http://www.crisismagazine.com/2016/courageous-leadership-is-needed-to-reverse-secular-trends

Courageous Leadership Is Needed to Reverse Secular Trends

However unpleasant this might feel, it’s time for American Catholics to acknowledge that over the past decade, a tsunami wave of aggressive secularism has swept across the United States. This is confirmed both by sociological data and a disturbing secularist trend in politics in this age of Obama and Obergefell v. Hodges. There is, however, hope for us, probably more hope than for any other local Church in the West. Now is the time when, more than ever before, we must be uncompromising defenders of tradition. Some American bishops have chosen this path and seen renewal in their dioceses, but others (including several princes of the Church) are missing the boat.

In the nineteenth century, many philosophers and pioneers of the social sciences—Nietzsche, Freud, Feuerbach, Comte, Marx—predicted that religion was destined for obliteration as a result of modernization. For years, this secularization thesis came to be taken for granted by most Western social scientists. Indeed, observational data seemed to confirm this: in the post-World War II era of unprecedented prosperity, both the public and private role of religion became increasingly marginal in the world’s wealthiest societies: Western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc.

There was, however, one glaring exception to this trend: the United States, a country with the best universities in the world, the most modern technology, and a large middle class, remained religious. Increasingly, American religious exceptionalism caused sociologists to reject the secularization paradigm.

However, something has visibly changed in recent years. It has been widely reported that the proportion of Americans identifying as having no religion has been surging in recent years. A 2014 study by the Pew Research Center shows that over the span of just seven years, the proportion of Americans identifying as “nones” has shot up from 16 to 23 percent. Meanwhile, those claiming to be Christians has plummeted from 78 to 71 percent. Among senior citizens, only 11 percent have no religion; that number is more than three times larger among “older millennials” born in 1981-1989 (34 percent) and “younger millennials” born in the 1990s (36 percent).

Some have downplayed these statistics by saying that these “nones” aren’t abandoning spirituality, often citing another Pew study showing that more than two-thirds of non-religious Americans believe in God, while nearly a quarter pray at least once a month. However, the 2014 Pew study shows that American atheists and agnostics are indeed on the rise, mushrooming from 4 percent in 2007 to 7 percent seven years later. Such optimistic reasoning also misses the point that most humans are simply not willing to accept the stark realities that atheism entails: that we are alone in the universe, there is no life after death, and life has no objective purpose. A few years ago, a group of secularists placed posters on buses all over London reading: “There’s probably no god [sic]. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” In reality, though, true atheism requires facing some depressing notions that make life much less enjoyable. Having been born in the 1980s, I know my generation well. Many Americans my age—inseparable from their iPhones, preferring cohabitation to the commitment of marriage—are narcissists primarily concerned with comfort and convenience. They don’t like the depressing “bummer” doctrines of Christianity, but they don’t want to face stark nihilistic realities, either, so they turn to yoga and being “spiritual, not religious.”

The Catholic Church’s own statistics confirm these trends, especially with regards to the East and West Coasts. In Boston, once the most Catholic city in America, a mere 16 percent of Catholics attend Mass regularly. In the Archdiocese of New York, the figure is just 12 percent, and in the Diocese of Sacramento it is less than 14 percent. The East and West Coasts are just as secular as much of Western Europe: while Catholic pundits like George Weigel often criticize German cardinals like Marx and Kasper for being influential in Francis’s Vatican despite representing a withering Church, Mass attendance in Germany stands at 12.3 percent, a rate comparable to that of many American sees on either coast.

Statistics aren’t the only way to see that America has visibly changed. In 2008, a militant secularist openly hostile to Christian values similar to Spain’s Zapatero was elected president of the United States. If anyone had doubts as to what Obama’s attitude to life, family, and religious liberty was, in his first term he became the first sitting president to openly support same-sex “marriage”; forced Catholic institutions to pay for contraception and abortifacients; and obsessively supported abortion. Despite this, Obama easily won a second term. The president enjoys wide support among my generation, for whom, as polls and everyday observations show, support for same-sex “marriage” is as important as opposition to racial segregation and the Vietnam War was to Baby Boomers. Meanwhile, more and more states are legalizing recreational drug use and assisted suicide, and nearly half of American babies are born out of wedlock, a proportion not much lower than in Scandinavia.

