But there is also Love. Beauty. Fellowship. Joy. Peace.

Destruction is not solved by Destruction.  Anger is not resolved by Anger.  Hate is not overcome by Hate.  It’s easy to focus on the negative, and to respond in kind.  Have you ever noticed that the easy way is often not the best way?  My desire is that we can all learn to go in the other direction a little more often every day when we are looking for ways to solve our problems or deal with our differences.

As suggested by Maria, who was inspired by Karen (read here and here), I am sharing certain photos of mine today.  When I look at these photos*, they make me feel those things I listed in the title of this post.

Love. Beauty. Fellowship. Joy. Peace.

*this is a dynamic arrangement – each time you refresh, different photos will load

I am also sharing my photos on Twitter (my account = @SarcasticMomLC) with the hashtag #loveburnsbrighter – in the manner that Maria described in her post.  You can do the same, if you like.  You can also join the Love Burns Brighter flickr group and add your photos there. Please do read both Karen’s and Maria’s posts (linked above) to understand fully.

Love.

It is not always our immediate response.  Here’s to choosing it.

You’ve probably never heard of it, but for some families, Juvenile Myositis, an autoimmune disorder in children, is front and center.  This is not happy fun times, you dig?  You can find out more in Kevin’s latest post.  No little ones should go through something like this.  No families should.

Pepsi is giving away a 250K grant and you can vote (see below) to send that money to Cure JM to fund research to help make Juvenile Myositis a memory.

Today is the LAST day to vote, and this proposal has to be in the top 2 to win the grant money.

They’ve *just* slipped to number 3.

More votes are needed.

Luckily, you can help EASILY. And you can vote 3 times, in 3 different ways, right now.

Please vote 3 TIMES today, before midnight EST:

1. Send a text vote: Text 100850 to PEPSI at 73774 (standard text messaging rates apply)
2. Use the Facebook app: http://bit.ly/CureJMonFB
3. Vote directly from the Pepsi website site at http://www.refresheverything.com/makejmamemory

And please share this with anyone you can. Pass it on.

This is easy. It will take so little of your time, yet make such a difference.

Thank you.

it’s time for BEWB FEST!

We get to enjoy nature’s bountiful chest selection… and raise money to fight breast cancer in the process. A big thanks to @shutterblog for putting a bug in my brain last year about donating ad revenue for good. *ALL* my BH Ad Revenue for July is going to go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. This will become an annual tradition for the month that Bewb Fest runs.

Bring page loads to this site this month if you want to drive that number up. And please consider donating directly to Susan G. Komen – many people only think about this in October, but we need to give cancer the finger all year long.

Remember to see the scoop on prizes and check out BF10 Sponsors, button up, and then make your vote count here (below) for your favorite BEWBs/MEWBs of your fellow internet denizens.

Without further ado, I present the BEWBS and then the MEWBs…

Thanks so much to the following BEWB Contestants:

@TalinaN of Harvest of Daily Life
Agentninety9 of Worn Off Novelties
Amber of A Drifting Mind
Angelia of Mommy Needs Meds
Angie of A Whole Lot of Nothing
Beej of The Bean
Bryn of The Unbearable Bearableness
Califmom of Califmom
Chantel of Chantelligence
Chantelle (photo mommy) of photo mommy
Carol / @Cheeky_Geek
Casey of moosh in indy.
Dawn of Kaiser Mommy
Dawn / @pgoodness of Pgoodness
Denise of Musician’s Widow
Diane Bramos / @pilateschik
Elissa of Punk Rock Parents
Habbala of Habbala
Janet Isserlis of there might be cake
Jen of Tropical Fruit
Jenny of Miss Grace’s Disgrace
Karianna of The Karianna Spectrum
Lady Red
Lauren / @laurencarlton of Mommy is Rock ‘n Roll
Lcool
Lyssa / @sixesandseven of Catastrophically Lyssa
Maria Myrback of Boobcast
Malia of Just Malia
Mandi Bone / @princessmama of Mandibone’s Blog
Maria Melee of Mommy Melee
Megan of Kitsch in the Kitchen
Meg @sleepynewmommy of Sleepy New Mommy
MommyNamedApril of April’s Little Family
Mr. Goodwrench’s Lady
Padme
Piper of Piper of Love
SadieCass of Redefining Perfect
Terra of Raising Zoeyjane
Texan Mama of Who Put Me In Charge Of These People???
Tina of Send Chocolate Now
Usedtobeme of Why are you Stalking Me?
Veronica of Veronica Foale
Vicky of Secret Mom Thoughts
Vixen of Vixen’s Den

(list in alphabetical order – does NOT match the order of BEWB photos)

Voting Poll follows these BEWBalicious photos… You can pick up to THREE Pair of BEWBS each time, and you can vote as often as you like* through July 21st.  Come back often, and tell your friends!

Thanks so much to the following MEWB Contestants:

Adam Avitable of Avitable
bender69
CoderBlues
Josh of Raging Dad
Tim of The Inflatable Soapbox

(list is in alphabetical order – does NOT match the order of MEWB photos)

Voting Poll follows the MEWBtastic Chestiness… Pick your favorite MEWBS and you can vote as often as you like* through July 21st.  Come back often, and tell your friends!

