This pretty planet

It's 40 years since the first Earth day--  40 years since Cleveland's polluted Cuyahoga River caught fire, waking us up to devastation we were wreaking on our planet.  Things have actually improved some since then.  The skyline is more visible in some cities, and not everything that comes into our houses ends up in our landfill.   But it isn't rosy.  We are in danger of reaching the earth's carrying capacity.  We continue to overload our atmosphere with carbon (and if you don't buy global warming, please, please check out the research).  


I went to a lecture last week by National Geographic executive editor for the environment's Dennis Dimick.  He showed horrifying pictures of the very real effects of human impact on our fragile home, and implored the audience to take action to stop the carnage.  It's easy to get so overwhelmed by the immensity of the issue that we are paralyzed.  Luckily, I saw Nobel laureate Jodi Williams give a talk a couple of days later at OSU's Peace Jam.  Entitled "When Ordinary People Achieve Extraordinary Things", it was medicine to many weary hearts.  Ms. Williams was a principle force  in the international campaign to ban landmines.  A down-to-earth, cowboy boot wearing gal, Jodi encouraged listeners to stop whining and DO SOMETHING.  She is a living example of how an everyday person can enact profound changes within a lifetime.  No time, you say?  She brooks no excuses.  Cut out an hour of, say,Seinfield reruns or Starbucks stops to churn up a little action about something that really worries you.  She's no partisan-- she doesn't care if it's landmines, education, poverty, civil rights.  She wants you, as Gandhi said, to BE the change you want to see in the world.   And she noted that if every citizen in Oregon devoted one hour a month to volunteer activism, well, that's 3 million hours a month!


What do you worry about?  What are you going to do about it?


Need a little inspiration?  If you're from these parts, visit this link of the Northwest Earth Institute and take a class that will shake up your life and maybe change your world.   
 Here's a few more useful links:
Earth Day home page :  Sign the Earth Day 2010 Climate Declaration.  Find ways to get involved.
Corvallis Environmental Center:  Take a hike.  Find out about local environmental initiatives.  Get to know your ecosystem and more.
Population information and impact here.
Science Daily's environmental new digest
Small things can make a difference:  Treehugger.com talks about some here
and there are 50 more here.
To keep your heart lightened, visit or subscribe to ODE magazine, for "intelligent optimists".
Today's quote:  "To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded."  — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Today's song:  Big Yellow Taxi, by Joni Mitchell

Sticking to-- or getting stuck in-- your story

Most of you have heard the story of the three blind men coming upon an elephant in the jungle.  Each reaches out to touch a different part.  One grabs a leg and says, "We must have arrived at the pillars of the great Such-and-Such Temple."  Another, hitting the side, says, "Oh no, it's the Wall of Nazar."  The third, grabbing the tail-- who knows what he thought.

Our story about what we experience isn't reality, but the beliefs or understanding of our experience about it.  As someone more succinct said:  Don't confuse the map with the road.   I used to give a talk about this concept, and for illustration would show three maps of Portland.  One, a  topographic map, showed contours illustrating changes in elevation and landscape.  Another showed physical features-- rivers, forests, etc.  The third was a street map.  All were "true" stories of Portland-- but which would serve you better if you were trying to get to Powells?

How attached are you to your current story?  And is it getting you where you want to go?

We all have  stories about ourselves and our experience.  Sometimes our stories serve us, other times they can constrain us. And the more we hear any story-- even when we are telling it to ourselves-- the more likely we are to believe it, to internalize it.

No child is born believing they are worthless, terrible, stupid.  But a child who hears it often enough will believe it.  And we all grow up in a consumer economy that survives by telling us we are not enough-- how else to sell us things we don't need?  We have to be convinced us we are lacking.

Milton Erickson, a gifted psychiatrist, often helped clients create positive stories about their worth via hypnosis.  He would even invent a kindly aunt or teacher for adults who as children had no safe role models. His unique inventions of new stories had real-life benefits:  the patients began seeing themselves through healing, affirming reflections.

There are lots of stories about each of us.  What are the stories about your strengths, and possibilities?  Can you give them as much airtime as those about your limitations?

Quote of the day:  The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in. —Harold Goddard

(This was the headliner quote on a great page:  See the rest here at Storyteller.net)

With Love for Phoebe

Phoebe Prince was 15, an immigrant from Ireland's County Clare.  She moved here with her mother and siblings for a chance to experience America.  Her experience was horrendous, and ended up with her death by suicide.  More accurately, she was bullied to death.

A beautiful young woman, Phoebe faced the ire of the South Hadley, Massachusetts "Mean Girl" militia shortly after her arrival.  Her most grievous error according to articles about her death--briefly dated a popular senior football player.  She was harassed daily at school, online, and even after death on her facebook memorial page.  Administrators appear to have known, and turned a blind eye.  This week nine of her taunters were charged, after an investigation into the months of peer abuse that preceded her death.   It's a good start, holding those responsible to at least a public accounting of their behavior.  But it's action taken much, much too late.

