Talofa,

On behalf of the Youth Infusion Executive Team
Faafetai Lava/Nga Mihi/Kind Regards

Peter-Clinton Foaese
Youth Infusion Coordinator
Community Development, Hutt City Council
30 Laings Road, Lower Hutt
(Mob)             027-461-0376       (DDI) 570-6767
Email : youthinfusion@huttcity.govt.nz
Website:  www.huttcity.govt.nz/youthinfusion
Facebook: search ‘Youth Infusion – Hutt City Council’

‘Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers
when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants’ John W Gardner
YOUTH TRANSLATION: Don’t give youth handouts – Inspire them to achieve their aspirations through empowerment, encouragement, support and positive role modeling.
Peter Foaese
Environmental Sustainabilty Officer

Hutt City Council, 30 Laings Road, Private Bag 31912, Lower Hutt 5040, New Zealand
T 04 570 6767, M             027 461 0376      ,  W www.huttcity.govt.nz

Have you got an inspiring story to tell? Could you make a film about young Kiwis doing great stuff – making a difference in their community?! Then make a short film and enter!

CATEGORIES
There’s two categories – filmmakers of any age can enter!
1. Young Kiwis Making a Difference (2-4 Minutes)
2. Inspiring Stories Open (Over 5 Minutes)

DEADLINE: September 10th

Check the new website for submission details – www.inspiringstories.org.nz

Throughout these years I also studied to be a homeopath. I built a clinic, a sacred space to see my patients. I started making healing balms and creams with the plants I grew and with the native medicine plants (rongoa rakau) that were re-establishing themselves on this land. I now have a workshop, my whare rongoa, where I make my balms and creams and am developing a space where people can come and stay. A space where they can be cared for physically, emotionally and spiritually.

I have always held a dream for this land. Slowly it’s unfolding. Believe me when I say it hasn’t always been easy, there have been times of deepest darkest sorrow, as they say “the dark night of the soul”. I hung on, I made bargains with the Almighty. I demanded signs. I kept my word and I never gave up. I discovered only 5 years ago that I have maori ancestry through my mothers line. The pieces start to come together for me. I have always had a yearning, a restless feeling, an almost physical pain of desire for something? Always around the native medicine plants, the birds, the insects, the earth, the rivers, the mountains, the sea and seashore. I am on a trail to find my whakapapa, my ancestral line. My mother and my youngest daughter are walking with me. It seems we come from a line of healing women, and the old ones need to pass on their mana, and their knowledge of the healing arts.

I am happiest when making my balms, creams and more recently soaps in the whare rongoa. I sing my waiata into the mix as I stir and blend. They are mine, my creations and have come out of a love for the earth, the plants and the people that will use them. I grow the flowers and gather the plant material to make healing tinctures which are then infused into the creamy mixes. I have become a business woman, though one who wears a suit of green. GST, tax returns, invoices, a web-site, tweeting and facebooking are now part of my repertoire. All this would never have been achieved without encouragement and support from friends and family. My daughters are my IT instructors and I their

CHECK OUT THE HAPPYZINE GREEN DREAM LAUNCH PAD COURSE – STARTS AUG 8TH!

grateful student. My son my business mentor. And yes I had to leave my safe haven and go cold calling up and down the country to convince retailers to stock my products. Many have, and I feel blessed that I have grown a business grounded in wholistic principles.

Fifteen years ago my sister and her husband built a house and moved onto the land with their children. We are always there for each other but never intrusive. The love that we share for each other and our children is the glue that binds us. Years later we make space for my mother to move a dwelling on. We don’t realise how lonely she has become living by herself in her lovely little house only 20 minutes away. Unknowingly I had been creating the place where she would nestle. It was my “park” garden. Planted with deciduous trees producing a stunning autumn display that my mother can now enjoy from her deck. She has underplanted with shrubs and bulbs and  become an avid gardener. Planting veges and more fruit trees, keeping chooks and supplying everyone with the most glorious eggs. She makes jams, jellies and chutneys from the orchard produce. She has indeed come home.

Thanks to the  following environmentally responsible businesses for supporting Happyzine:

The Organic Green Grocer.

