When you choose to send one of our free E-cards, you save paper and give friends and family the opportunity to enjoy the wonder of nature.

    Celebrate the beauty of our natural world and send an E-card to friends and family who care about protecting our planet. Feel free to set your E-card to arrive on any day you please.

    Looking for something to do besides sending an E-card?

    Check out our Everyday Environmentalist page with eco-tips on how to live greener, and become an e-member of our free global online community or calculate(计算) your carbon footprint. You can even upload your photos to our site and your photo may be featured in an E-card next year!

    Sharon, Aged 22

    The most important thing to keep in mind when going into high school is to be yourself. Besides, I don't know what your middle school was like, but high school teachers will not care about things such as how much homework you already have in one night. It's best to just learn to deal with things and manage your time wisely so you can achieve everything you need to.

    Frank, Aged 21

    I think almost every kid feels both nervous and excited before their first day. You will probably love it. I know I did. You should join some sports or activities that will make your high school experience more enjoyable. Good luck!

    Eddie, Aged 20

    When I started high school I was really nervous too, especially since I had been homeschooled all through middle school and didn't really know anyone. I suppose the best advice would be to just relax. The first couple of days can be a little bit hard, but things will become easier before you know it.

    David, Aged 19

    I'm not going to lie. The first day is kind of frightening(令人恐惧的). But you'll get used to it. Don't be afraid of anyone; upperclassmen will pick on you more if you let them know you're afraid. Just take it easy. Making some friends and staying with them will greatly help you get used to high school quickly. After the first week it's really not bad at all. Don't worry.

    What is it?

    KindSpring has created a series of 21-Day Challenges designed to help individuals and groups grow in values that help create positive change. Regardless of profession, age, culture or geography, when we try to cultivate(培养) certain values we create a ripple effect(连锁反应) that has the power to transform our lives and the world for the better. When we practice these values together over and over again, our efforts encourage and strengthen each other in remarkable ways. Each of our 21-Day Challenges focuses on a specific value — from kindness to mindfulness. Click here for more information.

    How does it work?

    A small daily commitment + a daily prompt(提示)+ a process for communication. Each 21-Day Challenge invites participants to carry out one small daily action related to the main theme. Every day for three weeks a unique idea is emailed out that serves as a prompt. Participants are encouraged to carry out the act and share stories of their experiences in both online and offline spaces. You can sign up to participate as an individual or you can “host” a challenge for a group you belong to. The challenges were developed for workplace, school/college and family environments, but are broadly usable. Any group is more than welcome to take them on. At the end of 21 days, you may continue the practice with your group, take on a new challenge, or even design your own. There is no charge for any of our services. All the challenges are offered as a gift. Five steps to host a challenge.

    Why should we do it?

    The 21-Day Challenges are all designed to fit the pace of modern day life. They are not very time-consuming（耗时的）, and in most cases demand less than five minutes a day. Twenty-one days certainly can't change everything, but it can begin a new way of being. You are invited to bring these practices to your company, school, community center, or family. Get started with joining a challenge or hosting one here. Let us know if you have questions—we're delighted to help any way we can!

    From now, if all goes well, a high-tech spacecraft will land in the South Pole of the moon. There, it will drill 66 feet down into the surface(表面) and collect samples of the mantle(地幔样本) to bring back to the earth.

    But before it leaves, it will have a two-part time capsule(时光胶囊): a public part, full of the Earth's history, and a private part, full of digital(数码的) memory boxes created by individuals(个人). These memory boxes can hold digital files — records of family trees, videos or actual DNA in the form of human hair. Not everyone can have a digital memory box, though. The boxes are only delivered for the people who donate the money to the project.

    The project, called Lunar Mission One, has already raised more than half of its ￡600,000 goal since its launch(启动) just a few days ago. The founders thought that it would succeed because of the attraction of both exploring the moon surface and leaving a time capsule behind. The mission was a technical action, but it was also an emotional one, bringing the excitement of knowing that something humans built on the Earth reached somewhere else in space.

