karmasherpa.com

Shop Local

Good Karma — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:35:09 +0000

Radiohead and MTV video.
Look at where the products you are considering buying are made, and how we could change peoples lives by supporting healthy local economies instead of child labor, big oil tankers, big rigs all over our highways, minumun wage employment.

When you and your family gather together this year, don’t get caught up in the fatal frenzy of consumerism. Pledge to celebrate Christmas differently. Re-evaluate what really matters and replace the plethora of impersonal gifts with something more meaningful: spending time with each other, cooking and crafting, and if you must buy something, support your local businesses.

it must be homegrown

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:52:39 +0000

If in your thoughts you see something beyond where you are, if you see a dream, a goal, or an aspiration that others would think impossible, you may have to hold it. Sometimes you may have to hide it, and most of the time you will have to water it as a farmer waters his crops to sustain the life in them. Just know that whenever your children, your friends, or anyone else comes to the table of your wisdom, you can only feed them what you have grown in your own fields. Your wisdom is so flavorful and its texture so rich that it cant be store bought; it must be homegrown.

Naked and Not Ashamed, T.D. James

Healthy Pet Food

Good Karma — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:48:58 +0000

Comparison of Popular Dog Food Brands

Flint River Ranch Super Premium Health Food for Dogs

Iams Chunks

Eukanuba Adult Maintenance Formula

PETsMART Premier Oven Baked Chicken Recipe – Adult

Science Diet Canine Maintenance Original Formula

Ingredients

Chicken Meal
Wheat Flour
Ground Rice
Lamb Meal
Chicken Fat (preserved naturally with tocopherols)
Ground Wheat
Dried Whole Eggs

Lecithin

Fish meal
Brewer’s Dried Yeast

Wheat Germ Meal

Dried Kelp

Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal

Minerals

Vitamins

Ingredients

Chicken
(1) Corn Meal
Ground Grain Sorghum
(2) Chicken By-Product Meal
Ground Whole Grain Barley

Fish Meal
Chicken Fat (preserved naturally)
Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed)
Natural Chicken Flavor
(3) Dried Egg Product

Brewer’s Dried Yeast Minerals

Vitamins

Ingredients

Chicken
(2) Chicken By-Product Meal
Ground Grain Sorghum

Ground Whole Grain Barley

Fish Meal

Chicken Fat (preserved naturally)

Brewer’s Rice
(4) Natural Chicken Flavor
Dried Beet Pulp
(3) Dried Egg Product

Minerals

Vitamins

Ingredients

Chicken
Wheat Flour
Rice Flour
Chicken Meal
(1) Corn Gluten meal
Canola Oil
(3) Dried Egg Product
Dicalcium Phosphate
(1) Corn Oil
Wheat Bran

Ingredients

Chicken
(1) Corn Meal
Ground Grain Sorghum
Ground Wheat
(2) Chicken By-Product Meal
Brewer’s Rice
(5) Soybean Meal
Animal Fat (preserved with (6) BHA, Propyl Gallate and Citric Acid)
Natural Flavor
Vegetable Oil

(3) Dried egg product

Flax Seed (preserved with (6) BHT and beta-carotene)

Minerals

Vitamins

Guaranteed
Analysis

Protein
Fat
Fiber
Moisture

23.0%
12.0%
4.0%
10.0%

Guaranteed
Analysis

Protein
Fat
Fiber
Moisture

26.0%
15.0%
4.0%
10.0%

Guaranteed
Analysis

Protein
Fat
Fiber
Moisture

25.0%
16.0%
5.0%
10.0%

Guaranteed
Analysis

Protein
Fat
Fiber
Moisture

25.0%
14.0%
3.0%
10.0%

Guaranteed
Analysis

Protein
Fat
Fiber
Moisture

21.5%
13.0%
3.0%
10.0%

(1) Corn Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Corn Oil: Corn is indigestible to dogs, due to their short intestine.

(2) Chicken By-Product: Ingredients listed as animal by-products are not required to include actual meat. Chicken by-products may include intestine, chicken heads, feathers, bone, beaks, and feet.

(3) Dried Egg Product: Ingredients listed as ‘product’ may include an unspecified part of the product. In this case, egg product may include eggshells, and may also not include any egg whites.

