Here's the 35th issue of my Good, Hopeful and Hopefully Inspiring Newsletter. Enjoy and please share. With Love, Suzanne “We are not separate beings moving through an empty world; we are held by a love that has no boundary, a life that is always reaching toward wholeness… The earth beneath our feet, the breath within us, the life moving all around - these are invitations to dream a new dream, not one built on fear or separation. “Co-creation is the heart of this dream. Let us remember that the life we seek to create already lives within us, waiting to emerge. from Zach Bush, MD, triple board-certified physician in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology & Hospice & Palliative care. Pioneer in regenerative agriculture. A practical visionary [farmersfootprint.us] ***** I’ll start with something that makes me smile each time I read this piece, from Peers online news service, which I’ve been donating to for years. peer service.orgJan 4, 2025 A group of 4 to 8 year-olds were asked, "What does love mean?" Some responses: From Rebecca, age 8 “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.” From Billy, age 4 “When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth." From Nikka, age 6 “If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate." Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Nothing. I just helped him cry." A great new online project: The Progress Network theprogressnetwork.org They just published online The Best News of 2024 And they also have a podcast: What Could Go Right? A few examples of a recent Progress Network publication: - Over 1 billion people participated in elections in their county - the biggest number in history. - Greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union have dropped 37% from what they were in 1990. - The share of global energy from renewable sources is dramatically increasing.The International Energy Agency expects that 2024 will be the year that solar and wind generation, combined, will surpass hydropower (from dams) and, in 2025 will surpass coal. In September the UK shut down its last coal-powered plant. - A woman with Type 1 diabetes began producing her own insulin after receiving a transplant of reprogrammed stem cells taken from her own body. - Egypt was certified malaria-free, having been plagued by it since 4,000 BCE - Thailand became the 1st country in Southeast Asia to legalized same-sex marriages. Greece became the 1st Orthodox Christian nation to do the same. In both countries, same-sex couples will now be able to adopt. - Finland cut its suicide rate in half during 2024 and is now focusing on homelessness. And from them, more good news in the U.S. in 2024: - Minimum wage increases went into effect in 22 states. Alaska and Missouri voted in November to increase their minimum wage to $15 per hour. Only 13% percent of US workers now earn under $15 per hour. That’s down from nearly 32% in 2022. (So much progress has been made that the advocacy group Fight for 15 changed its name to Fight for a Union.) - In June, Vermont passed a law mandating 100 % renewable energy by 2035 for all utilities. 25 states and Washington, DC have implemented renewable energy or net-zero emissions targets. - Virginia became the 12th state - and the first in the South - to raise the legal age of marriage to 18. The vast majority of minors who marry under 18 in the US are married to adult men, before these girls are even old enough to consent to sex. - Kentucky became the 24th state to ban “conversion therapy” for minors. Conversion therapy tries to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Do watch the inspiring 12-minute TED talk given by Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, former CEO of Patagonia, called A Bold Plan to Rewind the Earth https://www.ted.com/talks/kristine_mcdivitt_tompkins_a_bold_plan_to_rewild_the_earth_at_massive_scale?subtitle=en Good News for many public employees across the U.S.: President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act, which permanently repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset. This will enable teachers, nurses, firefighters, law enforcement officers and millions of other public employees to retire with all their Social Security earnings and benefits. This law remedies a decades-long problem that prevented many workers in public service from retiring with their full Social Security earnings. So many workers move between the private and public sectors over the course of their careers, and before the repeal of these provisions, these workers were often penalized upon their retirement. This, from The Lever, about great news from California levernews.com California’s state electricity grid ran on 100% renewable energy, with NO blackouts or cost increases in 2024 for a record 98 days! A study showed that CA avoided blackouts, while relying on a fully renewable electricity supply using a combination of wind, water and solar power, for 1 out of every 4 days. NOTE: Blackouts can be a problem for renewable energy because these sources have to deal with the variability of weather, sunlight