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Dear lim(b) readers,
After thinking it over, I've decided to retire Less Is More (Balanced). It took a health hiatus and writing retreat to come to that conclusion, but it seems to be the right one. I feel like turning over a new leaf, wink wink, and going out on a new limb to see what's next for me.
I am truly grateful to each of you who read the blog sometime since I started it in 2007! I've so enjoyed the connections I've made and all I've learned about ways to live in balance with the planet and oneself. I highly recommend the sites in the sidebar to continue that journey if you haven't already discovered them.
While I'll be devoting more of my time to non-bloggy writing projects, you can still find me in green cyberworld, as Editor and Green Living Contributor for Your Daily Thread, "modern guide for the eco-curious and social do-gooder" based in Los Angeles.
If you would like to follow my other writing pursuits, please follow me on twitter (@writesinla) where my feed is a blend of information about writing, green, community developments, los angeles, and other good stuff.
Feel free to contact me by email in the months before this address expires:
danielle (at) lessismorebalanced (dot) com.
Peace,
Danielle @ lim(b) headquarters
m o r e (breaks to balance)
I'm sad to report I'll be taking a month-long or so hiatus from Less Is More (Balanced). It will be a reatreat for me--a writing retreat and a chance to take the space I need to get my health in balance by not doing my regular thang(s). The plan is to return with vigor!
I hope you'll sign up for the blog RSS feed, like lim(b) on facebook, or just check back in June so you'll have word when things are up and running again. I look forward to connecting again then!! (I'll also have a new, improved email newsletter soon that doesn't have all those pesky ads I don't put there that will be available soon to stay in the know.)
In the meantime, you can always check out the archives where some popular posts, like Heirloom Design and Simple, Frugal Living = Better Living in Hard Times live.
And here are some other simple, green posts of note around the web:
The Minsumer Movement @ Miss Minimalist
A Pantry @ Naturopathic Insights
Simplify Your Medicine Cabinet @ New Urban Habitat
Guide to Better Neighborhoods @ GOOD
Dude, Where's Our Car? @ Shareable.net
The Cost of Convenience @ Metropolis
Photo credit: vitalist
m o r e (taking note of the neighborhood) 
I've said before that if I don't take a walk pretty much every day, I feel bleh. Often, I take two, as breaks from work, as chances to move and look around.
As I recovered from surgery, and started venturing farther and farther, I came upon a stairway between two yards (my neighborhood is famous for stairs) where one homeowner told me a bunny lived, frolicking between the two wild spaces. It became a tradition to look for the pet bunny that seemed a part of nature as it roamed free. I go looking for that bunny numerous times a week. If I see him, I feel charmed. If I don't--I know I'll see him another time. (There he is in the photo.)
There are other hopeful things I've taken note of on my walks even in the midst of litter and batteries and dog poop and clogged storm drains. It just takes some looking.
Here are some:
*Two crazily, amazingly plumed chickens in a yard on the top of a very steep hill.
*A man who asked me if I'd lost keys who, when I replied no, said he was going to make a flyer and hang up the keychain with it for the person who did.
*Tens of nests in enormous ficus trees.
*While Los Angeles ranks last among major cities in terms of per capita open space, I'm lucky enough to have strip of park across the alley from my apartment with a couple of giant trees. There, I see hopeful interactions between dogs and their owners (even though I'm not really a dog person, I have a favorite black and white pooch who is a master at fetch--I swear he's a famous movie star) and parents with their kids and neighbors with other neighbors. My favorite moment was when a woman walked by me and thanked me for smiling.
*A young girl asking her grandma about growing tomatoes from a hanging pot in her backyard.
*A ramshackle container plopped in a strip of sidewalk grass growing huge bushels of chard and some garlic.
*Another apartment with what look to be squash coming up out front.
*Native plants going into the neighbor-initiatived Parkman Triangle.
*Sparrows using my solar water fountain for dips and drinks.
And I'm sure, many more to come as long as I'm looking.
And some neighborly resources for wherever you live:
Recently heard about Every Block, a news feed for your neighborhood. It has announcements, media mentions, events and photos for your block. I just learned that there's a bike ride every Saturday in May starting steps away from my place. Who knew? It's also a hub for more serious business like crime happenings and lost pets.
At SeeClickFix you can find and report blocked bike lanes, potholes, and broken windows.
