There's something special about the month of March. Even though the weather can still be pretty awful spring can still be felt and, if we look closely, we can see subtle signs of nature's renewal everywhere. In addition to the spring equinox, March has lots of other great things to celebrate. So, without further fanfare, let's hop right to the 2019 March Calendar of Special Days.
MARCH
1.  National Dadgum Day, Horse Protection Day, National Pig Day, National Read Across America Day, National Employee Appreciation Day, National Dress in Blue Day, National Speech and Debate Education Day.
2.  National Old Stuff Day, National Banana Cream Pie Day.
3.  National Anthem Day, National I Want You To Be Happy Day, National Cold Cuts Day, Soup It Forward Day, Finisher's Medal Day.
4.  National Pound Cake Day, National Hug A G.I. Day, National Grammar Day, National Marching Music Day.
5.  Fat Tuesday
6.  National Dentist Day, National Dress Day, National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day, National Oreo Cookie Day, Ash Wednesday.
7.  National Hospitalist Day, National Be Heard Day, National Cereal Day, (It's also the birthday of one of my best friends).
8.  International Women's Day, National Proofreading Day, National Day Of Unplugging.
​9.  National Barbie Day, National Meatball Day, National Get Over It Day.
10. National Mario Day, National Blueberry Popover Day, National Pack Your Lunch Day, Daylight Savings Time.
11. National Johnny Appleseed Day, National Worship of Tools Day, National Promposal Day, National Napping Day (I'm a huge fan of this day!).
12. National Pancake Day, National Girl Scout Day, National Plant A Flower Day.
13. National Good Samaritan Day, National Earmuff Day (Shouldn't this day be in January or February???), National Open An Umbrella Indoors Day, National K9 Veterans Day, National Jewel Day, National Registered Dietician Nutritionists Day.
14. National Potato Chip Day, National Pi Day, National Learn About Butterflies Day, National Children's Craft Day, National Write Down Your Story Day, National Agriculture Day.
15. National Shoe The World Day, National Pears Helene Day, National Everything You Think Is Wrong Day.
16. National Freedom Of Information Day, National Everything You Do Is Right Day, National Panda Day, National Quilting Day.
17. Saint Patrick's Day, Corned Beef And Cabbage Day.
18. National Awkward Moments Day, National Sloppy Joe Day, National Biodiesel Day, National Supreme Sacrifice Day.
19. National Poultry Day, National Chocolate Caramel Day, National Let's laugh Day, National Certified Nurses Day, World Social Work Day.
20. National Ravioli Day, National HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, National Proposal Day, National Kick Butts Day, National Little Red Wagon Day, and spring officially begins!
21. National Common Courtesy Day, National Countdown Day, National Single Parents Day, National Fragrance Day, national French Bread Day, National Farm Rescuer Day.
22. National Goof Off Day, National Bavarian Crepes Day, National Puppy Day.
23. National Chia Day, National Near Miss Day.
24. National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day.
25. National Medal Of Honor Day, National Tolkien Reading Day.
26. National Spinach Day, National Nougat Day.
27. National Scribble Day, National Joe Day, Manatee Appreciation Day.
28. National Weed Appreciation Day, National Something On A Stick Day, National Black Forest Cake Day,
29. National Mom And Pop Business Owner Day, National Vietnam War Veterans Appreciation Day. National lemon Chiffon Cake Day.
30. National Take A Walk In The Park Day, National Pencil Day, National I Am In Control Day, National Virtual Vacation Day.
31. National Crayon Day, National Tater Day (aka potatoes), National Bunsen Burner Day, National Prom Day.
This month is jam packed with great things to celebrate! Have you picked out your favorite things? I'm working on my list and when I manage to whittle it down to a reasonable number, I'll hop off to the Lily Pad Party Store and pick up all my supplies. I invite you back here later this month for a look at April's calendar. In the meantime, I hope you'll pop back by tomorrow for a look at some pretty scary shrimp!
                                                                         PEACE.

