"The hectic pace of modern life poses a threat to our children second only to poverty and unemployment."

-- Psychologist and leading child development scholar,
Urie Bronfenbrenner, who recently died at age 88.

Happy Holiday season! Just the time to take back a little time, wouldn't you say?

You'll find in this newsletter a series of reports -- including some great photos -- about TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY, 2005. Wait till you see the t-shirts Maureen Wilt's students made! Time Day this year was a little more low-key than in previous years, because much of our efforts have been devoted to our on-going programs, including building the Take 4 Windows of Time and Time to Care campaigns.

We are also delighted that our partnership with Beringer Founder's Estate Wines for the Living 5 to 9 campaign has generated considerable media interest in our work. It has been a totally positive experience working with Beringer and its public relations firm and we look for future partnership opportunities with other companies.

I have been doing a great deal of speaking in the past several months about the issue and find that interest is continuing to build. I was delighted to discover that even corporate CEOs are starting to get the issue. The November 28, 2005 issue of FORTUNE reports that 84% of them wish they worked less, and 55% are willing to give up salary to do so.

Last month, I was in Rome, and had dinner with the United States Ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, Tony Hall. Hall, who spent 24 years as a US Congressman from Ohio, told me that during the three years that he has been in Rome, "the Italians have taught me how to live," with their shorter workdays, weekends off and long holidays. He compared Rome with the workaholic life in Washington DC, with the observation that the important things get done, and with less human burn-out. I will be interviewing Ambassador Hall by phone about this in the near future and will publish the interview.

Recently, I received a call from world-famous cinematographer Haskell Wexler (three-time Academy Award Winner). He is just finishing a documentary called WHO NEEDS SLEEP? about overwork in the Hollywood Film industry. The documentary touches on the TAKE BACK YOUR TIME campaign. We hope to organize screenings of it when it's released to the public. I've seen a rough cut and it's terrific!

I also recently met with Joan Blades, co-founder of MoveOn.org. With co-writer Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, she is completing a book called THE MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO, which The Nation Publishers (connected with The Nation magazine) will be releasing next Mother's Day. The book contains many ideas similar to our Time to Care campaign. The chapter I read was excellent, and Joan expects there to be a campaign around the book to make some of its legislative ideas a reality. This will be another exciting opportunity for our movement.

EXCITING NEWS!!!

Finally, we have been talking with several key political organizers about a possible campaign summer school in Washington DC, for campaign staff and candidates running in the 2006 elections that are interested in making work-life balance policies a part of their campaigns. The great news is that we just received a $15,000 planning grant for this school from the Town Creek Foundation! We will be holding a meeting in Washington DC on January 6 and 7 to develop the plan for the school. Let us know if you want to help with this effort!

Happy reading,

John de Graaf, National Coordinator

• Take Back Your Time Day 2005
• Reports From Take Back Your Time Day 2005
• Take 4 Windows Of Time
• Inclusion Of Adoption In Time To Care Agenda
• 2005 Time To Care Conference Follow-Up
• San Jose State University Uses TBYT Handbook
• Making Change At Knox College
• Learn About The International Leisure Movement
• November Was National Family Caregivers Month
• Overwork & Illness
• Working Like Elves
• In The Now

Take Back Your Time Day received some terrific press coverage this year, including a mention on NPR's morning news, a long article in the San Francisco Chronicle, and a significant number of inquiries from Canadian outlets.

The 40 IS ENOUGH! theme seemed to generate a lot of this media interest, and so we want to come up with a theme for next year. Do you have a suggestion for a theme for Take Back Your Time Day 2006? Send it in to lisa@timeday.org and we'll print them in the next newsletter.

The Beringer Founder's Estate Living 5to9 campaign also generated a lot of press coverage. TBYT Board Member Bonnie Michaels spent a week conducting interviews for print, television and radio. On Take Back Your Time Day, the total time pledged in the Living 5to9 TIME PLEDGE CHALLENGE was nearly 60,000 hours. It's not too late -- visit www.Living5to9.com to make your pledge to take back some time in 2006!

