When DEET was used in studies by scientists at Duke University, prolonged topical use on rats resulted in their brain death. How does that translate into human topical use? The DEET industry has always questioned these studies but have clearly known that DEET has a negative effect on health.

Whatever the case and to simply play it safe, keep yourself and your family safe: Stay away from products containing DEET. It’s that logical.

Click here to see a slideshow featuring DEET-free products.

In this lively collection from an array of accomplished writers, readers meet an old woman who imparts an invaluable midnight message on a Greek island; brothers who heal old family wounds in Ireland; and travelers who awaken to the mystery of their souls in such disparate places as St. Peter’s in Rome and a dusty road in India. Contributors include Phil Cousineau, Kim Chernin, David Yeadon, Don George, and Jan Morris. The Spiritual Gifts of Travel reveals the myriad ways that travel renews the spirit. “The tales ring clear and loud with the universal need to travel the road toward self.”

Read more about: The Spiritual Gifts of Travel: The Best of Travelers’ Tales

Planet Earth

The premiere episode, “From Pole to Pole,” serves as a primer for things to come, placing the entire series in proper context and giving a general overview of what to expect from each individual episode. Without being overtly political, the series maintains a consistent and subtle emphasis on the urgent need for ongoing conservation, best illustrated by the plight of polar bears whose very behavior is changing (to accommodate life-threatening changes in their fast-melting habitat) in the wake of global warming–a phenomenon that this series appropriately presents as scientific fact.

With this harsh reality as subtext, the series proceeds to accentuate the positive, delivering a seemingly endless variety of natural wonders, from the spectacular mating displays of New Guinea’s various birds of paradise to a rare encounter with Siberia’s nearly-extinct Amur Leopards, of which only 30 remain in the wild.

With so many of Earth’s natural wonders on display, it’s only fitting that the final DVD in this 5-disc set is devoted to Planet Earth: The Future, a separate 3-part series in which a global array of experts is assembled to discuss issues of conservation, protection of delicate ecosystems, and the socio-economic benefits of understanding nature as a commodity that returns trillions of dollars in value at no cost to Earth’s human population.

At a time when the multiple threats of global warming should be obvious to all, let’s give Sir David the last word, from the closing of Planet Earth’s final episode: “We can now destroy or we can cherish–the choice is ours.”

Get Planet Earth now

From concierge:

1. WILDFLOWER HALL
Where: Shimla, India

Guru says: Yoga was invented in the Himalayas, in caves where acolytes of Tantric bliss experimented with astrology, nutrition, sex, medicine, and asanas (postures). But cave dwelling is so 5,000 years ago: Stay instead at this cliff-side manor, once home to British commander-in-chief Lord Kitchener and now a luxury Oberoi property. Instruction with local masters who grew up practicing yoga can be arranged in private sessions or with a group. Most programs last one week and include spa and Ayurvedic treatments.

Classmates: Wealthy Indian families looking to escape the heat of New Delhi and Mumbai, as well as many European couples. The Himalayan environment attracts a steady stream of fit, young professionals into adventure travel.

Om factor: Didn’t we mention yoga was invented here? Teachers are often part of a guru-disciple lineage dating back centuries.

Prerequisites: A simple mountain pose. Better: the sweat-inducing headstand.

Extracurricular: Day-trips on the white water of the Sutlej River, hikes and single-track mountain biking trips leading to king-of-the-world views, tennis in the summer and ice skating in the winter.

When to go: The summer is warm, but not hot; wildflowers bloom in late spring; and snow falls regularly in January and February. Take your pick.

Doubles from $390; morning yoga classes included, individual yoga programs extra

Wildflower Hall
Tel: 800 562 3764

2. COMO SHAMBHALA AT PARROT CAY
Where: Turks & Caicos

Guru says: This is the spot for well-heeled yogis whose idea of Zen minimalism doesn’t extend to thread counts and evening meals. The private 1,000-acre island in the Turks + Caicos has snow-white sand and turquoise coves, and the rooms are unfussy but gorgeous, all teak and white cotton. Instructors give daily yoga classes, but the resort also attracts some of the biggest names in American yoga for retreat weeks.

