• PSYCHO-PATHS: Get Better Sleep Tonight!

• EARTHOLOGY: Cleaner Air is Coming!

• TRAILMIX: Shirley’s Southern Pound Cake

• CAIRNS: 2023 Book is Available Now!

The pages of our 2023 calendar have been filed away with the scribbled notes, stars for important events, and maybe some doodles of the boring hours. Each mark is a small snapshot of what our life experienced. The days will never be repeated. But they can be recalled, reflected upon, and reinterpreted for what lies ahead. This small book is a part of that wonderful process for growth in wellness. Chapters in Tracks for the Journey 2023 include: Clay Pot Parents, Finding Me, Finding a Climate Comfort Zone, My Bad and God’s Good, Myths of Christian Nationalism, Affirming Transgender Care, Crazy Mercy, And More…

Available in paperback or Kindle eBook. Get your copy today!

Read, watch or listen to a new episode of Tracks for the Journey, “Get Better Sleep Tonight!”

“Getting a good night’s sleep is important. But it’s not always easy. Sleep science offers a better tomorrow by improving what happens tonight. Let’s explore more about your well-being through good sleep habits. Looking at the example of Jesus, making a few minutes of pre-sleep preparation, and a tracking your nocturnal adventure can make all the difference!”

Find the full episode to read, watch, or listen at the link below.

Segments include: A casualty of sleepiness, The challenges and benefits of good sleep, A sleepy Savior, and Practices for improving your rest

Follow the link to read the entire blog, watch the Youtube, or listen to the podcast at https://tracksforthejourney.com

This simple Pound Cake, made with common pantry ingredients, is delicious with sliced strawberries. It is the BEST pound cake ever, and a recipe given to me by a friend and true Southerner many years ago. —JanMaree

 Cream together: ¼ c. shortening, 3 c. sugar, 2 sticks butter

 Beat in: 5 eggs

 Add: 3¼ c. flour, 1 c. milk, ¼ t. salt, 1½ t. vanilla

Cream shortening, sugar, and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add flour, milk, and salt, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla. Pour into a greased and floured Bundt or tube pan. Bake at 325○ for 1 hour, 25 minutes.

Last week the Biden Environmental Protection Administration issued rules that will greatly reduce pollution from fossil-fuel fired power plants. These plants emit more the 30% of all the carbon pollution in the nation, making change essential for a greener future. More than three years in the making, the milestone regulations require plants to capture 90% of carbon pollution, reduce pollutants in wastewater, and dispose safely the coal ash waste.

Special attention was given to the positive impact on the disadvantaged populations living close to these plants. Over the next 25 years the reduction in carbon pollution will be the equivalent of removing 325 million gasoline-powered cars from the roads! Thousands of people will have health benefits from less respiratory illness and cancer. More than 600 million pounds of toxic chemicals will be prevented from poisoning groundwater. Minimal impact on electricity costs are expected due to new technology and tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Law funds. The CEO of the Sierra Club said, “Today is the culmination of years of advocacy for common-sense safeguards that will have a direct impact on communities long forced to suffer in the shadow of the dirtiest power plants in the country. It is also a major step forward in our movement’s fight to decarbonize the electric sector and help avoid the worst impacts of climate change.”