A gift today

Monday's are always a bit tough for me. I work in oncology and it takes me a couple of days to get used to the sickness and people dying. Well, I never get used to it...just adjust to it. There are people who run into me when they check out that can totally turn my day around. I had one today. A woman who is fighting breast cancer stopped by to schedule a new appointment and dropped this sweet message off for me. It made a bad day sunny so I wanted to share it. Being a gardener made it very special.

For the Garden of Your Daily Living

Plant three rows of peas:
Peace of mind
Peace of heart
Peace of soul

Plant four rows of squash
Squash gossip
Squash indifference
Squash grumbling
Squash Selfishness

Plant four rows of lettuce
Lettuce be faithful
Lettuce be kind
Lettuce be patient
Lettuce really love one another

No garden is without turnips
Turnip for meetings
Turnip for service
Turnip to help one another

To conclude our Garden we must have Thyme:
Thyme for G*d
Thyme for each other
Thyme for family
Thyme for friends

Water freely with patience and cultivate with love. There is
Much fruit in your garden because you reap what you sow.

The Peace of Wild Things

This is how I feel when I'm on or near nature and Puget Sound....

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water,

and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Writer and farmer ~ Wendall Berry

True Success - Food for Thought

Success

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.

--Ralph Waldo Emmerson

We're all the same

The following was a post from No Impact Man and it moved me, so I wanted to share:

Why bother saving the planet? posted: 11 Jun 2009 12:00 AM PDT

I am sitting in the lobby of my hotel which is the only place I can get an internet connection. Behind the couch I'm sitting on, the hotel keeps a little radio playing that is tuned to a classical station. The music makes me think of Isabella, the four-year-old girl who is the heart of my life, my daughter. Isabella always makes me stop turning the radio dial when she hears classical music. She loves classical best of all.

Anyway. The hotel where I am is in Washington, DC.

I began writing this post with the point of telling you why I'm in DC, but I can't help it--I want to write a little something about my little girl. Do you mind if I stop to tell you that she has the most amazing blue eyes? Also, she is incredibly brave. We went to a petting zoo the other day and she fed all the goats and cows and sheep. A pig bit her by mistake. When she went to school, she showed her thumb to a teacher and said, "A pig bit my thumb."

"A what bit your thumb?"

"A pig."

"A what?"

"A pig."

This went on for a while. There not being too many pigs in New York City, the teacher was having a hard time believing her ears. Isabella was quite pleased. It may have hurt when the pig first bit her, but Isabella was still the only kid in school who could point to a boo boo and say a pig caused it.

You know what I think about when I think about how much I love Isabella? I think about how everybody else has someone they love too. I think that we all have someone who makes our hearts ache with love and how since we all have that then we must be essentially the same.

We're all the same. How can I live my life with enough compassion to bear out this tremendous truth that we all have an Isabella, that we are all the same? If we are all the same, shouldn't we understand how much we all feel joy and sorrow and be moved to treat each other with tremendous kindness?

Personally, I am moved to treat everyone with tremendous kindness. The sad news is that, moved though I may be, I don't actually do it. I get mad or selfish or controlling or small minded. Then I get mean. Honestly, I am at times so disappointed in myself, in my own humanity. Then I realize that that happens to everyone else too. We all feel disappointed in ourselves sometimes, no? We have that in common, too.

Which brings me back to the fact that we're all the same.
We're none of us perfect, right?

But most of us, I think, are doing our best.

Top Ten Eco-Lifestyle Changes

From one of my favorite inspiration sites the following are great ideas to do our share to save Mother Earth one small step at a time.


No Impact Man's Top Ten Eco-Lifestyle Changes

1. Stop eating beef. Worldwide, beef production contributes more substantially to climate change than the entire transportation sector. Plus, a diet with no or less beef is better for you anyway.
2. Give up bottled water. The production of plastic water bottles together with the privatization of our drinking water is an environmental and social catastrophe. Bottled water costs more per gallon than gasoline. Plus, the health consequences of drinking water from plastic are not clear.
3. Observe an eco-sabbath. For one day or afternoon or even hour a week, don't buy anything, don't use any machines, don't switch on anything electric, don't cook, don't answer your phone, and, in general, don't use any resources. In other words, for this regular period, give yourself and the planet a break. Keep your regular eco-sabbath for a month. You'll find that the enforced downtime represents an improvement to your life.
4. Tithe a fixed percentage of your income. Currently, many of our societal health and welfare services, at home and abroad, are tied to consumer spending which, in turn, depends upon planetary resource use. But the idea of buying stuff to help people is crazy, especially when you consider that our consumption is harming the habitat that we depend upon for our health, happiness and security. If you want to help, don't go shopping. Just help. Commit to tithing part of your income to the non-profits of your choice.
5. Get there under your own steam. Commit to getting around by bike or by foot a certain number of days a month. Not only does this mean using fewer fossil fuels and creating less greenhouse gasses, it means you'll get good, healthy exercise and we'll all breathe fewer fumes. A city with pedestrian and bike traffic is a lot more pleasant to live in than a city filled with vehicles.
6. Commit to not wasting. Wasting resources costs the planet and your wallet. Don't overheat or overcool your home--a few degrees make a huge difference. Let your clothes hang dry instead of using the dryer. Take half the trips but stay twice as long. If your old cell phone works, consider not getting another. Repair instead of rebuy. The list goes on and on.
7. Build a community. Play charades. Have dinners with friends. Sing together. Enjoying each other costs the planet much less than enjoying its resources. Let's relearn to joke around and play in ways that cost nothing to our pocketbooks or our planet.
8. Take your principles to work. The old adage "the cost of doing business" can no longer hold true. We must act as though we care about the world at work as much as we do at home. A company CEO or a product designer has the power to make a gigantic difference through their business, and so do the rest of us.
9. Dedicate a day's worth of TV viewing to eco-service each week. The average American watches four and a half hours of TV a day. Take one day off from the tube each week and joining with others to improve our planet. Voluntary eco-service is a great way to find community who support your values and also a great way to learn about environmental issues and the quality of life issues that go along with them.
10. Believe with all your heart that how you live your life makes a difference to all of us. We are all interconnected. We make a difference to each other on many different levels. Every step towards living a conscious life where we consider the consequences of our actions provides support to everyone else--whether you know it or not--who is trying to do the same thing. We are the masters of our destinies. Let's act as though it is so.

