Holiday options.

One splendid thing in my life has been making new friends in recent years. I formed Wow to make more women friends, and I have been greatly rewarded by knowing each of the Wowettes. One recent new friend is Kathy Keane, whose guest post you may have read a few months back, when she wrote about how she came to buy a home in Baja. She is a talented and lovely woman, sensitive and self-aware, who has worked hard and has been able to fulfill some of her dreams.

Much to my amazement, I realized recently that Kathy is also a talented artist who shows a unique view of nature through her photography. I've put at the end of this post a copy of an invitation to her art show later this month in Baja, for those of you who might be in that area or just need a gentle prod to take a trip! Those two pictures above are just a little sample of her beautiful work.

And to show you another side of Kathy, here is a note she wrote me with suggestions about holiday giving that I think is very worth sharing. Here is what she wrote: I know many people including the Wowettes may be looking for ways to help those less fortunate this holiday season by contributing to charities while reducing our 2007 taxes. One of my favorites is Women for Women International, http://www.womenforwomen.org/. They choose a woman from a 3rd-world country, particularly a war-torn country, and match you up with her. I think I give $300/yr but there are other contribution levels too. The train her in skills she can use to become financially independent and she writes to you during the process, they translate, and you respond. She eventually "graduates" from their program doing something to earn $$, and they match you with another woman. It's very rewarding. Another one is www.heifer.org, which helps to end hunger around the world by using donations to provide people with animals that help them feed their families.
(If you want to contact Kathy about these charity options or her art show send an email to wowthatellen@yahoo.com and I'll forward it to her. If you have other charitable options you'd like to share with our readers, let me know!)

A few of us have been talking lately about our society's rampant consumerism, how we get into debt for things that we believe will make us happy and then we are disappointed. In this upcoming season of giving, maybe Kathy's suggestions will make us all think about what we buy. Do we really need it? Would our money be better spent by helping lift someone from poverty? Is it time to be less of a consumer and more of a real giver?

No matter how you spend your holidays, I hope they are wonderful and bring you great joy and happiness.



! Art Show !




San Felipe Fine Art Association
 Paintings in various media 
 Photography 
 Ceramics 
 China-painted porcelain 
 Other original art 

Door prizes, and music by local groups!
Saturday-Sunday
THANKSGIVING WEEKEND
November 24-25, 2007
at
PLAYA DE ORO
ON Highway 5 km 179 north of San Felipe
Call Allan at 686-576-0395 for more info