From Los Angeles, CA
The Writers Guild of America in Hollywood hosted a special Take Back Your Time event for Seeds of Simplicity and Ashley Montagu Institute on Oct. 23. Featured speakers were Ray Bradbury, Norman Corwin, Cecile Andrews and Rod Gorney, with Carol Holst as emcee.  The unifying theme of the day was taking time to love people over things, and Ray Bradbury presented Norman Corwin with the Ashley Montagu Human Nurturance Award in a riveting tribute.  Also, the "slow life" component of the free event generated considerable discussion and controversy afterwards, indicating at least that new inroads were made, however slowly. -- Carol Holst, Seeds of Simplicity

From Oakland, CA
Simplicity study circles in the Bay area held two observances for TBYT Day. South Bay Simplicity Circles gathered on the Stanford Campus to hear Cecile Andrews discuss the Slow Life and North and East Bay gathered in Oakland to discuss the Slow Life with Cecile.

From San Francisco, CA
The Leisure Team Productions hosted a nap-in in the financial district in San Francisco. The nap-in was covered by KGO-810AM Radio, the Oakland Tribune, the San Francisco Examiner, and KTVU Channel 2 TV. -- Kristine Enea, Leisure Team Productions

From San Jose, CA
There were two Take Back Your Time Day events at San Jose State University. The first was a teach-in sponsored by the Recreation and Leisure Studies department and was attended by over 150 students and faculty. The other event was a joint effort of San Jose State University and Human Agenda, a human rights organization based in San Jose. Take Back Your Time National Coordinator John de Graaf spoke to 70 students and community members.  Organizers said it was a building activity for us here in Silicon Valley.  Human Agenda and SJSU hope to join forces next October 24th to have a county-university teach-in.  The Human Relations Commission of Santa Clara County has expressed interest in joining the effort.  We have a year to plan! -- Richard Hobbs, Executive Director of Human Agenda

From Denver, CO
Dave Wann, co-author of Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, and I did a presentation/discussion group on October 27th at the local Unitarian church. There were about 17 attendees, and everyone was so engaged in the discussion that not a soul left at the pre-arranged end time. -- Betsy Hedberg

From Wenham, MA
I gave a workshop on Take Back Your Time at the Massachusetts Recreation and Park Association's annual conference.  The workshop was very well received and attendance was great! Fifty recreation professionals packed into a room with some even standing in the hallway - it was one of the most popular attended sessions.  I shared some of the data that I received at the TBYT conference; an overview of the purpose of TBYT and the Time to Care agenda; and then gave ideas from the TBYT website on what communities across the country are doing. -- Peggy Hothem, Professor of Recreation and Leisure at Gordon College

From the Twin Cities, MN
The Balance4Success initiative launched its Take Back Sunday project to get parents to boycott Sunday youth sports.  We have received a lot local media attention, and the local sports groups are starting to pay attention for the first time.  The Balance4Success website is www.balance4success.org. -- Bill Doherty, Professor of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota

From Central Missouri State, Warrensberg, MO
Social work students at Central Missouri State University hosted an event in the Student Union on October 24, 2005. Students performed a reading of Katy Fitzpatrick's play, "The Real American Dream: A Play for the Take Back Your Time Movement." The play was well received. Social work students also devised a Time Jeopardy game based on the TBYT handbook, Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork And Time Poverty In America. Participants had fun playing the game while learning more about time/life balance.

Students dressed as law enforcement officials distributed citations to individuals working or studying too hard. They also granted awards to individuals napping or taking back their time in other ways. All the recipients received donated gift certificates from local restaurants. Students presented a Take Back Your Time Day award and handbook to the president of our university. And, a citation and Take Back Your Time Day T-shirt and handbook were issued to the dean of our college.

Students devised and distributed a Take Back Your Time quiz to students, faculty and staff. They also passed out flyers and candy with information about the Take Back Your Time movement. Individuals who completed a time survey were entered into a drawing for a Take Back Your Time book, T-shirt and gift certificates.

A variety of activities, including hopscotch, dancing, frisbie, and mastering a huge hoola hoop were available throughout the day. A reflexologist provided hand and foot massages as well. Proceeds from the donations for the reflexology treatments benefited a new free health clinic near campus.

