Tread Softly

One of my favorite quotes popped into my head this morning, so it's time for another Quote of the Day post! It also made me think of another quote that I just love, so 2 for the price of 1 today.

"Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time."

-Motto of the Baltimore Grotto (caving society)

"Travel light in life. Take only what you need: a loving family, good friends, simple pleasures, someone to love and someone to love you, enough to eat, enough to wear and a little more than enough to drink, for thirst is a dangerous thing."

-Unknown

Earth Hour - March 29

Heard about this neat event today through my daily Ideal Bite email. So for all 5 of you who might read my blog between today and tomorrow, please consider participating. Every little bit helps!

From Earth Hour US:

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

What will you do when the lights are off? We have lots of ideas.

Join people all around the world in showing that you care about our planet and want to play a part in helping to fight climate change. Don’t forget to sign up and let us know you want to join Earth Hour.

One hour, America. Earth Hour. Turn out for Earth Hour!

About Green

Green has always been my favorite color, and today's Daily Om newsletter spells out why much better than I ever could:

March 24, 2008
Unifier Of Opposites
The Color Green

Green is a combination of the colors yellow and blue, each of which brings its own unique energy to the overall feeling of the color green. Blue exudes calm and peace, while yellow radiates liveliness and high levels of energy. As a marriage between these two very different colors, green is a unifier of opposites, offering both the excitement of yellow and the tranquility of blue. It energizes blue’s passivity and soothes yellow’s intensity, inspiring us to be both active and peaceful at the same time. It is a mainstay of the seasons of spring and summer, thus symbolizing birth and growth.

Green is one of the reasons that spring instigates so much excitement and activity. As a visual harbinger of the end of winter, green stems and leaves shoot up and out from the dark branches of trees and the muddy ground, letting us know that it’s safe for us to come out, too. In this way, green invites us to shed our layers and open ourselves to the outside world, not in a frantic way, but with an easygoing excitement that draws us outside just to sniff the spring air. Unlike almost any other color, green seems to have its own smell, an intoxicating combination of sun and sky—earthy, bright, and clean. In the best-case scenario, it stops us in our tracks and reminds us to appreciate the great experience of simply being alive.

Green balances our energy so that, in looking at it, we feel confident that growth is inevitable. It also gives us the energy to contribute to the process of growth, to nurture ourselves appropriately, without becoming overly attached to our part in the process. Green reminds us to let go and let nature do her work, while at the same time giving us the energy to do our own.

My First Favorite Song

A little 80s pop to start the week.

Save Yourself

My husband told me about an amazing program TD Ameritrade is offering right now in conjunction with "internationally acclaimed personal finance expert" Suze Orman called the "Save Yourself" program. Basically, you sign up for an account with TD Ameritrade before March 31, make 12 consecutive monthly automatic deposits of at least $50 (the first being within 30 days of opening the account) and at the end of the 12 months, TD Ameritrade will deposit a $100 bonus into your account. Not counting the interest that will be earned over the course of the year and assuming you deposit the minimum $50 a month for a total of $600, the $100 bonus will result in a 16.67% return on your savings! Including the interest the return will be close to 20%! The account has no maintenance fees and is FDIC-insured.

Click the link to read more and sign up and remember, you only have until March 31 to open your account:

http://www.tdameritrade.com/saveyourself/syopen.html

If you can afford it, it is so worth doing! Feel free to email me with any questions.

Springtime

Happy First Day of Spring! Otherwise known as the Vernal Equinox, today the sun is positioned directly over the equator and theoretically, there is nearly an equal amount of day and night. To mark the occasion, a few random spring-related items:

First, a quote:

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"

Next, a book:

I heard about the book Chasing Spring: A Journey Through a Changing Season by Bruce Stutz on NPR not long after it came out in early 2006, promptly bought it and it's been on my bookshelf ever since. I am not someone who can read more than one book at a time, but I suppose I can break this rule if I can read the book in its entirety in one weekend, so maybe I'll go for it this weekend to celebrate the new season.

Last, my name:

Chloe, Greek in origin, has several meanings: green shoot, blooming, verdant and is also another name for the Greek goddess Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. I decided several years ago, based on this combination of definitions, that Chloe can also mean a goddess of spring. I decided this around Halloween, when I was trying to think of a costume and came up with this:

And one with the Grim Reaper for contrast:

Everyone at the party we went to thought I was a bride! Disregard the '94 on the first picture, they are from 2000. And they are scans of actual pictures, hence the poor quality.

There is also a full moon tonight, so lots of interesting vibes out there today. My yoga teacher told us to make sure to spend a little bit of time outside to soak it all up.

Vegas in Bloom

I was a little hard on the desert flora not too long ago, and totally forgot about the blooming trees that grace this city for about 10 days each spring. The summer sun scorches everything and there's nothing left by fall or winter, so it's pretty easy to forget these 10 days a year when Vegas is in bloom. Those of you in colder climes take heart, for spring is on its way!

Here are some shots of two different flowering trees, I have no idea what they are:

And a budding tree for good measure:

Note that I took these pictures on Sunday 3/9 and the pink blossoms are almost totally gone now, wine-colored leaves on the tree have taken over. I intended to post these much sooner, but things got a little hectic. At least now blogging takes the place of exercising as the first thing to go when life gets crazy...