Title: Courageous Optimist

Gender: Female

Age: 49

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Chinese Sign: Earth Boar

Location: Suburban Chicago, IL

I am, as is my profile, a work in progress….

Okay, here’s something…

Living a conscious life, awake, alive, present to every moment… taking what life brings me with grace and courage, transforming darkness to light wherever I can… this is what I anchor. Having done my best to raise my three children to be compassionate, independent thinkers who will be an asset to their community, for the last five years I have turned my attention to working to disseminate the Earth Charter.

The fact that most people have never heard of the Earth Charter even on a site like zaadz, filled with intelligent, informed and world-change oriented individuals, gives some idea what we’re up against. For anyone who doesn’t know, it is an ethical guideline for living in a sustainable, global society. It is an international document which was created with the input of individuals from all over the world, spearheaded by Mikhail Gorbechev and Green Cross International along with Maurice Strong, Steven Rockefeller and a group of committed leaders and dignitaries representing every continent. It took over ten years to create it and it was released to the world in June of 2000.

The original intention was to create a document that would update or replace the declaration of human rights. However when it was brought to the UN for endorsement during the World Summit on Sustainable Development it was blocked by the United States. Meanwhile however, the document was being disseminated by grass roots groups around the world and over the last five years it has truly become a people’s treaty. Many of us working to promote the Earth Charter call it the Declaration of InterDependence, and it is our hope that one day every earth citizen will know about it and live by it’s principles.

The four main principles are Respect and Care for the Community of LIfe, Social and Economic Justice, Ecological Integrity and Democracy, Nonviolence and Peace. And it isn’t just about promoting ethics, but is based in the understanding that we need to work on all of these values simultaneously because you can’t have social justice where there is economic disparity, you won’t have a healthy environment in the midst of war, and you can’t expect people to be concerned about taking care of the planet if they are living in abject poverty. For many of us it’s a no-brainer but for the vast majority of people in the west, this requires a paradigm shift. More information can be found at www.earthcharter.org and our Chicago site is www.earthcharterchicago.org.

It is my work with the Earth Charter that gave rise to my mantra ‘Courageous Optimism’. In order for any of us to do the work necessary to create the world we dream of, it is imperative that we stay optimistic and hopeful even in the face of what appears to be insurmountable problems. And I believe it takes courage to rise above what so much of the rest of the world sees as a dark future. I can’t afford to get depressed because I’ll lose the energy to keep moving forward. so every day I continue to do what’s necessary to keep seeing the glass half full, even if it means putting a little rose-colored tint on to get through the more challenging days.

I’m getting off the soapbox now…

There is more to my life than the Earth Charter… I am a graphic designer, artist, writer, massage therapist… I’m utterly fascinated with vibration, color, light, sound, sacred geometry, cymatics and anything related to all of that. I’m planning to go back to school to finish my degree and I’ve decided I’m going to study physics. I hope to help bridge the science and spirit chasm in my own small way…

Member Since: Wednesday, August 16 2006

Last Visit: 781 days ago.

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