It is thus clear that something has changed in America for the worse. This begs two questions: what should be done and is there any hope?

First, we need to acknowledge that there is a problem. Too many Church leaders have been blind to the troubling rise of secularism. Take, for example, Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s denial that the massive closings of New York parishes had anything to do with secularization: “[T]hank God, we Catholics in the archdiocese and, actually, in the United States as a whole, are not, like … Europe, in decline.” Cardinal Dolan’s confidence is misplaced. By every measure it is evident that the Church in many parts of the United States, including the Archdiocese of New York, is on the same trajectory as Europe. If secularism is not first recognized as a threat, it cannot be overcome.

Second, this should be the time for evangelical radicalism. Both in North America and in Europe, the mainline Protestant churches have experienced the most severe declines in membership. Quite simply, the salt has lost its taste, and, for example, the Episcopalian Church here or the Lutheran national churches in Scandinavia have become indistinguishable from the broader post-Christian culture. In our own Church, the American Jesuits—who for decades have actively worked to make Catholicism a mainline Protestant denomination—have lost more than two-thirds of their members since 1965. People yearn for a Church that goes against the current. New York’s aforementioned low level of Mass attendance is not Cardinal Dolan’s fault; he inherited a bad situation. However, his style of leadership—approving LGBT activists to participate in the St. Patrick’s Day parade and giving communion to an aggressively pro-abortion and pro-LGBT politician, is unlikely to reverse current trends. Cardinal Dolan isn’t the only East Coast bishop to adopt an accommodationist strategy toward secularism. Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, for instance, has refused to publicly oppose same-sex “marriage.”

In order to counter this secularist blitzkrieg, Catholic leaders should instead adopt the leadership style of the emeritus bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, Fabian Bruskewitz (1992-2012). Bishop Bruskewitz openly challenged secularism. In 1996, he gave a decree excommunicating all Catholics involved in Planned Parenthood and other anti-life, anti-Catholic organizations or who become freemasons. In recent days, Bishop Bruskewitz has alerted the faithful to the harm done to marriage by the Obergefell decision and called upon fellow bishops to uphold Canon 915 prohibiting pro-abortion politicians from receiving the Eucharist. He was a leading proponent of the Tridentine Mass long before Pope Benedict XVI made its celebration easier in 2007, and made sure that Lincoln churches were beautiful. During his twenty-year episcopal service, vocations surged, and Lincoln has the highest ratio of seminarians to priests in the country. While dozens of American seminaries have been closed since Vatican II, Lincoln opened a diocesan seminary in 1998.

Of course, there are other reasons to be optimistic about the United States. Mass attendance in the United States stands at 24 percent, a ratio higher than in most other Western countries. While, as we saw, religious practice is low on the East and West coasts, my home parish church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is always crowded on Sundays; the Midwest and South remain much more religious than the coasts. Excellent Catholic publishers like Ignatius Press and Sophia Institute Press flourish, and in recent years a number of orthodox Catholic colleges that are a refreshing alternative to Georgetown, Notre Dame, and other post-Catholic universities have sprung up or expanded considerably. However, we have to recognize that the overall cultural climate for Catholics is increasingly challenging, and it’s the outspokenly, dynamically orthodox dioceses that have weathered the secular storm best.

Pope Benedict XVI was realistic; he understood that the likelihood of reviving medieval Christendom was small, and instead believed that Catholics in the secularized West should be a “creative minority” with the potential to change society. Although acknowledging this fact may make us queasy, Christians who take their faith seriously have become a minority in American society, which is increasingly hostile to their values. This does not mean that Catholicism in this country is destined to die out, as it did in the Maghreb. But to avoid that sad reality we have to be in uncompromising opposition to the surrounding nihilistic moral landscape.

Photo caption: Newly ordained priests stand outside of the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln, Neb., with Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz and priests of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter on May 22, 2010. (Photo credit: Today’s Catholic News, Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.)

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Susan Branch: How I Learned To Paint

http://www.susanbranch.com/watercolor-love/

How I Learned to Paint

I’m often asked how I learned to paint . . .