Walk Score will rank your area for walkability and find you some nearby nooks you can get to on two feet.
And here's an article I wrote all about sites that help you share in your neighborhood.
What is hopeful in your neighborhood to take note of?
m o r e (real consumer power)
There is always talk of voting with your dollars and supporting companies who are doing right by its employees and the world. And I buy that! But what if that were done in communities and with more than one person, in an organized, tangible kind of way. Well, that would be a Carrotmob.
I just heard about these actions from two different sources in one week. The philosophy of this now nonprofit in San Francisco is this: Businesses love money and will do anything for it. So, if we give them more money when they do something for the environment, they'll keep doing it. To get more money of course. It's a carrot versus stick approach where, as it says, "Everyone wins."
Here's a video below of the first ever Carrotmob where a bunch of liquor stores bid on what percent of the money they made from a Carrotmob (a mob of people buying from their store for a couple of hours on a Saturday) they would devote to energy efficient upgrades. The one who pledged the highest won.
Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.
So, on the day of the mob, that liquor store, the one who pledged 22%, made sales upwards of nine grand (four more than they'd even hoped) from the rush of customers lined up around the corner, almost a quarter of which went to making the place eco-smart. The owner got to keep the rest of course and now he'll be saving money with efficiency measures he didn't technically have to pay for himself and will be known around the hood as the place that...
Now I wouldn't necessarily have a lot to buy from a liquor store, but folks bought things like kitty litter and canned soup and then donated many of their purchases to a local food bank! Everybody won.
It's not just liquor stores. Carrotmobs have been staged all over the place, at a bar, a hardware store, a coffeeshop.
Here's what happened on October 24th last year (climate action day) in terms of Carrotmobbing.
And here's the concept explained inventively in this animated video.
You may be able to find a mob assembling near you here.
For another kind of do-gooding mob, here's the post I wrote on Crop Mobs.
Photo credit: carrotmob
m o r e (green neighborhood action)
I love it when a community takes matters into its own hands, and that usually starts with one or two people having an idea sparked by a solution to a problem. There are two on my radar near my L.A. neighborhood that I'm excited about this week. One is right outside my door. The other, a few miles away in Chinatown.
What has long been a giant concrete triangle is turning into a park. The Parkman Triangle project on the corner of the street I live on received a grant from the City of Los Angeles Beautification program to make it an "urban lounge," a place where people will stop for a few minutes to give their dog a rest, take a few sips of coffee, watch the traffic or look out for hawks overhead, or talk to somebody else (one hopes!). It will be like an uber mini nature preserve with shade providing trees (looks like jacorandas) and drought-tolerant plants. Urban Operations Studio is making it happen with the help of community members who want to get their hands dirty and see the results. You can see and read about the park springing to life here.
What if candy machines distritubted something healthy instead? Like seeds. Greenaid is doing just that. The so-called "seedbombs" are native seeds embedded in clay. You simply buy one, find a vacant lot as your target, and send it on its way. You'll start seeing green in just a couple of weeks of your launch! I think it makes it easy for a wannabe guerilla gardener with little experience and little time to transform abandoned patches of dirt in lots or medians into something beatiful. Read more about seedbombs in candy machines here.
Anything green & groovy happening in your community?
m o r e (spring goings on)
I am so glad it's spring. Because spring means planting, it means hope, it means more time outside, it means renewal.
Here's how it showed up outside my apartment door:
The nasturtiums that got neglected in our fall move rose up out of the dirt and pots on top of them to bloom. And bloom beautifully! So we've revived and moved them and promise to take better care of them fighters. I was first introduced to these flowers when I worked at TreePeople and they covered the ground under the canopy of trees on my walk to the office (which was a yurt--not bad for a desk job, eh?). It was there also that I learned you can eat the flowers! Bon apetit to a spring salad with greens and edible petals.
And the ornamental plum tree that had been leafless all winter began to send out delicate, cheery pink blossoms. First I saw one, then another, then counted everyday, then stopped counting and just enjoyed the bounty of blossomed branches. The finches are having a heyday.
Other things on my radar this spring:
Earth Hour is this Saturday, March 27th. Showing support for the planet is as easy as flipping a switch. A light switch. Shut off your lights and other buzzing things for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30, to join people all over the world who care about climate change and creating a sustainable future. There are events all over the globe and even big landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge have been known to shut down for the cause. You could also spend that hour or whole night in the dark to celebrate the spring equinox, light candles, sip something sweet, share stories, or look at the stars.