Etsy Day - April 24th 2009

In honor of Etsy Day April 24th I am offering a 20% discount

on any purchase made April 24-26th !!

Down on the Farm

I received my monthly update from Thundering Hooves Farm http://www.thunderinghooves.net today and it struck a chord in me. I consider myself a bit of a computer geek and love the outdoors and wildlife that abounds there. Clarice makes a good point about both of them.

Like fresh garden greens, new words crop up in our English language every year. Recently, there's been googling and blogging, texting and twittering - things we do with technology. Some words help us read and write more than ever, while others are for searching, and learning, and loving. For Thundering Hooves, we now talk about vertical-integration, holistic management, mobile abattoirs, zip drives, and digital imaging as if we have known about these things our whole lives. But as spring arrives, some words on the farm are as ancient as ever - bleating and bawling, goobling and cooing. But isn't it odd, how now it is possible for us to communicate more often than ever, but say so much less?

Before, "spam" was spam,
and "spiders" were spiders,a
nd "vertically-challenged" was short.
Words have changed and lives are online,and help comes from "integrated logistic support."

I wonder what tweetering swallows who swoop from their nests,to feed on the fruit of pie cherry trees at their best,would say to the twitterers, twittering away on their juicy, fantabulous gossip,emerging by magic on LCD flat screens through a digitized 0-1-1-0 blip?Would twitterers notice a tweeterer's song in their midst,while texting the latest of LOL jokes to their BFF list?

If Blackberry's® stuffed in a pouch were to linger,could we clear out a fragment of time to de-tox our fingers,and stain them instead with the juices of blackberries down by the creek,while breathing in life through our nostrils, as berries are stuffed our cheeks?

For it takes just as long to wipe off the drips 'round our lips,from blueberries and strawberries and messes divine,as it does to respond now to every last e-mail on topics of waste and ginormous detail,and position our protocol, know-it-all scale.

A Wii® may amuse and soak up an hour,arms flailing about 'til losers turn sour.Yet, where is the measure of time without points or a sound,for that joyous young "wee!" from a child lifted up off the ground,or dare holding fast to a tree-to-tree glider,with squeals of delight yelling "higher, more higher"?!

If we google and text just passing the hours,perpetually checking receptions from towers,we may have to pass on a chance to scroll down the caller ID's in our zone,or squeeze in the last of the mobile, leftover, rollover minutes we own,to hear the full sound of a gobbling old Tom in dazzling array,warbling his song to his hens with the grandest of plumage in sway.

For we know that the "cells" that exist at the core of our being,are far more essential then head phones, and blueteeth, or web cams and keying.And downloaded ring tones cannot replace,the wireless song of a robin transmitting its grace,on the world wide web of whispering winds and their ancient vibrations,speaking in pulses to all of creation.

For while the winds weave a linguistic notation,And a meadow lark broadcasts its' sweet proclamation,Receiving and channeling messages without a single-solitary abbreviation,They utter together a much more far reaching narration,

And thus, life is calling on our best concentration,for life has a balance, and begs conversation!

Clarice Swanson
Thundering Hooves

Finding happiness in the oddest places

I read 'No Impact Man' (http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/) every day and this week following a weekend getaway with his 4 yr. old daughter he wrote the following. It made me stop and think about the free things in life that mean so much more than the things we buy. In fact, studies show that people who shop without boundaries have issues they try to fill by shopping. I used to shop when I got bored and then I discovered sewing and knitting and when it got too hot outside to garden those began to fill the void (aka boredom) I was feeling. If my daughter lived closer I would have more to keep me busy and someone enjoyable to do them with.The other thing is how when I was young(er) I lived in a village of sorts. My town had about 50,000 people and yet it seemed everyone knew each other. There was this incredible network between families where if a kid did something coming home from school the word got home before he did. I wish things were more like that now. As busy as we all are - the backup from the 'hood' would be very helpful. No Impact man discovered that too.

