This week Awesome Stories brings you GLADvent, oil from tires, and transforming humanity.
GLADvent
Harula, from Words that Serve, has created a fun holiday ritual of celebrating one quality each day in December leading up to Christmas. She has created a GLADvent calendar with one stocking for each day from December 1st to the 24th. Each stocking has a word and a quote to focus on for that day. The intention is to practice gratitude and joy over the Christmas season. Kindness was the first word to start the celebration. Clearly, a lot of love and kindness have gone into creating 24 days of goodness to boost your spirits for the holidays. Below is a lovely song from a choir called Glorious Chorus. Happy Holidays from Harula!
Biofuel from Tires
I love this idea that turns old tires into fuel. In case you didn’t know, old tires are a huge waste and environmental problem (we discard about 290 million tires each year in the US alone). Green Distillation Technologies has found a way to turn old tires into biofuel. and amazingly, running diesel engines on a blend of regular fuel and “tyre oil” shows no loss of engine performance and a massive reduction in emissions. There is zero waste from the process; the tires are put in a heat chamber and melted via a process called destructive distillation yielding oil, carbon, and steel that can be used or recycled. The process is emission free and the recycled oil is used as the heat source for the production process.
Transforming Humanity
Patricia Pearce offers a beautiful perspective on these turbulent times. In her view, humanity is undergoing a vast sea change from ego oriented living focused on fear, separation, and greed, to living from higher self, focused on interdependence, cooperation, and community. She draws an interesting parallel to the metamorphosis of butterflies not just for the obvious transformation, but for the remarkable inner process that occurs. Apparently, a caterpillar’s cells undergo a turbulent dissolution and self-attack to emerge as a brand new creature. Similarly, our ego dominated systems of living are falling apart, raging, being attacked, and leading to an increase in hate crimes, But the real story is what is happening in response, where people are answering hate with love. People are offering to register as Muslim if a national registration is enacted, creating anti-hate movements like Not in Our Town, and Olivia, starting Repaint Hate to cover hate graffiti with beautiful art. Go love!
I hope you find ways to answer the call of love, whether with yourself, family, friends, work or community. #LoveWins
writing to freedom 
Brad, so good to see what people have been doing to counter hateful behaviours. And thanks for the link to the Advent calendar from Harula. A happy Advent to all who celebrate this time of year.
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Agreed Cynthia. I’m happy to see people standing up for each other with LOVE in a peaceful way. Harula’s event seems like a great way for anyone to practice gratitude and joy. blessings to you and yours…
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GLADvent! what a brilliant idea. And I really love the idea of the tire recycling. Good stuff, here.
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Thanks Annette. How about recycling goodness? XD
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Wow – thank you so much for linking to me and the choir video on one of your Awesome Stories posts!!! I’m truly honored my friend 🙂 What a brilliant way to re-use tyres, and the framing of these times as a transition from ego focused to a paradigm of greater compassion is inspiring. Indeed, like the caterpillar becoming a butterfly, some old stuff needs to break down before it can be re-made into the new. Not always comfortable, but ultimately worth it! Blessings and much gratitude, H xxx
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You are most welcome Harula. I’m inspired by your creative projects (both GLADvent and the spontaneous poetry). And I’m happy to share your talents as an inspiring story. 🙂 Yes, many of us are experiencing the pain of the old breaking down. The work is to remain open, trust and keep moving forward with as much love and compassion (for self and others) as possible. blessings…
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That last bit about transformation resonated a lot with me. My own extended family is going through some tough times, our political situation is in a crazy transition…but I definitely feel compelled to work on feeling compassionate and spreading the love. I’m so far from perfect, but I love that we can come out on the other side as “higher beings.” 🙂
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Thanks Cynthia. My experience of you is loving and compassionate. Yes, these times can be challenging and overwhelming at times. I too am doing the best I can to move forward with compassion and love.
Thanks for being on the love team. 🙂
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Stories to be glad about Brad, what a lovely idea for an advent calendar. I hope that Patricia is right about the hope and kindness coming out of these challenging times.
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I’m glad you found value (and hope?) in the stories Andrea. If each of us is willing to move toward a world of mutual cooperation, we help make it happen. I hope you will join us. 🙂
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