This is the age, along with millions of other baby boomers, I should be entering retirement, my “golden years.” I’m among the first of the boomers, those born between 1943 and 1960, to reach “retirement age.” Like many of my generation, though, I’m going to continue working, partly because I enjoy what I do to earn a living, but mostly because I need the additional income.

Similar to millions of other boomers, it would be challenging for us to live solely on Social Security. Our savings are not what they once were, having suffered the ups and downs of the economy over the past five years.

Though I feel fortunate to live in a house that’s paid off, in an area we love, I worry about the world my 4 month-old granddaughter is going to grow up in. I worry about the state of the planet’s ecosystem, the wars that continue to rage, the widespread poverty and suffering.

This is not the world I had hoped for when I looked into the future as a young man. I figured at this stage of my life the work week would be shorter than 40 hours, we’d be getting our energy from solar and wind, we’d have evolved beyond racial and religious differences, would all eat organic food, be virtually free of disease, and live to a ripe old age.

That idealism was nurtured by the spirit of the 60‘s, an era that tackled the Vietnam War and Civil Rights through peaceful non-violent protest and preached peace over power, make love not war. We envisioned a future filled with respect for the planet and each other, not the ever more powerful plutocracy that has pillaged the earth’s resources for its own profit.

The mother of my 5 year-old goddaughter told me last week she’s pregnant with her third child. Joy overcame me with the news, but I wondered later what challenges those children will face.

The concern I have about the state of things is balanced by this imperative of young families to bring new life into the world. Having recently witnessed again the unbridled joy a new baby brings, it has renewed my resolve.

The role of grandparents has never been more important. We baby boomers have more work to do to help ensure the children of today, and those of generations to come, grow up with the opportunity to enjoy their stay here as much as we have. We need to rekindle the spirit of the 60’s, and nurture it in the new souls joining us.

Connected by their positions of power, they are all guilty of using that power to allow and cover up the sexual abuse of children and women.

This is the way the world has been for a long time, it’s just more visible now. And it’s almost always men who are involved. The running of our governments, sports, and religions ought not to be guided by the same rules as a Wall St. corporation, out to accumulate great wealth, power, and control. Is it any surprise the major Wall St. players are primarily men?

Women don’t generally behave this way.  They don’t make war on each other or abuse children, at least not nearly as often. They tend to talk things out, like reasonable human beings. Perhaps a guideline for better politics, sports, and religion is to embrace those qualities we value in women, their ability to nurture, to bring life into the world and care for it.

I think we’re flushing this bad stuff out of our system in a big way now, cleansing ourselves from a toxic nightmare of child abuse, subjugation of women, and rape of the environment. As this happens, if more men embrace the principles of the divine feminine instead of making war on them, these abuses of power may finally end.

The people camped out near Wall Street and across the globe are voicing the outrage of the silent majority who are saying, loud and clear, “enough is enough.”

I was one of the baby boomers who voiced that outrage in the 60’s about the war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement, and the corruption in our government. We said it in non-violent, peaceful protests that galvanized the silent majority, led by a generation of long-haired, pot-smoking lovers of rock and roll and folk music. Give peace a chance. Make love not war. Those were our mottos.

That spirit is evident in the Wall St. protests. There are a lot of long haired youth in tie dyes in the current movement. There are also teachers, union members, senior citizens, mostly liberal and independents, a wide cross section of society. They’ve had enough of the corporate cronyism between big business and Congress that has led to the epochal disparity between the richest 1% and the rest of us. They’ve said “enough” to Wall St. traders whose purpose is to make a killing for themselves and their bosses and to screw the rest of us. “Enough”  to the corruption and greed that have led to the rape and pillage of our planet’s natural resources. “Enough” to the crassness of the Tea Party movement and the pitiful idiocy of the current slate of Republican candidates and leadership.

As a baby boomer and proud aging hippie, I’m delighted to see the spirit of the 60’s reborn in today’s youth. Many of us from that era have been focused on earning a living, doing our best to bring good products and services into the world, practicing “right livelihood” as much as possible. Our political activity has been tempered by the need to make a living, and to help others do the same.

Here’s hoping this new movement will help us finally move out of the industrial revolution mindset of this being a dog eat dog world, into a new age of cooperation and prosperity. The writing is on the wall. It has been for some time. The planet can no longer sustain us if we continue to rape and pillage its resources for short term greed. A paradigm change is percolating under the surface of the Occupy Wall St. movement. It’s calling for a different way of being, peace over power, compassion over selfishness, cooperation over greed. It’s time to cultivate our humanity, not our portfolios.

I got a firsthand look at this mindset as a young reporter for The Riverdale Press in New York some 40 years ago, when I wrote a story about the efforts of a local college professor and a group of environmentalists, including Pete Seeger, to clean up the then heavily-polluted Hudson River.

I learned that corporations up and down the river had decided it would be less expensive to dump their waste into the Hudson than to pay for the lawsuits they knew would result. That it was financially beneficial was all that mattered to them. I was dumbfounded, my eyes opened wide. Sadly, this way of thinking is still practiced by many businesses, large and small.