Nelson’s busy organic shop – healthy food, happy people, great service, caring for the environment.  Corner Tasman & Grove Streets, Nelson.  Ph 03 548 3650.

www.organicgreengrocer.co.nz

My father has just retired at eighty one years of age, and he and his wife have sold their house and purchased a motor-home. They have become gypsies and are some-time members of our community. When he arrives, my father sets to work building, pruning trees, gathering and bottling fruit and making wine. More importantly he can spend longed for time with his daughters and his grandchildren. As a child of divorced parents I learned how to be diplomatic. To love my parents simultaneously and spontaneously wasn’t always on option. And yes, things have not always been easy for my father, his wife and my mother. Here they have been provided with an environment that encourages and facilitates healing, individually and with each other. It is one of the gifts of this land and our accidental community.

Just over the road live some of my dearest friends and their four children. We are kindred spirits sharing philosophies physical and spiritual. We are blessed to god-parent each others children. Together we purchase organic produce in bulk and share our vege gardens and orchards, trying to complement what we grow. We share a yoga class together here, once a week, we meditate together. Because we love, respect and value each other above all else, any issues that come up are openly discussed and always resolved, deepening our kinship.

Over the years, so many things have changed but this land has remained a constant, nourishing everyone who comes here. It is always remarked upon, there is a quality, a sense of peace that abides here. Sometimes I wonder, is this really my dream or I am in someone/thing elses dream. It is a dream of the earth, the cycle of life, of balance, of the ties that bind all humanity as one, of love and respect, of interdependence and above all of forgiveness.
–
Tricia Curtis
+64 9 420 4121
tricia@naturallybytrisha.com

www.naturallybytrisha.com

P.O Box 251, Silverdale, Auckland, NZ

Find out how to use your raw potential, your key strengths and those skills you’ve accumulated to create your green dreams.

Meet once a week at 6pm, for ninety minutes, online, from anywhere in the world, to dream, design, strategise and launch your very own green dream.  Plus watch online videos, team up with fellow green dreamers, find a mentor and dream your way into a new or improved green project, business or career.

Course Starts: August 8th, 100% online.

You know you can have it all.  You dream of being of great service to the planet, whilst also enjoying strong financial and spiritual wealth within a vibrant, healthy, green community.  So how about we get started?

The Green Dream Launch Pad Course: how to pin-point, design, and begin the career of your green dreams.

Time commitment: one Monday evening class per week, for one month.

What legacy will you leave behind?

The Green Dream Launch Pad course starts this August! Join us now, here’s what you’ll gain:

• Walk away from this course with a Green Dream Launch pad book detailing the strategy you will use to create your very own green career or project;
• Get clear about the power of the Law of Attraction and how you can use it for the good of the planet and your community;
• Find out how to attract a mentor who will stick around to guide you to reach higher than you dreamed was possible
• Create a public presentation that will enable you to shine as you actively seek the support, collaboration and opportunities that you know are out there;
• Spend a month of Monday evenings (depending on where you live around the planet) within a highly supportive, encouraging, positive, optimistic online group culture;
• Clarify exactly what your core strengths and passions are so that you can beam them at the planet, super green hero style;
• Work confidentially within a vibrant, optimistic group to truly, deeply identify your heart’s desire as an eco-worker and make it happen;
• Set clear, specific, measurable and highly exciting green goals, including a clear three month strategy for your post-graduate phase of this course;
• Buddy up with an equally strong, passionate person who will support you unconditionally as you step way beyond your comfort zone;
• Dream big and expansive with a group of equally passionate eco-change makers;
• Dare to step up and declare your green goal to selected members of your community in a well structured, professional manner;
• Depart this course with a clear career path ahead of you, including three months of group support within a private facebook page and a ‘course buddy’;
• Set yourself up to become an established ‘green-expert’ in your field.

Course tutor: Charlotte Squire (BA SocPol and Politics), founder of the positive, green website www.happyzine.co.nz, New Zealand based positive social and environmental change maker. Charlotte has spent the past decade working for and writing about some of the world’s greenest organisations (including the Green Party, Green Peace, and BIO-GRO).  Most recently, she co-established Wild Energy (international green energy design competition) and Dream2Reality (one year’s mentoring for one green dreamer).  She is currently promoting her new ebook ‘Ten Ways to Chillax and Have Fun As You Live Your Green Dreams’ and running the most heart warming Green Dream courses ever.  Charlotte fuses a decade of experience in personal growth (NVC, Zen meditation, Re-Evaluation Counseling) with a decade of research, writing and project management in the field of positive green change to offer a multi-dimensional course that touches upon the academic and intellectual, the spiritual, the physical, and the emotional.  See more info about Charlotte here.

Guest tutors: Dr Sean Weaver, Founder of Ekodo and international environment protection agent.  And Majora Carter - Activist for Environmental Justice – watch Majora’s awe inspiring talk on the world-renowned Ted.com. Sean and Majora have each agreed to personally answer students questions via video.