Here we are on the last Wednesday of February. The winter, what we've had of it here in Lily pad, has melted away and spring appears to be here for good. The sun gets up earlier in the morning now, and so do I. I had breakfast prepared and the table set before 6:30 and it was a good thing. Dharma arrived earlier than usual and surprised me when he landed with a thud on my pad. He sat down at my little kitchen table and I poured us each a cup of freshly brewed tea. While Dharma sipped his tea, I served up breakfast. "Dharma," I asked, "what's on my lesson plan for this week?" "I'm glad you asked. Today's lesson is a simple one, but one that is overlooked a lot these days. Tadpole, a frog's money buys everything but good sense. This has become a very big issue in the human world." I agreed with what he said, but I had to ask, "Dharma, how do we know if we need more common sense?" Here is his answer.
He began my lesson by explaining just what common sense is. Dharma believes that "common sense is a practical view and approach to ourselves, to other people, and to all aspects of living. It is how we deal with issues and problems, how we manage our own thoughts, our beliefs, our attitudes and how we cope with other people. It is essentially practical and worldly, not intellectual or academic. Common sense requires that we are flexible and ready to jettison habits and old ways of thinking when they do not serve us practically."  Common sense is much more than just a way to solve problems. It also involves taking a sensible perspective, having functional attitudes and beliefs,  being able to tackle a range of problems, getting on with people when it matters, grasping another's perspective, knowing and using emotions appropriately, not losing sight of the goal, being flexible and adaptable with a sufficient range of behaviors to match the job. "In other words, Irwin, common sense is neither common nor sense. It goes far beyond that. Common sense requires that sometimes we will need to complicate things to get sensible, practical, workable answers. Simply put, it's sound judgment that's not based on specialized knowledge."
I mulled over what he had to say so far and I could see that, indeed, most us really don't use common sense. Both humans and frogs alike tend to look for the easiest possible solutions to our problems...both big and small. "Dharma, if common sense isn't really common, is it possible for us to learn it or is it just something we either have or we don't?" Dharma smiled. "That's an excellent question, son. The answer is, yes, common sense can be developed. It's something we're all born with but, like all other skills and abilities, we need to hone it. And that requires time and patience."
Common sense equates to wisdom. it's an understanding of how life works. Most humans have a reasonably good understanding of what is the right thing to do in most instances; responsible vs. irresponsible actions. This means that each person must, at some point, learn through his experience. So common sense boils down to experience; being able to learn from life's experiences and then applying those lessons to other problems. It's the whole, why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to, scenario. learning is one of the most wonderful of life's gifts,  But it doesn't do you much good if you don't apply what you've learned to real-life situations. Humans who appear to lack common sense simply fail to apply what they already know.  In other words, common sense is not something that you either have or don’t have at birth.  Like most traits, anyone can acquire it and improve upon it. 
My wise teacher and dear friend said that it seems like millions and millions of frogs, humans too, are waiting around for something good to happen in their lives. At the same time, they are spending an enormous amount of energy complaining about all their bad luck. "Most of us tend to miss the most obvious things when it comes to success in any area of life.  While in search of the magic formula for success, they mistakenly overlook the importance of something as simple as common sense." He went on to add that using common sense on a regular basis doesn't guarantee success but a lack of it comes pretty darn close to guaranteeing failure. Developing common sense comes down to nothing more than developing the habit of using it. All habits, fortunately, can be learned by anyone who brings a willingness to the game and applies a good dose of self-discipline.
You don't need to obtain a degree from Common Sense University. 
After Dharma left this morning, I thought long and hard about how I could use more common sense in my own daily life. It occurred to me, too, that in addition to money not buying common sense, we could add that it doesn't buy ethics or good moral character. But those will, I'm sure, be lessons for another day.
I invite you back here again tomorrow for my March Calendar of Special Days. Until then,
                                                                     PEACE.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/do-something-different/201306/do-you-need-more-common-sense
​http://www.commonsenseu.com/yes-you-can-develop-common-sense/