Another activity was the making of a wallpaper quilt. Each square of the quilt depicted what individuals would do if they had more time. (Sleep was the most frequently depicted activity.) Grants provided by the university's Center for Teaching and Learning helped make this rewarding day possible.

Prior to our Take Back Your Time Day event, students contacted organizations, public officials, and the media providing them with information about Take 4 Windows of Time and the Time to Care Agenda. Students also created displays on campus with information about the Take Back Your Time movement.

Social work students plan on wearing their Take Back Your Time Day shirts the first Monday of each month. The Take Back Your Time Day quilt also hangs in our building. Both serve as reminders of the importance of this movement. -- Maureen Wilt, Associate Professor of Social Work

From Portsmouth, NH
Take Back Your Time teamed up with Step It Up Seacoast and the school district to sponsor a noon hour TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY walk for all the elementary school classes. The walk was a great success, and it was covered in the Portsmouth Herald and Foster's Daily Democrat. -- Judith Stadtman Tucker, Founder and editor of The Mothers Movement Online

From Ithaca, NY
Slow Food Cornell's "Take Back Your Time Day Potluck" was an enormous success! I still receive thank you emails from random people who were touched and inspired by the event.  We estimate about 80 people attended throughout the night.  The ABC Cafe was decorated with TBYTD posters and materials and we hung a huge poster on the wall for people to decorate. Guests painted and doodled images of tasty food, community spirit and quality of life. They also brought loads of creative homemade food. -- Dana Shapiro, student at Cornell University

From New York, NY
On October 24thI delivered a talk on executive productivity to alumni at the Harvard Business School Club of New York. Over 25 executives, entrepreneurs and business owners attended.  I opened the evening by announcing it was TBYT Day, its history, significance to our discussion, and the tie-in with the 65th 40-hour-work-week-law-enactment anniversary.  TBYT was new to everyone; as we reach new audiences every year, our message will spread! -- Clarissa Rodriguez, A NEW BEGINNING Space, Time and Life Organizing

From Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY
The speech honor society, Sigma Chi Eta, hosted a TBYT symposium on November 15, 2005. We had an excellent panel of speakers, including yoga instructor Charlene Bradin, and political candidate Ed Day, who was running (and won) for county legislator. We invited Mr. Day to speak because we wanted that political perspective, but he suggested he had more to say from a business perspective, since it's where he has many years experience. His presentation focused on how corporations take advantage of legislation that was originally designed to protect laborers... and so on.  As a former Commander of Detectives for the NYPD, he discussed the hazards of working long hours without rest. We all really had a great time, and I was especially encouraged to see the interest that people took in the subject.  The faculty really loved it! The Journal News covered the event. -- Rachel Nove, sophomore at Rockland Community College

From Portland, OR
We had a smaller event this year, but one of very high quality. Three local experts shared relationship-based approaches to creating quality time for families. Kathy Masarie provided strategies for focusing attention, Debra Pearce-McCall discussed how brain functioning is regulated through interaction and Michaelene Wilcox discussed how parents can support schools in best utilizing time with children. Our event was held at the beautiful community education center at Meridan Park Hospital in Tualatin and we received a support from a local business, Dream Dinners, who provided a small donation for printing and a fabulous door prize for $50.00 towards their services. -- Kathleen Walsh

From Bethlehem, PA
My feminist theory and masculinity studies class at Moravian College sat outside on different parts of the campus and talked about what time is for. A Nursing student said time is for taking people's vital signs and reached out to check the pulse rate of the student next to her: It was 93.It turns out that everyone really wanted to know more about the others and to understand the "invisible back stories of life."We sat in a circle on the grass under the colorful fall leaves. When we changed our topic we moved to a new spot.  What a little bit scary is the fact that our free and open discussion seemed to end at the usual class time of its own accord.  Even in nature we turned out to be schedule slaves.  But this was a good time to check in with each other, right in the middle of the semester, a good time to prevent a routine approach to class setting in.  We also heard all kinds of stories about generational gender conflict. It was incredibly helpful to hear what experience of gender students bring to this course -- and there is simply not enough time for that in class.  TBYT day was a hit overall and I'd "schedule" it again next year. -- Kristina Haddad, Assistant Professor of Political Science

From Olympia, WA
The Take Back Your Time Day event in Olympia, WA was held at the Olympia Center by the Haste Makes Waste Program at the Evergreen State College. Around 100 people showed up for the Slow Food Potluck to learn more about Take Back Your Time.