(4) Natural Chicken Flavor: Any flavor added reflects the lack of flavor in the main food ingredients.

(5) Soybean Meal: Filler product of little to no nutritional value to dogs.

(6) BHA/BHT: Chemical preservatives that have been banned for human use in many countries. They are still allowed for use in pet foods in the U.S.

Flint River Ranch Is Less Expensive To Use!

Did you know it’s also less expensive to feed your pets Flint River Ranch Dog Food or Cat Food? The graph below illustrates the lower feeding cost provided by Flint River Ranch foods compared to the costs of using other leading premium pet foods. (Note that food prices may vary from location to location.)

Our family has been using Flint River Ranch pet food for years, and we highly recommend it. They make dog food, cat food, and cat and dog treats.

Masaru Emoto, love, and water.

Good Karma — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:22:47 +0000

How water structure reflects our consciousness

by WellnessGoods.com

Water has a very important message for us. Water is telling us to take a much deeper look at our selves. When we do look at our selves through the mirror of water, the message becomes amazingly, crystal, clear. We know that human life is directly connected to the quality of our water, both within and all around us.

The photographs and information in this article reflect the work of Masaru Emoto, a creative and visionary Japanese researcher Mr. Emoto has published an important book, “The Message from Water” from the findings of his worldwide research If you have any doubt that your thoughts affect everything in, and around you, the information and photographs that are presented here, taken from the book of his published results, will change your mind and alter your beliefs, profoundly.

How the molecular structure of water is affected…

From Mr. Emoto’s work we are provided with factual evidence, that human vibrational energy, thoughts, words, ideas and music, affect the molecular structure of water, the very same water that comprises over seventy percent of a mature human body and covers the same amount of our planet. Water is the very source of all life on this planet, the quality and integrity are vitally important to all forms of life. The body is very much like a sponge and is composed of trillions of chambers called cells that hold liquid. The quality of our life is directly connected to the quality of our water.

Water is a very malleable substance. Its physical shape easily adapts to whatever environment is present. But its physical appearance is not the only thing that changes, the molecular shape also changes. The energy or vibrations of the environment will change the molecular shape of water. In this sense water not only has the ability to visually reflect the environment but it also molecularly reflects the environment. Mr. Emoto has been visually documenting these molecular changes in water by means of his photographic techniques. He freezes droplets of water and then examines them under a dark field microscope that has photographic capabilities. His work clearly demonstrates the diversity of the molecular structure of water and the effect of the environment upon the structure of the water.

Discover how each source has an effect on the visual photographed structure…

Snow has been falling on the earth for more than a few million years. Each snowflake, as we have been told, has a very unique shape and structure. By freezing water and taking a photograph of the structure, as Mr. Emoto has done, you get incredible information about the water.

Mr. Emoto has discovered many fascinating differences in the crystalline structures of water from many different sources and different conditions around the planet. Water from pristine mountain streams and springs show the beautifully formed geometric designs in their crystalline patterns. Polluted and toxic water from industrial and populated areas and stagnated water from water pipes and storage dams show definitively distorted and randomly formed crystalline structures.

Sanbu-ichi Yusui Spring water,	Japan Shimanto River referred to as the last clean stream in Japan	Antarctic Ice
Fountain in Lourdes, France	Biwako Lake, the largest lake at the center of Japan and the water pool of the Kinki Region. Pollution is getting worse.	Yodo River, Japan, pours into the Bay of Osaka. The river passes through most of the major cities in Kasai.
Untreated Distilled Water	Fujiwara Dam before offering a prayer	Fujiwara Dam after offering a prayer

With the recent popularity in music therapy, Mr. Emoto decided to see what effects music has on the structuring of water. He placed distilled water between two speakers for several hours and then photographed the crystals that formed after the water was frozen.

Beethoven’s Pastorale

Tibet Sutra

Kawachi Folk Dance

After seeing water react to different environmental conditions, pollution and music, Mr. Emoto and colleagues decided to see how thoughts and words affected the formation of untreated, distilled, water crystals, using words typed onto paper by a word processor and taped on glass bottles overnight. The same procedure was performed using the names of deceased persons. The waters were then frozen and photographed.