Classmates: A yoga rule of thumb: When the price goes up, so does the average age of the clientele. Don’t expect the barefoot, stringy-haired hard-bodies you share floor space with at home. Instead, you’ll get moneyed couples and a smattering of New Age yuppies.

Om factor: With American yoga luminaries such as Rodney Yee and Erich Schiffmann as retreat week regulars, the level of instruction is excellent, with an average of five hours per day during retreat weeks.

Prerequisites: Downward-facing dog. If you don’t already know this pose, just watch your dog stretch when he gets up from a nap.

Extracurricular: Dive or snorkel in the most pristine waters and healthiest reefs of the Caribbean region. Or just collapse on the beach for an extended savasana.

Doubles from $680 including group yoga classes; $120 an hour for private instruction; retreat weeks $6,240 all-inclusive

Como Shambhala at Parrot Cay
Tel: 877 754 0726

3. CHIVA-SOM
Where: Hua Hin, Thailand

Guru says: This retreat, my budding spiritual narcissist, is all about you. Thailand’s top destination spa ensures no annoying classmates and no early mornings unless you want them. Upon arrival at the luxurious, secluded seven-acre property located 135 miles south of Bangkok, you’ll be assigned a Health and Wellness advisor who’ll design a personal yoga program, ranging from 3 to 21 days (or longer), and augment it with spa treatments and a nutritional program.

Classmates: There may be no one on the mat next to you (all instruction is private), but other guests do exist. Between yoga and spa sessions you’ll hobnob with British, Swedish, and Australian thirty- and fortysomethings. Most guests are women traveling with their girlfriends or mums to detox or lose weight, but there are plenty of soloists, so you won’t have to dine alone.

Om factor: High. Every morning Buddhist monks wander along Hua Hin beach draped in faded red robes.

Prerequisites: Half lotus with breath of fire (kalabati breathing). You aren’t going to be able to fake this one.

Extracurricular: While most guests don’t leave the property, we suggest shuttling into town to explore the market and local Buddhist shrines.

When to go: The most comfortable time is the dry season, October through April. But prices drop during the summer rains, May to September.

Three- to 21-day retreats from $1,530 to $10,710, including meals and yoga instruction

Chiva-Som
Tel: 949 487 0522

4. BEGAWAN GIRI
Where: Bali, Indonesia

Guru says: Bali seems tailor-made for serenity: The Balinese culture is based on harmony, and locals couldn’t be more hospitable. If you don’t come away from here feeling balanced and fulfilled, you need a personality replacement. The only decision is how upscale to go. The tippy-top is Como Shambhala Estate at Begawan Giri, where the guest villas are architectural masterpieces and the sumptuous spa overlooks the Ayung River. Yoga instructors are on staff, and the hotel hosts retreat weeks throughout the year. But Balinese tranquility isn’t limited to the elite. Australia-based yoga studio Inspya Yoga offers a handful of affordable Bali retreats each year, most of them hosted by renowned teacher Lance Schuler in the town of Ubud (just a stone’s throw from Begawan Giri). Retreat guests are lodged in a simple but comfortable compound with two-story bungalows, an open-air restaurant, and a spring-water swimming pool.

Classmates: Donna Karan at the Begawan Giri; attractive, down-to-earth Aussies with Inspya Yoga.

Om factor: Spirit saturates Bali. There are thousands of temples on the island, and even if you don’t know anything about Hinduism, it’s hard not to be intrigued.

Prerequisites: Wheel pose. Bali attracts types that do full back-bends in their sleep.

Extracurricular: Visit the mother temple complex, Pura Besakih; scale the sacred Mt. Agung volcano; dive in the pristine waters of North Bali; or learn to surf on the south coast.

