When is the last time you took a vacation?

The reason we love getting away on holiday is because it’s a break from reality, a temporary pause from the everyday stresses of life. When I was working in corporate, I use to take vacations and feel so balanced. I’d wonder how I could capture that holiday glow and bring back the peace of mind I managed to embrace on vacation.

Can you relate? Do you crave more balance and peace in your life?

Balanced people seem to effortlessly glide through life. They have a natural glow and seem to take everything in gentle stride. They are the perma vacationers.

No matter how stressed out you are, you can make balance a priority. Seth Godin said, “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”

Buck Rogers, Staff Writer
Waking Times

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if better and cleaner energy sources were widely available and affordable to all of earth’s people? If so, you’re not alone, as the quest for a better energy existence has been the focus of many ingenious inventors, scientists, experimenters and even corporate and government scientists for generations.

We know it’s possible, but for some reason, though, society just can’t seem to get beyond 23.6 or so miles per gallon on average, highway. The gap between what science is clearly capable of and what is available to the consumer mass market is extraordinary, and here really is no need to be using up the world’s fossil fuels at building nuclear plants as if there were no tomorrow, but we do.

Regardless of culture, humans seem to have a universal need to greet one another upon meeting and parting. Bowing in Japan, hand-clapping variations in African countries, and saying hello and shaking hands or hugging in English cultures – are just a few of the most commonly known salutations. While customs and traditions vary, there does seem to one greeting that is becoming more popular worldwide – that of Namaste.

Simplistic Gestures of Universal Oneness

Often used by Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, and other religions, Namaste is also revered within spiritual circles and meditation and yoga classes, and it’s being embraced far beyond its South Asian origins. You’ll often hear it spoken in combination with a slight bow and the Anjali Mudra – the placement of the hands together pulled close to the heart in a fashion similar to a prayer pose.

With a call to “end the private prison racket in America,” a group of progressive lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill that seeks to subvert the reigning “pro-incarceration agenda” by banning private prisons, reinstating the federal parole system, and eliminating quotas for the number of immigrants held in detention.

“It is morally repugnant and a national tragedy that we have privatized prisons all over America,” said Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the legislation’s lead sponsors along with Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), and Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.). “We cannot fix our criminal justice system if corporations are allowed to profit from mass incarceration. Keeping human beings in jail for long periods of time must no longer be an acceptable business model in America.”

Monsanto was found guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer by a French court earlier this week.

When a court in southeast France found Monsanto guilty of chemically poisoning farmers in 2012, the biotech company fought tooth and nail for the conviction to be reversed. One can understand why: the court declared in that ruling that Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller was responsible for devastating neurological problems, including memory loss.

But after an appeal process by Monsanto which lasted for years, a French appeal court recently upheld the ruling in full.