JK Rowling, the first female novelist billionaire, recently lost her exclusive status because of some very good deeds.

Forbes, which has produced an annual list of billionaires for the past 25 years, said that the “Harry Potter” author dropped from billionaire to millionaire due to Britain’s high taxes and her charitable giving.

the Huff post article

See the Huffington Post article to see a slide show of Billionaires of Charitable note.

The Gentle Barn

Let a warm, sincere smile come from that incredible self to everyone that you greet today.

TED Talk Video

Humanity is faced with some daunting challenges. There are over 300,000 active child soldiers in 30 countries around the globe and eradicating this issue has the illusion of being impossible. A true idealist, Zac Whyte is a regular family man, university student and media professional living in British Columbia, Canada who left his job after eight years in the network broadcasting industry to redesign his life around social entrepreneurship and actively engage poverty related children’s issues on a daily basis. He has made civic contribution a lifestyle instead of an effort. Using his leadership skills, media expertise, creativity and passion to lead by example, Zac is on a mission to challenge people to design their life around a purpose and give them an opportunity to face their fear of success to make what some members of his community call “impossible dreams” an established reality. Find out more about his work at http://zacwhyte.com

It’s a coffee shop and some conversations carry, right? Their conversation peaks my interest and takes me away from my Facebook, Pinterest, Gmail activities. As the second man winds up his conversation, I ask him if he can explain, to me, more about what he’s doing (subject of another post). I finish this conversation, get a website address (Edible Patch), enjoy a final salute and the man, Joe, leaves.

Now I say to my coffee shop comrade, “I would like to hear more about what you are doing,” as what I was hearing from their earlier conversation was really interesting. Here’s what I found out:

gvgtree.org (not a live site yet)

Josh Owen of Tryon Solutions is developing an application for the spiritual community based on an idea from the church he attends, Watermark Tampa. The idea is their annual Giving Tree, a church community aide for those in their community experiencing needs in their lives.

Josh said to himself, why does this idea just have to be a season answer. He has been developing this idea for the last year and is close to a beta test, in the process of taking it live.

Watch here for updates, we’ll keep you posted.

A 9 year old boy – who built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s used auto part store – is about to have the best day of his life.

Help Caine’s Scholarship Fund:
cainesarcade.com

Caine’s Arcade Online:
facebook.com/cainesarcade
twitter.com/cainesarcade

Dimiceli says. “That’s what it’s about.”

Dimiceli pours over the dozens of letters asking for help every week. CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports the letters are from poor people in need of minor miracles, mostly – like getting their furnace fixed. Or maybe it’s a utility bill that needs to be paid to get the gas turned back on.
To submit an idea for On the Road, send us an e-mail
Dimiceli makes it happen, using donations and a lot of his own money. He then recounts the stories in a local newspaper column he writes called “The Time is Now to Help.”
Learn how to help at Dimiceli’s website

His latest tip brought him to a should-be-torn-down trailer. “I thought there can’t be people living in here,” Dimiceli says. “And all of a sudden I heard little children inside – and my heart just sunk.”
There were six children inside, and as we learned, each more adorable than the next. They belong to Henny Acup and her boyfriend, Tim. He works as a roofer but doesn’t make much. The only heat they get is from the electric stove. Yet Acup said she didn’t write a letter. Somebody else must have.
Acup said she never realized that she was like those people in the articles. “Not really. I feel lucky. I feel like just having my family they’re all loving and caring.”
That’s all the more reason for Dimicili to want to help. But his main motivation for doing so is much more personal. Dimicili remembers things being tough economically when he was a young boy. “I remember being evicted,” Dimicili recalls. “Evictions. We were like gypsies.”
Poverty chased his family to every new address. “I made a promise to God that I would never forget these roots.”
Eventually Dimicili would own a real estate company and become a multi-millionaire. His bookkeeper and wife, Corrinne, says Dimicili has given away pretty much their entire life savings: $4 million and counting.
Corrinne worries sometimes, “But there’s no convincing him.”
“It feels so good,” Dimiceli says about helping people. “It’s contagious – you want to do it again and again.”
Over the last 20 years Dimiceli has helped about 20,000 people. Now, he’s helped Henny Acup and her boyfriend Tim get into a new, completely furnished apartment.
Who knows how much longer he can afford to keep doing this – he doesn’t know.
If hugs were dollars, it wouldn’t be an issue. Or If only there were more people like Dimiceli in the world – there wouldn’t be the need.

