2018

In This Issue:

• COMING 5/15--PREVIEW NOW--SLW! Podcast Episode 112: Susan Taylor, Part 3, of Just Money Advisors on her new book 'What About Our Money?' on Giving and Investing
• COMING 5/1--PREVIEW NOW--TCGP Episode 95: Susan Taylor, Part 2, of Just Money Advisors on her new book 'What About Our Money?' on Matters of the Heart
• NEW--SLW! Podcast Episode 111: Susan Taylor, Part 1, of Just Money Advisors on her new book 'What About Our Money?' about wrestling with systems
• TCGP Episode 94: Health Care for All Calif.
• SLW! Episode 110: Transformational Educator Mark A. Burch, Author of "The Hidden Door: Mindful Sufficiency as an Alternative to Extinction;" "Stepping Lightly: Simplicity for People and the Planet" and "The Simplicity Exercises: A Sourcebook for Simplicity Educators." "Euterra Rising: The Last Utopia" is his debut novel.
• Jerry's Guide: Where to Get Books
• TCGP Episode 93: Don Hall of TransitionUS
• SLW! Episode 109: Richard Heinberg of Post-Carbon Institute
• Simpler Living Daily Nudges for APRIL
• Relish These QUOTES // ART //
• What Others Are Doing - So Much Help!
• More!

What's NOW with SLW!

• Banishing Fake News
• "I Buy Blue. Won't You Too?"
• SLW! Lent/Easter Resource Index
• Our Daily Simpler Living Nudge
  • What Is The NUDGE? / How It Works / How to GET It - Subscribe by sending NUDGE to SimpleLivingWorks@yahoo.com. / How to SHARE It / More About Holidays
  • January: The Five Life Standards of Voluntary Simplicity
  • February: Celebrating More Responsibly--Music/Worship; Preparing for Lent, Easter and Other Spring Festivals; Rites of Passage; What Is 'Enough'?
  • March: Global Justice--Weeks 1 & 2: Hunger & Homelessness || Week 3: Peace/Violence || Week 4: Advocacy/Boycotts
  • April: Earth Care--Chemicals/Waste, Consumables, etc.
  • May: Earth Care--4 R's
  • June
  • July
  • August
  • September: Non-conform Freely
  • October: Sustenance
  • November: Unplug the Christmas Machine || Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?
  • December: Ten Tips for a Simpler, More Meaningful Christmas

• SLW! Site Search Engine on Home Page Window #4
• SLW! Blog Index | SLW! Podcast Index
• SUBSCRIBE to SLW! Podcast for free through iTunes, Stitcher.com or your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to SLW! Blog. Click "+Follow" at lower right of blog post, enter a name and email address. Welcome!
• Simpler Living Alternative Daily Calendar - JANUARY
• Check out a few of SLW! thought-provoking, timely resources that might meet your personal, family or congregational/group needs. They're all FREE. Visit Seasonal/Thematic Resource Index

What Others Are Doing - So Much Help!

• Alternative Radio Podcast (David Barsamian)
• Becoming Minimalist (Joshua Becker)
  • Inspiring Simplicity Reads (4/28/18)
  • A Word to the Skeptics (4/17/18)
  • The Power of a Kind Word (4/11/18)
  • Inspiring Simplicity Reads (4/7/18)
  • 20 Places to Donate Used Books (4/3/18)
  • Inspiring Simplicity Reads (3/24/18)
  • Still the Most Important Piece of Financial Advice You’ll Ever Receive (3/19/18)
  • The Value of Fasting (from Anything). And How to Get Started. (3/12/18)
  • Inspiring Simplicity Reads (3/10/18)
  • The Most Important Question You’re Not Asking Yourself (3/8/18)
  • Five Life-Giving Truths About Living Simply And Saving Money (3/3/18)
• Center for a New American Dream 
  • Ideas to get more involved, both on an individual and a community level. From helping with hurricane relief efforts, to confronting racism in your community, there are plenty of ways to make a difference, with a couple pledges and challenges as well.
  • 
  • NEW WAYS TO HELP
  • Hurricane Relief: Another Way to Help. Did you know you can use SoKind to deliver the most-needed contributions – both material and non-material – to those who could use a helping hand?
  • FIND OUT HOW
  • Confronting Racism