"The Take Back Your Time movement is not anti-work," John de Graaf said in his speech to the attendees, to elaborate the movement's motives and dispel a myth. "But work has become a modern religion in our society." de Graaf noted that this year is the 65th anniversary of the 40-hour workweek's initiation into the workforce.

Those who attended the Olympia event were treated to a wealth of information on how to take back their time. Booths were set up offering tips for everything from relaxation techniques to alternative Holiday Ideas. Yoga mats were laid on the floor to accompany the free instruction and even kids were treated to some fun ideas about Arts & Crafts and Games.

And, like many Evergreen events, this one featured an impromptu performance by local Evergreen band "Two Men and a Goat." With the help of a raffle, potluck, and various activities, this was a very successful and informative event that hopefully made people re-examine how they spend their time, and open some eyes about the importance of the ideals of the campaign. -- Alex Busack, student at Evergreen State College

Thank you to all the people who took the time to make Take Back Your Time Day 2006 a success! Send your reports to lisa@timeday.org.

We want to thank graphic artist Helen Wyllie for designing several posters for the TAKE 4 WINDOWS OF TIME program. They're really terrific! Click here to view them.

Did you participate in TAKE 4 WINDOWS OF TIME? If so, please let us know how you took back your time, how many hours you took back, and what the experience was like. Feel free to download the feedback form, or just send an email to lisa@timeday.org. Thank you.

It was suggested that we include adoption in the paid leave plank of our six point TIME TO CARE public policy agenda. The plank now reads:

"Guaranteeing paid leave for all parents for the birth or adoption of a child."

Thank you to the TBYT supporters who brought this to our attention!

Want to show your support for the TIME TO CARE agenda? Download, fill out and send in the TIME TO CARE endorsement form, then get your friends, family, colleagues and organizations to do it too!

This past August, Take Back Your Time held its second annual North American conference, TIME TO CARE, in Seattle. We are pleased to present two speeches from the conference plenary, "Changing Public Policy." Judith Stadtman-Tucker, founder and editor of the Mothers Movement Online, addresses Why we need time to care: The gap in U.S. family policy. Bruce O'Hara, author of Enough Already! and Working Harder Isn't Working, explores RETHINKING RETIREMENT.

To read Judith Stadtman Tucker's speech, please visit: www.mothersmovement.org/features/05/time_day/time_to_care_1.htm.

Click here too read Bruce O'Hara's speech.

Professor of Recreation and Leisure B.J. Grosvenor reports that San Jose State University has adopted the Take Back Your Time handbook as one of the required readings for CONTEMPORARY THEORIES OF RECREATION AND LEISURE, a graduate level leisure philosophy course.

REMINDER: Proceeds from sales of the Take Back Your Time handbook support our work. Order your copy today! If you already have a copy, buy one for a friend it makes a great gift or ask your public library to buy it for their collection!

For the first Take Back Your Time Day event two years ago, I organized a workshop on Time Poverty at the college where I teach, Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. Three or four faculty members spoke about their own struggles and solutions regarding time pressures, and we had around 40 faculty, staff, and students attend and participate. After the meeting, Nancy Eberhardt, an anthropology professor, and I had a conversation about how to move these issues to an "institutional" rather than purely personal level. We sought the support of the Faculty Department Program, and the next fall held a series of meetings with 8 other "time trackers" who agreed to keep track of how they spent their working time during fall term at Knox and to come to monthly luncheons to discuss what they were learning from this exercise. We met four or five times for lively discussion and good food, and then in the spring held an open meeting to provide feedback to the community about what we had learned. One very concrete outcome of this meeting is that Penny Gold, professor of history and Faculty Development coordinator, developed a working paper on "Finding Time" that summarized both personal and institutional possibilities for dealing with Time Poverty among faculty at Knox. This working paper has thus far met with some success, as not only did the Dean of the College, Larry Breitborde, write an introduction to it, but the working paper was also discussed at a faculty meeting and certain of its proposals have been placed on the agendas of the appropriate faculty committees. Anyone interested in accessing this working paper can find it at deptorg.knox.edu/facdev/FindingTime.html.

