Resisto Dancing: Songs of a Compassionate Revolution
Raffi Cavoukian / Troubador Music / $14.95

“We find these joys to be self-evident, that all children are created whole, endowed with an innate intelligence. With dignity and wonder, worthy of respect. The embodiment of life, liberty and happiness, children are original blessings, here to learn their own song. Every girl and boy is entitled to love, to dream and to belong to a loving village and to pursue a life of purpose. We affirm our duty to nourish and nurture the young, to honour their caring ideals as the heart of being human. Continued...

Maitreya: A Conversation with Benjamin Creme

Vision Magazine: Who is Maitreya?

Benjamin Creme: Maitreya is the head of a group of enlightened men, men who have come through the whole of the evolutionary cycle on earth and who need no further incarnation here. They nevertheless take incarnations on earth in order to oversee the evolution of the rest of us. He is the master of all of the masters, the head Buddha of that group and the world teacher of this cycle and the next cycle. Continued...

Educating and Raising Our Youngest Citizens:
The 1st Annual Whole Child Conference Rises to the Call

by Joni DeGroot M.S. Ed., MFT

Family life has changed significantly since the 1950s. There are new challenges facing families, children, and their futures everyday. Electronic media (TV, ipods, computers, cell phones) and consumerism are linchpins of our global economy and have become recreational staples for our youth. Continued...

What it Means to be a Doula A Conversation with Three Women

by Nicole Pugh

The word “doula” originates from the Greek and means “servant to mother.” Nowadays, the term is used to describe a woman who provides non-medical emotional and informational support to other women prenataly, during the birthing process and during the postpartum stage. In California alone, there are dozens of family centers and community health organizations that provide doula services to their communities.Continued...

My Father's Hands ©2007 by Michael Raysses

I'm no Einstein. Yet as I dive into the murk that surrounds the topic of “family,” I stop to think that although he may have gone a long way in explaining some fundamental mysteries of our universe, if Einstein really wanted to cement his reputation, his Theory of Relativity should have solved the existential crossword puzzle posed by one's relatives. Continued...

Beyond Toothpaste: Protect Your Family’s Periodontal Health
by Nicole Pugh

Periodontal disease is an American epidemic. According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, about 80 percent of adults in the United States currently have some form of gum disease. The condition is evident in about 66 percent of American young adults and 50 percent of adolescents. Continued...

Reconnecting With Life After Loss
By Linda Drake

You have just lost a loved one and the intensity of your pain is indescribable. Friends and relatives try to console you by saying that time will heal the pain-- and for some this may be true. However, sometimes when we lose someone we are very close to, we carry this pain to our own grave. Death is inevitable. It is part of the soul's journey from one lifetime to another. Yet, our Western society does not understand about death. This ignorance leaves us unprepared for the emotions that can overcome us. Continued...

Where Your Soul is Welcome And Your Voice is Heard
© Rhoberta Shaler, PhD Founder, Spiritual Living Network & Your Spiritual Home. Co-Founder, Humana Center

A longing for community is natural. We want acceptance, inclusion, trust, respect and attention. We want to be able to count on open minds, open hearts and open arms to welcome us. For many, this sounds too ideal to be real. But for those who believe it is possible, it is a homecoming. Community and family can be created–and it begins within. Continued...

Karmalogy Bracelets
I love to give and wear the Karmalogy Bead Bracelets from Luckyness. As I look down at my bracelet, it helps me to be aware of “Unexpected Miracles.” I realize that in each moment, it is solely our own responsibility to know that miracles do happen. This simple bracelet of agate and wooden karma beads lets you know that unexpected miracles can come into your life. I believe that certain stones can help us with certain issues. Continued...

Synchronicity Creates the New Family
A Personal Account by Wendy Cicchetti

In early 1995, I wondered if there was a man out there who was right for me. I had not had more than two dates in 10 years and I was ready for something new. I awoke one morning that same year puzzled by a vivid dream. In it, I looked up to the sky to see a brilliant, twin-tail comet. About six weeks later, I was watching a movie, The Butcher's Wife, as Demi Moore ran to the top of a lighthouse seeking a sign that true love would visit her. She was ecstatic when a twin-tail comet shot across the sky. Continued...

The Soul Mate Kit Taking Control of your Romantic Destiny
by Jill Mangino

No one ever said that finding Mr. or Ms. “Right” was easy. However, at the age of 39 and still single I have always looked to my friend, author Arielle Ford, as my beacon of hope. Arielle did not meet her soulmate until she was 44. Now happily married to her husband Brian for nearly 10 years, Arielle admits that she did not manifest her soulmate until she got “serious”. Continued...

