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.