Course investment: Early bird price (runs until July 29th): NZ$250; OR $300 until August 8th.  Monthly payment plan available.

Registration and payment: Students are required to pay in full, or arrange payment plan before course begins. People with New Zealand bank accounts can  can deposit their course fee into bank account:  38-9006-0747456-00.  Or email charlotte@happyzine.co.nz for a paypal invoice.

Course starts: August 8th, 2011 – one evening per week for four weeks required of students (plus homework).  Course ends August 29th.

Number on course: Fifteen to twenty people

Email: charlotte@happyzine.co.nz with your inquiries

Welcome to the next stage of your career path – welcome to your part in the green economy.

“Move slowly,

When I heard about the green dreams launch pad course, my personal life was in a bit of a turmoil to say the least. Lingering thoughts of my green dreams were overshadowed by wanting to get my personal life on track. After encouragement from Charlotte “Nothing happens without reason.” I decided to take the course. I couldn’t have made a better decision.  Meeting the others, encouraged to let my thoughts go and think big green dreams, has helped me to see how I would like the world and my life to look like.  Charlotte is truely amazing in providing support and reassurance to stick to your dreams: “One step at a time”, “Follow your heart” and “Trust the process”. After the course I feel I have made the first steps to rediscover myself and over time realise my big green dream for transforming urban transport: “Move slowly and you get there!”. Willemijn Vermaat, Green Dreams Course participant, 2011.

“The Green Dream Launch Pad course has introduced me to other wonderful green dreamers and to the wise, empathetic and inspirational Charlotte. The course has provided me with strategies to pursue and see my green dream all the way through. I often have what I think are “good ideas” but never have the courage to see them through – this course and the support from Charlotte and encouragement from my fellow green dreamers has changed that because of the enthusiasm everyone has for my idea and also all the practical advice the course as provided.” Sarah Pritchett, Green Dreams Course participant, 2011.

“It has been really good to do the green dream course with Charlotte, wonderful encouragement, insightful, very helpful structure to get things going and the support of a group of like minded green dreamers is priceless! I heartily recommend it!“  Gee Heijneman, Green Dream Course participant, 2011.

“It was just what I needed and I got so much out of it, far more than I had imagined beforehand. The strong positive encouragement and emphasis on self belief really helped …” Rebecca Toon, New Zealand – Course participant, 2010.

“Charlotte Squire is one of the most positive, enthusiastic people I know.” Anna Lakeman – Mentor Client, 2011.

Useful podcast: Listen to Charlotte Squire’s recent half-hour radio interview on Fresh FM where she talks about Happyzine, her history as a green dreamer, and the Green Dream Launch Pad Course.  Note: though Charlotte refers to the May Green Dream Launch Pad Course in this interview, the same information applies to the June course.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you please tell me how it works online – do we do it by skype? Or…? Just wondering how it is interactive? S’cuse my technological ignorance!

It works online via videos that I post up for you to watch in your own time.  We’re also using a private facebook group within which we’ll be talking right through the month and encouraging each other.  I will be asking students to ‘buddy up’ with one person, and each ‘couple’ will be asked to have a skype or phone chat once a week.  Oh and one more thing – students will also be supported to find one or more mentors to guide them into the future.   So the course is designed to inform, inspire and build community.

I don’t have a complete idea for a green career/business but know I do want to create my next career step in that direction….do I need to have something defined to do this course?

The fact that you don’t have a complete idea for a green career/business is PERFECT.  I devote most of the first session to this very issue – to helping people clarify their passions and strengths and working out how they could apply them in service of the planet.

I’m wondering though, perhaps I can attend from Australia, it all depends on how much time and which days I need to be available online. Is it a specific day of the week? And for how long during that day?

It’s only an hour and a half each week online – so here in NZ we meet 6pm – which means we all sign into an online forum.  So depending on where you’re based in Australia, you can join us at the same time, and we’ll process the information we’re working with.  So before each session I send you links to online videos I’ve recorded, none of them are longer than ten minutes, plus I put up notes for you to read at your leisure.

I think the thing that takes the longest on the course is your process of dreaming, thinking, defining and designing your unique green dream.  And that’s something you can do anytime, anywhere.  My job is to encourage, and facilitate your process of defining and launching your green project.  I just use a few tools to help along the way that have been proven to help eg  SMART goal setting – where we create specific time bound goals.

This course is designed to work around people with busy lives.