    Casey Williams, New Dream's Director of Operations and Outreach, makes the case for confronting racism through personal change, individual action, and community connection.READ MORE
    PLEDGE

  • Yes to Waiting

    The Wait Until 8th pledge empowers parents to rally together to delay giving children a smartphone until at least 8th grade. Research shows why kids are better off without the internet, social media, and games constantly at their fingertips.
    SIGN THE PLEDGE

    WORKING THE DREAM

    CHALLENGE

    ROUNDUP

    Likable Links

    + The dis-ease of being busy & how to pause + Bookmark this: Simple Rules for Living + How to make positive changes stick + Americans under 25 are bringing a new era of tolerance + Well-being for people & the planet happens through "purpose in action"

    Susan Salterberg Interview

    Susan Salterberg, from Univ. of Northern Iowa’s Center for Energy & Environmental Education, spoke with us about her work guiding K-12 educators to create lessons for their students around consumption, well-being, and sustainability. READ MORE

  • All Simplify the Holidays resources
• The Common Good Podcast - Check out the new site.
  • Ep. 92-Richard Lawrence on The Power of White in a Multi-Color Humanity (2/1/18)
  • Ep. 91-Derek & Nancy Casady of Climate Mobilization: Climate Crises Are Moving Fast! They're Big! And They Require a WWII Size Mobilization (1/1/18)
  • Ep. 90-Ulrich Duchrow:  Importance of Radicalizing Our Reforms So We Create a Culture of Life (12/1)
  • Ep. 89: Sr. Shirley Fineran: 21st Century Slave Trade—Helping Victims Recover from Human Trafficking: (11/1)
  • Ep. 88: Paul K. Chappell: Distinguishing Violence from Aggression in Living & Teaching Nonviolence (10/1)
• Community Solutions: Founded in 1940, this non-profit organization advocates for small communities and the benefits of face-to-face relationships. Since 2003, the focus has been to provide resources for low-carbon living and to inspire collective, cooperative solutions in the face of peak energy and climate change.
• Creation Justice CAPSULES: News and Opportunities for Christians Doing Creation Justice
• E-The Environmental Magazine
• Earth Island Journal (Earth Island Institute): Latest News // Current Issue
• Earth Mama (Joyce Rouse) NEW -- Made for These Times song for Ladies Sewing and Resistance Society
  • Lead sheet with melody line (downloadable PDF @ http://www.earthmama.org/)
  • Full lyrics (downloadable PDF @ http://www.earthmama.org/)
  • video (1 minute) of singing and sewing https://youtu.be/NQjZ4eeVTWs
  • video (6 minute) including wonderful short interviews with sewers explaining WHY they will be marching, some for the first time ever in this kind of activism. Song plays the last minute. https://youtu.be/IJiNZcYc428
  Blessings, Joyce (Earth Mama) //
Website, Songbooks, YouTube videos; Whole Enchi-Mama on a USB Thumb drive, Standing on the Shoulders music video, sheet music offerings // SLW! Podcast
• Eco-Justice Ministries (Peter Sawtell) // Voluntary Simplicity archive // SLW! Podcast // SLW! Podcast #66
  • Running Toward Danger (4/27)
  • An Earth Day Lament (4/20)
  • Picking Winners and Losers (4/14)
  • Beauty Is Restored (4/7)
  • Good Friday and the Realm of God (3/30)
  • Palms of Prophetic Proclamation (3/23)
  • Peeved by Record Reports (3/16/18)
  • Lichen and Theology (3/9/18)
  • Speaking with Knowledge & Faith (3/2/18)
• NEW--Frugalwoods: Financial independence and simple living featured on PBS NewsHour, Sun., March 11
• GodSpace (Christine Sine) // SLW! Podcast
• The Good Stuff your dose of what's working in the world from The Story of Stuff Project!
• Green Child eMagazine: Simplify for Happier, Calmer Kids
• The Homesteading Guide Daily: Exploring life off the grid.
• Jubilee Economics / Casa Jubileo (Lee Van Ham & Gerald Iversen)
  • Eastertime and Being Clear about What Caused Jesus' Horrible Death (3/23)
  • Pushing Back on Extreme Wealth in a Time of Hyper-Capitalism (2/8)
  • The Altar of Growth (1/8)
  • Jubilee Circles: What They’re Doing and How to Form One (8/29)
• A Living Earth Economy (David Korten - Yes! Magazine): How we can make peace with nature, realize the value of living wealth, and return to local, self-organized rule.
• Living Lightly (Susan Vogt on living more simply but abundantly): 365+ Days of Give-Aways - Finding good homes for no longer needed items rather than just putting them in the trash //SLW! Podcast // SLW! Podcast: Lent
  My winter blog posts encompass 4 months instead of just 3 since I didn't want to interrupt Lent. The first 4 (December & January) are:

