In The Morning

This music video just debuted today.



This song is on the new Brushfire Records "This Warm December" holiday album. You can stream it here.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: The only gift is a portion of thyself.

I received this in an e-mail yesterday, from the Hawaii-based Kokua Hawaii Foundation:



During the holiday season the most rewarding gift of all is giving back to your community. Did you know the average person will spend $530 on gifts and $90 on greeting cards this Holiday Season? That’s a combined $560 million spent on gifts and greeting cards in Hawaii over the Holidays.

If each of us took one out of every 10 gifts we buy, and made a donation on behalf of a friend instead, together we’d give $56 million to local charities. That’s enough to fund the average Hawaii nonprofit for 50 years. It’s also more than the combined budgets of all environmental nonprofits in the state.

Simply the Holidays with Jack Johnson

I blog about Jack Johnson's eco-friendly initiatives a lot. (As you might have already noticed!) Here's another one that he and his wife support - the Simply the Holidays campaign coordinated by the Kokua Hawaii Foundation.

This year, the Kokua Hawaii Foundation is offering up some great prizes for the winners of the Simply the Holidays contest - such as a CD autographed by Jack Johnson. More info here.



I really like these 2 suggestions, from the Kokua Hawaii Foundation:

* Purchase your holiday plateware second-hand, from the local thrift store.

* Start a new holiday tradition, and ask your guests to bring their own holiday mug to drink out of, at your party.



How do you Simplify the Holidays? Leave a comment below and let me know!

The Power of (Jack Johnson's) Music

I can't embed this brand new 13 minute long video interview with Jack about the Kokua Hawaii Foundation and the Kokua Festival, but check it out here.