I hope that my experience and the support I have received from Knox in bringing this issue of time poverty up for discussion can help others think about ways that they might help facilitate conversations about time wherever they work.

Leisure Team Productions has posted on their web site (www.leisureteam.com) as a free download "The Leisure Movement" chapter from their recent book, Time Off! The Upside to Downtime. Take Back Your Time is included, along with many other friends of leisure in the US and abroad.

This tip came to us from the Work/Family Team at the National Partnership for Women and Families:

President Bush hasproclaimedNovember as National Family Caregivers Month. The proclamation can be viewed at:

We are delighted by this resolution, but troubled that the Administration has also been talking about rolling back the provisions of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act. That would be a disaster for family caregivers. We urge the President to walk his talk and create POLICIES that give families and family caregivers MORE time, not less.

The following two articles were written for the newsletter -- thank you to Carollyn Bartosh and Chris Ortiz for their contributions. If you have an article you'd like to share with us, send your submission to: lisa@timeday.org.

Flu season is here, and this year talk of bird flu has us all a bit on edge, aware of how vulnerable we may be to the most virulent pathogens. Despite the trajectory of medical science in the last century, history may come full circle with a devastating pandemic.  Meanwhile, scientists are discovering that even the common germs we've grown up with can stop careers and life plans in their tracks. And our culture of overwork may be the biggest cause.

Sometimes I wonder where I caught the mono virus that eventually knocked me out of the working world and on to disability. Of course it was the way people catch any germ--from a sneeze, handshake, door knob, stack of papers, the apple someone set back on the pyramid at the store, maybe the spa I went to a few weeks before. The person who gave it to me may never have come down with mono, just simply passed it on. Or around. The infection may have been in its early stages, and the bearer may have thought, as I so often had, to try the "coffee cure" for that sudden headache, to burn out the fatigue with a run after work. Antibiotics came next, anything to "just get through it," without interrupting work. Or maybe my virus bearer actually felt ill, but already used their sick days, or worse, didn't have sick days. Ever.

I "couldn't afford to get sick" either when I caught mono. Four months into a new job at the top of the game in my field, I was a busy marketing and PR director for a little company in expansion mode. My world felt exciting and important with being needed long days, a "productive" 90 minute commute with a cell phone at my ear, plus travel, events, causes, driving all over LA for media. Morning radio or TV meant leaving between 4 and 6 a.m., often promoting a fundraiser that would run late that night. A week or two of this straight for openings. My schedule was not unusual, though; these days that's just the intensity of business.

But here's the time-lapse behind-the-scenes tour: take a healthy young human, steep its body in low-level environmental toxins for 30, 40, 50 years and steep its mind in a culture of overwork, weaken its immune system with long hours and inadequate rest, and that human is perfectly primed for disease. Genetics and self-care habits may hint at where your loaded dice may fall. Mine fell on Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome (CFIDS*) which starts for most people with a virus like mono. But it also appears in CFIDS that old pathogens--such as the flu you had as a kid -- become reactivated rather than remaining dormant as they would in healthy people. And, according to my infectious disease specialist, maybe not just one pathogen but a cocktail of four or five create this complex, subtly hay-wire, multi-systemic, widely variable and unfortunately disabling Syndrome. Some experts predict a CFIDS epidemic in this century, but it's not just CFIDS we're more susceptible to because of our hectic lifestyle and increasingly toxic world. Over the last dozen years or so, all sorts of diseases thought to be simply genetic or temperamental in nature have been linked both active and "dormant" pathogens such as h. pylori in ulcers (a discovery recognized with a Nobel Prize this year), coxsackie in heart disease, Epstein Barr in lymphomas, and perhaps herpes simplex virus 1 in Alzheimer's, among many others. That little bug going around the office this week could come back to nail you with something debilitating years down the road.