  Wasting Time/Saving Time - Ideas garnered from one of our family HangOuts about what each of us considers a waste of time vs. a practice that saves time.It ends with 5 lessons learned from our discussion.

  Hanging On & Letting Go - A reflection on the winter of our lives. When should we hang on to stuff and memories and when is it time to let go? How can nature become a window to the soul.

  2017 Top Tips in a Nutshell - Save yourself some time. See my top dozen posts of 2017.

  Necessity or Luxury? - This classic question haunts any simplifier. Check the 10 tips in my Guide for the Sincere Seeker.

  The final 7 posts describe my Lenten journey of going beyond being nice to trying to be kinder.

  A Kinder Lent - Lays out the history of my Lenten quests and why I chose "to be kinder" this year.

  Kinder Lent-Wk. 1: 7 Days - Chronicles the first week, day by day.

  Kinder Lent-Wk. 2: Words - Focuses on Mindfulness of Words and how to be less judgmental in speech.

  Kinder Lent-Wk. 3: Vegan - Focuses on being kind to the planet by looking at what I eat. Is eating vegetarian or vegan worth it?

  Kinder Lent-Wk. 4: Inverse - Receiving the kindness of others. Learning through other's faults.

  Kinder Lent-Wk 5: Solidarity - Beyond charity to being kind to enemies and concrete acts of solidarity with those who are hungry, cold, ill, and suffer violence.

  7 things I learned about being Kinder - A summary of what I learned from trying to be kinder.

  May you be inspired to deepen your own journey to wholeness. Please share your own experiences and insights in the comments section of the blog so that others may benefit from your ideas.