Earth Day is a month away. And this April 22nd is the 40th anniversary. (Here's a little article from its founder on how it got started and a quiz to test your knowledge about the day.) Are you doing something special? Planting a tree? Attending a fair or clean-up? Making a pledge to do your part? Our team over at Your Daily Thread has created a go green boot camp designed to turn eco zeroes into eco heroes. In other words, to give you the tools you need to get in tip top environmental shape in honor of earth month. You can sign up here if that tickles your fancy and makes you want to get moving.
A final spring aside: I've been enjoying eating and drinking... dandelions. Dandelions are in full force this time or year (as I'm reminded on my daily walks and by the post about them at new urban habitat). But if you don't grow this "weed" on your own, you can always buy the leaves at the farmers' market as I have been so you know they're organic, local, and grown in good soil. You can also purchase Dandy Blend tea, which was recommended to me by my naturopath and is a super substitute for anyone going off coffee. I haven't had coffee for years, but in my experience it definitely conjures the rich aroma of the real stuff--delish! Dandelions are health-promoting and especially good for the liver--and I've heard it said spring is the perfect time to give that organ a little support if you're not into the whole extreme detox thing. Here's a great post about what our livers do for us and what we can do for them in terms of nutrition.
What do you have on the menu for spring?
See you next week!
m o r e (truth be told)
I was lucky to see the Oscar-nominated live action short films this week (living in L.A. makes things like that a little more accessible) and they were all excellent--really strong entries this time around. Heavy too--one was about Chernobyl, another something I won't reveal in case you see it. One Swedish entry though was simply hilarious and light and luckily it came at the end of the screening, for some comic relief.
And while it wasn't my absolute favorite pick per se, one that definitely caught my attention because of the poignance of its subject was Kavi.
Kavi is a young boy in India who, with his parents, works at a brick kiln where they sleep in tiny quarters, do back-breaking work, and are told they have a debt to repay that keeps them bound to the boss. This kid wants to play cricket and go to school, but it isn't in the cards. Until one day...
It's astonishing that modernday slavery exists and exists in such numbers:
27 million people are enslaved today in one form or another.
It looks like the easiest way to see Kavi now is to buy the DVD. And I assume the whole lot of them will be out at Netflix in the coming months. (A loosely related documentary I saw a few years ago that's widely available is Born into Brothels.)
According to Kavi's website:
"Bonded labor, a form of slavery, often occurs when people are tricked into taking loans from creditors who have no intention of letting them repay the loan. The creditor then uses violent intimidation to keep his workers slaving with no hope of escape."
And there are links to anti-organizations if this is an issue you'd like to explore further and support.
A book I haven't read but have heard good things about is Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy by Kevin Bales.
And it does happen in the U.S. and it is connected to our everyday lives, like the tomato pickers in Florida who were forced to work and treated terribly.
Finally, at Made by Survivors, you can support people who have made it out of slavery and help them maintain an income by buying their wares (the felt/kids items are especially nice).
m o r e (living small)
With our booming world population and the not so booming state of our economy, not to mention our air, land, and water, big is definitely no longer better.
I can't remember where I saw the blog, The Tiny Life, but I was immediately intrigued. I've written about at least one manifestation of a tiny house here at Less Is More (Balanced) before, but TTL's every post is about something tiny. Mostly houses and how to live with less, but all kinds of miniature movements and moments as well.
The blogger, Ryan, describes the tiny house movement this way:
"Simply put it is a social movement where people are downsizing the space that they live in. The typical American home is around 2600 square feet, while the typical small or tiny house is around 400 square feet. Tiny Houses come in all shapes, sizes and forms but they focus on smaller spaces, simplified living."
I'm really digging his post on Lucy's Love Shack featuring a renter with 371 square feet to work with. I love the little dog house under the bed and the mini stove (I used to have one like that, too!). It's spare and simple and inspiring.
And the one on foldable tables for large gatherings in a not so large space.
I'm sure there'll be more as I follow along from here on out.
And if you want to get together with people and build a tiny house, there are resources in his localize section.
Other tiny houses I've heard of: tiny texas and the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.
