Soles from the Souls

Have you ever gone shopping for shoes for your kids or yourself and ended up with more than you went for? How about 1500 more.

It started with school shoes for kids. Her own. It ended with shoes for 1500 kids.

The family that entered the Payless store that was having a closing sale that day never knew that that closing would spark the opening of their hearts in such a big way.

You can see the video of this Arkansas mom and her children inspired to gift shoes.

We never know when inspiration may strike, or be the catalyst to a whole different life trajectory.

The world cannot have too much kindness... and the thing about kindness is that the more you give, the more of it you have.

Never underestimate the power of kindness to alter a life trajectory… for the recipient and the giver.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com

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We live in the woods and birds sometimes fly into our windows. The most recent casualty is an injured cardinal.

This window strike was a red male cardinal. We’ve had several of these, but no female cardinal casualties yet, so it seems that the male cardinals are the feisty fighters. Some of them attack the glass and dash away, thinking they’re tussling with another male cardinal. These don’t usually get injured.

Other cardinals seem to think the glass is sky and fly into it hard enough to injure themselves, or worse.

We’ve had a few fatalities over the 30 years of living in the woods. Some died instantly of a broken neck. A few died minutes later, likely from internal hemorrhaging. This is always distressing because we love all animals.

The good news is that we’ve rescued and released far more birds than we’ve lost!

A Deterrent to Prevent Bird Strikes

And more good news: we found a fairly effective solution that has helped tremendously. It doesn’t look great, but if it saves the birds… we’re all for it!

You can read more about our bird crash prevention system here in this article on our gardening site.

However, we still have a few accidents here and there.

Our latest injured cardinal was is a very feisty male cardinal that injured his wing. When he tried to fly away, one wing clearly wasn’t working as well and he couldn’t fly. He could scoot around on the ground really well, so we had to scurry to try to catch him again.

We couldn’t let him go because he would most definitely not have survived. But we did learn an important lesson:

Wear gloves when trying to capture an injured bird!

Do Injured Birds Bite?

Typically, when we pick up the birds they’re stunned or shaken from the hit, so they’re docile and quiet while recovering. The feature image at top is actually one of our previous rescues and he flew away after awhile. It was harder to get photos of Cisco, as you will read below.

An Injured Cardinal Can Bite Very Hard

So far, none of the injured cardinal or other birds have bitten us.

But this guy was fully awake and aware and was definitely unhappy, scared and probably in pain. So when captured he bites, and very, very hard!

Imagine… birds can crack nuts and sunflower seeds with their beaks, so they are definitely quite strong. The effect was like being pinched to a blood blister.

Fortunately, the beak isn’t sharp enough to break the skin on most adults, but it sure can hurt a finger, and definitely not advisable for children to come in contact.

Injured Cardinal Francisco

Meanwhile, we’ve named him “Cardinal Francisco”… “Cisco” for short :-), and he’s enjoying eating good wildlife birdseed, drinking water and in general, making a mess and talking a lot… more like squawking a lot!

Local Vet Injured Cardinal for Free

Fortunately, there’s a vet in a neighboring town to us that will take in injured wildlife for free. So if you have injured birds or wildlife that need more than a few minutes in a safe environment to heal, search online for wildlife vet, and you’ll see the options near you.

It turns out that this injured cardinal broke his collarbone. The vet said he needed to stay overnight for observation, then they would work on his injuries the following day.

It turns out they needed to keep Cardinal Cisco for about four weeks to recover. They said they’d call us so we could release him back into our yard, but I guess they forgot because when we called them to check in, they’d already released him in their area.

It was sad not to see him fly off, but we’re just grateful he was healed and cared for.

It’s illegal to keep songbirds in captivity.

I know what they say: if you name them you end up keeping them, but that’s definitely not going to happen here! We love to help birds be free to fly, plus it’s illegal to keep songbirds in captivity^[1]http://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0/WDCA/documents/Birds.pdf, even if we were inclined to.

Meet Cisco the Red Cardinal

We didn’t have a bird cage but our small pet carrier, with towels placed inside is working out really well. We feed the birds in winter, so had a wild bird seed blend on hand and placed a dish of that along with a bowl of water into his cage. It was good to see him making good use of both as an indication of feeling well and even safe enough to eat and drink.

