ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

To be as carbon neutral as possible this Christmas, No 1 daughter, Sam-Cate, chose the goodies she sent with my tastes and needs in mind. To my absolute delight everything was recycled and accompanied by a hand made card so beautiful I’m going to have it framed.

In the weeks prior to Christmas a colleague, a wife and working mother, revealed quietly that she was deeply embarrassed by the excesses she observed as she visited the local shopping mall. Her family now has a new strategy for Christmas gift giving.

Sandy and Bob are just back from volunteering at a Thai orphanage. Sandy confided, “I thought we’d just come back and everything would be as it was. Not so.” This traveler looked around with new eyes and found the excesses of Oz gift giving “obscene”.

Sandy and Joseph report that in their large extended family the solution is for each child to draw a name out of a hat and choose a gift for that child. And the adults? They get to make donations to the charity of choice of the name they draw out of the same hat. Sandy’s field is educating for sustainability so she knows it is vital for us all to reduce our footprint.

Check out www.jo-bloggs.blogspot.com for a good laugh on the same subject.

Well done to all these amazing women who are showing such wonderful grassroots leadership while retaining the true spirit of Christmas. Hopi wisdom decrees, “We are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.”

Great follow up rain

Had another excited call from Goondiwindi this morning. Tricia reports a further 470 points for theirs and neighbouring properties, with another 67 points yesterday. Tricia and Graham attended the Oct 3 Arid Land Management workshop and have experienced great rain since then.

These farmers care deeply about the future of sustainable agriculture and their beautiful river, the Macintyre, part of the iconic Murray Darling catchment. Congratulations Tricia and Graham!

Also worth mentioning that Andrew's successful rainmaking (see previous entry) included his family property several hundred kilometres away from the Sunshine Coast. Well done Andrew.