and wind. Have you heard about the Earthshot Prize? The Earthshot is a well-funded new organization started 4 years ago by UK’s Prince William, searching the globe for game-changing innovations that will help us repair our damaged planet. Each year winners are chosen from hundreds of groups and small businesses around the world who are doing amazing, innovating things for our planet. You can watch it on Youtube or PBS tv. It gathers nominations from around the world, highlighting the work of individuals, groups and small businesses that are doing amazing creative things to reverse some of the damage we humans have done to the Earth… and to restore the health of the planet. The categories include water, air, nature, wildlife, garbage and much, much more. The first televised proceedings of the award ceremony were much less “glitzy” that 2024, and gave a longer video about each of the finalists’ work. This last one was held in a huge auditorium in Cape Town, South Africa, with well-heeled and well-dressed members of the audience, as well as finalists in their best attire. And interspersed among the 3 finalists for each category was a song and dance performance by one or another group from Cape Town. Lots of energy, lots of costumes and choreography. The amazing thing about this prize is that it comes with a gift of 1 million pounds, PLUS ongoing practical and strategical assistance to help each winner ramp up what they do to have national and international impact. And the other 2 finalists in each category ALSO receive a guarantee of ongoing assistance and connection to similar projects around the world. Thank you, Prince William. Be sure to watch his short speech that he gave at the end of the program. Deeply moving! earthshotprize.org A true breakthrough in electric vehicles From Live Science livescience.comDecember 24, 2024 Mercedes-Benz announced that it has developed a new type of solar voltaic paint that will be able to power an electric vehicle (EV) for up to 7,456 miles per year in optimal lighting conditions (i.e. where there’s lots of sun). It’s called a "nanoparticle" paint, and it can be applied directly to the body of an EV, reducing dependence on external charging. Photovoltaic paint converts light energy into an electrical charge via a process known as the photovoltaic effect. Furthermore, this paint is based on non-toxic and readily available raw materials, making it both environmentally friendly and cost-effective to produce. Thanks to Heather Cox Richardson for this piece from December 6th, 2024 Letters To An American heathercoxrichardson@substack.com On December 16th, President Joe Biden designated a new national monument in honor of Frances Perkins, the Secretary of Labor under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Perkins was the first female Cabinet secretary and served for 12 years. She took the job only after getting FDR to sign on to her goals: 1) unemployment insurance, 2) health insurance, 3) old-age insurance, 4) a 40-hour work week, 5) a minimum wage, and 6) the abolition of child labor. She later recalled: “I remember he looked so startled, and he said, ‘Well, do you think it can be done?’” Perkins promised to find out. Once in office, Perkins was a driving force behind the administration’s massive investment in public works projects to get people back to work. She urged the government to spend $3.3 billion on schools, roads, housing, and post offices. Those projects employed more than a million people in 1934 (as the U.S. was still mired in The Great Depression). In 1935, FDR signed into law the Social Security Act that Perkins designed and negotiated. It provided ordinary Americans with 1) unemployment insurance 2) aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children, 3) funds to promote maternal and child welfare, and 4) public health services. Then, in 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established a minimum wage and maximum hours and banned child labor. The one area where [Perkins] fell short of her goals was in establishing public healthcare. It was not until 2010 that President Barack Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act. Perkins’s work to build FDR’s New Deal sparked the modern American state. Breakthroughs for Climate and Nature in 2024 As reported on BBC 1. On September 30th, 2024, the UK closed its last coal fired power plant. This was also a symbolic moment, as the UK was the first country in the world to use coal for public power generation, and that fossil fuel was the lifeblood of the industrial revolution. 2. Renewable energy sources are growing rapidly around the world. In the US, wind energy generation hit a record in April, exceeding coal-fired generation. 