Wondering how I got mono is an attempt to figure out some variable, something I could have done differently. And there's a clear answer: my work life. Whether you seem to thrive on overwork or long for more "balance" but feel stuck in the game, stress is a profound physical event, not something marginal to learn to live with, not a weakness that a time management seminar can fix.

Scientists have found that some stress is good for us, engaging a process called allostasis where all the combat forces of the immune system are put on high alert, and the whole body is ready to fight an invader. This is what gets you through finals in college, the big project for a major client, buying a house, or a product launch in three cities without getting sick. They're some of the best parts of life, stretching your brain, flexing your expertise, seizing the day. But if the stress never lets up -- if there is no average pace at lower gear, no down time after the deadline, and no regular time off to recuperate -- the body goes into allostatic load. With no reinforcements to call in, our immunological national guard is fatigued and falters. The immune system gets suppressed. Or trashed. Then the invaders that surround us everyday while we're in good health can march right in, or the body may attack itself with an autoimmune disease.

Even when some parts of your picture look really healthy. For me, years of low-fat/high fiber/"whole food" eating along with an exercise regimen of yoga, light weights, and a 4-mile one-hour walk four days a week could not sustain health. I kept working through that mono but remained half-sick for two years, finally taking a month's leave of absence. It seemed to do the trick, for four years. I was thankful to get back to work "like everyone else" again, at full speed.

Full speed into allostatic load. And then the forest fires of 2003 hit. For two weeks, the famous Santa Ana conditions funneled dark billows from both the northern and inland fires toward my neighborhood, the Palos Verdes peninsula, a big hill along the coast on the south end of Santa Monica bay. The humid air of the ocean hemmed the smoke in. Burning forests are one thing, but these fires included the toxins of 3500 incinerated homes: furniture, carpeting, old paint, solvents, pesticides. For my weak system, it was toxic overload. The fires were put out, the air cleared, but over the next six weeks I became sick again and haven't recovered since. This time there was no question about working through it -- I was in bed and getting worse. My job ended after the 12 weeks of FMLA, and state disability lasted a year. By then I knew I'd never have the constitution to return to that work lifestyle again. It took me another six months to realize that was progress.

While limited, I've harnessed my professional tenacity to learn about my illness. When that first bout of mono took more than six months to get over, I should have been diagnosed with CFIDS. If I had, I like to think I would have changed jobs or professions, but I'm not sure. I was so susceptible to the culture of overwork. What else do smart people do but prove themselves in the world and on the world's terms? While I put in long hours, others in my office put in more! Had longer commutes! And certainly people worked while sick with colds and flus. That's what professionals do. Everywhere. Who is immune? There seemed to be no alternative.

Yet there are big variables in our work lives that we have control of. You may think it's easy for me to say this now, not having to report to work tomorrow, but not so: If I don't consistently practice this, I flub up the few good hours a day I get and set myself back for a week or six. And many more options are available while you're still healthy. Either way there's a bonus: living this is actually the way to enjoy every bit of life more.

Change your mind about overwork
First, simply notice your thoughts. Tune in to thoughts of hunger, thirst, the need to rest, and then respond. In the culture of overwork, we ignore or even fight the very signals that help maintain well-being (and productivity). If you learn to recognize and respond to these, you'll be ready to recognize and respond when you don't feel well.

Resist catching a second wind (sometimes called "latte") in the afternoon. That wind is adrenaline, the fight-or-flight hormone, which may stay in your system for more than 24 hours, making it hard to unwind and sleep and easy to be tired the next day, upping the ante of the cycle. Pulling your family to safety after an earthquake is worth a spike in adrenaline. Willing the photocopier to go faster is not.

Change your actions about overwork
Get out of the office after a recommended daily dose of 8 hours, and take your weekends, holidays, and vacations. Notice that some people already do? (The ones you resent?) Emulate them. Be ready for the envy of your other peers. Smile inwardly at your progress when you get the poison-dart look. Soon you'll get a sincere "good night" from them instead.

Don't be available by phone at night, on weekends, or on vacation except for a (and notice the singular "a") grave emergency. Resist calling people on their time off, knowing how important it is for them to recharge, too.