This Big Lie allows humanity to destroy our collective home in the name of greed and short term profit. It’s what urges us to drill, baby, drill, regardless of the danger that leaked petroleum poses to aquatic life; to build nuclear power plants regardless of the danger of leaked radioactivity; to remove all the precious metals from the Earth’s crust, as well as the oil and gas in its seams, built up over millions of years; to tear off entire mountain tops for the coal inside; to pollute the air and soil with toxic chemicals hazardous to all life.

I believe the natural resources of the Earth belong to the Earth, and serve important functions we may not even be aware of. We have no right to assume they are ours for the taking.

Earth Day reminds us that our collective duty is to nurture rather than exploit the Earth’s resources. But beyond being a day to pause and reflect on this commitment, it’s a day to realize we are all complicit through the choices we make every day, and to say Enough!

Thanks to the actions of a dedicated group of environmentalists, the Hudson River is now safer for swimming and fishing. The same can be done on a global level if we each determine through our daily actions to make every day Earth Day.

Modern Pharma has us convinced if we only spend enough money they will find a cure. This leads millions of people to participate in events to raise money for cancer research, not knowing what else to do. With every week bringing news of another friend or family member diagnosed with cancer, the suffering and heartache leave no one untouched.

I believe most cancer results from an immune system compromised by the stress of our multi-tasking, ultra-competitive and acquisitive lifestyle, from our exposure to innumerable toxic chemicals, from poor diets and a food supply devoid of quality.

Cancer isn’t something you catch, like a virus that invades from the outside.  It’s our own body turning on itself.  Acknowledging this, however, means taking responsibility for our own health. It means we can do something about it through how we choose to live.

Modern medicine does not know why a normal cell begins to replicate out of control and becomes a cancer cell. Nor does it fully acknowledge the amazing healing power of the body’s immune system. Thus it doesn’t look for a cure from within. It doesn’t ask what stresses contributed to a compromised immune system. It doesn’t ask how the immune system can be strengthened so it can cure the imbalance that allowed the cancer cells to begin replicating in the first place; how the person’s diet can be changed to provide optimum nutrition; how to help them deal with their emotional stress.

Instead, modern medicine looks for a cure from outside, by treating the cancer with deadly radiation and chemotherapy. Cure the disease and kill the patient. Dissolve the cancer cells but destroy the person’s already compromised immune system.  Despite the clear problems with this approach, an enormous industry has grown fueled by people’s fear that unless they follow their doctor’s suggestions there is no hope they will rid themselves of the disease.

Did you know doctors consider a person’s cancer cured if it doesn’t return for five years?!  Doctors are aware they are working with a very limited tool chest in the “war on cancer.”  They know it’s likely the cancer will return because they’re not treating the underlying causes. They just don’t know what else to do.

Although there are times when a person may have an advanced stage of cancer in which invasive methods are the only sensible path, the vast majority of cancers can be prevented or cured by eliminating stresses on our immune system, while naturally supporting it through a variety of dietary and lifestyle choices.

The suggestion that we can prevent and cure cancer by eating healthy food, minimizing exposure to toxic chemicals, breathing clean air, drinking clean water, creating joy in and around us, thus strengthening our immune system, is so simple it holds little credence with modern medicine.

I believe the cure for cancer is within and will never come from a lab. Cancer is a physiological metaphor for the state of humanity and the condition of the planet. The only cure for both is to restore them to a state of balance.

One of the big lies perpetrated on us by modern pharma is the contention “there is no cure for the common cold.” Instead, they offer us products that suppress symptoms,  make us drowsy, and cause other unpleasant side effects.

A person who uses homeopathic remedies, however, knows the truth:  there are as many cures for the common cold as there are types of colds. The appropriate remedy eliminates symptoms with no side effects. They are inexpensive, readily available, and easy to use.

Homeopathy works by stimulating our immune system to heal itself more quickly and thoroughly than it would normally. Nothing could be more elegant, simple, or sensible.

For instance, if I’m coming down with a cold, it often starts with a sore, hot throat. As soon as I feel this symptom I take a dose of homeopathic Belladonna. Normally after a few minutes I realize the symptoms are no longer there.

If the cold comes on suddenly with a dry cough I may take homeopathic Aconite. If I have congestion in my chest a dose of Ferrum Phos normally clears it up. If there’s sneezing and red eyes Allium Cepa is the remedy.

In addition to individual remedies there are ones like Coldcalm which treats a variety of symptoms by combining multiple remedies in one. And if you have flu symptoms (chills, aches and fever) the remedy of choice is Oscillococcinum. Taken at the first signs of flu it often knocks it out within 24 hours.

Those of us who use homeopathy are incredulous that so many still don’t know what a powerful self-healing modality it is. The big lies fed us by Modern Pharma have us brainwashed.

They want us to think there’s no cure for the common cold so they can continue foisting their ineffective medicines on us, causing other side effects so they can sell us other ineffective medicines that cause yet more side effects! They are not interested in promoting homeopathy because they can’t patent the remedies and charge exhorbitant amounts for them.