3. A growing number of natural features and spaces were granted legal personhood in 2024. In New Zealand, the peaks of Egmont National Park – renamed Te Papakura o Taranaki – were recognized as Ancestral Mountains and together became a legal person, known as Te Khaki Tupua. NOTE: Legal personhood means that nature and living non-human beings must be understood as subjects [as opposed to objects], with intrinsic value and interests and needs of their own. 4. The Azore Islands in the North Atlantic created a new marine protected area (MPA). When established, it will be the largest in the region, spanning 30% of the sea around the Portuguese archipelago. Half of the 111,000 sq miles (287,000 sq km) protected area will be "fully protected", with no fishing or other natural resource extraction, according to the initiative behind the MPA. The other half will be "highly protected”. The area contains The protected area includes 9 hydrothermal vents, 28 species of marine mammals and 560 species of fish. MPAs can be highly effective in protecting biodiversity if their restrictions are adequately enforced. 5. In California, wildlife has benefited from decades-long drives by the Native American Yurok Tribe to replenish animals on tribal territories. In 2024, this culminated in salmon returning to the Klamath River. After a 100-year hiatus, salmon were spotted in Oregon's Klamath River basin, following a dam removal further downstream in the California stretch of the Klamath. In August, the final of four dams were removed – in what was America's biggest dam removal project – following pressure from environmentalists and tribes. How one hospital is treating food as medicine From The Washington Post October 29, 2024 In 2001, Boston Medical Center began its “food as medicine” program. Once every two weeks, patients identified as having food insecurity receive a food “prescription,” entitling them to visit the Preventive Food Pantry run by the hospital and receive boxes customized for their medical conditions. Clinicians give a referral to the program, so workers know whether the patient requires a diet for diabetes, kidney disease, autoimmune conditions, etc.. Crucially, it’s patients who decide what food they take. Eligibility is simply a matter of answering yes to two questions about whether they are worried about getting enough food. They don’t need to show proof of financial stress. The program serves about 6,800 patients, distributing 50,000 pound of food month. The source of much of the fresh produce from the hospital itself, as it has its own rooftop farm. 70% of the vegetables grown there go to Preventive Food Pantry participants and a portion of the rest is served in the hospital cafeteria. About the gut microbiome and crucial importance of human breast-milk. From the book, I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us, and a Grander View of Life Publ.2024 by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers “Milk is a mammalian innovation, common to platypuses and pangolins, humans and hippos and its ingredients vary according to what each species needs. Human milk is a particular marvel. Every mammal mother produces complex sugars called oligosaccharides [called H.M.O’s.], and human moth­ers, for some reason, produce out an exceptional variety: So far, scientists have identified more than two hundred human milk oligosaccharides. H.M.O’s are the third-most plentiful ingredient in human milk, after lactose and fats, and their structure ought to make them a rich source of energy for growing babies. However, babies cannot digest them. They pass through the stom­ach and the small intestine unharmed, landing in the large intestine, where most of our bacteria live… Their purpose: to nourish [our] gut microbes.” Looking for hope and inspiration? Read Marianne Williamson’s “MarianneManifesto for a Renewed Democratic Party” mariannewilliamson.substack.com How a game in which you look for a real, live pink elephant could help save the world. From National Public Radio [NPR] Edgard Gouveia Jr., 58, says the key to solving the world's problems is games. "I use games and narrative to mobilize crowds," says the Brazilian game inventor and co-founder of Livelab. He's worked with schools, companies, government offices and slums. "Games that can make a whole town, a whole city or even a whole country play together." And now he's developing a global game called "Jornada X" whose goal is to get kids and teenagers to save nothing less than all life on the planet. Through games and playful activities, we create a field of trust. When you create abundance of connection, abundance of possibility, people sense it right away. It doesn't matter if for 30 or 40 years they were living in scarcity. By belonging to a group that we love and that's doing good in the world – these are ways of energizing our collective power, our collective meaning. When you do some good, you feel like you have an identity. [Jornada X] starts with young people. They receive a call that's like a Matrix video that says, "Humanity isn't doing well. Society is violent and nature is dying. But you are one of a group of special kids with superpowers – things like love, helping others, strength, and friendship.” As soon as they sign up, the team starts to receive missions. We might say, "Look at your neighborhood. What's wrong?" By the end of seven weeks, they have to find a solution ... Kids play war games all the time. They collaborate to kill people. It's