For anyone who is a kid or ever has been a kid...so that means everyone...today is an especially fun day. It's National Tell A Fairy Tale Day. We all have our favorite story. You can probably guess which one is mine. (Hint: It involves a princess and a cute little green frog.) I thought I'd start off this morning's blog with a little history of fairy tales and then end up with a few fun and interesting facts. So let's hop right to it, shall we?
Simply put, a fairy tale is a folklore genre that takes the form of a short story. These stories typically feature creatures such as dwarfs, elves, dragons, giants, goblins, unicorns, talking animals and, of course, fairies. Fairy Tales are stories with origins in European tradition and, at least in recent centuries, mostly relates to children's literature and are.blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy-tale ending" Fairy tales that are told verbally are a subset of the genre and are called folktales. "The oral tradition of the fairy tale came long before the written page. Tales were told or enacted dramatically, rather than written down, and handed down from generation to generation. Because of this, the history of their development is necessarily obscure and blurred." The earliest written fairy story, Panchatantra, date back to 300 B.C. in India. So now that we've taken a quick look at the history of these wonderful tales, let's have some fun!
​Did you know?
1.  A pair of brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, created a compilation of traditional German folktales. It was published in 1812 and often referred to as Grimm’s Fairy Tales. This book contains many of the fairy tales we have come to know and love, like “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Snow White”.
2.  The original versions of fairy tales can be gruesome, so they are often rewritten and toned down to appeal to the masses. For example, in the Disney movie Snow White, the evil queen sought Snow White’s heart. But in the Grimm brothers’ original tale, the evil queen wanted to consume her lungs and liver. What a huge appetite she had! Here are other less-familiar and less-happy endings; toes cut off to fit into a slipper, a wooden boy killing his cricket or instead of kissing that frog prince his head must be cut off. Thankfully, those are the unrated versions.)
3.   In the French version of Rapunzel, the story does not have a happy ending. Rapunzel is turned into a frog and the prince is cursed with a pig’s snout. (My kind of girl!)
4.  The very first tale of Cinderella was recorded in China at around AD 850. That Cinderella is Yeh-hsien. She wears a dress made of kingfisher feathers and her shoes are made of gold.
5.   In the early centuries, the story of the Little Red Riding Hood was used to warn children of the dangerous wild animals in the woods. 
6. Fairy tales have been reinvented by various cultures over the years. Hollywood has created popular movie versions of Cinderella, Snow White, and Alice in Wonderland. Johnny Depp also starred as the Hatter in Alice in Wonderland done in 2010.
7.   In Roald Dahl’s version of the Little Red Riding Hood, Red Riding Hood is not as helpless as she was in the story we grew up with. She actually strikes back against the wolf!
8.  The original title of Sleeping Beauty is La Belle Au Bois Dormant in French, which means The Beauty in the Sleeping Wood. The Grimm brothers titled it “Little Briar Rose” in their collection.
9.   “Snow White and Rose Red” is another story found in Grimm’s Fairy Tales. It is rather different from the Snow White tale mentioned earlier, as there isn’t an evil queen or huntsman in the story. There’s a vicious bear instead though!
10.  Fairy tales are well-liked by famous authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, and C.S. Lewis. Charles Dickens also said that fairy tales helped to keep him ever young!
11.  In Grimm’s Fairy Tales, there’s a whimsical verse at the end of “Hansel and Gretel” that goes, “My tale is done, there runs a mouse, whosoever catches it, may make himself a big fur cap out of it.”
So how can you celebrate this awesome day? Read a fairy tale! If you are reading one of these stories to a child, here are a few tips on how to make the story come to life.

• Engage your audience. Children like to participate. Have them quack every time the Ugly Duckling is mentioned, or make the motions of climbing Jack’s beanstalk.
• Use repetition. Repeated stanzas, syllables or movements will keep the kids engaged. It not only helps them to remember the story but sets them up for the next round of the repeated phrase or stanza.
• Give your characters a voice. Nobody likes a monotone storyteller. Buehler, Buehler, Buehler. No, not even children like the monotone. Varying your voice for each character and inflecting excitement, sadness and disappointment will create drama and stimulate the imaginations of the little minds listening to you.
• Ask questions as you go. It’s an excellent way to keep your story flowing and to gauge the children’s listening skills.
• Find out if someone has a story of their own. You might be in the presence of a great storyteller!  

Share your little author's story on social media using #TellAFairyTaleDay. No fairy tale books at home? Please visit your local library where you'll find a wealth of books with all your childhood favorites. And if you're an adult without children, why not spend a little time today reacquainting yourself with a story or two from your childhood. I bet they'll bring back some wonderful memories.
That does it for me on this very special day. Don't forget to stop back by tomorrow and see what life lesson the Dharma Frog has in store for me. Whatever he has, you can be sure that I'll share the details with you. Until then, I wish you 
                                                                       PEACE.

​1.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_tale
2.  http://www.nlb.gov.sg/discovereads/2016/01/28/11-fun-facts-about-fairy-tales/

Happy Monday, everyone. I'm running a little late this morning. The Great Swamp aka Land of Lily Pad, has been without internet since I got up this morning. Don't you hate when that It happen? You're whole morning routine gets messed up, but it does point out just how dependent we've all become on our connectivity to the world-wide "spider" web.
But I'm back online and it's time to get to work.
Over the weekend, I came across an article on DNA, the acronym for deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA. Over the past couple of decades, DNA has become widely used for tracking ancestry, solving crimes, and evaluating our odds of getting many diseases. All this stuff is public knowledge and accepted. The article I read, and want to share with you, has some interesting and fun facts about DNA that you might not know.
1. Even though it codes for all the information that makes up an organism, DNA is built using only four building blocks, the nucleotides adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine. 
2.  Every human being shares 99% of their DNA with every other human. That means that humans are more interconnected than they like to think!
3.  If you put all the DNA molecules in your body end to end, the DNA would reach from the Earth to the Sun and back over 600 times (100 trillion times six feet divided by 92 million miles).
4.  A parent and child share 99.5% of the same DNA.
5.  Humans have 98% of your DNA in common with a chimpanzee.
6.  If you could type 60 words per minute, eight hours a day, it would take approximately 50 years to type the human genome.
7.  DNA is a fragile molecule. About a thousand times a day, something happens to it to cause errors. This could include errors during transcription, damage from ultraviolet light, or any of a host of other activities. There are many repair mechanisms, but some damage isn't repaired. This means you carry mutations! Some of the mutations cause no harm, a few are helpful, while others can cause diseases, such as cancer. A new technology called CRISPR could allow us to edit genomes, which might lead us to the cure of such mutations as cancer, Alzheimer's and, theoretically, any disease with a genetic component.
8.  Scientists at Cambridge University believe humans have DNA in common with the mud worm and that it is the closest invertebrate genetic relative to us. In other words, you have more in common, genetically speaking, with a mud worm than you do with a spider or octopus or cockroach.
9.  Humans and cabbage share about 40-50% common DNA.
10. Friedrich Miescher discovered DNA in 1869, although scientists did not understand DNA was the genetic material in cells until 1943. Prior to that time, it was widely believed that proteins stored genetic information.
That's some pretty fascinating stuff! I hope you enjoyed this abbreviated blog this morning. I'll be back here tomorrow for a look at fairy tales. This is in celebration of National Tell A Fairy Tale Day. Won't you please join me?
Until we meet again, I wish you
                                                                        PEACE.

​Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "10 Interesting DNA Facts." ThoughtCo, Nov. 5, 2018, thoughtco.com/interesting-dna-facts-608188.

Humans have enjoyed slurping their tasty beverages through cylindrical tubes, also known as straws, for a very long time. Straws are fun. They keep you clean. But straws are also deadly. Each year, the last Friday in February (like today!) is designated as Skip the Straw Day. 
Marvin Stone invented the first paper straw in 1888. If he were alive today, he'd probably be shocked to learn that plastic garbage including massive piles of plastic straws accumulate in five large ocean areas, known as gyres. In the US alone, it is estimated that over 500 million straws are used (and thrown away) each and every day. Most of those straws wind up in our oceans where they pollute the water and kill marine life. if humans don't act now...right now...by 2050 there'll be more plastic in the ocean than there will be fish, by weight.  
By now, you may be wondering why these plastic straws aren't being recycled. And it's a great question! I wondered that myself. it turns out that most plastic straws are too lightweight to make it through the mechanical recycling sorter. Instead, they drop through sorting screens and mix with other materials and are too small to separate, contaminating recycling loads or getting disposed of as garbage. Now I don't mean to imply that humans humans are deliberately tossing their used straws into the oceans. In fact, most straws wind up in the ocean due to human error; a) left on beaches in coastal communities globally, b) they're littered, or c) they are blown out of overfilled trash cans or out of windows of passing cars, or off from transport boats or personal watercraft. It's wise to remember that all gutters and storm drains eventually empty out into our oceans!
When plastic does make it into the sea, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics. They don't simply biodegrade or dissolve. These tiny pieces of plastic can be fatal to marine life, including fish. Microplastics also contain PBA which interferes with reproductive systems in marine life. It also produces styrene monomer which is a suspected carcinogen. 
​Here are a few staggering statistics for you just in case you still need convincing that plastic straws are a terrible idea. By 2050, it is estimated that every single seabird species will have ingested some plastic. Their mortality rate then jumps to 50%. One in two birds will die from eating this plastic. Already, research has shown some level of plastic in sea salt. Ninety-four percent of US tap water has particles of plastic in it. And so does shellfish! Scientists at the UGA New Materials Institute have discovered "microplastics particles smaller than dust or powdered sugar inside baby sea turtles. Of the turtles who were studied in this research, 100% were found to have eaten plastic. These baby sea turtles were likely dying du​e to ingested plastic pollution, which threatens the species’ survival."
Anyone who has had a stroke, has autism, MS or other life-changing physical issue needs a straw. Little children often need them, too. So what about them, how can they help? There are compostable straws available that can work. But even these straws have big issues! While compostable plastic straws are good in theory, they can be disposed of incorrectly by individuals when there is a lack of information on public composting depositories. Compostable straws are designed to break down in compost facilities, not in seawater. Not everyone has a composting facility near them. So what, then, is the best solution for children, folks with physicals needs, and those humans who insist upon drinking their beverage through a straw? StrawlessOceans.org recommends using paper straws. Perhaps Marvin Stone didn't realize that in a hundred years plus, his invention would be more relevant and more necessary than when paper straws first gained world attention.
So how can you observe #NationalSkipTheStrawDay? For most of us, the easiest way is to pick up the glass and tip it back as our parents taught us to do when we were four or five. It may take some practice and maybe both hands.  There are other fun, eco-friendly, healthy options.
1. Bamboo straws are renewable, reusable and biodegradable.
2. Paper straws, while still disposable, are biodegradable and from a renewable source.
3. Glass straws are coming in durable, colorful designs fit for a variety of beverages.
4. Stainless steel straws are an option for those of us who like our cold drinks really cold! 
Other ways you can observe this day are;
Volunteer to help clean up your local beaches, parks or neighborhoods.  Take note of how many straws are included in all the litter. Plan ahead. Do you frequent fast food restaurants or get beverages to go?  You will often receive the straw before you have the chance to say no.  Be prepared when you order to request your drink without a straw.
National Skip the Straw Day was created by Coral Keepers, a group of students and teachers from Whitehall Middle School in Whitehall, Michigan in 2017. And the world's oceans and coral reefs owe them a debt of gratitude for bringing this serious crisis to our attention. Remember to tell everyone, NO PLASTIC STRAWS. Not just today, but every day. Oceans are home to many different life forms. Let's all vow to give them a fighting chance.
That does it for me this week. I wish you all a very pleasant weekend and invite you back here again on Monday. Stay safe. Stay well. Stay plastic straw free.
                                                                     PEACE.

