Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, January 12, 2019

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS

Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 12, 2019 

Jeff’s Book Pics By Jeff Brown

FAMILY MATTERS By Marc Garlett


PET TRUSTS OFFER 
PROTECTION FOR 
YOUR FURRY FAMILY

If you’re an animal lover and have a pet of your 
own, you likely consider your pet to be a member 
of the family. And since your furry friends can 
provide protection, emotional support, and 
unconditional love, such consideration is often 
well deserved.

 In stark contrast, the law considers your pet 
nothing more than personal property. That 
means that without plans in place, your pet will 
be treated just like your couch or vacuum in the 
event of your death or incapacity. 

 For example, if you die without including any 
provisions for your pet’s care in your estate plan 
and none of your family or friends volunteer to 
take your pet in, your faithful companion will 
likely end up in an animal shelter.

 While you can leave money for the care or 
your pet in a will, there will be no continuing 
oversight to ensure your pet (and the money 
you leave for its care) will be cared for as 
you wish. Indeed, the person named as pet 
guardian in your will could drop the animal 
off at the shelter and use the money to buy a 
new TV—and face no penalties for doing so. 
What’s more, a will is required to go through 
a court process known as probate, which can last 
for years and leave your pet in limbo during that 
entire time. And a will only goes into effect upon 
your death, so if you’re incapacitated by accident 
or illness, it will be useless for protecting your 
pet.

Pet trusts

Given these limitations, the best way to ensure 
your animal companions are properly taken care 
of in the event of your death or incapacity is to 
create a pet trust. 

 Pet trusts go into effect immediately and allow 
you to lay out detailed, legally binding rules 
for how the funds in the trust can be used. Pet 
trusts can cover multiple pets, work in cases of 
incapacity as well as death, and they remain in 
effect until the last surviving animal dies.

 Here are a few of the most important things to 
consider when setting up a pet trust:

 Caregivers: The most important decision 
when creating a pet trust is naming the 
caretaker. The caretaker will have custody of 
your pet and is responsible for your pet’s daily 
care for the remainder of your pet’s life. As with 
naming a guardian for your children, make 
certain you choose someone you know will 
watch over and love your pet just as you would. 
Consider the caretaker’s physical ability—
naming someone elderly to raise your Great 
Dane puppy might be asking too much. Also 
make certain your pet fits in with the caretaker’s 
family members and other pets. In case your 
first-choice for caretaker is unable to take in your 
pet, name at least one or two alternates. If you 
don’t know any suitable caregivers, there are a 
variety of charitable groups that can provide for 
your pet if you’re no longer able to.

 Trustees: Trustees are tasked with managing 
the trust’s funds and ensuring your wishes for 
the animal’s care are carried out in the manner 
the trust spells out. The caretaker and the 
trustee may be the same person or the roles 
can be divided between two different people. 
Caretaking instructions: You may also 
want to include caretaking instructions such 
as your pet’s basic requirements: dietary 
needs, exercise regimen, medications, and 
veterinary care. Be sure you think about all 
of your pet’s future needs, including extra 
services like grooming, boarding, and walking. 
Funding: When determining how much 
money to put aside for your pet’s care, you 
should carefully consider the pet’s age, health, 
and care needs. Remember, you’re covering the 
cost of caring for the animal for the rest of its life, 
and even basic expenses can add up over time. 
Dedicated to empowering your family, 
building your wealth and defining your legacy,

 

A local attorney and father, Marc Garlett is on a 
mission to help parents protect what they love most. 
His office is located at 55 Auburn Avenue, Sierra 
Madre, CA 91024. Schedule an appointment to 
sit down and talk about ensuring a legacy of love 
and financial security for your family by calling 
626.355.4000 or visit www.GarlettLaw.com for 
more information.