When to go: Lance Schuler’s next Bali retreat is in July 2007. Begawan Giri announces its retreat week calendar in November 2006; check the website for details.

Begawan Giri: Doubles from $495, including daily yoga; retreat weeks from $3,882. Inspya Yoga: 10-day retreats from $1,009, including accommodations

Begawan Giri
Tel: 62 361 978 888

Inspya Yoga Retreats
Tel: 61 2 6687 2717

5. ADVENTURE YOGA RETREATS
Where: All over the Americas

Guru says: Perfect for those as likely to find enlightenment charging down a mountain or carving a wave as during yoga and meditation. Founder and yoga instructor Ted McDonald teams with well-known New York- and L.A.-based yogis to lead students on adrenaline-addled eco-adventures in some of the world’s wildest places. His students run rivers in Patagonia, hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (pictured), snowboard in the Sierra Nevadas, surf Costa Rica, or scale Mt. Whitney—all between morning and evening yoga sessions.

Classmates: Young, mostly single, fun-loving sensualists who can enjoy an ayahuasca ceremony with a Peruvian shaman as much as a midnight skinny-dip.

Om factor: Low on spiritual pretense, high on thrill-seeking.

Prerequisites: Warrior III. Expect an athletic intermediate practice with lots of standing and one-legged balancing postures.

Extracurricular: Drinking fine Chilean wine, soaking in snow-banked hot tubs, and exploring altered states with Peruvian medicine men.

When to go: Scale Mount Whitney, October 5–7 ($300); snowboard Mammoth Mountain, January 12–15 and March 15–18 ($595); raft Chile’s Fútaleufu River, February 1–10 ($3,800).

Adventure Yoga Retreats
Tel: 310 455 6681

6. ESALEN INSTITUTE
Where: Big Sur, California

Guru says: A New Age hot spot since the ’60s, the institute grows its own vegetarian food, has basic rooms with a view, and hosts workshops in everything from African dance to Tantric sex. The time freeze means you kinda expect John Lennon to drop in at any moment. The yoga classes are led by internationally renowned figures such as Mark Whitwell and Shiva Rea. Too granola for you? Well, the property is outrageously beautiful, as it’s balanced on the edge of the Pacific cliffs. And the coed naked hot-spring tubs—50 feet above the swirling, crashing Pacific—are pretty nifty. Some are exposed to the elements, others are sheltered beneath dynamic cantilevered ceilings; each sucks the stress from bones and souls.

Classmates: Flower children and their ilk. Whoever they are, you’ll be seeing a lot of them. Public displays of self-assured nudity are rampant—height, weight, and body fat be damned.

Om factor: Esalen is fervently committed to a set of spiritual and ecological ideals, and attracts visitors of like minds. So it’s high on pious sanctimony and low on collective sense of humor. Which, in a way, is sort of funny.

Prerequisites: Sun salutations, the central series in vinyasa or flow yoga practice.

Extracurricular: Workshop schedules are pretty packed, but you’ll find time to comb the beach, enjoy a massage, and dip in the hot springs—if you know what’s good for you.

When to go: Hit Shiva Rea’s high-energy Thanksgiving weekend retreat, November 24–26 ($655), or learn how to develop a daily practice in Mark Whitwell’s more introspective and gentler Flow Workshop, December 10–15 ($1,120).

Weekend retreats, $655 per person, including yoga workshop, accommodations, meals, and access to hot springs; weeklong retreats $1,120

Esalen Institute
Tel: 831 667 3005

7. LIFETIME RETREATS
Where: Kangaroo Island, Australia

Guru says: This family-owned property on secluded Kangaroo Island, off the coast of Adelaide, oozes character, with three distinct villas that include the Cliff House, reminiscent of a ’70s rock’n'roll crash pad, and the earthen Sky House. A pre-arrival questionnaire not only includes queries guests about yoga habits but also favorite tunes, dining preferences, and even comforting smells from childhood (it isn’t unusual to arrive to find an apple pie in the oven). Rachel Hannaford, a former personal chef who’s fed the Dalai Lama and is now LifeTime’s general manager/yogi/head chef, teaches yoga every morning at eight, and an Introduction to Tibetan Meditation class in the evenings.