I want to participate in the above course but can only pay through VISA.  Is that a possibility for you?

Absolutely, we accept VISA via paypal.  I’ll send you an invoice and it’s an easy, simple, automated process to pay and join up.

How is the course organised?

The structure of the course is:

Week one: Dream – introduction, how the law of attraction will support your green dream, blue sky brainstorming
Week two: Design – setting specific, measurable goals
Week three: Strategise – finding a mentor, getting clear about financial goals
Week four: Launch – developing project presentations for target communities

Still have questions?  Email me: charlotte@happyzine.co.nz

New Zealand has a drinking culture that glorifies alcoholism and justifies behaviours that would otherwise be unacceptable.

New Zealand has inequality that eats at the very core of our communities; isolating the poor and hiding the rich from the reality.

New Zealand has such an entrenched culture of violence that we still find it acceptable to raise children with violence as a form of discipline and remain silent when vulnerable people are being harmed.

New Zealand is riddled with depression and mental health issues that we endorse and promote with our “she’ll be right” and “get over it” attitude.

New Zealand is driving down a road of economic disaster as we continue to rely on the very things that landed us in the mess we are in today.

New Zealand has such a disconnection from our democracy that only half our residents vote in local elections and mainstream political conversations typically revolve around “those bastards” in reference to our politicians.

New Zealand continues to exploit our environment for pathetic economic gain at the sacrifice of the very thing that once made us unique.

We acknowledge our roots by carving entrance ways, singing before an event and enjoying the odd hangi but never truly embrace or place value on our indigenous culture.

And the list continues

All of which bring us to what I believe is a scary identity crisis.

Aotearoa needs to heal.

We don’t experience our problems in isolation but I love this country and I want to focus on our issues here first.

Healing begins with forgiveness but forgiveness can only be obtained by addressing the core of an issue and for want of better words “righting the wrongs”.

Around all of our issues there is a deep and real sense of urgency to address them but we are still relying on the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

That is where I believe youth engagement brings such great value and opportunity to the table.

In my eyes youth engagement is not a nice addition or a bonus initiative. It’s an urgent and pressing opportunity that needs to be embraced with open arms in a genuine and meaningful manner.

As my good friend Yvonne Godfrey often reminds me “there is no other succession plan” and there are no second chances.

In saying that, I’d like to add my contribution to the “young people are tomorrow’s leaders” notion with this statement- young people have every right, desire and ability to be the leaders of today as well.

That statement was met with a round of applause during my recent presentation to the Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and I hope it is met with equal enthusiasm here in Aotearoa.

New Zealand must embark on a journey to heal our pains and deal with our grievances. New Zealand must embrace and empower young people to take leadership on this process.

Youth engagement is not about pushing from behind or pulling from in front. It’s about walking alongside young people on a journey that we all need to walk.

Our issues don’t paint a nice picture of Aotearoa but with our hurt and pain will only make us stronger in the long term.

To end on a relevant and positive note here is one of my favourite songs by Ruia, it’s a Maori version of Bob Marleys “One Love”

Click here to view the embedded video.

So during my hours of reading I get great ideas.  This is because many of the characters in Nora’s books are business women, with great ideas!  It’s also because I relax my brain matter. I’m writing all the ideas down … this is classic chillaxation technique at its best – relax and let the answers come to you.

Today’s rating: 8/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Check out my NEW ebook ‘Ten Ways to Have Fun and Chillax As You Live Your Green Dreams’ - how to mix positive thinking with going green to achieve fantastic results (for yourself and the planet).  Now you can ‘Like’ the facebook page ‘30 Days of Fun (and Chillaxed) Green Change – April 2011′ and reach your Green Dream along side other green-dreamers, this April 2011.

Filing my nails (to hold down guitar strings) before a performance at the Luminate eco-friendly dance festival - with a metal file from a kind man's tool kit. Image thanks to David Aupapa

As you may or may not know I’m in a way-cool rock band.  It was a total girlie band, but now a big hearted man named David has joined us for a while too – bringing his Island influences and amazing musical talents.  David is a ‘proper’ musician who has played with heaps of famous people and I’m sure this is a sign of great things to come for our way-cool rock band.

So it was that today’s most joyous moment was arriving at Anna the sexy bass player’s house, after a hot, hot day of telling people not to touch the sacred waters of Golden Bay’s Waikoropupu Springs, making really funny jokes at the totally wrong time (but privately still thinking they were funny), and listening to news of a whale stranding (ahhhh!) at Puponga.