What Makes Us Girls: And 
Why It’s All Worth It by Brittany 
Pettibone 

We cannot give what we do not have. 
So, if we do not love ourselves, or even 
if we are too obseassed with ourselves, 
how then can we love others? What 
Makes Us Girls examines the topic 
of self-worth through a modern 
cultural lens. Using examples from 
the author’s life experience and 
the life experiences of a variety of 
other girls, What Makes Us Girls 
analyzes seven of the most common 
issues that result in a destructive 
sense of self-worth: comparison, 
rejection, bullying, inauthenticity, 
purposelessness, betrayal and guilt. 
Every girl in the world, no matter our 
age or the country we are from, will 
have to face a battle for self-worth. 
Some of us will win and some of us 
will lose. But those of us who win will 
do so for two reasons: because we are 
able to see the battle for what it is, 
and even more importantly, because 
we have the right weapons to fight 
it.” Faced with the very real suffering 
of today’s women and girls, it seems 
like society only reacts by promising 
women that they will inherit the earth, 
and also that nothing is their fault. 
Brittany’s book is a wonderful dose of 
tough love, which reminds us all that a 
sex that cannot take responsibility for 
anything, cannot achieve anything. 
This book feels like a summary of 
every time Brittany and I have laughed 
over coffee, or when she has held me 
while I cried and put my broken heart 
back together. I am so thrilled that 
so many other girls will have that 
experience. If I ever have a daughter, 
this book will be on her nightstand.”- 
Lauren Southern

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

This is how a family keeps a secret…and how 
that secret ends up keeping them. This is how a 
family lives happily ever after…until happily ever 
after becomes complicated. This is how children 
change…and then change the world. This is 
Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five 
brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. 
He also loves wearing a dress, and 
dreams of being a princess. When he 
grows up, Claude says, he wants to be 
a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude 
to be whoever Claude wants to be. 
They’re just not sure they’re ready 
to share that with the world. Soon 
the entire family is keeping Claude’s 
secret. Until one day it explodes. This 
Is How It Always Is is a novel about 
revelations, transformations, fairy 
tales, and family. And it’s about the 
ways this is how it always is: Change 
is always hard and miraculous and 
hard again, parenting is always a 
leap into the unknown with crossed 
fingers and full hearts, children grow 
but not always according to plan. And 
families with secrets don’t get to keep 
them forever.

Florida by Lauren Groff

Finalist for the 2018 National Book 
Award .In her thrilling new book, 
Groff brings the reader into a physical 
world that is at once domestic and 
wild—a place where the hazards 
of the natural world lie waiting to 
pounce, yet the greatest threats and 
mysteries are still of an emotional, 
psychological nature. A family retreat 
can be derailed by a prowling panther, 
or by a sexual secret. Among those 
navigating this place are a resourceful 
pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, 
grown up; a restless, childless couple, 
a searching, homeless woman; and an 
unforgettable, recurring character—a 
steely and conflicted wife and mother. 
The stories in this collection span 
characters, towns, decades, even 
centuries, but Florida—its landscape, 
climate, history, and state of mind—
becomes its gravitational center: an 
energy, a mood, as much as a place of residence. 
Groff transports the reader, then jolts us alert with 
a crackle of wit, a wave of sadness, a flash of cruelty, 
as she writes about loneliness, rage, family, and 
the passage of time. With shocking accuracy and 
effect, she pinpoints the moments and decisions and 
connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope 
and despair, love and fury—the moments that make 
us alive. Startling, precise, and affecting, Florida is a 
magnificent achievement.

All Things By Jeff Brown

2 BILLION BIRDS MAKE GULF MIGRATION

A new study suggests that about 2.1 billion birds migrate 
through the Gulf Coast region each spring, heading 
from Central and South America to breeding grounds 
in the U.S. and Canada.The most important finding of 
the study may be the fact that about half of the annual 
migration occurs within an 18-day window between 
mid-April and the first week of May. That, suggest 
the scientists, could help limit the damage to bird 
populations caused by manmade threats, such as the 
turbines at wind farms.“Knowing where and when peak 
migration occurs means efforts can be made to turn off 
lights and wind turbines, which are known threats to 
migratory birds,” suggest the scientists.The birds making 
the incredible trip across the Gulf of Mexico range from 
tiny hummingbirds that weigh less than two pennies 
to large birds such as hawks and ducks. Seeing a 
migratory neo-tropical bird such as a prothonotary 
warbler in the wild, its feathers the brilliant yellow 
of a child’s crayon, it is hard to imagine that such a 
tiny creature could be capable of flying 200 miles 
across the Gulf of Mexico.The birds navigate using 
stars and features on land. Decades of data show 
that many of the migrants will fly a roundtrip of 
a thousand miles or more and return to the exact 
spots where they were born for the breeding season. 
The exact mechanism that allows birds to navigate 
with such incredible precision will likely remain a 
mystery for all of time.