When I first moved to Martha’s Vineyard, Norman Rockwell was alive and well and living in his beloved Stockbridge, Massachusetts home. It occurred to me that I should probably try and go see him; I could picture myself walking up his driveway to shake his hand so clearly that it still seems it might have really happened.  The sensibilities behind his art were so wonderful, and exactly how I felt.  His paintings made me fall in love with his understanding and view of the human heart.  But of course, I never went there, I didn’t want to bother him.   Joe and I have now been to Stockbridge many times, have visited his museum and studio; I picked this stick up from the front yard of his studio to save.  One of my prized possessions.  My Norman Rockwell Stick.  I photographed it where it lives, on my art table, hopefully osmosing genius out into my studio (in my “House of Creativity”) like gamma rays. The paper it’s sitting on is one of the throw-away scraps I use to check colors on my brush and test my pen to make sure it isn’t going to drop a clump of ink on the watercolor I’m working on.  I like to think Norman Rockwell had one of these too. ♥

So I thought today, I might give you a tour of my watercolor world.  And you don’t have to come all the way to Martha’s Vineyard to see it, I’m only as far away as your computer!   Above, is a photo I took when I was working on the page I did to honor Tasha Tudor — this sweet corgi (hopefully like one of hers) and one of her lovely quotes  I did for my December 2011 calendar page. ♥ I’d never painted a corgi before, but now I would like to stop everything and ONLY paint corgi’s, he was so fun to do; his colors are beautiful, but my favorite is his nose!  Have you noticed that Corgis are like little tea tables?  They have such wide flat backs, they could be like a hassock or an end table.  You could put a tray on him. ♥

After I finish doing a page for a book or calendar, it gets scanned into the computer, which allows me future access to it (another computer miracle), and the original art goes into these acid-free boxes, and then into this huge old bank safe Joe found for me.  All the original pages for my books, along with everything I’ve ever painted, is stored here.  The problem is, we are going to need another one.

You know I only started doing watercolors just after I turned thirty?  It’s true.  I never knew I had that inside me.  Even though I paint almost every day now, it’s still a surprise to come into a whole room dedicated to the messes I make and to see my art table covered with paintboxes and brushes and know they’re mine.

I think it’s because I didn’t grow up with them.  I always loved to make things …. I especially loved to sew ~ a room filled with needles, thread, fabric and embroidery hoops would make more sense to me than the still-surprising sight of brushes and paint!  Now I design my own fabric and mix it up, sewing and drawing to make things like the dishtowel on the left.

I’ve always mixed up my hobbies.  I fell in love with the art of cooking in my twenties ~ I loved giving dinner parties, loved surprising people with banana cream pies and pots of bean soup.  After I started painting my girlfriend suggested I combine my watercolors with my recipes to make a cookbook.  I didn’t think I could write a book, but I knew that even if it was never published, I would still have the pages to give away for some nice Christmas presents!  So I decided I would try.  And it all turned into a very surprising career.

Sometimes I walk into my studio early in the morning, before the sun has come up…all quiet, birds singing in the rhododendren outside the window, or in the winter, when I paint to the hum of the furnace, with Girl Kitty and Jack on their pillows keeping me company, and a blank piece of paper in front of me, waiting for my brush and that first drop of color, and think about how this all came about.

This was the very first painting I ever did.  It was a plant sitting on my kitchen table; I filled a little pot with water, squeezed some watercolors from tubes into a plastic dish ~ watercolors I’d bought with a 30th birthday gift certificate to an art store.  I sharpened a pencil, sat down in front of this geranium and started drawing.  I had no idea what I was doing. I just looked at the plant and tried to put what I saw on the paper.  Everyone was shocked that it looked like a geranium!  I was shocked!  It was a geranium!  This was one of those life-changing moments that are sometimes only visible in the rear-view mirror.  One of the reasons I want to encourage people to “just try it” when it comes to watercolor (or any home art, cooking, sewing, quilting, knitting, scrapbooking, gardening)  is because I’m sure that this must have been inside me my whole life, and I had no idea.  I doodled just like anyone else, random squiggles; drawings of stick people; not the slightest inclination that there could be more. If this ability could be hiding inside me, it might be inside you. ♥  “Trying” has always been the most important word I know.  Nothing ventured, as they say so truly, nothing gained.