My apartment is definitely small, but I'm not sure it it's tiny (maybe 800 sq. feet?). All I know is I don't want to live anywhere bigger!
Do any of you live in a tiny space? How I'd love to see photos!
Photo credit: Tumbleweed Tiny House Blog
Thrilled to report that I've got another piece up on Shareable. This one profiles two different manifestations of cohousing, communities in which people choose to live together in some capacity for the good of the world and themselves. In these examples, one is an apartment building with 42 renters, the other a big 'ol house full of a dozen roommates:
"Their set-ups and specific vibes are unique, but they share many qualities too. They both have "business" meetings to organize the flow of tasks and come to consensus on changes, for example, and each has its share of clashes over hot-button issues (pets can be troublesome). Residents at both have a deep concern for the state of their city. And not surprisingly, neither living room has a TV!"
Wrote a roundup of sites that help you share today at Your Daily Thread.
And am sharing it with you:
"As they say, when the times get tough, the tough get...sharing. That's right. One positive side effect of this recession is more people are getting together and pooling what they have. So, for Valentine's Day, maybe we can ditch romantic exclusivity and share the love--and other stuff--all around."
Here's the rest:
Many, many thanks to Angela at My Year Without Spending for passing on the Kreativ Blogger Award in my direction!! (You can read about the origin of the award here.)
Here's the deal. When you get one, you reveal seven things about yourself and then award it to seven other creative bloggers who'll do the same.
So here goes:
1. I have never ridden a horse, but plan on remedying that this year.
2. I spent 10 years of my childhood in Singapore and 4 years of teenagehood in Hong Kong, which I loved! I didn't learn to ride a bike or get to spend time in nature, but I did get plenty of concrete craziness and super girlfriends to make up for it.
3. My great dream as a kid was to be to be a dancer or a writer. As a grownup I've narrowed that down to just the latter.
4. I walk pretty much everyday or risk feeling totally bleh.
5. I don't like driving or flying or riding in pretty much any motorized vehicle. Motion sickness doesn't help. Except on my husband's scooter, which is a blast.
6. I recently got two sweet mice (Flora & Fauna), the first pets I've ever officially owned.
7. Someday I would like to have have my very own goat.
And now, the award goes on to the following uber-creative bloggers...
Abby @ New Urban Habitat
Christine @ Simple Savvy
Tammy @ RowdyKittens
Julia @ Color Me Green
Liz @ raganella
Lisa @ Craving Balance
After seeing my post on laundry soap nuts, Maggie's has offered to have six lim(b) readers give them a try for free!
Details:
The first six people to comment on this post will get their choice of the nuts or the liquid soap (from the nuts) sent to them by the company. (Just make sure you fill out your email address in the comments form so they can contact you for your mailing address and specify which you prefer to receive--nut or liquid.)
Maggie is especially interested in having people with skin or immunological disorders try the products and give feedback as to how they help such sensitivities.
So, if you're interested in giving soap nuts a spin with your wash, comment above!
Send to a Friend
m o r e (truly inspired reuse)
I get a huge kick out of Robert Fontenot's Recycle LACMA project.
When the Los Angeles County Museum of Art needed to get rid of pieces from its textiles and costumes collection, artist Fontenot saw a golden opportunity. And as is with so many good ideas, a blog quickly followed.
On his, he shows the ways he reimagines what he bought at auction into totally new, still interesting objects.
A Morrocan textile? Now it's a sheath for a machete.
A brightly-colored Korean wedding jacket? Now it's a pink strap for a canteen.
Neck pillow, scrunchie, fanny pack, a sling, it's amazing what he comes up with as a usually functional use for what once hung in a museum and is now, well, waste.
I thought I'd share it as inspiration for your own creative reuse at home. I love how the endeavor uses every little shred of something for some inventive use.
So, what will you come up with next?
m o r e (mindful money)
I've written here about slow fashion, slow food, and slow communities, so why not slow money?
Our financial system has already shrunk down with the recent economic meltdown, (something I'm not qualified to comment on). However, as we look to rebuilding, might things be different?
According to the NY Times, Americans are buying less and doing more in this recession. In fact, I think with signs like many more people planting so-called "recession gardens," buying local, learning to knit, looking for life/work balance, and desiring sustainble products, it's possible that our values are shifting.