Ahh, yes.  Arriving at Anna’s with the kai ready to eat after a half-hour run through of our green dance music set for tomorrow’s Golden Bay Mardi Gras festival was a sweet moment.  It was an ‘ahhhh now I can relax with my friends’ moment.  I hear that the Kiwi band Fat Freddies Drop are big on food and like to combine a good feed with band practice.  So I’ve decided we’ll follow in their foot steps.

Tonights meal held strong hari krishna influences, plus a hint of kiwi-ana and a dash of sophisticate (in the form of tender, tasty fish cakes).  There’s nothing better than sharing good food with people you love.

I’m experiencing a string of 10/10 days as life really is brimming over with love and joy.  I don’t know how to say it in an un-cliched way, it really is.  And there’s more greatness to come before this blog draws to and end at number 365!

Today’s rating; 10/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Check out my NEW ebook ‘Ten Ways to Have Fun and Chillax As You Live Your Green Dreams’ - how to mix positive thinking with going green to achieve fantastic results (for yourself and the planet).  Here’s the video story of this life-changing, planet loving ebook.

Up ’til now I haven’t been a Jim Carrey fan.  I mean, I enjoy some of his movies, but I’ve never purposefully sort them out.  This movie though, is a great reminder of what happens when you flow with the often unpredictable twists and turns of life.  I needed this reminder.  It reminded me not to be afraid, and to expect the best.  So Jim Carrey now stars in my new favorite movie.

I laughed out loud several times watching The Yes Man.  And believe me, I’m no cheap laugh.  It had a few delightful, fresh and funny moments sprinkled through it that for me, escalated it from: a typical enjoyable escapist American movie, to an above average, occasionally exceptionally entertaining movie.

So get on down the DVD shop right now and hire it.  Go on.  Right now!  You have to say ‘Yes’ here.

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Check out my NEW ebook ‘Ten Ways to Have Fun and Chillax As You Live Your Green Dreams’ - how to mix positive thinking with going green to achieve fantastic results (for yourself and the planet).  Here’s the video story of this life-changing, planet loving ebook.

Brown River - deep in the heart of the kahurangi National Park, on the Heaphy Track - by bdearth on flickr.com

Right!  Sweet moment of the day occurred during the morning run.  I was out with my boy and my dog and we ran down a street that gave us a panoramic view of the Kahurangi National Park (we named our son ‘Kahu’ after this range of mountains that stretch south from Golden Bay).  These green mountains ooze life and wonder and there they stretched before us looking all majestic and ancient this morning.  Often I look at the hills around my home and wish I could nip up for a quick fly-over, it being the easier option than tramping.  I do it in my dreams, so it’s a common day time impulse.  Anyway, it was a clear, blue skied day here in Golden Bay this morning and that long moment gazing up at the mountains filled me up with hope and wonder.  It’s amazing what can be found during a change of perspective from a different street isn’t it?

Today’s rating: 9/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Check out my NEW ebook ‘Ten Ways to Have Fun and Chillax As You Live Your Green Dreams’ - how to mix positive thinking with going green to achieve fantastic results (for yourself and the planet).  Here’s the video story of this life-changing, planet loving ebook.

A short note on international climate change negotiations in relation to the US mid term election result:

The international UN climate negotiations are attempting to build an agreement that will follow on from the Kyoto Protocol that ends on 31 December 2012.

Many commentators indicate that it is highly unlikely for any international agreement to be reached concerning national emission reduction targets and a global emissions cap until the US has passed Federal legislation mandating a domestic emissions reduction programme.

The US mid term election result (with the swing to the Republicans) makes it highly unlikely that Obama will be able to pass any domestic climate change mitigation legislation in this presidential term.

This may mean that the earliest likelihood of an international climate agreement at the UN is December 2013, and this in turn is dependent on Obama winning a second term, because the Republicans have shown a strong resistance to any realistic emissions reduction programme at the Federal level.

This is all exacerbated by the current state of the US economy, which is currently in a phase of

• record and unprecedented inflation
• record and unprecedented public and private debt
• record and unprecedented savings failure
• record and unprecedented demographic trends (baby boomers heading into retirement and needing to be supported by a contracting workforce)
• the likelihood of escalating oil prices
• the likelihood of a persistent downward trend in US house prices (i.e. steadily diminishing assets)
• a money supply system that is dependent on growing the economy by the interest rate annually
• unrealistic assumptions in Washington and the electorate about the ability of the US economy to grow rapidly in coming years.