My mother put this crayon drawing in my baby book.  I was a star to her no matter what I drew.  Would you have looked at this crayon drawing and thought you should start saving to send the child to art school?  No.  More likely you would wonder what was going on with her right brain!  (Or maybe it’s her left, but something!  I should get it analyzed!)

Over the years, I found out that what really matters is practice!  In my 7th grade art class, we spent the entire semester drawing our thumbs!  Seriously, that’s what we did, left thumb stuck up in front of me, pencil in right hand; the teacher went over and over it, showing us how to really look at things, the curve, the edge, the shadows, the lines.  I got an A in that class, but I thought everyone did, it was an elective!  And I never took another art class.  I can still draw a good thumb if I want to. That’s what I mean about practice.  If you look at the art in my first book, Heart of the Home, and compare it to later work, like my newest calendar or the Autumn Book, you can see what a big help practice can be.

I’ve always painted the things around me.  Before I moved to Martha’s Vineyard and began to write books, I did little scenes of flower pots, baskets with apples, bowls of fruit, quilts, straw hats, my old stove, and my kitty; I hung them all over my kitchen, called them “Kitchen Art,” and gave them away as Christmas presents.  Soon my friends were asking to buy them, giving me confidence to do more and more.  My first painting sold to the outside world in a gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills (I didn’t have the nerve to take my art there myself, a girlfriend did it for me.  I was jumping up and down happy about this — even the smallest successes build confidence which is just a huge help no matter what you do, just believing you can); after that I began to have local art shows in my little town in California.  I took Polaroid’s of the paintings as I did them, which is a good thing, because the paintings themselves are almost all gone.  I still have a few of my favorites.  These framed apples came with me from California to Martha’s Vineyard and hang in my kitchen now.

I still love using the things around me as my subjects, although you might not know it to look at this — probably a little hard to believe that these “birds” might be “around me.” (BTW, see that real feather lying on the paper? Inspiration!  And I know he’s not a real partridge, I just called him that, he’s actually a made-up bird!)  Here’s a 20 second video I took that explains . . . (they aren’t really my children :-))

I have worked a little from old photos too, especially for my mom.

This one became a greeting card, which I framed for my mom along with the original photo.

I’m often asked what kind of art supplies I use, so I thought I’d tell you.  These are my brushes, but I almost always use the smallest one, there in the middle.  It’s a # 1 Windsor Newton University Series 233. I was shocked the first time my brush wore out — who knew paintbrushes wore out?! Now I buy them by the fistfuls.

The paint comes from everywhere, including children’s paint boxes.  Actually I love any kind of paint box; Prang and Pelikan have been my favorites. I use watercolor paint tubes, like Holbein, Rowney or Grumbacher, I’m not particular about the brand, I just want as many colors as possible.  This is my collection of reds → and pinks. . . I never met a red paint I didn’t love.  I keep them in separate baskets, by color. To use them, you just squeeze out a little paint, mix it with water and voila!  So easy.  Everything I know about art, I learned in kindergarten.

The jar is Daler Rowney Pro White which I use when I make a mistake with the pen; I get it and lots of my other supplies at Blick.  I use two sizes of Rapidograph India ink pens to write with, a refillable Koh-i-noor drafting pencil to draw with, and then, the most important item in my arsenal, the eraser!  A soft white Staedtler.  A metal ruler is important too.  For paper, it’s Arches watercolor paper and for the pages of my books I use pads of smooth finish Bristol board.

I hope this helps someone out there who might be thinking of giving it a try. Watercolors are one of my dearest passions.  Rarely a day goes by that I don’t paint.  When I heard that song, ♫ Raven hair, ruby lips, sparks fly from her fingertips ♪, I said, hey, that’s me.  (Except for the hair and lips and the witchy woman part)

I’ve loved lettering forever, always got perfect marks for handwriting (it’s where I got my start).  This quote, one of my favorites, is for the new book I’m working on.