    Still, it does seem risky(冒险的) for a person to donate￡60 to keep a digital memory box for a project that won't come true until 2024. What if the project never takes off? What if the technology isn't good enough? What if those digital memory boxes break on the moon's surface? And how will anybody ever even know if that happens? Ian Crawford, a professor at Birkbeck College in London and scientific advisor to the mission, says it is not necessary to worry about these. The plan to leave a time capsule on the moon isn't really about physically leaving something on the moon — it's more an opportunity to encourage people's interest in space.

    If you want to disturb the car industry, you'd better have a few billion dollars: Mom-and-pop carmakers are unlikely to beat the biggest car companies. But in agriculture, small farmers can get the best of the major players. By connecting directly with customers, and by responding quickly to changes in the markets as well as in the ecosystems(生态系统), small farmers can keep one step ahead of the big guys. As the co-founder of the National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC, 美国青年农会) and a family farmer myself, I have a front-row seat to the innovations among small farmers that are transforming the industry.

    For example, take the Quick Cut Greens Harvester, a tool developed just a couple of years ago by a young farmer, Jonathan Dysinger, in Tennessee, with a small loan from a local Slow Money group. It enables small-scale farmers to harvest 175 pounds of green vegetables per hour—a huge improvement over harvesting just a few dozen pounds by hand—suddenly making it possible for the little guys to compete with large farms of California. Before the tool came out, small farmers couldn't touch the price per pound offered by California farms. But now, with the combination of a better price point and a generally fresher product, they can stay in business.

    The sustainable success of small farmers, though, won't happen without fundamental changes to the industry. One crucial factor is secure access to land. Competition from investors, developers, and established large farmers makes owning one's own land unattainable for many new farmers. From 2004 to 2013, agricultural land values doubled, and they continue to rise in many regions.

    Another challenge for more than a million of the most qualified farm workers and managers is a non-existent path to citizenship — the greatest barrier to building a farm of their own. With farmers over the age of 65 outnumbering(多于) farmers younger than 35 by six to one, and with two-thirds of the nation's farmland in need of a new farmer, we must clear the path for talented people willing to grow the nation's food.

    There are solutions that could light a path toward a more sustainable and fair farm economy, but farmers can't clumsily put them together before us. We at the NYFC need broad support as we urge Congress to increase farmland conservation, as we push for immigration reform, and as we seek policies that will ensure the success of a diverse and ambitious next generation of farmers from all backgrounds. With a new farm bill to be debated in Congress, consumers must take a stand with young farmers.

    I was driving down the road the other day, listening to sweet music coming out of my car radio. My heart felt peaceful, my mind was clear, and my soul was full of love. Even with all its problems: life seemed good. Then the music stopped and the news came on. There was talk of another famous millionaire in drug rehab (康复) after an incident with the police. There was news on the murder of a poor man whose life was supposed to be changed after winning the lottery. There was even a discussion on how much greed and excess (放肆) had damaged our world.

    Every story seemed to point once again to the old saying that money can't buy happiness. Hearing them made me think of a movie I saw many years ago on Mother Teresa's home for the dying in India. What struck me most when I watched it wasn't the unbearable poverty there. It wasn't the sickness and suffering that the people there were going through. It was rather the peaceful smiles of love, kindness, and happiness that they shared with the Sisters and with each other. These people had nothing. Many were struggling at the end of death. Yet, they knew the simple truth that so many of us here are still learning: Joy is Free.

    We can have joy and spread joy every day of our life here. Don't love or admire dollar signs and think that money will bring you happiness then. Joy can't be purchased. It can't be owned. It can only be chosen and then given freely to others. In the eyes of eternity (永恒), money is only worthless paper. The only thing that matters is the love within you and the love that you give to the world. Make that your legacy (遗产) and your life will forever be rich in joy.