Echo Malibu Turns Lives Around
by Rob Brownlie

"One of the goals at Echo Malibu is to provide a healthy family structure to allow the kids to find their individual voice. In doing so, it offers them the opportunity to heal in a safe and supportive environment." -Dr. Jeff Nalin, Co-Founder, Echo Malibu. Some say that a family is based solely on genetics. I have come to believe that a family is based on love and support. Echo Malibu Youth Treatment Center is definitely a non-traditional family. Continued...

Ask the LifeQuake™ Doctor Dr. Toni Galardi

Dear Dr. Toni,
I just spent another miserable holiday with my parents and siblings. I'm forty years old, female and single with no kids. My parents keep asking me when I am going to get married, settle down and have a family of my own. It's getting to the point that I don't want to spend my holidays with them. And it doesn't help to ask them to back off. How do I tell them I don't want to see them on holidays? I really want this past 4th of July to be my independence day, but I don't know how. –Judy Continued...

TRIBAL OASIS: Building A Community in Topanga Canyon
by Dlight

“Because we don't expect to overthrow governments, abolish world capitalism, make civilization vanish, turn everyone in the world into walking Buddhas, or cure all social and economic ills, we don't have to wait for anything. If ten people walk beyond civilization and build a new sort of life for themselves, then those ten are already living in the next paradigm, from the first day. They don't need the support of an organization. They don't need to belong to a party or a movement. They don't need new laws to be passed. They don't need a constitution. They don't need tax-exempt status. For those ten, the revolution will have already succeeded.”
— Daniel Quinn, Beyond Civilization Continued...

Shifting Family Paradigms: She's Still My Child
by Elizabeth H. Florio

Imagine a teenage girl so consumed with fear, guilt and uncertainty that she can't articulate her thoughts and she won't confide in her parents. Her eyes are deep and wounded. Her skin is sallow. Her eyes — dull. Is this the story of an anorexic, a bulimic, or a drug user? No, it isn't. Now imagine a teenage boy who is so sure that something is wrong with him that he wants to “take himself out” because it's easier than facing what he is and what his parent will think. Is this the story of a depressive or a gang member? No, it isn't. Continued...

Courageous Souls Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth?
by Robert Schwartz

So often, when something “bad” happens to us, it appears to be meaningless suffering. But what if our most difficult experiences are actually rich with hidden purpose–purpose that we ourselves planned before we were born? After a personal experience with a medium led me to investigate the reasons for the challenges that have occurred in my own life, I examined the pre-birth plans of dozens of individuals. I worked with four of the most gifted mediums and channels in the country, including one who is able to hear conversations individuals have had with future relatives and other loved ones. My book, Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth?, is the culmination of three years of this research. In it's pages, I highlight the situations of people who have planned such life challenges as physical illness and disability, drug and alcohol addiction, losing a loved one, and severe accidents. Continued...

Anyone & Everyone:
A Documentary about Coming Out and Its Impact on Families
by Elizabeth H. Florio

It's occurring more and more these days. Regular people from all faiths, lifestyles, tax brackets, and belief systems experience it. These are normal, hard-working people living life, when suddenly they learn that their child is gay or lesbian. How do parents cope with this often disruptive, and life-altering knowledge? A new documentary, Anyone and Everyone, directed by the best-selling author Susan Polis-Schutz, explores this topic with great courage and sensitivity. Continued...

The 21st Century Family
by Derek Shaw

Voicemails, emails, text and instant messaging, blogs and file sharing…welcome to a digital world linked by wires, cords and buttons. In the workplace, the technological boom has amplified multi-tasking and individual responsibility. People are so bound to their technological devices that they allow those outlets to become inlets. Folks now communicate in a shared global network, and consequently, it's easier than ever to keep in touch. The irony is that despite the connections provided by technology, families are more detached than ever. People are used to convenience and instant gratification: they want things done immediately and efficiently at all costs. Continued...

The Wisdom Festival

“We might have the knowledge but do we have the wisdom to participate in the co-creation of the world? Do we have enough skill to bring an enlightened society into being? Or will we be relegated to the garbage heap of failed experiment? What hangs in the balance is not only whether we can merely survive as a species but whether we can bring joy and celebration into our lives and into the world as we are doing it. The Wisdom Festival, besides being a conversation about where we have come from and where we are going, is also a celebration of where we are.” This statement from the Wisdom Festival Continued...