After having this orchid for years sitting on my desk, it finally bloomed!

I took a few photos of this and uploaded them to Flickr, for all to enjoy.

I like this symbol of new life and celebration, especially after Yule and before New Year’s. Even when things around us can be challenging or even crumbling, such little celebrations in nature can inspire and give us hope for a better day to come.

Elephant Nature Foundation, the organization in Thailand that I am very fond of (and where I have fostered 2 elephants – Max and Tong Jan) has just started using RSS feeds on their News page. I am very happy that I can now keep more on top of their news stories by having my newsreader check their website every day for updates.

What a simple and free way to get their message out even faster; I think all non-profits and charitable instututions online should use RSS feeds. I hope they begin to advertise this, since there is no indication on their site this now works. I only found it since I was browsing their site with my newsreader, FeedDemon.

Technorati Tags: Elephant Nature Foundation, Elephant Nature Park , rss

Yesterday was Blogger’s Unite, a day to do something good for some aspect of society. With so much need in the world, I was not really sure where to start, so I decided to start with a baby elephant, Tong Jan.  

I fostered her after reading her sad story before she came to Elephant Nature Park, and after learning how she was rescued when she was three months old. As  life-long lover of elephants, I always wondered at them from afar. They seemed magical and majestic, yet after digging a little further (and previously fostering another elephant, Max), I learned that elephants can be particularly needy and savagely abused. Their size can certainly hide their amount of mistreatment.

I did not plan to foster another elephant before the holidays, but it was the challenge of Blogger’s Unite that got me to consider doing something, even minor, to help make the world a better place.  

Over the weekend I spent some time in New York City’s Central Park, walking around to clear my mind and relieve stress. I snapped a few photos of my time while walking by the Chess and Checkers House, going inside the Dairy, and spanding some time in the Central Park Zoo and Children’s Zoo. I uploaded the pictures I took there to Flickr.

I recently read a story that got me teary-eyed; one about abused and mistreated elephants in Thailand that have been rescued by a young woman who goes by the name Lek. She founded Elephant Nature Foundation, a non-profit organization that serves the needs of suffering elephants in Thailand. I first read about her in Wildlife Conservation magazine, the publication of the Wildlife Conservation Society (Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, NY Aquarium, et al.).

I spent a few hours looking around their website, and was shocked to learn how brutal people are to elephants in Thailand. I have always had a fascination with elephants, but never knew how vulnerable they really are in the wild and even after being pressed into service.

I decided I had to get involved and do something, so rather than just send a donation, I took advantage of their novel program to foster an elephant. Much more interesting than sending a check, and while they encourage visits to the park, I cannot get to Thailand in the near future. Thus, I fostered Max, an 11-foot tall elephants who was rescued by the park a few years ago. I am looking forward to getting updates about him over the next year, and feel that I am helping, even in a small way, something much greater than me.

If you have not donated anything during the holiday season yet, consider supporting the wonderful work at Elephant Nature Foundation; they even have a U.S. tax ID.

Technorati Tags: Elephant Nature Foundation, Elephant Nature Park , Lek, Wildlife Conservation Society