Cardinal “Cisco” in Recovery

Here’s a video of a previous cardinal rescue. He was only stunned and stayed to visit for awhile.

HeartDaily!

Wild Bird Rescue Stories

If you love birds, you may also enjoy reading some more wild bird rescue stories, and this one.

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I wasn’t sure I liked it at first. It felt frustrating… because life for Dakota Fanning’s character, Wendy. But then that’s testament to how effectively Dakota’s portrayed life for Wendy.

A family movie with heart, Please Stand By delivers powerfully human emotions surrounding a uniquely autistic individual who struggles with them. This movie takes you there.

Although they never name the specific challenge Wendy is affected by… likely to intentionally convey that individual struggles are real, no matter what name they may be given.

Dakota’s portrayal of the anguished but hopeful Wendy, was so believable that you completely forgot it was Dakota Fanning and not the young woman learning how to navigate complicated human relationships and emotions. As with many who are autistic, Wendy had an obsession… one that she developed to help her cope and that eventually would clearly become her compelling future. We’d say that more than an obsession…

She had a purpose that kept her focused and gave her hope.

Please Stand By is a movie of struggle and triumph, and a portrayal of some of the best and worst of humanity, and the warmth of conflicted relationships, even when they’re not so easy. The writing, production and direction in this film were like a well woven tapestry of humanity that linked with surprising bursts of color that bring it all together beautifully.

Our family of five, ranging in ages from 21-82 all thoroughly enjoyed and definitely recommend Please Stand By.

Please Stand By, starring Dakota Fanning is a compelling story worth seeing. A solid 

If you’re interested in the topic of autism and special needs, you will enjoy this article about a special social organization for differently abled youth started by a sister for her twin brother.

The post Please Stand By with Dakota Fanning – Movie Review appeared first on iHeartDaily.

For the longest time, I had no idea what “Witch Hazel” was or why it always belonged in a bathroom cabinet. To me, it sounded more like a English tea. Or something that my dad had in his garage to treat wood. I dunno.

But now that I’m a fully informed adult, I know that witch hazel is an astringent derived from the witch-hazel shrub. It’s been long used to treat skin irritations, so it has that “been-around-for-centuries” seal of approval.

Thayer’s Witch Hazel with the gentle rose petal scent is the one we use.

For quick zit treatment and facial toner you can use these witch hazel pads. It treats softens and soothes skin and also shrinks pores and removes excess oil.

It checks off on being paraben-free, vegan and smelling awesome. Oh, and it’s pretty affordable compared to some of the brand name cosmetics.

And the positives don’t stop there! You can also use witch hazel to soothe sunburns, treat bug bites, de-puff eyes and splash on as an aftershave. It’s the Swiss army knife of astringents… if only it could fit on my keychain!

And… if you like to grow things, you can even grow your own witch hazel plant! We have some in our yard and they produce beautiful blossoms! You can grow witch hazel in pots for a while indoors.

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It’s Good Enough to Eat.

I mean… anything you place on your lips, should be edible, right? After all, any time you have on lipgloss, lipstick or lip balm, you are naturally ingesting some of it. Not only is it entering your body through your skin, but also when you eat, drink or lick your lips, you’re consuming small particles of whatever you’ve placed on your lips.

So, not only does all natural lip balm make sense, it’s the only kind of lip stuff that does.

We forget that so many products today were created in a lab by scientists looking to make products that work, that last, and that stay in place. Their job was not usually to make a product that’s also good for you, inside and out. Today, more companies are waking up to this and creating more and better products.

But Dan… he saw the light way back in 2004. Dan was ahead of the curve.

Dan Gosling and ChopSaver

Dan Gosling is a professional trumpet player. Few professions are as abusive to the lips as wind instruments, so when Dan didn’t find a good solution to treat his bruised and abused lips, he created one.

Today, Dan’s company, ChopSaver, has saved many chops with a lip balm that’s actually good for you, inside and out, and Dan? He has happy lips and is now known for more than being an awesome trumpet player. Dan is also The ChopSaver Guy.^[1]http://www.chopsaver.com/our-story/

You can find ChopSavers all natural lip balms in CVS and on Amazon, and you don’t have to be a trumpet player to enjoy the wonderful benefits of this good-for-you lip treat!

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