Heavy Metal Music	You Make Me Sick, I Will Kill You	Adolph Hitler
Thank You	Love and Appreciation	Mother Teresa

Energized water has had its molecules returned to their original life-giving, super moisturizing state. This allows maximum moisture absorption into the cells of your body, pets and plants; a major key to healing, and the maintenance of health and vitality.Dr. Emoto has revealed to the world the power of water’s vibration. Take the next step and bring this transformation into your life and into your part of the world by naturally structuring your water. To learn more about transforming water.

These photographs show the incredible reflections of water, as alive and highly responsive to every one of our emotions and thoughts.
It is quite clear that water easily takes on the vibrations and energy of it’s
environment, whether toxic and polluted or naturally pristine.Masaru Emotos extraordinary work is an awesome display, and powerful tool, that can change our perceptions of ourselves and the world we live in, forever. We now have profound evidence that we can positively heal and transform ourselves and our planet by the thoughts we choose to think and the ways in which we put those thoughts into.

This article was written and published by Wellness Goods, where you can also order books written by Masaru Emoto. Photographs in this article are from “The Messages from Water” written and copyright protected by Masaru Emoto.

Chocolate…

Good Karma — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:17:25 +0000

From stopping you coughing, reducing your blood pressure or making you happy, chocolate really is the food of Gods. Here’s our top 10 things you didn’t know about chocolate…

	Chocolate stops a cough. If you’re suffering from winter colds and flus, take comfort in the fact that eating chocolate can help combat persistent coughing. Studies have revealed that the alkaloid theobromine found in chocolate can be better than codeine, frequently used in leading cough medicines, to stop a cough.
	Chocolate is less addictive than coffee. Contrary to popular belief, chocolate is not high in caffeine and instead contains mild amounts. You would have to eat ten chocolate bars to get the same amount of caffeine as you find in a single cup of coffee.
	Chocolate can reduce your blood pressure. Dark chocolate is high in flavonoids – found in the skin of cacao beans as well as grapes and citrus fruits. These antioxidant-rich compounds have been found to have beneficial cardiovascular properties and can reduce blood pressure – but it must be dark chocolate.
	Handmade chocolate can be healthier. Antioxidant properties can be superior in artisan-produced chocolate – such as brands like Booja Booja – than factory produced. A recent study showed this was probably due to the better preserving of bioactive components in the cacao beans with artisan-made chocolate.
	Chocolate fights fatigue. Cacao beans have been used for centuries to make drinks, like today’s hot chocolate. One bitter and spicy drink, called Xocoatl by the Mayas and Aztecs, was often used to fight fatigue. The energy boost is usually attributed to theobromine and explains those late afternoon cravings for a chocolate bar.
	Chocolate is better sucked. Chocolate starts to melt at 34 degrees C – the temperature of the human body – explaining why it deliciously and harmoniously melts in your mouth improving the chocolate-eating sensation.
	Chocolate makes you happy, but won’t make you feel ‘in love’. It is well known that eating chocolate both affects levels of serotonin in the brain and stimulates the hypothalamus producing pleasurable effects, but previous studies that thought eating chocolate could mimic feelings of being in love – attributed to the occurance of phenylethylamine – have since been disproved.
	Too much chocolate can reduce your sex drive. The downside of chocolate affecting the pleasure-inducing serotonin is that too much serotonin can be converted to melatonin, which reduces the sex drive. Another reason to consume everything in moderation.
	Chocolate is sensitive. Look after your chocolate with care. Storing it next to strong flavours such as bananas can impair the flavour as it easily absorbs odours. For perfection, store it between 15 and 17 degrees C and keep it in the dark. Extreme temperatures can change the texture and if you place it in the fridge without wrapping, it can develop white blotches.
	Cultivation of cacao is 500 years old than first thought. Although the use of cacao has been known to date to ancient civilizations, last year archaeologists found evidence to push the date of the oldest known cultivation back 500 years in Honduras to somewhere between 1100 and 1400 BC. A food grown for so long really has to be good.