https://www.strawlessocean.org/faq/
​https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-skip-the-straw-day-fourth-friday-in-february/

Dinosaurs were large lumbering creatures that roamed the earth millions of years before modern man existed. While most of the dinos were big, the question is often asked, "How smart were they? Did their brain power match the rest of their body size?" The answer is probably not.
One of the earliest dinosaurs ever discovered and classified was the Stegosaurus in 1877. This great creature possessed an unusually small brain, literally the size of a walnut. It was so small, in fact, that paleontologists once speculated that it must have had a supplementary brain in its butt. It doesn't help researchers either, that dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago, wiped out by famine and freezing temperatures. It's fun to think that if these animals had only been smarter some of them, anyway, might have found a way to survive.
Without any dinosaurs around today, how do scientists actually measure their intelligence? It's not as if an IQ test can be administered to them. Naturalists have, thankfully, developed an indirect method of evaluating the intelligence of extinct animals (it works on living ones, too). "The Encephalization Quotient, or EQ, measures the size of a creature's brain against the size of the rest of its body, and compares this ratio to that of other species of roughly the same size."
Part of what makes humans so smart is the enormous size of your brain compared to body size. The average human's EQ is an impressive 5. If you're thinking that sounds low, let's take a look at some other animals by comparison on the EQ scale: "wildebeests weigh in at .68, African elephants at .63, and opossums at .39. As you might expect, monkeys have higher EQs: 1.5 for a red colobus, 2.5 for a capuchin. Dolphins are the only animals on the planet with EQs even close to those of humans; the bottlenose comes in at 3.6." As you might expect, the EQ of dinosaurs is spread across the lower end of the spectrum. Triceratops come in at a scant .11. Even with this low score, they might be considered the "valedictorians" of the dino class! The Brachiosaurus doesn't even come close to hitting the .1 mark. "However, some of the swift, two-legged, feathered dinosaurs of the Mesozoic Era posted relatively high EQ scores—not quite as smart as modern wildebeests, but not that much dumber, either."
You might be wondering if the carnivorous dinosaurs were any smarter. As a general rule, a creature only has to be smart enough to prosper in its given ecosystem and avoid being eaten. What this means is that the plant-eating sauropods were so "massively dumb" that the predators who ate them had to be only marginally smarter. In fact, most of the relative increase in the brain size of these carnivores can be attributed to their need for better smell, vision and muscular coordination, their tools for the hunt. if you really think about it, the sauropods had to be only a smidgeon smarter than the massive ferns they dined on.
​If some of the dinosaurs had actually survived, it is hypothesized that the Troondon, a human-sized dino with the intelligence level of an opossum, might have eventually evolved a human-size brain, as well. But only if it had survived for another several million years. The dinosaurs portrayed in movies like Jurassic Park who could turn doorknobs and hunted in packs are a complete fantasy.  In reality, they might have been as smart as chicken...only a lot more dangerous! They would not, however, have been smart enough to learn to do tricks. Their EQ level was WAY below that of a dog or cat. It's safe to say, then, that dinosaurs wouldn't have made very good pets.
If you consider yourself to be an advocate of good environmental stewardship, you won't want want to miss tomorrow's blog. Please plan on stopping by. Until then, I wish you
                                                                          PEACE.

​Strauss, Bob. "How Smart Were Dinosaurs?" ThoughtCo, Aug. 13, 2018, thoughtco.com/how-smart-were-dinosaurs-1091933.

