Welcome to the ezine produced by SGI Buddhists that prompts the positive, kindles the constructive, highlights the hopeful and leaves you feeling - well, up!
Published on Saturday, 28 March 2009 18:00 | | 
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I recently went to a beautifully organised funeral of an elderly acquaintance and it got me ruminating about my own writes Julia Stephenson
I’d like it to be natural affair, which is why I shall follow the example of popular actress, Wendy Richard, who was recently buried in a simple bamboo coffin.
Demand for natural funerals is rocketing, but permission to set up green burial grounds can be tricky. Rosie Inman-Cook from the Natural Death Centre explains that`neighbours can oppose such a move by insisting they don’t want a load of dead people in a field next to them. Of course, the advantage is they are very quiet neighbours’.
Published on Sunday, 11 October 2009 19:00 | |
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And when you've recovered from watching Beyoncé Knowles' energetic young fan, click on the 'Read More' link below to check out the possible future of the blues — in the hands of eight-year-old guitar prodigy Tallan Latz
Published on Saturday, 10 October 2009 19:00 | | |
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I usually buy olive oil from Greece or Italy but recently was intrigued when olive oil from Palestine appeared in my local deli, writes Julia Stephenson.
And it was delicious. But while I loved the taste I soon moved it to the back of my cupboard as using it carried depressing connotations of conflict and war, which is often all we hear of from that beautiful but beleaguered part of the world.
But I was wrong to do that. Buying produce from Palestinian farmers gives them income and hope. Local farmer Taysir Sadia Yaseen explains: 'It makes us happy to know British consumers are appreciating our oil.
'It allows us to present an alternative picture to the propaganda that portrays us as fanatics or hopeless victims who must rely on aid. It shows that we are a peaceful, productive people.'
Published on Thursday, 08 October 2009 19:00 | |
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An elevated railway line which once carried freight over the tough streets of New York's Meatpacking District has reopened as the city's newest and trendiest park
Published on Monday, 05 October 2009 19:00 | | |
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Three scientists who 'corralled light' to transform our communications systems share this year's Nobel Prize for Physics
READ MORE
Published on Sunday, 04 October 2009 19:00 | |
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Published on Wednesday, 07 October 2009 19:00 | | |
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Crystal Renn, American plus-size model, happily makes a great living as a size 14. But only after travelling the well-trodden path of self-starvation and eating disorders rampant within the profession.
As so many young Western women aspire to this rarified existence of so-called glamour, fame and fortune, Renn's memoir is timely. Her short but intense journey — she is only 23 — and ultimate rejection of the standard model body, will open many a young eye to the realities of this hard-bitten and deceptively misogynous industry.