 I hope if you are thinking about trying watercolors, you might feel encouraged to give it a try.   Worse-case scenario is that you have special gifts to give, little watercolor notes to tuck into letters, or art that matches your house to hang on your wall; it’s really a win-win; making something beautiful is within reach of everyone and having something you can give is one of the secrets to a wonderful life.  ♥ xoxo

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Sherry Culberson's Funeral Testimony

https://vimeo.com/125921526

http://freedomoutpost.com/americans-are-voting-for-manhood/

Americans Are Voting for Manhood

I couldn’t put my finger on it until the other night. What is it about The Donald that is engendering so much support?

By all accounts, he is vulgar, uncouth, narcissistic, bombastic, petty, and a bastion of other un-biblical behaviors. Yet he is very popular. What is it about Donald Trump that has drawn so many to his side?

Donald Trump is a MAN in a nation where manhood is in very short supply.

His popularity is not about his “conservatism” or his “Christianity.” But, as we saw again last night, in Mississippi of all places…the buckle of the Bible-belt…the Trumpster again won a majority of the evangelical vote.

The South was supposed to be Cruz country…the heart of Christianity, where clinging to Bibles and guns is passed through the DNA from one generation to the next. A state where using the name of Jesus is a token of praise rather than an object of damnation… where Ted Cruz values were as common as gumbo and rattlesnakes. The official beverage of Mississippi is milk, for Pete’s sake.

Yet, supposed Ted Cruz voters pulled the lever for Donald Trump. Something BIG is going on in America and most people have yet to put their finger on it. Why are “Christians” voting for pagan Donald Trump?

Sweeping the South was the plan that Ted Cruz had drawn up as the path to The White House. Certainly, his unashamed Christianity would resonate in the Land of Dixie. The solid-South has been the stronghold of Conservative Christians and their favorite politicians for the past 50 years.

Yet this moderate, some say liberal, snake salesman from the Northeast was swooping in and sucking up all of the energy…and votes…in this most-religious area of the nation. Rattle them off…Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, were going solidly for the trash-talking reality TV star resident of the home base of progressive politicians.

Trump, not Cruz, has swept the south. Something HUGE is happening before our very eyes.

Now, before you get yourself into to tizzy, you have to understand that I am not supporting the crude, crass, calloused side of Trump. In fact, many of the things I hear him say make me cringe. But we cannot deny that the things that he does that make American’s queasy are the same things that draw people to him. America is starving for manhood. America is looking for a MAN.

For at least two generations, American Christianity has been creating soft men. We see it everywhere we turn. Our pulpits are filled with soft men. Our “worship leaders” are dainty men with spiked hair and skinny jeans singing sissified songs about an effeminate Savior. Women, and men who act like women, run the average American church.

Americans know we are in trouble and realize our politicians are dainty “men of culture” who use words as weapons in a faux fight against an unrelenting foe. They realize that the last person you would ever call if you were in a street fight would be either a pastor or a politician. In a time when we need a John the Baptist, we get Joel Osteen.

Trump is a bit rough on the edges and he may not be up-to-snuff on all of the social graces expected in our political leaders, but he oozes manhood…not Biblical manhood…but secular manhood. We like a little grit in our champions.

The Christians in the South have analyzed the situation that is confronting this nation and, although they would like their President to be someone who shares their values, their belief in God, and their quiet faith, they realize that the times demand a warrior…someone to stand and fight against the thieves who are stealing this nation.

Trump makes women feel safe. Trump says what the average Christian man is thinking. They are sick of PC America and pastors and politicians too cowardly to speak the truth. They see The Donald as a man who doesn’t bend to pressure.

American’s are looking for a fighter. Donald Trump, as crass and harsh as he is, has proven that he will not roll over when attacked. They are sick of compromise. They look in the pulpits and they look at the politicians and they see nothing but capitulation.

America is not electing a king or a pastor and because they are so disgusted they are ready to roll the dice on a gambler from Atlantic City.

“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. Kill ‘em all and let God sort it out.” Americans are voting for a return to the days of straight shooters like Clint Eastwood and John Wayne.

Masculinity is making a comeback in America. It is no more complicated than that.

Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook, Google Plus, & Twitter. You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device here.