As a kid, did you ever play telephone? You know the game....where one person whispers something into the the ear of the next person. That person then repeats what he heard into the year of the next person, and so on down the line until the last person repeats what he heard. It's never anything like what the originator of the "gossip" said. In fact, it's usually so distorted that it's unrecognizable. Well, Dharma's lesson today was a variation on that theme.
I had prepared a nice little breakfast, as usual, and was just sitting down for my first cup of tea this morning when Dharma arrived. After we chatted, ate, and drank our tea Dharma began my lesson with these words, "Tadpole, a frog's silence is often misinterpreted but is never misquoted." I immediately thought about the telephone game; what is whispered becomes misquoted as it's passed down from person to person in the chain. It's all done in fun. Dharma reminded me, though, that as adults our words are often misquoted maliciously; to hurt hurt us or make us look silly. Sometimes it can can be better to simply say nothing. The trick is knowing when to speak up and when to remain silent.
My question to Dharma was this, "Sir, if we don't speak up, won't our silence be misconstrued as either ignorance or that we simply don't care?" "Yes, Irwin, that's a risk we take but there are times when being silent is our best option." And with that statement, Dharma gave me a few examples of when it is better to be silent.
1,  When the other person(s) misunderstands you and you have no duty to speak. 
"Why waste words when the other side is not making the effort to understand what you have to say? Silence can never be misquoted. Let them learn through experience and you will save your peace of mind."
2.  When two parties are arguing and it doesn't concern you. 
"Don’t get involved. If you intervene you may come under fire. It may be tempting to speak to speak up but maintaining stoic silence on your part is best."
3.  When you have no idea what you're talking about.
"Empty vessels make more noise. It is best not to say anything if you have nothing meaningful to say. Your words will carry more value when you speak only to make a sensible point."
4.  When you need someone else to get the credit.
"You reflect quiet confidence in your abilities when you smile and let your boss or team take the credit for your work. The goodwill thus created will ensure your success in the long run."
5.  When you are bragging instead of sharing.
"It’s best to be humble and let others appreciate you than to toot your own horn. Quietly focus on your work and let your hard work speak for you; confident humility and humble confidence.” 
6.  When your comments are more about you than about others.
"Listening more is a great art of conversation. Check yourself when you are not including others or letting them express themselves as they will get bored of your narcissism and you will soon find yourself isolated."
​7.  When you want someone else to grow.
"Some people will criticize you just to provoke you into an argument. Don’t allow them the pleasure.Take the high road and show restraint. They are coming from a point of weakness themselves and would love to see you react negatively. Being silent makes you more powerful."
8.  When the other party in the negotiations starts debating with themselves.
"Silence is the best reply in a negotiation. Many people feel uncomfortable in conversation gaps and may start revealing more than they should. You often learn lots when you remain quiet.
9.  When you want to avoid angry outbursts.
"Don’t be like the matchstick that flares up on slightest friction. It causes destruction and then fizzles out for good. Move away to a quieter place. Drink some cold water if possible. Take deep breaths and calm your mind. Anger clouds your understanding. If you were wrong, there is room for rational brainstorming. If it’s righteous anger, silence is the best way to let the other person know they did wrong. Emotional self-control saves you from damaging your relationships."
10. When you want to listen to your inner voice. (Which you should do often!)
"When you listen to your inner voice, you can problem-solve most effectively. According to many experts, when you listen to  that inner voice in stillness, it can increase creativity and lower stress." And finally,
11. When you receive negative feedback from your superiors at work.
"Accept it quietly, assess it, learn from it, improve and grow. Silence and Smile are two tools of successful people (frog's too). A smile can solve many problems and silence is the way to avoid many problems...and it will never be misquoted!
Holding your tongue and have many benefits. But it is also important to speak your mind when it is important. Learning when silence will be most beneficial is a valuable tool. And one that can keep us out of trouble, more often than not. Dharma's lessons are always spot on and are lessons that anyone can benefit  from.
How smart were dinosaurs? I invite you back here tomorrow for a look into this fascinating subject. I hope you'll join me. Until then,
                                                                       PEACE.                                       

​https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/these-are-the-times-when-you-should-not-say-anything.html

