Two to three weeks  of school vacation for the holidays. What’s a mom to do? There are some great videos available on the internet that promote the spirit of love and giving that is the essence of this holiday season. Here are a few of our favorites and can inspire meaningful conversations with your children. 

The Girl Who Silenced the World at the UN is the story of Severn Suzuki who has been working on environmental and social justice issues since kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They traveled to 1992’s UN Earth Summit, where 12 year-old Severn gave this powerful speech that deeply affected (and silenced) some of the most prominent world leaders. 

Doctor with a Big Heart    is the story of Ingida Asfaw who came to America in a cargo ship at age 16 from Ethopia. He made a promise to himself that he would give back to his homeland when he was able. Now a world-renowned surgeon, Dr. Asfaw has created an international  coalition to address Ethopia’s medical crisis.

Dance Like No One is Watching  is a video of some guy named Matt doing the Gratitude Dance in 42 different countries. Guaranteed to make you happy. Matt dances with people all over the world and he is clearly quite a character and a beautiful fellow.. For a lot more information about his journey, see Matt’s blog.  

Christian the Lion  In 1969, two Australians living in London purchased a 35-pound lion cub from the exotic animal division of Harrod’s department store. For a full year, John Rendall and Ace Bourke raised the cub as their pet, permitting him to lounge freely in the furniture shop they co-owned and even join them for an occasional meal at a local restaurant. In 1972, after the lion had grown too large to properly be cared for, he was taken to Kenya and reintroduced to the wild. Two years later, Rendall and Bourke paid a visit to Kenya to see their old friend. They were told the lion would never remember them. Watch what happened.

Last week it was announced that a study showed happiness spreads among people like a contagious disease–those who don’t have it catch it from those who do. 4700 people were studied over a 20-year period. “Your happiness depends not just on your choices and actions, but also on the choices and actions of people you don’t even know who are one, two and three degrees removed from you,” said Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and social scientist at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study, to be published in BMJ, a British journal. “There’s kind of an emotional quiet riot that occurs and takes on a life of its own, that people themselves may be unaware of. Emotions have a collective existence — they are not just an individual phenomenon.” His co-author, James H. Fowler, an associate professor of political science at University of California, San Diego, their research found that “if your friend’s friend’s friend becomes happy, that has a bigger impact on you being happy than putting an extra $5,000 in your pocket.”

One person’s happiness can affect another’s for as much as a year, the researchers found, and while unhappiness can also spread from person to person, the “infectiousness” of that emotion appears to be far weaker. For more information, see the University of Pennsylvania Authentic Happiness website.

Clearly this information is important to each of us as family members and especially as parents. Happy people tend to be healthier and more creative. This is something we all wish for our kids. Here’s an extra incentive for each of us to find more reasons to be happy during the holidays and in the new year.

Giving birth naturally, drug free has not been embraced by the United States. Although there are many who fully support it, hospitals and doctors across the country not only encourage the use of drugs such as pitocin, but in many cases make women feel that they are not capable of giving birth naturally. 

Filmmaker Debra Pascali-Bonaro explores natural child birth with  11 mothers sharing their journey of birthing their babies naturally. So what is different about this film from other birthing films? The exploration of birthing as a sensuous, joyous experience. 

orgasmic birth

Here is a list, by date, of summer screenings in the US and Canada:

Canada

July 19,2008 : DONA International Conference in Vancouver BC

United States

June 21,2008: Water Birth International in Dayton Ohio

June 22,2008: Water Birth International in Indianapolis, IN

June 26, 2008: Long Island Doula Center Assn in Bayshore, New York

June 27,28,29: Water Birth International in Portland, Oregon

June 28,2008: Shoreline Center for Holistic Health in Guilford CT

June 28, 2008: Missouri Midwives Association in Kansas City, Kansas

June 30, 2008: Seattle Midwifery School in Seattle, Washington

July 12, 2008: Better Augusta Birth Experience in Augusta, Georgia

July 19, 2008: Amazing Births in Boca Raton, Florida

August 9, 2008: Independent Childbirth at the Sierra Vista Public Library in Arizona

August 15, 2008: Birth Resource Network in Bonita, California

August 16, 2008: Safe Birthing Information Network in Chino Hills, California 

August 23, 2008: Water Birth International in Dallas, Texas

For fall screenings and international screenings please see the Orgasmic Birth Screening page.

You can also learn more about this film at Orgasmic Birth.