier life. Stress kills - or at least weakens our immune system. I am hoping for something more then just a healthier life. I'd like to think that all my thoughts of peace are little vibrations I am sending out to the universe.

You know what it feels like when someone smiles at you, or holds the door, or does anything courteous - you feel better for a little while. It goes away. But if it keeps happening, people keep smiling and acknowledging you as a fellow human being, you keep feeling good, happy, and passing it on.

UN Chapel - International Day of Peace

So I'm hoping my new found obsession with peace is causing continuous vibrations of happiness, emanating out to the world around me, from the people I pass on the street, to the people I connect with online. Take a moment to create some peace in you and see what happens.

"May there be Peace between and within all People, Animals and Nature so that we live in balance, harmony and sacred interconnectedness with one another and with Gaia."