Bullying is not child's play.  I see adults in my practice who still bear the scars of cruelty suffered at the hands of their then-peers.  Sometimes, like in  Megan Meier's cases, adults were involved in the bullying.  The effects are profound.  Although our school district in Corvallis, like many, has a written anti-bullying policy, I hear several stories every year that show intention is not enough.  We need to support a real "no tolerance" policy for bullying.  In-school suspension with mandatory counseling or anti-harassment education would be a start.  Teacher reporting is essential.  It's not a matter of "kids will be kids".  It can be a matter of life or death.

Several years ago, just a block or two from my home,  a youth was severely beaten by his school mates after being taunted about his sexual orientation.  My partner, profoundly disturbed that this could happen in our allegedly tolerant town, canvassed places of worship and community business to purchase an ad in the newspaper decrying the action.  The ad contained a half-page poster that could be displayed on doors to designate the home/building as a safe space where all were welcome, regardless of race, sexual orientation, ability, etc.  It's time to take up the banner again-- not just with words but with deeds.  Stand up against bullying.  Call it out when you hear it.  Educate, educate, educate.  Don't let hurtful words go unchallenged. Ask your school officials what they are doing to teach and support not just tolerance, but compassion.

Resources:  Mean Girls:  Tina Fay directed this funny but poignant movie about being on the outside of the "popular crowd". This is a good conversation starter for middle school girls and parents.  The movie was inspired by the book Queen Bees and Wannabes, by Rosalind Wiseman, educator and advocate.  Click on the link to visit her blog.
Click to listen to Janis Ian's At 17-- a classic song capturing the difficulties of being on the outs of the in crowd.
Tolerance.org is a site devoted to social justice and raising awareness about the problems of hate and intolerance in our culture.  They provide excellent curriculum to schools and other organizations at no cost.  Help them in their good work out with a donation.
Dr. Ken Rigby offers good resources on his site about school bullying and what can be done to address it.
An article about bullying and suicide, by Kevin Caruso can be found here, along with links to prevention sites. Read these four stories about those whose lives were cut short.  These were people's beloved sons and daughters.  Be part of the solution, in their memory.
Ryan's Story
Jared's Story
Maria Herrera
Jaheem Herrera
Be part of the solution, in their memory.

She with her head in the clouds

While out walking tonight, the weather shifted rather quickly and the clouds were amazing.  It's the second time this year I've seen what looked like the newly-named "asperatus" formation-- undulating, pitted looking waves that resemble a choppy sea.  Beautiful, awe-inspiring sky.

I'm surely one of the 10-20% of the population born with an anxious gene.  Evolutionarily, it would serve to have a stock of folks who tend to the signs around-- hyperalert for changes, radar always on, ready for action.  So I notice things, and I pay attention to all sorts of stimuli others miss. It might look like ADHD (and I am probably the poster gal for that too) but it's more over-attention than lack of it.  The plus part is I see the clouds. And a lot of other things-- tiny mushrooms, heart-shaped rocks, four-leafed clovers.  I have a super sense of smell-- walking at night especially brings a cascade of information about people's laundry, recent cigarette break, cats in the garden, etc.   I notice car bass thumping, airplanes passing,  the tv show at the neighbors. I notice moods and gestures of people too-- what some might call "vibes" but my pragmatic brain thinks is just subtle information that predicts behavior in other.

The down side of this-- it can be awfully busy inside my brain.

To soothe my over-active sensorium, I head for nature when possible.  I love being in the wild, with its lack of signage and its more lulling soundscape.  I sleep better on my much-too-rare camp trips, especially when I've had a day of rowing or other physical activity and synched with the sun's up and down.

"It's not the hand you're dealt, but how you play the cards," someone said.  We're made all kinds of ways.  We don't have a lot of choice in it, but we can make use of who we are and find ways to decrease the burdens of our particular proclivities.

I'll write more about theories on the "sensorially acute" in the future.  For interesting reading now, see these resources:
NY Times:  Understanding the Anxious Mind
Books:
Self Test: Are you Highly Sensitive?  by Elaine Aron.  She is the author of several books on the subject, including "The Highly Sensitive Person's Survival Guide.  Her website is here.
Two free short meditation downloads--using "brain-synch" technology-- can be found by clicking on this link at brainsynch.com.
Check out Richard Louv's book, The Last Child in the Woods.  As far as I can tell, he coined the term "Nature Deficit Disorder", and posits a powerful argument for how nature can cure what ails us.
Shut Up Already:  Read this short article from Wired mag on how rare quiet has become, even in nature, and what trouble that can cause.  "Biophonist" Clive Thompson finds that disruptions in the natural soundscape can profoundly and negatively alter the wildlife within it.

Now go find some peace and quiet--
Jana

With Love for Ansel, 9/20/85-3/18/06

Name me no names for my disease

With uninforming breath;
I tell you I am none of these,
But homesick unto death.

             ----Witter Bynner
 "The Patient to the Doctors"

     Ansel died at 20, waiting for a transplant that might have kept him journaling, poetgaming and mountain climbing.  A few weeks before he died, I visited him in New York.  When I asked what I could bring him from Oregon, he said: "Seaweed-- lots of kelp.  I want to take a bath in it and pretend I am in the ocean".  (I did, and he did).