not that they like death, but they want to have this kind of adrenaline. What could be more exciting? Protecting reproductive rights. Wins from the November U.S. elections: Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, and New York placed the right to an abortion in their constitutions. Nevada also did that; but it will require a 2nd vote in 2026 to become official. AND…And in March 2024, the U.S.’s first over-the-counter birth control pill, Opill, became available to purchase in pharmacies as well as online. Good news for childbearing women In the U.S., or anyone who might want to parent or cares about children and humanity. As reported in The Nation August 14, 2023thenation.com by Bryce Covert The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which requires employers to make “reasonable accommodations” to meet the needs of their pregnant workers, is the first time the U.S. Congress has any anything to do with pregnant people in 44 years. This is historic! It was passed in December 2022 and went into effect June 27th. There is no waiting period and it doesn’t matter how long the pregnant employee has been at that job. “Accommodations” can include anything from a better-fitting uniform to light duty assignments to time off for prenatal appointments as long is there is no undue hardship for the employer. Because the law covers not just pregnancy itself but also related conditions, the EEOC confirmed that it allows people to take time off to get an abortion, to recover from a miscarriage, to take unpaid leave after childbirth, and to deal with postpartum depression.” For more information, contact: abetterbalance.org – using the power of the law to advance justice for workers so they can care for themselves and loved ones without jeopardizing their jobs. From Michael Moore’s post on December 6, 2024: “In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black Woman elected to the United States Congress, representing Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, New York. I’m sure she felt like giving up many times, too. But in 1972, she did just the opposite — she ran for President of the United States of America, the first Black Woman Presidential candidate for a major political party November 30th would have been Shirley Chisholm’s 100th Birthday. New York City has made this “Shirley Chisholm Day.” On December 4th the United States Congress voted unanimously to honor Shirley Chisholm with the Congressional Gold Medal — the oldest and highest award in America, right there with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.” Let’s hope this is a sign of a new trend: In 2024, a bill passed the Nebraskan House that people who complete their felony sentences automatically regain their right to vote As I sometimes do in my newsletters, I am closing with some serious pieces for you to know about. Here are 2 films I urge all of us to watch and talk about: Vigilantes Inc which comes out of Save Your Vote. You can stream it there for FREE. It’s about the MILLIONS of people in the U.S. who were denied their vote in the November 2024 elections. Palast is an investigative reporter who works for BBC and The Guardian. Many of those whose votes were not counted are people living in “swing” states. The vast majority are people of color. And many of them voted by mail and never knew their vote had not been counted. NOTE: Even the conservative Wall Street Journal published that more than one hundred million dollars was spent in this past election to purge voter rolls. And it’s not just Elon Musk using that money. One woman in George, working for Senator Marjorie Taylor Green, successfully challenged 32,000 votes! In the U.S., the ability to challenge anyone’s vote is a holdout from the Jim Crow era. saveyourvote.org ******* And finally, on a very serious note, Michael Moore just announced a film that he is executive producer for. It’s called “From Ground Zero”, filmed in Gaze in 2024 and will be shown in many theaters around the U.S. “This is the first film ever from Gaza to be elected to the shortlist for the Oscar in the category that honors what used to be known as the Best Foreign Film of the Year, is unlike any movie you’ve ever seen — filmed during a mass slaughter of over 50,000 civilians, the vast majority of them children, women and the elderly. In a brisk and powerful one hour and fifty-two minutes, it weaves together 22 short films made by 22 courageous Palestinian filmmakers living and surviving in Gaza over this past year — all of it told in under 2 hours!” Thanks for reading. Stay well. Love, Suzanne The views expressed here are our own. Special thanks if you have chosen to support our work. Warmly, Suzanne This was issue #53 of Suzanne Arms: My Take. You can subscribe, unsubscribe, or view this email online. (fb)

Every child born is a handful of hope. Birthing the Future understands that the nurturing of a new kind of human being rooted in trust and cooperation, instead of fear and aggression begins with the primal continuum of human development. It all begins with how we are wired at the beginning of life (fb)