Black History Week began way back in 1926 by a fellow named Carter G. Woodson, a historian, along with the Association of Negro Life and History. It was celebrated the second week of February. The current event grew out of  Black History Week and now, every president since Gerald Ford in 1976 has celebrated the month of February as Black History Month. Since I'm kind of a science geek, and to pay tribute to Black History Month I thought we'd look at a few famous Black inventors and the contributions they've made to the world.
1. Madame C.J. Walker (1867-1919) - She became the first female African-American to become a millionaire by inventing a line of cosmetic and hair care products aimed at black consumers in the first decades of the 20th century. She also pioneered the use of female traveling, sales agents who covered the United States and the Caribbean, going door-to-door selling her products. Additionally, Ms. Walker was also an early champion of employee development and business offering training and other opportunities to her employees. C. J. Walker was also a philanthropist.
2.  George Washington Carver (1861-1943) -  Mr. Carver became one of the leading agronomists of his time. (How's that for a 50-cent word?) He was a pioneer in finding uses for peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes. He was born into slavery but still managed to attend school where he was the first African-American to obtain his undergraduate degree from Iowa State University. After receiving his master's degree he went to work for Alabama's Tuskegee Institute where he made his greatest contributions to science, developing more than 300 uses for the peanut alone, including soap, skin lotion, and paint.
​3.  Charles Drew (1904-1950) - Charles Drew was a doctor and medical researcher whose pioneering research into blood helped save thousands of lives during World War II. He worked as a researcher at Columbia University (New York City) in the 1930s where he invented a means of separating plasma from whole blood, allowing it to be stored for up to a week, far longer than had been possible up until that time. Drew also discovered that plasma could be transfused between persons regardless of blood type and helped the British government establish their first national blood bank. Drew worked briefly with the American Red Cross during World War II but resigned to protest the organization's insistence on segregating blood from white and black donors. 
4.  Thomas L. Jennings (1791-1856) - Mr. Jennings holds the honor of being the first African-American to hold a patent. A tailor by trade in New York City, Jennings applied for and received a patent in 1821 for a cleaning technique he'd pioneered called "dry scouring." It was a precursor to today's dry cleaning. His invention made Jennings a wealthy man and he used his earnings to support early abolition and civil rights organizations.
5.  George Edward Alcorn, Jr. (1940- living) - Mr. Alcorn is a physicist whose work in the aerospace industry helped revolutionize astrophysics and semiconductor manufacturing. He is credited with 20 inventions, eight of which he received patents for. Perhaps his best-known innovation is for an x-ray spectrometer used to analyze distant galaxies and other deep-space phenomena, which he patented in 1984. Alcorn's research into plasma etching, for which he received a patent in 1989, is still used in the production of computer chips, also known as semiconductors. 
These scientists and inventors have given much to the world. But they aren't the only ones. If you want to know more about the significant contributions of African- Americans, check with your local library or simply visit your favorite search engine. You'll find more than you can imagine!
Please join me tomorrow for another life lesson from my wise friend and teacher, The Dharma Frog. Until then, I wish you 
​                                                                     PEACE.

​Bellis, Mary. "10 Important Black Inventors in U.S. History." ThoughtCo, Jan. 25, 2019, thoughtco.com/black-inventors-through-the-years-4145354.

This morning, I'm going to write on a subject that is near and dear to my heart...and my stomach. Today's blog is about insects. It isn't because insects are cute, interesting, AND yummy. And while those things are all true, I'm writing about insects, today, because they are facing rapid decline. And whether you like bugs or you don't, insects are an important part of the ecosystem and are the main dinner ingredient for frogs.
A recent study has shown that "insect populations are declining precipitously worldwide due to pesticide use and other factors, with a potentially 'catastrophic' effect on the planet."  WOW! This is serious business! The article went to further to say that as many as 40% of the insect species could become extinct within the next few decades. Insect biomass is declining by a staggering 2.5% a year, a rate that indicates widespread extinctions within a century, the report found. And in case you were wondering, insect biomass is the number of individual insects (about 10 quintillions). Insects probably have more biomass than any other animals. In addition to the 40% at risk of dying out, a third of species are endangered -- numbers that could cause the collapse of the planet's ecosystems with a devastating impact on life on Earth.
Okay, so those of you who aren't bug fans, you might ask, "Irwin, with 10 quintillion bugs on earth what difference would it make it be lost a bunch of them?" Here's why. A report co-authored by scientists from the universities of Sydney and Queensland, along with the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences looked at dozens of existing reports on insect decline published over the past three decades and examined the reasons behind the falling numbers to produce the alarming global picture. The study stressed the importance of insect life on interconnected ecosystems and the food chain. Bugs make up around 70% of all animal species. Insects have been at "the structural and functional base of many of the world's ecosystems since their rise ... almost 400 million years ago."
The key causes of bug decline are habitat loss and the increased use of fertilizers and pesticides. There is a 'bottom-up' effect of insect loss that is very serious. Scientists agree that the ecosystem has to be in balance, and that means starting with the bottom. IF it becomes out of whack, then all lives can be negatively impacted. You see, small critters rule the world! One study last year found that flying insect populations in German nature preserves declined by 75% over the 27-year study. This shows that insects are declining even in areas that are not inhabited by humans! 
Species higher up on the food chain that rely on bugs will also suffer the consequences. The pollination of crops and plants will also suffer harm. In just the USA, "ecosystem services provided by wild insects have been estimated at $57 billion annually. Some 80% of wild plants use insects for pollination while 60% of birds rely on insects as a food source, according to the study. Sands said an immediate danger of the insect decline was the loss of insectivorous birds and the risk of larger birds turning from eating insects to eating each other." YIKES! In Australia, birds who are running out of insect food are already turning on each other. This will, scientists warn, become a global phenomenon. And birds are the only ones who'll suffer. With the rapid decline in insect biomass, insect-eating frogs and lizards will be in serious jeopardy, too. Frogs are already declining quickly with over 200 species disappearing from earth since the 1970s.
Rapid and immediate action is needed to help save insects. "Because insects constitute the world's most abundant and (species-diverse) animal group and provide critical services within ecosystems, such events cannot be ignored and should prompt decisive action to avert a catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems," say the scientists from the Sydney and Queensland study. They suggest overhauling existing agricultural methods, "in particular a serious reduction in pesticide usage and its substitution with more sustainable, ecologically-based practices." That's a solution that we can all live with. Literally.
The conclusion is clear, I think, to everyone. Or should be. Unless humans change the way they produce food, insects will go down the path of extinction. And then where will we be?
I hope you'll join me back here tomorrow. February is Black History Month and to celebrate, I'll be taking a look at a few important Black inventors and their contributions to the world. Until then, I wish you                  PEACE.
PS. Please think about it, the next time you want to kill a bug.  It could be my lunch your squashing. I'm just saying....