Woody Tasch of the Slow Money Alliance has as new set of money values for us to consider. Instead of building on growth at all costs and mega returns, he wants to refocus our financial system on something that matters, and that takes a while to see bear fruit: local food.
What if we invested in something worthwhile within 50 miles of where we live?
He's proposing that we "invest with more realistic return expectations" and subscribe to principles that:
"enhance food security, food safety and food access; improve nutrition and health; promote cultural, ecological and economic diversity; and accelerate the transition from an economy based on extraction and consumption to an economy based on preservation and restoration."
The idea is that we invest in small farms who need help and get the rewards, some in the form of dividends, some in the form of a better world.
The Alliance is striving for a million signatures to its principles and there's a slow money gathering at a farm this June.
m o r e (simple, spare stuff)
Muji brand from Japan isn't necessarily a totally sustainable company and its wares, of course, are shipped from there to here, but I'm intrigued by its philosophy and like some of its stuff.
It's all about simplicity. Using conscientious materials, eliminating fluff, dross, and anything extra. It is bare bones and beautiful. It likens its approach to using every part of a fish, from head to tail, creating uber-efficient products that disdain waste.
Some of the cool stuff they make:
reused yarn scarf & socks, cool recycled paper notebooks,
an aluminum clothes hanger, cardboard speakers (above),
wooden city in a bag (a great teaching toy for a getting older kid), and handkerchief's printed with different cities.
Visit the online store.
Or see what NY's Museum of Modern Art carries by Muji.
Thanks to everyone who took the online survey and shared valuable feedback about this blog! Your thoughtful responses are much, much appreciated in this collaboration and I'm enjoying reading and reflecting on them.
If you missed it, there's still time to give your two cents:
m o r e (stuff that lasts 100 years)
Saul Griffith (inventor and founder of the DIY site, instructables) is a well-known proponent of heirloom design. What's that? It's stuff that's designed to last long enough that it could be passed down to the next generation. It's the opposite of what we've got in abundance now--planned obsolescence, machines that can't be easily repaired, their parts replaced, fad fashion, etc., and stuff that just plain isn't prized for its longevity. All that adds up to waste. Waste in the manufacturing process. Waste in the landfills. Waste in the toing and froing to get the stuff.
As non-designers, we can't make much difference, unless we, well, become designers. But as we have been dubbed consumers, we can make a difference with what we buy.
Griffith said in a recent interview with GOOD Magazine: "An enormous amount of energy we use [industrially] is locked up in 'embodies energy.' It's trapped...in the materials our stuff is made of...While we can choose materials that have less embodied energy for any given product, it's much better to choose objects that last two or three, or preferably 10 times, longer."
Yes, some heirloom items are uber-expensive and that's why they're known for quality and durability (Rolex watches, for example). But in thinking about it, I have some heirloom items in my apartment since I've been prizing quality over quantity for some time now. Some of which were inexpensive while others I saved for to get the better version. (I put away money for four years, for example, to get my healthy, environmentally-friendly bed and mattress and until my current versions were squeaking so badly I couldn't wait another night!)
My Lodge Cast Iron Skillet will last 100 years. I think it cost about twenty bucks. My other stainless steel pots should prove hardy as well. (See all my long-lasting, efficient cookware here.)
I have a vintage wardrobe that is pretty aged but will go strong for decades more with its solid wood construction (before the time of toxic stains and glues most likely, too). I've gotten a few other vintage furniture pieces that will stand the test of time. A Herman Miller Aeron Chair has cradle to cradle certification along with its modern, ergonomic styling.
A few weeks ago, I scored a pair of leather gloves via a friend's clothing swap. They were a gift from her mother (not sure when), are exactly what I was looking for, and, even though free for me, will surely last a lifetime.
There are two winter coats in my closet, both of which I got for around forty bucks at thrift stores, that appear to be very well-made and I'd wager they'll be around for a good many seasons as well.
The bed frame I purchased last year (part of my eco-bedroom project) is constructed of FSC-certified wood is built to last. My natural latex mattress should outlast conventionals by two or three times too (as it should for the price).
Seems like once a year (for the last two anyway) I get a Patagonia wool top (wearing one now!). Not only are they warm, layerable, super quality, and made from natural wool, they're part of Patagonia's Common Threads program so I can recycle them when they're done. I may not be able to pass them down, but I can pass them on to someone else via some creative reuse. (Here's a merino wool men's baselayer, and a women's.)