Note: None of these actions requires permission from anyone other than yourself.

Change your company
Take sick days and encourage co-workers to do so, too. Don't feed the office martyr mentality when someone comes in sick: ask them (kindly) to wear a face mask, to not attend the meeting.

If you're in management, send sick people home and stop giving kudos when someone comes in anyway. Spreading illness dents productivity and financial goals, while the martyr-approving environment impedes team building and encourages expensive turn-over.

Change your geography
If you've changed your mind about overwork, paid attention and responded to your body's signals for self care, practiced getting out of the office at the end of the day, taken time off and sick days, you many now come to a cross-roads if you have a long commute. Cut out most of that two or three hours in the car and your well-being and prospects for good health improve substantially. If your company has responded positively so far to your internal changes, they may be more open to you telecommuting. Or their response has been positive enough for you to move closer to work But if they haven't responded well to your change, it's probably time to move on (and closer to home!). You now have a record of behavior with which to gauge your best interest, operating from a place of strength rather than from feeling stuck

Change your community
Recent studies show that mortality rates for flu in the elderly are lowest where children get flu vaccines. A community facing an epidemic or pandemic is only as healthy as its weakest members. Vote for and get involved in causes that provide healthcare to those without it as well as a living wage, healthy work practices and legislation, and a clean environment.

In this country CFIDS affects about a million people, give or take a hundred thousand, so much is still unknown . In 1994 the CDC defined CFIDS "...by the presence of the following: 1) clinically evaluated, unexplained, persistent or relapsing chronic fatigue that is of new or definite onset (has not been lifelong); is not the result of ongoing exertion; is not substantially alleviated by rest; and results in substantial reduction in previous levels of occupational, educational, social, or personal activities; and 2) the concurrent occurrence of four or more of the following symptoms, all of which must have persisted or recurred during 6 or more consecutive months of illness and must not have predated the fatigue: self-reported impairment in short-term memory or concentration severe enough to cause substantial reduction in previous levels of occupational, educational, social, or personal activities; sore throat; tender cervical or axillary lymph nodes; muscle pain, multijoint pain without joint swelling or redness; headaches of a new type, pattern, or severity; unrefreshing sleep; and postexertional malaise lasting more than 24 hours." From www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/121/12/953. For more information on this condition, log on to www.CFIDS.org. The best treatment protocols I've found: membres.lycos.fr/chrisdel2/association/cheney/cheneyII3.html.

Books I recommend to help change your thoughts on overwork, and ease your transition into a new work lifestyle:

The End of Stress as We Know It, Bruce McEwen with Elizabeth Norton Lasley. The Dana Press, 2002.

Slowing Down to the Speed of Life, Richard Carlson and Joseph Bailey. Harper San Francisco, 1997.

Going on Being: Buddhism and the Way of Change, A Positive Psychology for the West, Mark Epstein, M.D. Broadway Books, 2001.

Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes, William Bridges. Perseus Books, 1980. Revised, 2003.

Carollynn Bartosh is a student again, who lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, California with her tremendously supportive husband, Blake.

Ah the holidays....

If you are like most Americans, you will be rushing into shopping malls and department stores across the country in preparation for the largest consumer day of the year. Millions of dollars will be spent, millions of gifts will be purchased, and our ever so cute and hardworking elves up in the North Pole will be forced into excessive amounts of overtime to fuel our desire to shop till we drop.

The manufacturing sector is a main contributor to the overtime dilemma in this country, and the overtime monster is especially busy during the holiday season. Although a majority of products manufactured for the holidays will never be purchased, and will end up in landfills, manufacturers just continue to build, and build, and build. The North Pole would never consider filling its own land with garbage, therefore all the extra toys that don't sell, are shipped to other countries, contributing to their landfills.

The North Pole operates one of the most unethical manufacturing plants in the world and its similarities to our own operations here in America, are astounding. As consumers, we may not realize the impact of our buying habits on over 20 million manufacturing workers across the country, as well as the little elves up north. Indulge me, as I describe the working conditions in the North Pole, which are strikingly similar to the employment problems we face in our own country.