There are cosmic implications as well. Stamets believes we could terraform other worlds in our galaxy by sowing a mix of fungal spores and other seeds to create an ecological footprint on a new planet.

“Once you’ve heard ‘renaissance mycologist’ Paul Stamets talk about mushrooms, you’ll never look at the world — not to mention your backyard — in the same way again.”

Linda Baker, Salon.com

The Edge Family was very excited. There was to be a new member of the Edge family. Mr and Mrs Edge were expecting the arrival of their new little word any day now and still hadn’t been able to put letters together to create a name that they could be proud of and that would be just the perfect name for their new little word..

Their first offsring, Outer Edge was doing so well in school and even though the other little words teased Outer a lot and called it ‘Out’ for short…and would laugh and laugh when they played baseball together. They would say ‘Out’ is up to bat….or ‘Out’ in left field…but little Out just let it go. Secretly it wanted to play pitcher and felt so proud when it was asked to pitch a game. When the coach called ‘Out’, it was a proud moment…a dream come true. It knew it could really do this. So Out became the new pitcher ..and when the Umpire would yell ‘Out’,
little Out was proud indeed. It was living up to it’s name. It’s parents were aware that Out’s big dream, though, was to become a word’o'naught and explore to the outer edge. They knew that they had named their first ‘un-veiled’ word well indeed.

This second offspring was somewhat more of a challenge. Trying to get a name that their new little word could live up to and be the best it could become was a letter puzzle. Mrs. Edge became quite concerned as the time was close at hand for the un’veiling of their new little word and they still had no name.

That night Mrs. Edge had a dream where-in she saw her new little word. It was in a library like no other library she had ever seen. There was a sign over the door saying ‘Akashic Records’. She real-eyes’d when she woke up to her day dream that she had never heard those words before…and pondered what they meant.

A thought came to her in a brilliant flash of light….the name they had been searching for was ‘Know’… Mrs Edge was so excited to finally have an in-sight into the new little word’s purpose. At dinner Mrs. Edge announced the name for their new little word. Mr. Edge thought it over carefully and said that that would be a fine name to live up to …then pursed his lips in silence. It had just dawned on Mr.l Edge. What ever did Know Edge mean? It must be something that it could live up to and understand. They all knew and could feel that they had the right name but something was missing. Then Mr. Edge announced, it needs a middle initial. What if we call our new little word. Know L. Edge. The family was so very impressed with this idea. No one had thought of giving a little word an inital that was in the middle. That was suppose to be at the beginning of something. What would it mean in the middle of something instead? hmmm. They didn’t know but as little word’s un-veiling was imminent, they decided to just go ahead with the word name anyway ..and a good thing too, as that night little word made it’s grand appearance.

When the Alpha-bet Council convened to register new words into the community, little Know’s name came up for pre-view. It’s parents were asked the questions that each little word ‘s parents were asked. Do you swear to help this new little word live up to its’ name and purpose? Mr and Mrs Edge answered ,’We do.’

Little word was registered for school. Mr and Mrs Edge were so proud that their new little word would be learning everything it needed to know here, to live it’s life’s purpose.

As all little words will be words, and play word games, they began to play games with little Know’s name. Little Know felt very hurt that they didn’t honour it’s name. It yelled,’ No”…stop it….so all the little it’s began chorusing ‘no No NO. Know, knows no thing’…hahahaha

Know ran home in tears. Mrs. Edge hadn’t realized what the other little words would do to Know’s name. Unfortunately, ‘No’ stuck….and when ever the other little words would see Know coming they would chorus in the words sing song-y voices… “No NO Know… Know knows no thing”.

Know became known as No in the community. It’s name had been shortened to mean something entirely different. Everytime know would walk down the street and hear a parent saying’no’ to their little word, little ‘No’ took in that new energy. Know was feeling so sad it was losing its’ sense of purpose and direction. Even the teachers were calling it ‘No’.

K’no’w became very angry. What began as a very playful thing had now changed little Know, into little No…It began to say ‘no’ to everything. No stamped it’s little word foot and said, ‘No more!’ it wailed.

That night, Mr. and Mrs. Edge had a long talk about Know’s plight. They knew it was their job to help their little word thru this trying time…. but how?

They sat down and looked at the letters that made up Know’s name. ‘K’…what did they know about the letter ‘K’? …n….o…w They even looked at L and E,d,g,e …. They worked out the numbers and that didn’t seem to be of help this time.