Classmates: American couples here to view the island’s diverse wildlife; group retreats full of fit Aussies.

Om factor: Up to you. Hannaford can discuss Buddhist philosophy if you like, but she’s more than happy to keep it light.

Prerequisites: Chair pose or child’s pose. A disciple of Baron Baptiste’s athletic brand of hatha yoga, Hannaford uses techniques that’ll make quads rattle and brows drip.

Extracurricular: Humans are outnumbered ten to one by mobs of wallabies, kangaroos, seals, and koalas. Romp with them (or close enough) around the stunning, unspoiled coastline.

When to go: Australia’s spring and summer, October through March.

Retreats from $493 per person per night, all-inclusive

LifeTime Retreats
Tel: 61 8 8354 2368

8. MAYA TULUM
Where: Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico

Guru says: Set on an absurdly gorgeous stretch of Yucatán shore 90 minutes from Cancún, this is the best-regarded retreat destination within the yoga community, hosting more than 50 events a year. Join a group trip sponsored by one of several international yoga stars, such as Baron Baptiste, or simply sign on for Maya Tulum’s five-night or seven-night MBS (as in mind, body, spirit) program. The price includes yoga sessions, meditation classes, three vegetarian meals per day (fish is optional), massages, and day-trips. The spa serves up specialties such as Mayan clay massage and Sobata Maya—a concentric navel massage. Oh, and there’s a sweat lodge run by a third-generation shaman named Fabian.

Classmates: Among the hippie-chic 20-to-45 set, this place is more popular than soy chai lattes. You’re liable to share hardwood with film and rock stars, politicians, and Manhattanites looking for time off from the social circuit.

Om factor: Given the Mayan context and enthusiastic clientele, expect bizarre conversations about Krishna, string theory, indigo children, 2012, Tantra, the evils of Fox News, and the holographic nature of reality. Quick: Say, “Mayan navel massage” 50 times fast.

Prerequisites: Crow pose. You don’t have to know how to balance on your hands with legs curled up like a perching crow’s wings, but if you don’t, you may have asana envy.

Extracurricular: Aside from getting sweaty with Fabian, explore the nearby Mayan ruins in Tulum and some of the largest pyramids in Mexico at Coba. Snorkeling is also first-rate.

When to go: Winter and spring are the most popular, but good deals can be had in summer and fall. Baptiste leads weeklong “boot camp” retreats October 21–28 and May 19–26. (For more information, visit Baptiste’s site.)

All-inclusive MBS retreats from $1,020 per person; Baptiste’s boot camps from $2,595

Maya Tulum
Tel: 888 515 4580

9. THE STANDARD MIAMI
Where: Miami Beach, Florida

Guru says: A state of egolessness in South Beach? Sounds suspect, huh? Well, while retaining all the retro-cool design motifs of Andre Balazs’s hip hotel brand, this property on a small bay island off the Venetian Causeway is geared around wellness. Its daily group yoga classes are open to hotel guests and the paying public, as are its pranayama and Tibetan meditation classes. The spa is off-the-charts slick, with an emphasis on water therapy—a Turkish hammam, a waterfall hot tub, a spa menu full of double entendres like “Tag Team” (four-hands massage) and “The Standard Spanking” (yes, it involves your buttocks). But it isn’t style over substance here; this place does deliver the goods. There’s a staff acupuncturist and naturopath, a diverse stable of instructors, and terrific yoga facilities. It’s generating great buzz in the yoga world.

Classmates: Two parts international travelers, one part models (and wannabes), and a garnish of Miami locals.

Om factor: Undetermined. The Standard is working to deliver age-old techniques in cool packaging. Does that make it less authentic? You be the judge.

