January 26th, 2010

Blogging Against Hunger

Back in August of last year I joined ShopRite and Gen­eral Mills in their Partner’s in Car­ing pro­gram. In recog­ni­tion, Gen­eral Mills has included my face, along with the many other blog­gers who also par­tic­i­pated in the pro­gram, on the back of a spe­cial edi­tion of Honey Nut Chee­rios. The box fea­tures the title “Blog­ging Against Hunger” on the front and on the back includes a mosiac of our faces. It went on sale Sun­day, Jan­u­ary 24 and is only avail­able at ShopRite.

November 20th, 2009

Shop and Help the Children’s Aid Society

I received this by email and because I absolutely love the Children’s Aid Soci­ety, I wanted to share

This hol­i­day sea­son, we all want to treat our­selves to some­thing spe­cial — maybe some new jew­elry, a chic pair of shoes or that “must-have” toy for the kids…

But what if your wishes could make a REAL dif­fer­ence, not just in your own home, but in the lives of chil­dren who need a lot more than just a new toy? If you had that kind of magic at your fin­ger­tips… what would YOU wish for?

Well, now you do.

Join us for the Mir­a­cle on Madi­son on Decem­ber 6, 2009 from 12–5 pm to ful­fill your wish list and ours. The Children’s Aid Soci­ety will receive 20% of the day’s pro­ceeds from all par­tic­i­pat­ing stores, and that money will pro­vide vital health ser­vices to the under-served chil­dren in NYC!

Plus, before Decem­ber 6, visit our blog on the Mir­a­cle on Madi­son page and let us know what your REAL hol­i­day wish list would look like http://​blogs​.chil​dren​said​so​ci​ety​.org/​c​h​i​l​d​r​e​n​s​a​i​d​/​m​i​r​a​c​l​e​-​m​a​d​i​s​on/). Because we all love new shoes, sweaters, games and toys — but some wishes on our list can’t fit in a gift box.

This hol­i­day sea­son, help your gifts go just a lit­tle far­ther. Save the Date and Save a Child.

The Children’s Aid Soci­ety in New York
Mir­a­cle on Madi­son Event — Shop to Help NYC Chil­dren
Decem­ber 6, 2009 #shopmiracle

blogs​.chil​dren​said​so​ci​ety​.org
twit​ter​.com/​c​h​i​l​d​r​e​n​s​a​i​d​nyc
face​book​.com/​c​h​i​l​d​r​e​n​s​a​i​d​nyc

November 5th, 2009

Karma is a Witch with a Capital “B”

photo credit: quinn.anya

I’ve always believed in Karma. I knew pretty early on in life that what you give is what you get and no one can out­run Karma. What I learned later on as an adult is that Karma has a funny way of drop kick­ing you when you least expect.

Take Carl­ton. I went to col­lege with him and he was dat­ing my room­mate. He cheated on her with my then best friend from home. He lied and then tried to put me in the mid­dle of all the drama. When my friend from home dumped him, he cheated on my room­mate with yet another girl. Noth­ing hap­pened right away and he thought he was “the man”- it was a sad sight. Lo and behold he came down with a really bad case of crabs. I thought that he would see the light and change his ways. For a while, it seemed he did.

He man­aged to sal­vage the rela­tion­ship with my room­mate and they went on to have a pretty long courtship. Unfor­tu­nately, he cheated on her again. About a year later he was in a car acci­dent which left him pretty messed up. He friend-ed me on Face­book the other day and I learned that he is still in a wheelchair.

Here’s a more per­sonal story. My hus­band and I got together under less than hon­or­able con­di­tions– I was dat­ing a mutual friend and even after I real­ized I had feel­ing for the man who would become my hus­band, I stayed with him. I pit­ted them against one another some­times pur­posely, oth­ers not. And although noth­ing really hap­pened until after I had ended my rela­tion­ship, it was still a sour road. I some­times think that the loss of out first daugh­ter was karmic energy. I had put a lot of neg­a­tive energy out into the Uni­verse and it had to go some­where. It was a wake-up call.

I’ve since spent my life mak­ing sure that I give some­thing to oth­ers in order to spread the pos­i­tive energy around, and in all honesty,to  send some back my way. My hus­band lives his life the same way and we have both been on the receiv­ing end of some good fortune.

How­ever, when one is a giv­ing per­son, many times all you get back is per­sonal stress. I have met so many peo­ple — my friend Lorri would call them Psy­chic Vam­pires — who do noth­ing but take, take, take. They suck you dry of your cre­ativ­ity, pas­sion, good­will, and even money. They have no con­cern for you at all. And they can crush your spirit.

Since start­ing my own busi­ness I have learned that when money is tight bar­ter­ing for ser­vices is the next best thing. And I don’t mind offer­ing my ser­vices for free in the name of good Karma. I have done so for some grate­ful peo­ple, but I have also met some vam­pires. But I am not alone. I was speak­ing to Traci from Beauty in Rare Form who explained to me that she too has been on the wrong side of bro­ken promises.

And that is when I real­ized that soci­ety has changed in ways that are more destruc­tive than we imag­ine. We have become a soci­ety of tak­ers — one that advo­cated that we take from every one we meet and when they have noth­ing left to give, we are sup­posed to throw them away like garbage. So many peo­ple talk about Pay-it-forward but they only want to do that when the pay is com­ing to them.

I have come pretty close to telling peo­ple to “sit on it” when they ask me for my help. but then I remem­ber that Karma is real and that those who take and never give will get some­thing in return. After all, Karma is real.