They decided to take out their deck of tarot word cards and drew a card. It was the Fool card…and to their amazement there was little word, standing on the Edge of the cliff..but with one huge difference. This little word in the picture hadn’t a care in life. Mrs. Edge became very sad. Seeing her little word in that picture had her see little k-No-w thru new eyes. Mr. Edge looked at the card and with a hrumph cleared his throat for he too saw what little word’s potential really was.They looked at each other in silence.

That night when Mr. and Mrs. Edge climbed into bed it was with heavy hearts for their little word. Mrs. Edge asked silently within herself for some guidance that would help them all…..That night, again Mrs. Edge dreamt of that strange library called Akashic Records, but this time, followed little Know into a section where they could view videos of Know’s life as though it were already lived.

Oh! Mrs. Edge thought. This is wonderful. Little Edge will get to see what it can really do…but alas, Mrs. Edge was mistaken for the video showed the outcome from present choices they had all made. Mrs. Edge awoke into her day dream sad and strangely passive to life around her. The dream followed Mrs. Edge thru her day.

That night again Mrs. Edge went to bed asking for guidance but this time for what were little Know’s greatest possibilities. Again, Mrs Edge was escorted into the library and this time, taken to a chamber of all possibilites and was told to picture the situation in mind. It became very clear to Mrs. Edge that little Know was at a very pivotol time in it’s life. Surely there must be a clear answer here somewhere of how to help little Know…and Mrs. Edge held that thought, the word ‘no’ appeared in large letters on the screen in front of them….with a voice saying, ‘This is where you are right now’…and as they watched…the letter ‘w’ floated across the screen toward the word ‘No’ and gave the word a hug and said I will be your friend..and stood beside ‘No’. Magically, Mrs. Edge now understood.

Awaking all excited, Mrs Edge informed the family, ‘We need to make a trip to the Alpha-bet letter nursery.’ They all piled in the car. They had no idea what Mrs, Edge was talking about except that she had a dream. Out had a chance not to go to school for a day so all was fiine with Outer. Mr. Edge was so relieved that a solution might be at hand that Mr. Edge had cancelled appointments for the whole day. When they arrived at the nursery for letters, Mrs Edge was looking for a little ‘w’. No was the first to find it. It was a cute little ‘w’…so friendly and nice. It wanted to play with No…and was smiling and being very playful. As the family watched No and ‘w’ play, it soon became evident that ‘w’ had given some of No’s slef back. Mrs. Edge saw them…No and ‘w’ side by side and new that ‘w’ was actually a playful part of No that had been left behind. They played so well together that they became inseparable. ‘w’ was invited to live with them and they all came home together.

No’ and ‘w’ now were great friends. They were seen everywhere together. The family began to call them ‘Now’. No’s school mates ceased to call little word No..and instead began to call No, ‘Now’. As No and w had become inseparable. Mr. and Mrs Edge were greatly relieved, but Mrs. Edge recognized that little Now still wasn’t it’s true slef. I wonder what it will take for Now to BE-come the Know that it was meant to be?

Time passed for the Edge family. Outer was in college and training for becoming a word ‘o’naught and Now had moved passed all the hurt and pain of the past, learning to live as Now. Something was missing for Now though….a vague feeling that something was following Now around ..something that wanted to be recognized.

One day, while Now was standing in front of the mirror straightening it’s clothes before leaving for the day, Now saw an image quickly shift passed it’s vision, behind it. Was that a ‘K’ it saw? Now had become so used to being Now that it had lost touch with the Self it would become. The image fleetingly passed by again. It looked so familiar..the ‘K’ but what wsa it doing here? That image of ‘K’ floated with Now all day long. It began to haunt it… like a ghost from the past.

That night, Now had a dream. In that dream, Now was being given a certificate of graduation. It looked at the certificate and read ‘Know L. Edge, graduating with honours’. Now awoke with a smile. Now knew what it must do. It must seek what it had left behind so long ago. A part of itself that would be needed to live it’s life purpose. It needed to connect with that higher aspect of itself to truely be Know L. Edge and that was being taught in philosophy class. One afternoon in meditation class, Now saw a K approaching it..and beckoning. It’s time Now to connect again. When Now came out of the meditation, it Knew that it was truly Know L. Edge and that wisdom from higher mind was available to it at all times.

The instructor just smiled.. Know-ingly.

Carol Fazakas, Bayfield Ontario Canada