Prerequisites: There’s a touch of Kundalini yoga here, which means holding poses longer and with a variety of breathing techniques. Endure some pain, and you’ll leave feeling high.

Extracurricular: South Beach, and all its toned and tanned glories.

When to go: This one’s wide open.

Doubles from $125; yoga and meditation classes $17

The Standard Miami
Tel: 305 673 1717

[source]

Reel Mower – The environmentally friendly Reel mower with a grass catcher provides a crisp, clean cut with a slicing action. Features 5 blade reel with ball bearings for smooth cutting; self-sharpening reels; adjustable bed knife.

Stainless Steel Klean Kanteen – a durable lightweight, toxin-free, non-leaching and dishwasher safe water bottle without the dangerous after-tastes left by many water bottles.

Wood Keyboard and Mouse – Because plastic sucks and is bad for the environment, get a beautiful bamboo keyboard for dad. It has the unique and warm touch feeling of bamboo, warm in winter, cool in summer.

Club Soda Fountain Jet – Make your own soda or seltzer at home in just seconds, wth no clean-up! No need to bother with lugging home heavy bottles and then having them go flat. With the Soda-Club Home Soda Maker, you’ll make your own great tasting seltzer or soda in a variety of flavors, anytime at your fingertips.

“Why bother? That really is the big question facing us as individuals hoping to do something about climate change, and it’s not an easy one to answer. I don’t know about you, but for me the most upsetting moment in “An Inconvenient Truth” came long after Al Gore scared the hell out of me, constructing an utterly convincing case that the very survival of life on earth as we know it is threatened by climate change. No, the really dark moment came during the closing credits, when we are asked to . . . change our light bulbs. That’s when it got really depressing. The immense disproportion between the magnitude of the problem Gore had described and the puniness of what he was asking us to do about it was enough to sink your heart.

But the drop-in-the-bucket issue is not the only problem lurking behind the “why bother” question. Let’s say I do bother, big time. I turn my life upside-down, start biking to work, plant a big garden, turn down the thermostat so low I need the Jimmy Carter signature cardigan, forsake the clothes dryer for a laundry line across the yard, trade in the station wagon for a hybrid, get off the beef, go completely local. I could theoretically do all that, but what would be the point when I know full well that halfway around the world there lives my evil twin, some carbon-footprint doppelgänger in Shanghai or Chongqing who has just bought his first car (Chinese car ownership is where ours was back in 1918), is eager to swallow every bite of meat I forswear and who’s positively itching to replace every last pound of CO2 I’m struggling no longer to emit. So what exactly would I have to show for all my trouble?

A sense of personal virtue, you might suggest, somewhat sheepishly. But what good is that when virtue itself is quickly becoming a term of derision? And not just on the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal or on the lips of the vice president, who famously dismissed energy conservation as a “sign of personal virtue.” No, even in the pages of The New York Times and The New Yorker, it seems the epithet “virtuous,” when applied to an act of personal environmental responsibility, may be used only ironically. Tell me: How did it come to pass that virtue — a quality that for most of history has generally been deemed, well, a virtue — became a mark of liberal softheadedness? How peculiar, that doing the right thing by the environment — buying the hybrid, eating like a locavore — should now set you up for the Ed Begley Jr. treatment.

And even if in the face of this derision I decide I am going to bother, there arises the whole vexed question of…”

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“How long has it been since you really enjoyed a glass of water?

Odds are, any number of things in your H2O (both better and worse for you than just regular water in its unspoiled state) have tainted your chance to experience this life-giving liquid at its best.

I recently had the chance to taste water at its most pure – straight from an iceberg – and it changed my outlook on it forever.

Inspired by that eye-opening glass, here – in my opinion – are the five best glasses of water on Earth:

5. Waste water never tasted so good

Folks in Sweden are so into water purification that Stockholm even has an annual water wastewater reclamation prize, offered up to the most deserving innovators. The city boasts a global reputation for doing things right when it comes to the environment.