Wear Your Love Like Heaven

Good Karma — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:58:12 +0000

Wear Your Love Like Heaven is a song and US-single by Donovan, released in 1967. It became the opening title of his double album “A Gift from a Flower to a Garden“. Chart positions were #23 (USA).
The song was featured in the Eau De Love (by Menley and James) fragrance commercial in the early 1970s that featured Ali MacGraw.
It also was featured in Weekend at Burnsie’s, a 13th season of The Simpsons.
They Might Be Giants covered this song as a spoken word piece.
The song was recorded by Sarah McLachlan on her 1991 album Solace.
The song mentions several colors including Prussian blue, Alizarin crimson (Rose madder), Havana Lake (a dark brown, possibly purple), and Rose carmethene.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lyrics
Colour in sky prussian blue
Scarlet fleece changes hue
Crimson ball sinks from view

Wear your love like heaven (wear your love like)
Wear your love like heaven (wear your love like)
Wear your love like heaven (wear your love)

Lord, kiss me once more
Fill me with song
Allah, kiss me once more
That I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven (wear my love like)
Wear my love like heaven (wear my love)
La, la, la-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la

Colour sky havana lake
Colour sky rose carmethene
Alizarian crimson

Wear your love like heaven (wear your love like)
Wear your love like heaven (wear your love like)
Wear your love like heaven (wear your love)

Can I believe what I see
All I have wished for will be
All our race proud and free

Wear your love like heaven (wear your love like)
Wear your love like heaven (wear your love like)
Wear your love like heaven (wear your love)

Lord, kiss me once more
Fill me with song
Allah, kiss me once more
That I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven (wear my love like)
Wear my love like heaven (wear my love)

Mandala

Good Karma — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:34:14 +0000

Exploring the posibilities with Mandalas. Many have made cool programs to create and animate mandalas. I am coming up with something else. Stay in touch. Love, Good Karma.

Greg Gordy

Cool Software to create your own

Mandala Painter 3
Greg gordy

Purple Flower Image

Good Karma — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:46:20 +0000

Now you can see what you are getting. The text is small, so it wont be read until someone is very close to you. Otherwise, it just looks like a spiral. Click on it to open and even larger PDF file in a new window. More design and more products added daily! Subscribe on the left to get updated when new products arrive and for special saving on sales.

You can see the shirts for men and women with this art.

Spiral and Flower

The 12 Best Fruits

Good Karma — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:50:48 +0000

Next time you’re at the supermarket debating whether to pay more for a pint of organic strawberries than you do for your lunch — or deciding if you should choose that wilted organic celery over the crisp green conventional stalks — you might want to refer to the Environmental Working Group’s new wallet-size Shoppers’ Guide. The not-for-profit group lists the “Dirty Dozen” (the 12 fruits and veggies that are the most contaminated with pesticides) and the “Cleanest 12? (those that generally have the lowest amounts of pesticides).

There have been some ratings revisions since the last Guide came out in October 2003. For instance, carrots are off the “bad” list now but lettuce is on it. Cauliflower has fallen from grace but cabbage has made the cut and is now on the “good list.” Here are the full lists.

The “Dirty Dozen” (starting with the worst) Remember this is only if you are buying not organic

peaches
apples
sweet bell peppers
celery
nectarines
strawberries
cherries
pears
grapes (imported)
spinach
lettuce
potatoes

The “Cleanest 12 (starting with the best)

onions
avocados
sweet corn (frozen)
pineapples
mangoes
asparagus
sweet peas (frozen)
kiwi fruit
bananas
cabbage
broccoli
papaya

To come up with its rankings, the Environmental Working Group looked at the results of close to 43,000 tests for pesticides on produce by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A computer analysis by the EWG found that consumers could reduce their pesticide exposure by nearly 90 percent by avoiding the most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead. People who eat the “Dirty Dozen” will be exposed to an average of 15 different pesticides per day, says Richard Wiles, executive director of the Environmental Working Group, while eating from the “Cleanest 12? means you’ll be exposed to less than two pesticides per day. So if produce from the “Dirty Dozen” is on your menu, it makes sense from a health standpoint to choose organic.

Of course, health concerns aren’t the only reasons people choose organic foods. It takes an enormous amount of fuel to make synthetic fertilizers, explains Wiles. “Conventional agriculture is very energy inefficient,” he says.