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http://www.naturalnews.com/053225_turmeric_intake_dosage_health_benefits.html#

Learn how to take the right dosage of turmeric for your body

(NaturalNews) You've probably already heard about some of the amazing health benefits of turmeric, and seen the proliferation of turmeric-containing products at health food stores and websites. But to get the health benefits of this remarkable root, you need to be sure you are taking the right dose, in the right way.

Turmeric, a root that is ground up into the spice that gives curry powder its characteristic yellow color, has a long history of use as an herbal medicine. It can help prevent heart attack and stroke by lowering blood pressure, thinning the blood and preventing clotting, and lowering levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol while boosting levels of HDL ("good") cholesterol. It also lowers blood sugar and functions as an anti-inflammatory, antifungal and antimicrobial. It can be used to treat jaundice and as a poultice for skin conditions and wounds.

Recently, scientists have begun examining the properties of a group of chemicals known as curcuminoids (or simply "curcumin"), which are believed to be responsible for many of turmeric's health properties. Studies have shown that curcumin benefits not only your heart but also your immune system. It also boosts cognitive capacity and can prevent or perhaps even reverse cancer.

Take it right to get the benefits!

According to the health website Healthy Holistic Living, a good daily health maintenance dose for adults is up to 1.5 grams, which is about the same as a slightly rounded teaspoon. This can also be split up and taken in two to three smaller doses throughout the day.

For treating specific health conditions, the "therapeutic" adult dose is 2–3 grams. Therapeutic doses should not be used in children under two. Children over two and adults over 65 should start with a dose on the lower end.

The effectiveness of turmeric can be boosted as much as 2,000 percent by mixing it with a little black pepper (perhaps ¹/₈ teaspoon).

Critically, curcumin is fat-soluble, so turmeric should always be consumed along with some form of fat to aid in absorption. It can simply be mixed with two teaspoons of oil and eaten or mixed into food such as yogurt. It can also be mixed into a fat-containing beverage such as milk. If taken on an empty stomach, it can cause some nausea.

Curcumin capsules are also available, but it is unlikely that the full benefits of turmeric can be obtained from consuming any one chemical in isolation, however potent that chemical might be in the laboratory.

Remember that spices sold in the grocery store are typically irradiated, and were grown with toxic chemicals. For medicinal use, be sure to find a reliable source of organic, non-irradiated turmeric.

Be aware of risks

It is important to follow certain safety practices if taking turmeric or any natural medicine at a therapeutic dose. First of all, remember that therapeutic doses are intended for short-term use only. Consult a health practitioner such as an herbalist, Ayurvedic practitioner or traditional Chinese medicine provider for guidance.

At the therapeutic dose, turmeric should not be mixed with certain other medications or herbs. Because it has many of the same effects, therapeutic-dose turmeric should not be taken along with blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol or blood thinning pharmaceutical drugs or herbs, including aspirin. It should not be mixed with moderate or high doses of garlic or Gingko biloba, which are also blood thinners. Therapeutic turmeric doses should be halted at least one week prior to any surgery.

Turmeric can increase bile production, so therapeutic doses should be avoided by people with gall bladder problems. People with hypoglycemia should also avoid it. Because therapeutic-dose turmeric can stimulate uterine contractions, it should be avoided in pregnancy except under the guidance of a trained health practitioner.

Sources for this article include: 

Healthy-Holistic-Living.com

EpicureanDigest.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

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http://www.naturalnews.com/053224_hydration_clean_water_health_benefits.html

Need another reason to drink more water? Check out these amazing health benefits

(NaturalNews) The average American child is water-deficient from a very young age, while official statistics say that at least one-third of U.S. citizens don't get enough H₂O in their systems. The people that do get enough actually rely heavily on other sources. Indeed, 48% of their total intake of liquids comes from soft drinks, food and other kinds of beverages.

For a species that starts off with 78% of their body made of water at birth, we sure end up hating it a lot. In fact, we've messed up liquid circulation so badly that our physiology is likely to send us hunger signals rather than thirst. What? Don't be surprised, but your body doesn't actually need food every time you're hungry. Some of us get so used to drinking minimal amounts of water that our bodies demand food instead, knowing that there are higher chances of getting some hydration that way. Nonetheless, drinking enough plain water has numerous health benefits for our bodies, while being depriving of this vital fluid may lead to serious health concerns.