From an area of the city that gets rid of its garbage and recycling through giant vacuum tubes and incinerators, to systems that recycle waste water to drink (from sinks, not the other place waste water comes from) the city has made some tough decisions to stick to a green agenda.

Having tasted this water (in regular and snazzy “sparkling” form), I can tell you it’s tastier than anything I’ve ever had out of a tap before – Hints of charcoal, but that’s maybe my reaction to a complete lack of fluoride or the bottled water I usually drink in Europe.

4. Tap water that doesn’t offend

According to the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Awards (legitimately acknowledged as an authority on water taste), Clearbrook (near Abbotsford), British Columbia has the best-tasting tap water on Earth.

The BC town won the Virginia spa’s annual world-wide water taste-off for 2008, along with the water district of Southern California.

3. Best spring water on Earth

Though some die-hard environmentalists consider bottled water a big no-no, we’re talking taste here – and I can tell you that U.S.-based Tumai bottled water is the best-tasting liquid I have ever guzzled from a 500 ml prison of polycarbonate…

Gathered from a spring in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, this Martinsburg, West Virginia-based company has won several top prizes for taste in 2008. Its water is 100 per cent free of sodium and it shows in the taste.

What’s more, the company donates 15 per cent of its proceeds to programs that better the quality of life for impoverished communities in Sub-Saharan-Africa.

2. Simulating a mineral spring in your kitchen

For years, I’d guzzled water from the cooler jug. Tastier than our rural tap water run though a filter, I was content to drink from the cooler at home and (ironically) from the tap at work (Toronto tap water is “quality filtered 300,000 times a year”, after all.)

A few months ago, I was introduced to one of these new gravity water filtration systems, which allow clean water from any source to trickle through a series of mineral and ceramic filters, producing tasty, pathogen-free water.

What’s most impressive is the taste, though – smooth with a hint of what tastes like a combination of clay mixed with mild vanilla – Totally weird but once you have a glass, you can’t get enough.

A note on some of these gravity water systems – ours is a water-cooler-top model from Nikken: Some of these have been heralded lately as eco-snake-oil, offering few of the health benefits their packaging claims. However, none make the water any less safe than it started out and for taste alone, many are worth the price.

One of the more sensible and proven models is the British Berkefeld gravity water system from DoultonUSA. The sting of its $230 US price tag is softened a bit by the fact that it doesn’t need any filters replaced for years at a time.

1. An iceberg in your glass

Early in the day, staff from The Norseman on Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula receive their regular chunk of ice from the north Atlantic, and allow some of it to melt into pitchers, with a few still-frozen chunks thrown in to keep things cold.

A meal at the restaurant is a tasty mix of local seafood and diner-theatre-style historical re-enactments courtesy of the kitchen staff.

All fine fare. But the water was the real show-stopper:

Never before had I wondered if water was supposed to taste different than the fluoride-sanitized stuff that flows from your tap, or the mineral-overtones of spring water. Until I tried iceberg water

This was “just” water – or about as close to just water as water had been since it first came into being during the formation of our solar system: Tasteless but somehow still satisfying.

Contrary to what you might think, there is absolutely no taste of salt in iceberg water. That’s because ice freezes slowly enough to prevent any inclusion of salt in its complex crystal structure.

A life-changing experience to put on your wallet to-do-in-life list.”

Now’s your chance to inspire the world and make the planet a greener place.

Are you under 18 and thinking green? Show us what you’re doing to be a part of the Whole Earth Generation. Are you recycling at your school? Planting trees? Forcing your parents to go green? Get in front of the camera and tell us about it.

Sing a song, rap, shoot a documentary, whatever – just send us a short video response showing how you’re making a difference. If we pick yours it’ll be featured leading up to Earth Day. You might even get to co-host one of our Whole Earth Generation Podcasts sponsored by Whole Foods.

