A New Year- A Call To Action

I know, we are supposed to wish people a peaceful New Year and in one respect I do- I hope that each and everyone of our friends, fans and supporters can find time to enjoy that calm, relaxing inner peace that seems harder and harder to find in our modern times.

But this year, I am also wishing everyone a 2020 filled to the brim with ACTION! Every day I see compassionate people struggling. Fighting to keep their spirits above water when everything, everywhere seems terrifying and hope slips further and further away. People at shows tell us, over and over again, how depressing it all is, from climate change to corruption, it feels like we live in a never-ending hellscape of truly bad news.

While I don’t know of any surefire method to make the bad news go away, I do have a time honored antidote to the constant barrage of climate change, trash, greed and who knows what else. We all need to get out there and take ACTION!

In other words- walk away from your computer and do something!

Join a protest, donate your time, talent, skill (or if you can afford it) some money to a desperate cause, send a snail mail letter to a friend, divest from companies that promote fossil fuels, bake cookies for a homeless shelter, pick up some plastic trash, better yet, swap out your single use plastic items and start finding sustainable replacements, make some art! Read labels, read to shelter dogs, take a walk, read an inspiring book!

The single best way to beat the demoralizing state of the world is to spend a little time each day taking action.

As for Arte for Elephants, whew! What a year it’s been. This year our donation meter finally ticked over $40,000 USD donated and raised since our beginning in 2015. We’ve talked to over 350,000 people and shared the stories of elephants from Philadelphia and Washington DC, Portland OR and Thailand.

Speaking of Thailand we were so delighted that 2019 began and ended in Thailand as we hosted two wildly different and spectacular groups of compassionate people for our Big Elephant Magic Thailand Retreats and launched our Big Elephant Magic Scholarship program, which we awarded to two remarkable young women from Northern Thailand. What a privilege to help them make their dreams come true!

From all of our Arte for Elephants Family we wish you a spectacular 2020 filled with amazing memories, compassion and a step towards a better future!

2020 look out!