You can remove yourself and your family from this vicious cycle. Get a box of Coldcalm or similar remedy and try it next time you or your children have cold symptoms. It’s good to have a book that explains how the remedies work, how to choose them, and also gives you a bit of its fascinating history.  We especially like Cumming & Ullman’s Everybody’s Guide to Homeopathic Medicines.

You may have seen a recent article by Mr. Ullman printed in The Huffington Post about the Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier “taking homeopathy seriously.” Here’s the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/luc-montagnier-homeopathy-taken-seriously_b_814619.html.

Some day soon homeopathy is going to earn the credence it deserves. You don’t have to wait that long. The medicines are widely available in natural food stores and pharmacies around the world. People keep buying them because they work, and they’re safe.  Invest some time learning about them, buy a kit and book, and you too will know how many cures there are for the common cold.

She brought me to a booth filled with boxes of Warm Wax, Hot Wax, Body Sugars, and Wax Strips. I was adrift in a world I knew nothing of. Waxing, as in ripping out hair? Although I had 25 years of experience introducing women to natural and organic personal care products, waxing was a new category for me.

I found an aesthetician and make-up artist friend at a nearby booth and told her You have to take a look at this, bringing her to the waxing booth.

It didn’t take her long to start bubbling with excitement. She told me the products had the cleanest formulas she’d ever seen, had the easiest to follow instructions, and would be a Godsend to bring to the marketplace.

Being in the goddess maintenance business, I needed to hear no more. And since my career had included introducing women to cotton menstrual pads, I figured working with natural waxing products couldn’t be any more challenging.

The company is named Parissa, and it has been my good fortune to introduce their line of waxing products to natural food stores, where it has become the category leader.

The owners of Parissa are an Iranian family that left their homeland some 25 years ago to settle in Vancouver, BC. They brought their family formula for body sugar, began selling it to friends and neighbors, and the rest, as they say, is history. The products are now available all over the world.

Waxing originated in the Middle East, where people tend to have more hair, and coarser hair. The simplest waxing formula is a sticky mix of sugar, honey and water. Millions of people still use this most basic of waxing formulas.

Parissa has done more to educate people about the ease of natural waxing products than anyone else. They are a great bunch of people, and know how to have fun at the same time. Check out their amusingbackvertising video and the other instructional videoson their website.

The image most people in this country have of waxing is that it’s painful, messy, expensive, and difficult to do at home. That’s why most people who wax go to a salon or spa to have it done.

This image has led most women in the U.S. to shave with a razor rather than wax. Given the array of toxic waxing products found in most retail stores, who could question their choice? Many of these products contain harsh chemicals that literally burn the hair off your skin. No surprise, then, that in the process your skin is burned too. And think of the toxic ingredients your skin is absorbing.

Parissa’s products are made from sugar, canola oil, beeswax, and pine resin. When used properly, they result in smooth skin that doesn’t need to be waxed again for up to 6-8 weeks. Compare that to shaving daily, or several times a week.

When I first started with Parissa, my wife Kathy was alarmed when I suggested she try a box of wax strips for her legs rather than shaving. She was amazed at how easy the strips are to use, as well as economical. A box costs about $12 and does both legs up to the knees at least once, and for women with lighter hair, a few times.

The longer a person waxes the slower their hair grows back. Since you’re pulling hair out by the root, the hair follicle gets the message it might as well slow down hair production.

Waxing isn’t just helpful for large body parts like legs, it helps with small spots too. It’s an unfortunate fact the older we get, the less our hair grows where we wished it grew, and starts sprouting in places we wish it didn’t!

This is especially true for the upper lip and chin area in women. Little wax strips, and hot or warm wax, are perfect ways to take care of these spots as they arise.

Another emerging company from Baltimore is Botanical Skin Works. Their mission is to create products that solve problems.

Sharon Kinnier’s software engineering firm had a contract at the Pentagon, but after 9/11 she decided to make soap.  Since then Sharon has formulated over 200 personal care products, most of which qualify for the USDA standard of 95% organic!  Sharon’s partner Nana Anu is a former holistic MD who consulted with her on the functionality of the products.

As African American women, they have also solved the problems of natural cosmetics for women of every color.  Ada Cosmetics is their latest creation. With over 40 foundation colors, this complete line of natural mineral makeup has something for everyone, with no one left out.  Sold also as private label, many high profile celebrities are currently wearing the makeup.

http://www.botanicalworks.com/

Crazy Rumors emerged as a national brand this past year, being sold in several regions of Whole Foods and hundreds of natural foods retailers nationwide. In order to compete in the crowded lip balm market you have to be special, and Crazy Rumors does that with great naturally fun flavors in categories like ice cream, coffee, tea, fresh squeezed, and soda pop. Their organic and vegan ingredients, and creamy, super moisturizing formula make them truly a gourmet lip experience. Brian’s eye-catching graphics tie it all together. Edie and Brian’s creative juices continue to bubble away in Atlanta, now with baby Sophie keeping them laughing.

http://www.crazyrumors.com/