My husband has a couple of power tools that cut the mustard as well--and hey, a good hammer never goes out of style or breaks down!
So, do you have any heirloom designed items in your home or office? Is there a way to strategize and get one quality item instead of one that will need to be replaced over and over?
Hi lim(b) readers! I'm wondering if you might take a few minutes to take this online survey I've cooked up with the intention of finding out about you and what you think of this blog. I have no exciting incentives to offer, just the promise that I care what you think.
If you've got the time for seven answers to seven questions, your feedback is wanted here:
Through her comment on a recent post here about i love mountains, I got the chance to interview Emily Fox, a photojournalism/religious studies student in Kentucky on the subject of mountaintop coal mining.
She's from Eastern/Central Kentucky, in the range of what's referred to as coal country.
Before asking her questions, I watched Burning the Future: Coal in America, a documentary all about mountaintop coal mining and the damage it does to communities of plants and animals and communities of people. It has a particular focus on the water quality and subsequent health problems of people near these mountain sites. I highly recommend it.
After all,
over half our electricity comes from coal and in 2005, we burned a billion tons of it.
Mountaintop removal is a newer, particularly destructive mining that blows off the tops of mountains to get to the coal, and meanwhile causes noise, shaking, and floods, lets toxins seep into groundwater (on which people are dependent), dumps waste into streams, and destroys habitats and ecosystems that would take thousands of years to restore.
Here's what Emily had to say about the human effects of coal:
Are there any ways coal mining has affected your community for the good?
Coal mining is a major industry for my state, so I feel like we are all affected by it in one way or another. Personally, my closest contact with mountain top removal has been through working with The Appalachian Culture Project, a workshop designed to document life in Whitesburg, KY, for several years.
When it comes to positive contributions to the community, I think there is a big difference between the effects of coal mining in general and mountaintop removal specifically. This is a region that struggles intensely with poverty, and coal mining provides jobs at decent pay (for the area, that is, many people start around $8/hr), but mountain removal requires fewer workers and therefore fewer jobs.
Okay, how about for the worse?
I live just above McCreary county, which used to rely on mining a low-grade coal. Now that the coal is gone the median income has dropped to around $10,000/yr. It's one of the poorest counties in the country. People living in Eastern Kentucky want to hold on to their jobs because that's all they have but as technology advances they are losing jobs right and left.
Not to mention that mountaintop removal is ecologically devastating.
You mentioned boiling water--can you talk more about other
precautions/hazards people who live near mining operations deal with?
Sludge ponds overflow leaching heavy metals into the water; there are ash spills like the one
that happened with TVA in Tennessee earlier this year. I know that often the byproducts, such as dirt and earth containing arsenic and mercury, have been used as fill dirt for building soccer fields for schools. People often rely on shallow wells for their water, which is contaminated. Many of the people who live in these areas are mistrustful of the coal companies and worry about their health, but are unsure of what precautions they can take, and afford.
How do you personally feel about coal mining?
I have a very negative view of mountain top removal: it kills much needed jobs, destroys the environment and is hazardous for those who live around it. Coal mining in general is tough because I have met so many people who have coal mining jobs and are grateful for them, despite the risk. I have met so many hungry people trying to get by, it's hard to dismiss it all outright. The land of Eastern Kentucky is comprised of poor soil and transportation is limited. I really love my state and feel a connection with the area and the people. All I can do is promote awareness and hope for an alternative.
Web resources on Appalachia, its culture, and mountaintop coal mining:
Burning the Future's Coal Impact Guide
And you can view more of Emily's excellent photographs, some of which are for her school paper, on her blog.
Photos courtesy of Emily Fox.
I'm delighted to have contributed an article to Shareable.net today.
The site is DIY meets green meets the commons and common sense. I think it's reporting on unique and exciting stuff happening in the world.
And yes, it's all about sharing and how the world is shifting and can shift in that direction. It says:
"In a shareable world, things like clothing swaps, childcare coops, potlucks, carsharing, community gardening, and cohousing bring us together, make life more fun, and free up time and money for the important things in life. When we share, not only is a better life possible, but so is a better world."
Please check out my article, "Make Your Holiday a Shared Affair" and feel free to tell me what you think along with ways you've made your holidays more shareable in the past.