Whole Earth Generation Details:
* Keep your video under two minutes.
* Be original and express your green self – we just want to see you being you.
* Keep it clean. No violence, profanity or direct attacks on individuals.
* Your video must be original and cannot infringe on any third party rights.
* Your video cannot have been previously published, broadcast, or otherwise publicly distributed.
* Winners will become “Green Ambassadors” and be featured as hosts in upcoming Whole Earth Generation podcasts.
* Make sure you follow YouTube’s Terms Of Service: http://www.youtube.com/t/terms

How to submit your video:
* Log in to YouTube. If you don’t have an account already, it’s easy and only takes a minute or so.
* Go to the YouTube video where our host is introducing the contest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpGoOwRC1uU
* Under “Comments and Responses” click on “Post a video response”.
* If you haven’t uploaded the video you’d like to submit for the contest to YouTube yet, do so by going to “Upload a Video”.
* If you have uploaded the video already, select it by going to “Choose a Video”.

OFFICIAL RULES
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY

ELIGIBILITY
Contestants must be between 8 years and 17 years of age and a legal resident of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia or Canada at the time of their audition to be eligible. All submissions become the property of the Sponsor and will not be returned. Officers and employees of Whole Foods Market, their respective affiliates, subsidiaries and agents, and the immediate family members of the foregoing, are not eligible to enter. Sponsor is not responsible for late, lost, destroyed or misdirected entries. Odds of winning will depend on the total number of eligible entries received. Each entry must be submitted with a Submission Agreement to be eligible.

Full rules and regulations:

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/weg_rules.html

To see a video about what you need to do to enter the contest, click here.

Forget White White Dresses
You might not know that many people die because of the toxic chemical process used to make wedding dresses that sparkly white. Also, there are 300,000+ illnesses (and mortalities) related to non-organic cotton farming practices (pesticides and other harmful toxins). I personally find that shiny whitey white, ugly. Anyway, get a dress that is natural, not chemically treated, not made in a sweatshop, but is made with earth-friendly materials and fabrics like: organic silk, organic wool, hemp silk, organic cotton, tencel and bamboo are the main fabrics available. You can still find eco-friendly white, that is much more natural looking than the chemical white counterparts. A note: many famous fashion designers use sustainable fabrics to make fabulous wedding dresses.

Simplicity – If you’re not into ultra fancy fashion, keep it very simple. Get a simple dress and make personal embellishments and designs yourself.

Shop Locally – Yes, this doesn’t just apply to veggies! Buy a dress from a local designer. You’ll save on transport costs and contributing to the local economy. You might also want to check out fashion design school budding students, who can make you a unique beautiful dress that will cost a fraction of what you’d spend if you’d bought a designer gown.

Lastly, about tuxes: Make sure tuxes are not chemically (dry) cleaned. Do try to find sustainable tuxedos.

Eco Gift Expo

Eco Gift Expo
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main St., Santa Monica
Sat., Dec. 15, 9 am – 8 pm and Sun., Dec. 16, 9 am – 5 pm
($10 online, $15 at the door; free for seniors and children under 12)

Be You TV

Situated in france’s southwest…”

Read the whole article about Plum Village in France

Recommended Reading of Works by Thich Nat Hanh: Fragrant Leaves (Journals 1962-66) – Journal entries from America and Vietnam in the ’60s-a portrait of the Zen master as a young man; Call Me by My True Names – is awe-inspiring, one of the most powerful texts on interconnection; Anger – We all need to know how to deal with our anger; The Miracle of Mindfulness – The essential teachings of mindfulness; Peace is Every Step – “Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand new hours to live…”; The Art of Mindful Living – How to bring, love, compassion and inner peace into your daily life; Teachings on Love – Love is more than an emotion; Breathe! You are Alive – Sutra on the full awareness of breathing; Zen Keys – A guide to zen practice.

[Photo Courtesy of Plum Village Practice Center, France]