What happens when you don't hydrate enough

If you're not big on chugging aqua, the first consequence you'll notice is that you go to the bathroom less often. Surprised? You shouldn't be. When human physiology doesn't have enough liquids to run vital processes, it starts squeezing the last drop out of everywhere it can. It begins with the colon. Consequently, when your body isn't getting enough water, you'll become constipated. Instead of eliminating the waste, your body starts hoarding it in the hope that there will be some water around there. Yuck.

Another way for the human body to eliminate toxins is urination. It's not called "number 1" for no reason. Our kidneys process an incredible range of harmful substances from our blood and send them on their way through urination. This task becomes increasingly difficult to complete when there isn't enough water available. It gets worse. If you don't drink enough H₂O, you severely increase your risk of developing kidney stones.

Besides regulating our internal temperature (particularly important in certain climates), water helps carry the entirety of the proteins and carbohydrates processed by our bodies through the bloodstream. Ever experience muscle twitching after a day of physical destruction? Lack of water in a fatigued muscle can also cause that.

Not all water is good

It is true that proper hydration can make your skin look years younger. This happens because when you lack water, your body will also start to absorb water molecules from your skin, making wrinkles look deeper and your eyes sink in their sockets. You may think that appearance is important, but your body thinks that your skin can deal with a few creases in order to keep those vital organs up and running.

What's most surprising for a civilization that's no less than a few decades away from veritable artificial intelligence is that not all water sources are clean and good. One concern is that most of us are drinking too much chlorine, fluoride or other toxic chemicals through potable water. A good water filter is an investment that pays off instantly. Don't postpone getting one another second, if you don't own one already. When push comes to shove and you can't afford a filter, excess chlorine can be removed if you add a bit of lemon or vitamin C powder. It'll neutralize it instantly.

Perpetual movement

Even if we've become increasingly sedentary in the past 50 years, life is perpetual movement. Our blood moves around, supplying each and every one of our cells with beneficial substances, while taking out those harmful toxins. Food comes in and, as we speak, it's on its way out. Even our minds move, metaphorically. If we don't drink enough water (almost 3 liters for adult men and a little over 2 for women), things start to slow down. If you give it a shot, you may be surprised of how much good H₂O can do for you.

Sources include:

Water.USGS.gov

BusinessInsider.com

MedicalNewsToday.com

FS.Fed.us

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Downtown Academy's partnerships with UGA push classroom boundaries to build a bridge over poverty

http://m.onlineathens.com/mobile/2016-03-07/downtown-academys-partnerships-uga-push-classroom-boundaries-build-bridge-over#article=822500FA38B6EE2BA68DB6D5D7336BC519F6

Downtown Academy's partnerships with UGA push classroom boundaries to build a bridge over poverty -- Online Athens

Mon, 07 Mar 2016, 06:02 PM

There is a common refrain students at Downtown Academy fall into when faced with a tough decision: “Never give up.”

They pump their fists and smile at each other as their classmates join in. This sentiment - “Never give up! Never give up!” - is part of the defining character traits instilled in them while they attend the small private school tucked behind a church in downtown Athens.

That never-give-up-attitude is also showing success academically, as students overcome initial risk factors faced when they first started attending the school. That’s because, while most of the children at Downtown Academy have grown up amidst poverty, inconsistent or unstable home lives, violence, their parents’ low level of education and other factors, these children are showing they can recoup lost ground and catch up to their middle-class peers. And that success is partly due to a partnership among the school, the community and faculty and students from the University of Georgia College of Education.

“Downtown Academy is a piece of a much larger picture,” said Patrick Ennis, Downtown Academy’s head of school. “To bring these kids from a chaotic environment and provide them a consistent, safe, loving environment, they’ll know how to experience that not only as kids, but as adults as well.

“To really see these kids take hold of these concepts, and not just be learners but also grow up to be parents, spouses, future community leaders - these are distinctions that many of these children aren’t likely getting elsewhere.”