​https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/11/health/insect-decline-study-intl/index.html

I hope you survived Valentine's Day. Personally, I ate too many chocolate-covered bugs and I woke up this morning with an upset tummy. But enough about my over-indulgences.  
If you're anything like me, you have more projects for the weekend than you have weekend. There are, of course, the things I need to do but I always have a long list of things I want to do, as well. This weekend is no different. I have a new book I want to read, I want to go for a long leisurely swim and, as always, I want to spend time with family and friends. But this weekend there is something else I want to, as well. Sunday is Random Acts of Kindness Day is this Sunday. Someone once said, "Love is kindness made visible." So it makes sense that this special day should come on the heels of Valentine's Day. Yesterday, we showed our love to family, friends, our special someone, and to ourselves. Now, it's time to show the rest of the world the the love we have.
Random Acts of Kindness Day was started in 1995. it is a nonprofit organization that is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It has grown in popularity with each year and has become a favorite way for people, organizations, and groups to help spread kindness in a world can can seem increasingly cold and uncaring. Research has shown that being kind to others isn't just good for the recipient of the kindness, but it also makes the doer of the kindness not only feel terrific, but actually can regulate the chemical balance of your heart and lower your blood pressure. Altruism has a profound effect on the brain, as well, and makes us happier and more satisfied with our life. 
We tend to think of these random acts of kindness as being toward others, but they can also include kindness towards our planet. I have no doubt that you can think of many ways to be kind to others this weekend, but I found a few suggestions on the randomactsofkindness.org website that I want to share with you. They blew me away!
1.  Run/Walk a 5K for a cause. This activity is good for you and the money raised helps a worthy cause.
2.  If you're a teacher, have a coloring contest. Ask students to draw examples of random acts of kindness or illustrate what kindness means to them.
3.  Wheel out your neighbor's trash bin.  Not only are those bulky to handle they can be hard to push, especially for an older person. Wheel out the bin for your neighbor when they've forgotten it's trash day.
​4.  Use e-tickets for your concerts and airline tickets. This may not seem like much but it helps the environment. If you have a smartphone, you should be able to access your tickets online and thus save a tree by not using paper to print them out.
5.  Find out something new about a coworker. When you see someone almost every day, it can be easy to get caught in the motions of familiar conversation. Make an effort to learn something new about a coworker. 
6.  Buy raw local honey. The bees are in trouble and humans can help. Support your local beekeepers.
7.  Take a walk outside. Day or night, rain or shine, there's always something new to see and experience. Spending time outdoors improves your mood. So how is this an act of kindness? It kindness shown to yourself. And when you feel better, you tend to spread the joy.
8.  Start a fundraiser for a local school, group, or nonprofit. it's fun and helps generate much-needed funds to keep these organizations going. You can also set up a fundraiser to help a struggling individual or family in your neighborhood.
9.  Run errands in clusters. Save time. Save fuel. Lower the pollution.
10. Rather than stop at your favorite coffee shop, make your own beverage in the morning and use a reusable travel mug. Not only does it keep your coffee / tea hot for longer, you can save some money while you’re saving the planet. 
​11. Organize a clean-up party. We live in a beautiful world! Let’s work together to keep it that way.
12.  Foster a pet that's up for adoption. If you’re not prepared to make the leap of adopting a pet, give fostering a try! There are so many animals waiting to be placed, and your kindness can help a lot with their transition. 
There are countless other ways you can show kindness to people, plants, animals, and the environment. If you're looking for something cool to do this weekend, find a few ways you can make the world a little nicer. Got kids? It's never too early to teach them the value of kindness. Get them involved and let the whole family have fun together while making our planet a little nicer for everyone.
That does it for me this week. Whatever your plans are this weekend, please stay safe and have a little fun. I hope you'll plan to stop by again on Monday. Until then, I wish you
                                                                      PEACE.

​https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-ideas