Accordingly, it looks increasingly unwise to rely on international (or even domestic) policy developments to deliver realistic climate change solutions. The onus therefore is on communities, local governments, and private sector interest getting on with the task irrespective of the national and international policy processes.

Are there solutions at hand? Yes. Are they all costly? No. Are there options to reduce emissions whilst reducing costs to households and businesses? Yes. In short, a large proportion of low carbon innovations are cost-negative (i.e. they have a net positive effect on the bank balance).

What we need is a movement that gets on with this task and puts its energy into building strategic partnerships in all directions to make these things happen. It is therefore perhaps worth considering appealing to local governments, community and business interests for the implementation of initiatives that are good for the climate system and good for the economy at the same time. Successful implementation of climate solutions will help to strengthen policy options and demonstrate to governments that they can afford to adopt more ambitious national and international policy goals.

Examples of cost negative low carbon innovation:

• Energy efficiency
• Waste-to-energy (biogas, biomass electricity)
• Renewable energy generation
• Carbon forestry
• Reducing energy demand

I am working in this space and encourage others to do so as well.

Sean Weaver is the founder and host of Ekodo – a professional development life-skills programme for compassionate agents of change. He lives in Wellington. See the Ekodo Facebook group here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47683391767

Sean is also a climate change solutions consultant through his business Carbon Partnership.

However, I am now here in Nelson, shacked up with the Squire family in the midst of thousands of child cousins and various siblings plus their partners (well ok thousands is slightly exaggerating, we are a mere three families combining).   It’s gorgeously chaotic.  From the group baths (the children not the adults, though that’s an amusing thought) to the attempts to fit around the table for dinner.

Here in New Zealand it’s Labour weekend and it was a surreal feeling watching the four wheel drives with their various attached appendages (boats, horse floats etc) pouring into Golden Bay as we evacuated.

It was such a beautiful blue skied day here in the top of the south island New Zealand.  Early summer is creeping in and bringing heat and happier people and and some serious garden preparation nationwide.  Labour weekend is traditionally the time here that Kiwis get their gardens ready for action.

You know what they say, a change is as good as a holiday.  Oh that’s right, I am on holiday.  But still, it’s a change too.  And all I have done today is CHILLAXED. This behavior shall continue for two more days.  Though I do have to do a daily blog and I really miss my Happyzine work if I don’t do it, so as usual I’ll just cruise and work when I feel like it.  Yep, this is my style of work.

Gotta go, there’s a movie on and this living room is covered with women and children whilst the men talk earnestly amongst their selves else where about serious matter such as cars.

Today’s rating: 9/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Check out the story of my first ever ebook ‘Ten Ways to Have Fun and Chillax As You Live Your Green Dreams’

So I put Joanna’s article up (after telling her she’d done a great job writing it, which she seriously has).  It’s called ‘When May Embraces November, Permaculture Dreams Come True’.

Basically, Joanna and her husband Ro (both of whom I’ve blogged about before because I admire the way they’re choosing to live – I called them ‘Grandparents of Permaculture’) are starting up a new exchange between people who have been lovingly permaculturing their land over the years and those younger people who would love to manage a permaculture property, but can’t see how they could ever afford to buy the land.  Ro and Joanna are seriously looking to find the right people to leave their land to, when the time comes, and they want to help others in their position.  Amazing? Yes.  Leading edge? Well sort of – culturally, but not historically.  People have always left land for people, though usually it’s within the family.  So this time we’re talking the Permaculture Family.  Sustainability is their life, they’ve poured so much energy into their land and continue to do so, who wouldn’t want to see that carried on?

I’m deeply honoured to be hosting this exchange on Happyzine and am looking forward to seeing how Joanna steers it in the future.

Today’s rating: 8/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Check out the story of my first ever ebook ‘Ten Ways to Have Fun and Chillax As You Live Your Green Dreams’

By Charlotte Squire – Editor and Founder of www.happyzine.co.nz

Well the title pretty much says it all.

Happyzine’s going global – because the whole world needs good news.  And we need lots of it.

I am looking for new writers, from all over the world, to inspire our readers with positive and heart-felt stories about the environment and about their communities.  I’m looking for grass-roots style blogs.  I’m looking for ongoing blogs about positive change that is leading to a healthier, happier and stronger web of life, world-wide.

These will be three month, once a week volunteer positions, though there is the potential to turn your blogs into ebooks that we sell on our site and other sites world-wide. Ebooks are very ‘hot’ right now, having just surpassed the sale of the old fashioned books world-wide on Amazon.com

What’s in it for you?