• Live Simply (Third Way: Celeste Kennel-Shank)
• Lutheran Peace Fellowship: Simple Living Resources // SLW! Podcast
• The Minimalists podcast (Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus). Getting us past the things so we can make room for life's most important things -- which actually aren't things at all.
  • 129 | Beginnings
  • 128 | Reset
  • 127 | Sivers
  • 126 | Quality
  • 125 | Easter
  • 124 | Religion
  • 123 | Hobbies
  • 122 | People
  • 121 | Emotions
  • 120 | Social Media
  • Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things
  • The Art of Letting Go: The Minimalists TEDX Talk (July, 2016)
• Mustard Seed Associates (Andy Wade)
• New Changemakers: Join the Changemaking Celebration! (Tom Sine)
• NorthWest Earth Institute's latest discussion course ebook, Sustainability Works: Rethinking Business As Usual // Change Is Our Choice: Creating Climate Solutions // Voluntary Simplicity // SLW! Podcast
• The OneEarth Project (Lee Van Ham) // SLW! Podcast
  • Climate Scientist and Theologian Tell How Ecological Crisis Requires New Cooperation between Science and Religion
  • Becoming an Eco-Spiritual Guide to Assist Our Relocation from Ego Civilization to Earth's Sacred Community of All Life
  • What Others Are Saying about Our Heroic Journey to Keep Earth Livable—It's One Year since Publication
  • In the Name of Earth, Embrace the Fierce Urgency of Now (2/9)
  • Why Is There So Much Meanness in This Land of the Free and Brave? (1/28)
  • Three minute film:Ecology and Economics: Colleagues, Not Rivals
  • Conversation about The OneEarth Project and Lee's book, Blinded by Progress: Breaking Out of the Illusion That Holds Us
• The Pastoral Center/Gospel Living (Paul Canavese) // SLW! Podcast
  • They Will Inherit the Earth: Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change by Fr. John Dear
  • Teaching Kids to Care for God's Creation: Reflections, Activities & Prayers for Catechists & Families by Sr. Mary Elizabeth Clark, SSJ
    Available at: https://pastoral.center/on-care
  • Other Simple Living and Ecology resources
  • CatholicCreationCare.com - General resources
  • CreationCareKids.com - Children's resources
• PostConsumers: Find the Satisfaction of Enough / Full Article Library
  • Environmental article archive, our Save the Planet hub, our Tree Hugging Center for Arbor Day and our favorite Earth Day quotes!
• Prayer & Politiks (Ken Sehested): At the intersection of spiritual formation and prophetic action (weekly)
  • God and stuff: Lawnmowers, banking boodle, and the Spirit's traffic in human affairs
  • Signs of the Times (6/13)--Refugee Sunday: News, views, notes, and quotes
• Share Spend Save: Money+Meaning (Nathan Dungan)
• Simple Enough (Bob Sitze) // SLW! Podcast
• Simple Living: the Good Life (Janet Luhrs) - Time, Finances, Home-Work, Health
• Simple Times (Debi Taylor-Hough): Saving Your Time, Money & Sanity
• Simplicity Collective - Let us be pioneers once more (Samuel Alexander)
• Simplicity Parenting (Kim John Payne): because it is a beautiful world
• Smart and Simple Matters podcast (Joel Zaslofsky of Value of Simple: Liberate Your Time, Money and Talent) // SLW! Podcast
• NEW--Teach Peace Now
• TransitionNetwork.org: Transition Towns--A movement of communities coming together to reimagine and rebuild our world // TransitionUS.org
• TreeHugger: Finding a Greener Future
• For links to earlier entries, check the previous SLW! blog.
• Upcoming Non-Conform-Freely Celebrations: Sept.-Dec. // Jan.-April

What's Happened

• Bonus Podcast Episode: Richard Lawrence, author of Light, Bright, Damn Near White on the Power of White in a Multi-Color Humanity for Black History Month: Stories and Reflections of a Multi-Racial Black Man's Battles with Racism in America
• SLW! Podcast --Episode 108: Walter Brueggemann on Abundance + More!
• SLW! Podcast #104-107 -- WHOSE Birthday Is It, Anyway? (11/1, 11/15, 12/1, 12/15) //
• SLW! Podcast #103 -- Kathy McGinnis of The Institute for Peace and Justice (10/15) //
• SLW! Podcast #102 -- Meghann Jarchow of the Univ. of So. Dakota Sustainability Program (10/1) //
• SLW! Podcast #101 -- Paul K. Chappell of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
• In the 500th year of the Reformation SLW! Podcast #100 -- Reformation History Scholar and ELCA Bishop Guy Erwin
• SLW! Podcast #99 -- Order of Lutheran Franciscans
• Review of Lee Van Ham's new "From Egos to Eden: Our Heroic Journey to Keep Earth Livable," vol. 2 of the "Eden for the 21st Century" Trilogy. Available on Amazon in print and ebook and other locations where you can get the ebook (Nook, iBooks, Kobo). He says, "Hope the book stirs you to write a review, to converse with others, and to help me tell better than I currently do a story for OneEarth living. Wanting to show Earth more love!"
• Banishing "Fake News" // Simpler Living SANITY // I Buy Blue // Healthy Political Practices / Spiritual Disciplines // Post-Election Emergency/Disaster Preparedness and Survival Guide
• Previews of Simple Living Blogs, Podcasts and Sites // Collaborators & Champions
• Recent Responses to all SLW! media, including links
• New Year's Resolution: I will focus on what I CAN change. I will focus on voluntary simplicity, my choices to challenge consumerism, live justly and celebrate responsibly.