Don’t forget to display a button to support BEWB Fest ’10 and help increase the amount to be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.

Please share via your blog, email, Twitter, Facebook and yelling madly on street corners.  If you have a bus, consider shrinkwrapping it with the URL of this post.  No, really.  Come on. Please?

Bottom line:  The more traffic you drive to the site this month, the higher the amount I can donate.

Please note that this now annual Bewb Fest developed independently and with no prior knowledge of Boobiethon, and is not meant to copy, diminish, or devalue the work that is being done there.

*I have placed no restriction on the number of times you can vote. There is a blurb on the Polldaddy website that mentions that you may get a message indicating you are blocked for a time period >> “This is because we have received too many votes from your I.P. address. You will be unblocked again in about 4 hours.” No verbage on how many is too many. So just roll with it, and please don’t complain to me if you hit the wall.

I’m calling the bewbs out to play.

mah bewbies. © lotus carroll 2010, all rights reserved

It’s time for BEWB Fest 10!

Bewb Fest ’10 is waiting in the wings, just around the corner, and that means you need to dress up those tatas in their best ‘ready for my close-up’ threads and send me a photo.

Confused?  Visit the Bewbs Page on my website and scroll down to the links about Bewb Fest.  There you can ogle all the fantastic photos read up on the history of Bewb Fest.

Last year, a separate MEWBs Category was added and this tradition will continue.  What are MEWBS? Man Boobs, Pecs, Male Chest… get the idea?  As long as I get at least 3 entries for MEWBs, we’ll have this category again.

All sizes and types of BEWBs/MEWBs are welcome and appreciated here.

That means don’t you dare say yours aren’t good/large/whatever enough.

Yes. They. Are.

So get out your camera and photograph your dirty pillows, ladies. Shine up that lens and snap a good one of your pec area, dudes.

And then send those suckas to me via bewbfest@gmail.com

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Rules for Photo Submission:

1. BEWBs need to be tastefully covered in some way. This ain’t no nipple show, ladies. Sorry.

2. Yes, it is okay to send a breastfeeding photo, if you still fall within all the other rules. Bewbs are hawt AND functional, and there needn’t be a separation in those instances.

3. MEWBs can be covered or uncovered. Yes, we are all about double standards here at BEWB Fest. Deal with it or #suckit.

4. Please send me only ONE photo of your BEWBs/MEWBs. I know you are a gifted photographer, and your chestal area looks awesome from many angles. Choose your favorite and send me that one.

5. Please make sure your photograph is no larger than 550px wide, and no smaller than 300px wide. Please, good quality.

6. No text anywhere on the photo, please!

7. I’m sure your face is what dreams are made of. Let us dream. NO CONTESTANT FACES IN PHOTOS!

8. Your email to bewbfest@gmail.com should include: your photo, your preferred name/screen identity, your blog name and URL (if you have one)

9. No submissions accepted after July 10, 2010. Don’t put it off until the last minute!

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Prizes!

Oh, and are you wondering what the winners of this year’s Bewb/Mewb Fest will be receiving as a prize for their hard work willingness to let us have a gander? You’re probably dying to know.  Well…

Lingerie.com, Bare Necessities, and Eden Fantasys are sponsoring Bewb Fest ’10 – click over to the Sponsors/Prizes Page to find out the awesome details!

And because bewbies are not only fun to look at, but also attached to women we’d all like to save (so that we can look at their bewbies some more because everyone deserves a chance to live as long as they possibly can), all Blogher ad revenue for the month of July will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, “the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists.” It doesn’t have to be October for us to make donations, so if you can spare some dollah-dollahs, it’s a good cause to support in June or July, too. Please consider donating.

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I will take photo submissions through July 10, 2010. Voting will open on July 12, 2010 and run through July 21st.  The winners will be announced on July 22nd, 2010.

Now go go go, photograph those bewbies/mewbies!

And remember to tell your friends.

Still have questions?  Email me at bewbfest@gmail.com

I’ve made some wicked good friends. I’ve been reminded of how many amazing people exist out there, if only you look… kind, caring, generous people.  The sort of folks you love to see in the world.

If you’ve ever seen Piper, you’ll know that she shines like the sun and you can’t miss her.

And then you can’t stop yourself from doing a double-take and a triple-take.  And when you get to know her, you realize that her beauty starts from the inside and radiates outward.  She’s one of those people.

She’s had some rough freaking times lately.  Heartache of serious proportions.  A car on fire and ruined.  Hey, Universe? GIVE HER A BREAK, ALREADY.

A group of her friends online want to help her.  She needs funds for a new car, and to pick herself up and move on with her two sweet boys.  So a giveaway of sorts has been thrown together by several of us and Adam was awesome enough to get it organized and posted on his site.

Basically, you donate $10 to the pot to help Piper back to her feet, and you get a chance at winning a prize. The Grand Prize is an 8GB Ipod Touch, but there are several others.

I donated handmade paper as one of the items:

You can head over to Adam’s Post to see the specifics and the rest of the items you could win.  Please make your $10 donation and stay tuned! (And if you’d like to donate an item, he has instructions on how to do so there, as well.)

Help us get the word out by sharing this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook, and wherever else you can.

Let’s pick her up, guys.  Let’s each be one more of those people we love to see in the world.