Value writing experience – we will publish your work and you will be able to list Happyzine on your resume;

The chance to tell your story to a community of readers with integrity in their hearts and a fresh, green future in their minds;

The potential to turn your work into ebooks that sell world-wide.

What to do if you’re interested:

Send a sample of your writing to me: charlotte@happyzine.co.nz with a half page proposal of your weekly blog, which you’d need to be able to commit to writing once a week for at least three months.  Make sure the proposed blog is well suited to Happyzine’s style.  Make sure your spelling and grammar is great, as when you send in your blogs, if I like the story I’ll just put it straight up – I get too many stories through each day to check all the details.  Have fun with your proposal – the more personality and originality the better.  We’ll need one to three images per story.  Plus, if you write for us, we’ll need a photo of your good self and a 100 word bio.

I’ve just been at a cosy bar with my family and really, there’s no need to run.  I’m not late for anything.  There is no one chasing me.    It’s just that the urge to run overcame me.  The urge to run wild  and fast and free.  I have absolutely no idea why.  I feel as if I’m running so fast that nobody could possibly see me.  Though perhaps it’s more the sensation of being in my own world.  I’ll never forget this run home.  I feel like an eight year old girl sprinting through a field.  Only I’m a 34 year girl sprinting down the foot path.  Same sensation.  Different look.

Today’s rating:10/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Check out the story of my first ever ebook ‘Ten Ways to Have Fun and Chillax As You Live Your Green Dreams’

A quote for you:

“Since the mid 1980’s he and his 3 children have been on a powerful journey, a path to freedom, to live and eat off the grid. After 20 years of trial and error, they have become so successful that they now produce an almost inconceivable 3 tons of organic food a year from their fifth of an acre property. Along with other rather unusual suburban features, like a mini farmyard with goats, chickens, ducks and bees and a hand powered washing machine, what is even more remarkable about their urban homestead, is that it is a 15 minute drive from the centre of LA!

“If you were to visit the Dervaeses you would find yourself in an oasis of green, with every available centimetre teeming with over 350 varieties of juicy fruit and vegetables. Heirloom tomatoes, avocados, edible flowers, and giant black berries are peering out of hanging pots, growing up the fences and taking over the driveway. Once you got over the shock of seeing so much goodness squeezed into such a small space, you might wonder what initiated this phenomenal growth, and how on earth it is possible.”

Rebecca’s enthusiasm shines through, and takes my breath away.  Here’s the youtube clip relating to the family she talks about:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Today’s rating: 10/10 (so proud)

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Now for the daily report of my life – this evening I was lucky enough to get to enjoy a meal with my brother, sister, Mother and our families.  Plus our animals.  Including a chinchilla.  This also involved literally lying on top of an over excited six month old boxer dog puppy so that it would calm down.  Meanwhile our toddlers and babies shared a bath and careered around the house, screaming, laughing, fighting, crying, zooming into their parents for reassuring hugs and food, then veering off again, for another circuit.  I discovered that animals maketh my family.  They calm us.  They bring out the best in us.  They fascinate us.  Hmm, it’ll be great when one of us has a horse.

The end of today’s blog.  See you tomorrow!

Today’s rating: 9/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Just briefly, they’re already using solar, rainwater harvesting, recycling, composting, wetland ponds (nice), sheep rather than lawn-mowing, on-site waste-water reuse, and temperature monitoring.

I felt quite excited when the press release came into the Happyzine inbox about their ‘Art on a Bottle‘ competition (are you an artist? Check it out, you could win $2500), as when I heard about them on the National Programme, I immediately wanted to tell you about them.  I love a good mission.

Today’s rating: 8/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

We most definitely live in a culture where ‘rest’ is frowned upon.  I mean, come on, why take a pill for a headache so that we can ‘soldier on’, when our bodies are delivering us the pain messages that insist we simply need to relax.  And why take those strange pills that make us forget we have the flu so that we can carry on, on, on, when actually our bodies are very politely requesting us to take to our beds and enjoy a day or two of sweet slumber.  I mean, I know whey we do carry on, there are many reasons: making money being right up the top there at the top of the list, and I’m suggesting that it’s OK to rest sometimes, in fact, in the long term it’s much better for us.

