From the Publisher

1. COMING HOME: Tree people tend to reach out, listen more

   This year is the International Year of the Tree. Why is this significant? According to Diana Beresford-Kroeger and Jean Shinoda Bolen, how we care for our trees could determine whether we survive, not only as a species but as a planet.

   For instance, did you know that old-growth forests function as intelligent, co-operative communities? Through their intricate network of roots, mature trees support and communicate with each other.

   When one tree suffers, nearby trees send out specific chemical nutrients to strengthen the tree’s weakened immune system. When the ailing tree recovers or dies, the other trees immediately know, and stop sending support.

   In her latest book, Like a Tree: How Trees, Women, and Tree People can Save the Planet, Ms Shinoda Bolen identifies some people as tree people, while others are not.

   Read the article . . .

2. Arizona’s Dina Preston Band “Ambassadors of Goodwill”
   

   Who does the US Embassies & the Pentagon call for entertainment? Arizona's Dina Preston Band "Ambassadors of Goodwill". Here's their video tribute to our men & women in uniform who are in harms-way everyday. I love these guys they are some of my favorite people doing really "good stuff!!!

3. Freedom Riders
   

   It’s the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Riders, the young courageous men and women, Black and White, who risked their lives to end segregation. Many young college students today will be re-creating that ride as they stand up to validate what these people did to establish the freedoms we all have today.

   PBS will be airing an amazing documentary on May 16, called “The Freedom Rides”. It's worth the watch!

4. The Arizona Organizing Project

   

   I am at a local coffee house for a meeting with the AZ Local Food Economy roundtable and who do I run into? Two incredible community leaders changing the paradigm of chronic poverty in Phoenix - George Roundy and Scott Jacobson - the project - The Arizona Organizing Project. AZOP works with people currently living in chronic poverty to develop their skills and exercise their power, while supporting their efforts to take collective action to shape their own destiny. The lives of people living in chronic poverty are increasingly dominated by social service agencies and these people often feel that the agencies are not accountable to them. Peer groups of people living in chronic poverty associated with specific social service providers need to form and work together with the providers to become a new effective interactive community.Check it out - go visit their facility!

5. Future Outcomes - Deliberate Creation

   We want you to come to know the most important aspect of any journey is the emotional aspect, for if you are aware of how you feel, and are able to affect those feelings DELIBERATELY, then (and only then) will you have conscious control of all future outcomes of your life experience. We call this Deliberate Creation.
   
   - Abraham-Hicks