On the other hand, costly and polluting fuel is required to transport both conventional and organic fruit and vegetables from farms to grocery stores — produce is often shipped to the U.S. from as far away as New Zealand. So does this mean you’re better off eating a locally grown nonorganic apple than an organic one from the other side of the world? Perhaps the solution, Wiles says, is to encourage local farmers to start growing organic crops. For example, begin by asking farmers whether they used pesticides on their apples, Wiles advises. “The more that local production can be moved toward organic, the better,” he says.Meanwhile, even if you can’t always afford or find organic produce, there are steps you can take to get rid of some of the pesticides on conventional produce. Since washing reduces pesticides by anywhere from one third to one half, thoroughly scrub and rinse everything, even produce that will be peeled. Then consider making yourself a pesticide-reduced dinner tonight.How does a menu of Guacamole, Tropical Fruit Salsa, and Cilantro-Lime Chicken Fajitas with Grilled Onions sound?

Sources: epicurious.com; ewg.org

Have an Eco-Friendly Christmas

Good Karma — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:09:19 +0000

Than you Debra for this great list. If you like this, you will love Alyssa’s book.

Debra’s “Holiday” List

Here are some ways to benefit your health and the environment all through the holiday season.

Christmas Trees

Yes, there are organically-grown Christmas trees. It’s one of those things you can’t order on the Internet, but you can find locally in some areas. Plus, learn all about the history of holiday trees, how to choose a tree, and how to decorate it in a meaningful and eco-friendly manner.

Find local organic Christmas Trees and Wreaths…
Learn more about Christmas Trees…
Our Visit to the Christmas Tree Farm…

Holiday Lights

Save energy and reduce your carbon footprint by decorating with energy-efficient LED lights.

Shope the largest selection of LED holiday lights online…

Greeting Cards

Send holiday greetings with cards made of recycled paper, or ecards. Plus many more tips about making and sending holiday greetings.

Learn more about greeting cards…

Gift-Giving

Start by reading “About Holiday Gift-Giving” for tips on giving gifts that go beyond what you can hold in your hand.

Shop local to keep your dollars circulating in your own community. I especially love to give gifts made by local craftspeople from local materials.

Give copies of my books Home Safe Home and Really Green, or books on natural living from Debra’s Bookstore

For gift ideas, browse the list of gift websites and green gift services. The services will help you choose gifts, package them up in gorgeous baskets and boxes, and ship them to your families, friends, and business associates. Even high-end luxury gifts now have environmental benefits. There’s something for every taste and budget, from the simple to the luxurious.

Browse Debra’s List for more gift ideas.

Gift Wrap

Wrap up your holiday gifts with recycled paper wrap, handmade recycled paper gift bags, or reusuable fabric gift bags. Learn how you can reduce, reuse, and recycle as you wrap–and unwrap–your gifts.

Shop for Gift Wrap…
Learn more about Gift Wrap…

Candles

Carry the light through the darkest days with natural beeswax, soy, palm, and bayberry candles.

Shop for Candles…

Sugar-free Holiday Sweets

This year I have over thirty recipes for your favorite holiday treats made with natural sweeteners. Choose from candies and confections, cookies, pies, cheesecake, plus eggnog, succulent dried-fruit fruitcake, and almost a dozen cooked and raw cranberry sauces and relishes–all made without refined white sugar or artificial sweeteners.

And if that isn’t enough, I’ve got almost over 200 more recipes for cakes and frostings, chocolates, custards, fruit desserts, ice creams, pastries, puddings, quick breads, sauces, and more…sweetened with agave nectar, barley malt syrup, brown rice syrup, date sugar, evaporated cane juice, fruit spreads, honey, maple syrup, stevia, vegetable glycerin or xylitol.

Browse holiday recipes made with natural sweeteners
See more recipes at SweetSavvy.com

The Natural Origins of Holiday Traditions

Why do we kiss under the mistletoe? When are the Twelve Days of Christmas? What’s Santa Claus all about? Where do Christmas carols come from? Learn the answers to these questions and more as you explore the roots of some of our holiday traditions, and bring more meaning into your holiday celebrations.