What makes me happiest doesn't cost the planet
Posted: 06 Apr 2009 12:00 AM PDT

My little girl Isabella and I just spent the weekend at a gathering at the Providence Zen Center, the head temple of the Kwan Um School of Zen, where I meditate.

There were five or six other kids there and from the moment we arrived Isabella ran around having fun and paying almost no attention to her dad. (She's only four. I thought I wasn't supposed to get the cold shoulder until she was thirteen or so. Sigh!) The entire group helped take care of the kids. Meanwhile, we ate our meals sitting on the floor with friends, took walks in the woods, and caught up on lots of good conversation.

Then, tonight, on my way home, a certain sadness settled in. I just wasn't looking forward to my little family's living situation back in our isolated apartment. I mean, we have a great life, but this weekend I had an intimation of what it could be like to live in a community, a village. And I can't help thinking that if people in modern cultures had the satisfactions of access to community--the connectedness, the shared responsibility--then maybe we wouldn't have to spend our lives chasing after stuff--the consolation prizes--and wrecking the planet.

It points, I think, to a more satisfying way, a way that might just be better for the planet and better for us.

PS Great quote I heard: "Though it is reflected in a thousand rivers, the moon itself is only one."

Me from the inside out

It seemed interesting to look at some recent MRI films of my head and neck. I have vein problems on my left side and the doctors keep their eyes on things in case my left carotid artery completely closes. So...I took the handy CD they gave me and looked myself over. It look pretty good on the inside. It's interesting that the lines and wrinkles we see on the outside aren't visable on the inside. I like that. I'm also thin enough to like my silhouette more than actual pictures of myself.

I've never been a big fan of photographs of myself - drives my family nuts - in fact where other people have these nice smiling pictures of themselves on Facebook or their blogs I use avitars of what I think I look like. I really don't think I'm vain. I just think I'm ugly and age is killing what looks I had left. Looking old is growing on me but I wish I could just get it over with and look 80. No one expects an 80 year old to look any certain way - they're just amazed they're alive and talking in complete sentences. The phase between 60-80 years is equivolent to that dead zone we feel in our 20's. Not a teenager and not really an adult.

I sound so dismal about it and really I am not. My husband is going through the same thing. He's lost most of his hair and goes on and on about it. I wish he's just shave his head and get it over with. With or without hair he's handsome to me. Looking at old pictures of him with hair I have the feeling he wouldn't know what to do with it if he had it. Just accept things as they are and focus on the important things. Making the world better, saving the environment, loving your family - the people who don't care how you look, after all - and hope you leave a legacy of love, warmth and good memories behind. wrinkles be damned.

It's been too long

It has been too long since I took time to blog. After the election and my guy won I got busy with Christmas and health issues and just didn't have interest in doing the blog. I apologize to those who have asked me to start again. To update you - I had surgery in December to fix my aneurism with coiling. It went well and I was on a plane flying to Denver 3 days later, to have Christmas with 3 generations of my family. It was wonderful and I'm back 100% again.

The financial crisis has slowly crept in to our lives - food costs are way higher than they used to be, property and 401K values have tanked and you pray every day that you hang on to your job. Savings? Right.

So - what to do? Get creative and stay on course trying to be Green and motivated. At least our President is on the same page as most of us and has done his best to ensure he never gets "bubbled" from what is really happening in the real world. As they speak of loans and budgets now in the $Trillions$$$ it just sounds like a number, but the other day I was listening to Marketplace on XM and they broke it all down - how many $10's it took to make a $1000 and then $1000's to get a $1M etc. Trillions is a LOT of $10.00's!! I keep wondering where the money is coming from? Do we just print more? Don't you need gold to back the money you print? Um, what's wrong with this picture? Everyone seems so confused and can't explain it easily.

When things get this complicated the human reaction seems to be to simplify the things one can control. Cut back on the "must do's" and take time to garden, sew, bake or have family time together. Movie attendance has been higher, television is a waste of time so read a book, scrapbook or write in your blog. Facebook and Twitter are an answer to something and we're all jumping on board. I really don't think it has so much to do with communication as it does with connecting. The world it tough right now so find a person - that is more real and there is comfort in it. Family seems more important now too. My kids and the grandchildren have always been my rock but I take time to really think about how much I appreciate what I have in my life and don't have the big wish list I used to. The babies are toddlers now and watching their discovering what they can do has been such a boost to my mood. It all looks so impossible and they nail it and make it look easy. Kids really are a wonder to behold.

Life is rough right now and finding that glimmer that makes you smile makes a much bigger impact now. Just today I got an email with a link to a beautiful photography site that offers inspiration for work I will do in digital scrap booking. It's http://www.thephotographicdictionary.org/home.html. Pick a word and think of how you could use it to make a picture . It can be used for much more than just photography. The pictures it shows for each word are beautiful by themselves though.

Hope this finds you well and thanks for stopping by.

Hannah

Dreaming in Colors