As I build up Happyzine, I’m doing it with the intent to maintain life balance at the same time.  While I don’t begrudge myself the occasional days of intense work, if my son’s taken care of, in general I work at working sort of part-time around being a Mama.  I never intended for Happyzine to become a full-time job for myself, and though this intent comes at a price – perhaps Happyzine could have grown faster – the benefits are far more glorious: I get to build a close bond with my son, and I get to maintain my happiness.  This whole part-time work thing requires one key quality: patience.  Major Patience.  Closely followed by: Persistence.  Big time baby.  I think a part-time day of work is more than enough, in fact I often visualize myself reclining in the sun-shine with a smile on my face whilst money miracously appears in my bank account.  Yes, I’m setting up passive income streams.  Primarily so that I can enjoy the highly delicious aspects of life: parent-hood, holidays, breathing and eating.  Ok, the last two don’t require a passive income but you know what I’m getting at.  Serena Star-Leonard (my business coach) has just started an online business course for people who want to create this life-style, and once I achieve it, I’ll probably write an e-book about it.

Anyway, back to the now, for weeks I’ve been keeping my immune system just strong enough to keep my body healthy, despite continued signs that it needed a really good rest.  As my son lapsed into his cold, requiring much tending, I stayed well.  And I pondered the message I received just after Kahu was born, that our kid’s health are often a reflection of our own health.  While I didn’t join my son in his deeply snotty state, I continued to feel the need for more rest then usual, and not just a sleep-in (though that would have been grand!), more along the lines of a deep, slumberous hibernation.

And then yesterday was melt-down day for me, I watched my thoughts becoming less and less rational and I couldn’t seem to figure out how to return them to their usual state.  I kept snapping at my beautiful, much adored son, and then apologizing profusely.  This was a sure sign that I needed to slow down. I diligently turned up for playcentre duty (after a night of tending to my coughing son, at the highly unsociable hour of 9.30) and found that people kept looking at me sympathetically and taking over my chores.  Then I looked at myself in the mirror and saw a droopy faced, red eyed lady, who could have sworn she looked perfectly normal but in fact looked as if she’d just gotten out of bed, even though it was nearly mid-day.

So today, son safety with father, I took to the soft, safe haven of my bed and dreamed for hours and hours.  I was in and out of all number of strange situations that made perfect sense in the dream state and not much sense when awake.  I’m not one of those people who sleep that easily in the day, I generally want to be ‘catching up’ on all manner of tasks.  So when I got a good four hours in, I was impressed.  And now I feel much better, and am relishing a good feed of fruit.

Congratulations Rebecca May on the birth of your daughter and I wish you all a long, relaxing sleep.

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Here’s the recipe:

1 Cup raw salad greens

1 half Cup berries

1 ripe banana

2 Kiwifruit (or any other ripe fruit you’d like to add)

1 Teaspoon Spirilina powder

1 Cup water

Instructions

Blend the whole lot in your smoothie maker and consume!

These types of raw food smoothies, which you get very creative with, are a wonderful way to energize and fill up on live food.  As someone who loves the feeling of having just eaten a good salad but is very lazy about preparing them, these smoothies are an ideal way to eat raw greens, easily, quickly and most importantly deliciously!

Today’s rating: 8/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Media statement
For release: 19 August 2010

Residents have their say on “Taxi-bus”

Warkworth residents are being surveyed on a Taxi-bus service to see if this could be a solution to the lack of public transport in the area.
The survey has been prepared by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) and Rodney District Council (RDC), in conjunction with Hikurangi Foundation who initiated the idea for such a service.

Hikurangi Foundation’s project manager, Bevan Woodward of Warkworth is impressed with the willingness of ARTA and RDC to investigate the possibility of such a service.  Woodward says:

“Traditional bus services working to fixed routes generally don’t work well in rural areas due to the small and dispersed populations, hence
our interest in a Taxi-bus service.  I’ve recently visited a number of Taxi-bus operators in Europe who are providing cost-effective and
convenient door-to-door public transport.  We’d like to find out if such a service is viable in the Warkworth region, so we are grateful for ARTA and RDC’s involvement and encourage all residents to take a few minutes to fill in the Taxi-bus survey.”

“We expect that if the Taxi-bus trial goes ahead, it will be as easy as making a phone call or texting to request a ride.  Such a service will
assist the residents in the Warkworth area who are unable to drive, such as the elderly or teenagers, and also provide an option to tourists who appreciate the convenience of good public transport whilst reducing their carbon footprint.”

The survey is being delivered to 7,000 households in the Warkworth area and is also available online at www.maxx.co.nz/network-developments.html Completed surveys should be mailed using the Freepost address by Friday September 3rd.  Everyone who completes a survey goes into the draw to win a $300 New World shopping voucher.