HEALTHY LIFESTYLES


LIVING IN OPTIMISM

Do you remember the “like 
attracts like” principle? It 
illustrates the idea that the 
more energy and thought 
we put into something, the 
more it will grow. Also, the 
longer we are in that place or 
state of mind, the greater the 
tendency is to stay there. It 
becomes comfortable. 

This applies to thought 
patterns and habits, or even optimism and negativity. 
Gandhi illustrates this point of view eloquently: “Your 
beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your 
words, your words become your actions, your actions 
become your habits, your habits become your values, 
your values become your destiny.” In other words, “like 
attracts like.” So, how then do we change course and step 
off the flow of negativity? 

 First, the realization of the power of choice must 
come into awareness. No one, no circumstance, no 
external structure has power over our lives and inner 
peace. Higher values of love, compassion, tolerance, and 
universal connection with one another are the guiding 
force by which we soothe fear. To take the fuse out of fear, 
truthfulness (honesty), or satya must be present. 

 Second, after becoming aware and acknowledging the 
feeling of fear or the train of thought of negativity, cultivate 
the opposite. Optimism and love are the antidotes to 
overcoming negativity. Even doing this begrudgingly 
will call upon those higher principles when we act in our 
higher selves. 

 This process will lead us into the spirit of open-
mindedness. This process is one of the core reasons why 
yoga benefits the world. The world has enough pain and 
negativity. Yoga cultivates compassion and tolerance –for 
everyone- and that means everyone! Each one of us is 
experiencing the human condition together. Any actions 
I take affect not only others but myself as well by creating 
my own internal suffering from living in a negative frame 
of mind. Resist and defeat negativity with hope and a 
positive attitude. 

Knowing all of this, my yoga practice, meditation, and a 
practice of loving-kindness feel more important than ever. 

Namaste, Keely Totten, 

Yoga & Meditation Teacher, 

Fan of the resistance against negativity 

Keely@keelytotten.com


THE MISSING PAGE

Real Life Tips from LIfe's Instruction Manual


IT’S YOUR CHANCE AT BAT

Every single day 
you are given the 
opportunity to get up 
to bat.

 What day is this? It’s 
a brand new day and a 
brand new year. Let’s 
celebrate.

 Gameday, it’s time to 
leave it all on the field, 
Until the final whistle 
blows.

 It is not a day for plans or resolutions. It is the day to set your 
intention. 

 We cannot change the world with a plan.

 We must dream and dream BIG!

 If you know how you will get to your ultimate dream, then 
dream BIGGER.

 So what will you do with your one wild, beautiful life?

 “If you could only see your beauty, for you are greater than 
the sun. Why are you so withered and shriveled in this prison 
of dust? A basket full of bread sits on your head but you beg for 
crusts door to door. You are more precious than heaven and 
earth, you know how your own worth. Sell not yourself for a 
little price, being so precious in the eyes of God.” ~Rumi

 What is your intention? What do you stand for? 

 Do you stand for art, truth, beauty, justice, music, freedom? 

 We cannot live in a world without art, truth, beauty, justice, 
music or freedom. And we don’t want to either.

 Take a stand and set your intention. Make your life a 
beacon of truth. Stand in truth and stand for justice.

 Be the WOMAN with a dream.

 Martin Luther King didn’t have a plan; he had a dream.

 So love boldly.

 This day will never come again, so write your book. Start 
with a line today. The world is waiting for your book.

 Write your song, we need to hear from you.

 Take the stage, we miss you. We need your stories.

 The world is so much more beautiful because any art made.

 Stand and speak for someone that the court would 
otherwise silence. One minute in custody that is undeserved 
is one minute too long.

 When we pass that swinging gate of the courtroom, let’s 
bring our best self and our “A” game.

 Are you a teacher? Continue to see the individual student 
sitting in their tiny chairs as special and unique gifted learners. 
There is no greater honor than touching the life of a child. It is 
a genuine chance for immortality.

 So let us be grateful that we are here on the planet at this 
time and on this day.

 So what would happen if we all took what we love (art, 
science, or justice whatever ... And built our lives around it? 
We would change the world.

 Today is your game and your day, so when the ball comes 
your way, take a swing. Are you up to bat when you get the 
chance?

 It’s your life, let’s make it a Great One!

 Lori A. Harris is a lawyer and Life Mastery Consultant she 
helps mid-career professionals bring more life and love to their 
lives. Grab a free consultation at loriaharris.com/chat.


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com