Santa Claus is truly the stereotypical ruthless CEO, pushing his employees (elves) to meet end of year, bottom line requirements. Santa works a whopping one day per year, while his employees (elves) work 20 hour days, 7 days a week to meet consumer demands. Elves typically sleep only one hour each night, and fuel their overworked bodies with sugar, candy canes, sugar plums, and hot chocolate.

The elves are monitored, hour by hour, on their progress. A supervisory elf is there to pushing them to work as fast as possible. The assembly line processes are poorly designed, creating a variety of inefficiencies that further extend their working hours. If an elf is unable to keep up with the required output, he is placed in lower class job such as cleaning up after the reindeers.

The North Pole operates in this manner the entire year, and the elves are never given a day off -- not even on Christmas. After Santa (CEO) leaves to deliver the products made by his hard working employees (elves), the elves are then required to make preparation for next Christmas. Just like America, the North Pole has no laws requiring employers to provide vacation time, and, unfortunately for the elves, there is simply no time for rest or recovery.

In striking similarity to what occurs here in America, Santa (CEO) reaps all rewards from the diligent efforts of his people, and is worshipped like a saint by his consumers (stockholders). The North Pole is required to meet certain end of year expectations, and Santa (CEO) is applauded loudly for his successes. Failure is just not acceptable as it would destroy the hearts of children across the globe. Of course, when Santa (CEO) realizes success, he shares it with his reindeers (VPs), whom, by the way, he treats better than his employees (elves),and who enjoy the same days off as he does.

Santa (CEO) returns from his one day of work and is praised by his employees (elves). He takes this opportunity to inspire them with words of wisdom (mission statements) to get them working again. Heck, the elves don't even get a Christmas party or a bonus!

If this sounds familiar, it should. America has created a cycle of over consumption and overtime that now distinguishes us as the most over consuming and overworked industrialized nation in the world. Our children learn to love the story of Santa and his hardworking elves, conditioning them to support this cycle, perhaps without recognition of the negative factors of a business that works 365 days a year, with no vacation days off.

Personally, I love Christmas, not for the shopping and the spending, but for the cherished time I get to spend with my family. I always try to keep consumption to a minimum, focusing on the real spirit of the holidays, and I believe that others feel as I do.

Yet, for many Americans, this time of year is more about shopping and consumerism than anything else, which promotes the overworked employee cycle in America, and continues to solidify our reputation as the most overworked, consumer-driven country in the world. Perhaps, some day, the story of The North Pole will be changed, and we will find elves relaxing on vacation, side by side with the VPs, sipping cool drinks and watching gentle waves lap the shore. A nice fantasy, but a much better ending to the story, don't you agree?

Chris Ortiz lives in Winston-Salem, NC. He is a lean manufacturing consultant and the author of "40+: Overtime Under Poor Leadership." Chris can be reached at www.kaizenassembly.com or chrisortiz@kaizenassembly.com.

The day is here upon us. Today is all we've got.
This minute holds eternity, but oh, our minds are fraught
     :with thoughts of what we should've done, mistakes of yesterday,
     :recalling wrongs, reliving deeds and words that went astray.

Or else we go through motions while our thoughts zoom far ahead
     :of things to do, of meetings hence, of possibilities we dread. We eat our food in a hurry. We kiss our loves in haste.
We blink at dawn, we glance at moon.
There is no time to waste.

Our calendar is crammed with future things we have to do.
We make our lists. We see its length.
Our day is never through.
And when each year is over, we dismay
at all that's passed.
We shake our heads and wonder, "how
did time go by so fast?"

We cannot slow the march of time and
yet there is this plan:
If we would live in present now, we'd
find peace at hand.
Be present, fully present in each action
that we do.
Stay mindful, fully mindful, of the life
around us too.
Let the future be the vision but THIS
moment counts -- and how!
Eternity is in it. May we learn to live in
NOW.

Eileen McDargh lives in Dana Point, CA. She is a consultant,executive coach, speaker and writer, and the author of "Work for a Living & Still Be Free to Live" and "The Resilient Spirit." She can be reached at www.eileenmcdargh.com/a>.