CUSTOMIZED EDUCATION

Started by Downtown Ministries, which is known in the Athens area for its athletic programs and dedicated coaches, Downtown Academy emulates this support system. Students are taught four key expectations - listen, obey, work hard and never give up - while the school works to reinforce seven main character traits: zest, grit, curiosity, gratitude, optimism, self-control, and social intelligence. From there, the school created lesson plans and a network of mentors and academic coaches that aims to overcome risk factors typically associated with poverty.

That’s because one other aspect of Downtown Academy sets it apart from other schools, both public and private: Its demographics. Nearly all of its students are African-American and come from households earning less than $20,000 per year, which means the students share certain educational traits that Ennis and others are addressing head-on. For example, many students start kindergarten with limited vocabulary skills or undiagnosed learning difficulties. When the school opened with a class each of kindergarteners and first-graders in 2013, Ennis said he recognized the need for assessments of all the students.

That’s where Jenny Brown of the UGA College of Education came into the picture.

Brown, a professor and speech-language pathologist with experience in providing culturally relevant interventions, initially came to the school to provide baseline assessments of the students. But it soon became apparent there was so much more that could be done.

“That’s where this organic relationship grew. We brought (UGA) students out to do screenings,” Brown said. “Knowing the strong relationship between language and reading scores, we collaborated on ways to support the oral language to written language continuum, including oral narrative instruction and reading comprehension that focused on an active-learner approach.”

She said their initial testing found characteristics consistent with low socio-economic status, such as lower language and literacy skills. So from there, she and her students developed an intervention to monitor students’ growth in this area.

That initial study blossomed into a school-wide “talent development” program, which sets out steps of early screenings, interventions, additional resources and services. Other College of Education professors stepped in to address other needs, such as a school-wide behavior support plan and strategies for teaching mathematics.

“What’s really neat about the partnership is, it serves multiple goals at one time,” Brown added. “It meets a need for the students and the teachers, and it provides support for them. It’s a very small school that might not have access to them otherwise.”

There’s also the added benefit of what the partnership provides UGA students.

LEARNING ALL AROUND

Undergraduates in the College of Education’s communication sciences and disorders program typically don’t work in a “clinical” setting - that is, students first learn about language and speech development, risk factors, and communication disorders in preparation for a graduate program that involves working with students or clients.

But the partnership with Downtown Academy allows undergraduates the chance to work alongside specialists in a diverse school setting, gaining practical experience by interacting with children and teachers in typical school activities. It’s also a place where graduate students, who are at a point where they are putting that knowledge into practice, can gain more hours of experience.

“It’s giving (the school) that support, but it’s also an amazing opportunity for our students. In the past couple of years, every one of our master’s students has had the opportunity to come out to do a screening or evaluation, if not also participate in an instruction or intervention project,” she said.

“Also, in the fall semester, we started an independent study opportunity for our undergraduates. They get to participate in the after-school program; they provide extra tutoring and support students’ language and literacy skills in the after-school activities,” Brown added. “They are connecting the pieces between research in the area of language development and language differences with the interactions they are having with the children - they can see that research in an applied setting.”

And the research Brown conducts at Downtown Academy benefits both the UGA students and the elementary-aged kids for whom it’s designed. For example, one recent study by Brown looked at a way to teach the parts of a narrative to kindergarteners using recordings of their own retellings. By the end of the study, the students’ literacy skills had jumped exponentially.

In another aspect of her research, Brown is exploring the baseline for evaluating the student’s language skills using African-American English. There was a fear, she explained, that students would score abnormally low on evaluations not because they didn’t have the language skills, but because the evaluation was measuring a different standard.

Overall, said Brown, the partnership is paying off at all levels.

“We’re collecting longitudinal data on kids’ language use, and we’re getting the opportunity to work with kids and teachers,” she said. “I’ve had several graduate students say this was one of the most helpful parts (of their coursework) - seeing the teachers who are so caring and supportive, and the research part of it.”

Ennis agreed that the partnership is mutually beneficial. As the school plans to include fourth grade this fall - and expand into a second building on its campus at Broad and Pulaski Streets - Ennis said he’s hopeful that the partnership will continue to translate into the academic success of his students.

“The UGA students loved working with our kids; they are getting to work with kids with real needs, and they get to see their needs are being met,” he said. “Jenny has done a wonderful job of having her students work on projects that are most beneficial to our students.”

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