       He packed more life into two decades than many of us could in five, and had a heart the size of Texas.  His family and friends miss him very much but are ever enlarged and grateful for our brief time with him. 

Give the gift of life:

GIVE BLOOD

BECOME AN ORGAN DONOR

Billy Collins :The Dead

Song of the day: A seeker and poet like Anselin, Dave Carter wrote his own eulogy song a few years before his unexpected passing.  He plays it here with the gifted Tracy Grammar.  More at daveandtracy.com

RELEASE

Barn's burnt down --
    now
I can see the moon.

---Mizuta Masahide, 1657-1723


It's springtime in Oregon.  We know, because on the rare occasion the sun is shining we can see the little furry patches of moss on our ankles starting to spore.    Time for a little spring cleaning.
I must have come from the gathering part of the hunter/gatherer tribe.  I collect.  A couple hundred heart shaped rocks are piled under the base of the front yard maple, and most are under a few years' worth of leaf litter.  There are bowls and stacks of rocks around my house, in my office, providing a nice natural counterpoint to rest of the clutter.  I'm a sentimentalist.  I have the orange my sweetheart brought me 20 some years ago on our second date-- I was sick, too sick to eat it, and it quickly desiccated on the window sill and has followed house to house since.  
Some of these things I am glad follow me.  But it's past time to goodwill, toss out or repurpose the several dozen mismatched socks, 80's business suits, old tupperware bowl without the lid, etc.  I like giving things away as much as collecting them.   I've rehomed many a sentimental piece of art or jewelry.
Here's some resources for reducing your load.
Freecycle is a national network devoted to keeping useful items out of the landfill.  "Useful" is a broad definition-- I've given away a nearly new but unfunctioning printer and ceramic heater to people with more mechanical savvy.  Group names and contact methods vary by location; find yours here.
http://www.freecycle.org/

Locally, the ARC, Cat's Meow, OSU thrift store, Vina Moses, Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity would love to sell your gently used items to fund their good works.
The Northwest Earth Institute offers nearly free classes in voluntary simplicity and sustainable living that will get you thinking about what you need and what it really costs to have it.Today's quote:  It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential. --Bruce Lee
Song of the day:  "Just Let Go", by Karen Savoca
Inspiring vid of the day:  The Story of Stuff

Valentine

Tis the season to reflect on matters of the heart, and the curious nature of Love.
"Love is my religion," said Keats, "I could die for that."
Although some think of Valentine's day as only relating to romantic love, I've always seen it as an opportunity to celebrate all forms of affection and connection.  You have your eros, sure-- that adrenaline (or more precisely  androgen and estrogen, dopamine and norepherine) fueled state.  But there's also attachment based love, which biochemically speaking is more driven by oxytocin, and it needs its nourishment as well.  Here's a few inspirational sources featuring the L word to drive your Love Train.  Not all are sweetness and light, but then, the course of true love never did run smooth, right?
Books
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, short stories by Raymond Carver
Love is a Dog from Hell, poems by Charles Bukowski
A Natural History of Love, by journalist/poet Diane Ackerman (nonfiction)
Love in the Ruins, Walker Percy's 1970s satire of American Culture
Twenty Poems of Love and A Song of Despair, poetry by Pablo Neruda
A General Theory of Love, by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lanin-- three psychiatrists look at love from a social and neurophysical perspective
Love is a Verb, by Gary Chapman-- a practical self-help book on bringing back gracious kindness to relationship
Music
Love Train, The O'Jays
Love Shack, The B52s
Love Potion Number Nine:  The Searchers
Poems too numerous to mention, but here are three good sources and one poem to seed you:
Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac
Joe Riley's Panhala.net
poets.org

i am so glad and very

merely my fourth will cure
the laziest self of weary
the hugest sea of shore

so far your nearness reaches
a lucky fifth of you
turns people into eachs
and cowards into grow

our can'ts were born to happen
our mosts have died in more
our twentieth will open
wide a wide open door

we are so both and oneful
night cannot be so sky
sky cannot be so sunful
i am through you so

--ee cummings

"it is better to break one's heart
than to do nothing with it," said writer margaret kennedy

"nothing exists that so fills the heart and binds it as love"
--umberto eco

"if you love others, you will be loved. perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in
a thousand years, but you will be loved. nature must pay off the
debt...it is a mathematical law, and all life is mathematics."
---gurdjieff
 
"love makes even asses dance."
--french proverb

And finally, this sweet video of All You Need is Love, which yes I have posted before--
 Happy Valentine's Day!

Be A Big Container

Can you be a big enough container for all that life brings you? 
We are as capable of love and joy as we are of sorrow and pain.  We don't get to avoid the latter if we allow the first.  We can delay suffering, but we don't escape it-- it becomes the bandaid off slow or quick dilemma. 
Be a curious, compassionate observer of your pain.  Look for the information it delivers.
------------

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.


The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

-- Jelaluddin Rumi,
translation by Coleman Barks

Speaking of Creativity...

Got ten minutes? Write a story. Some years ago I was part of a lively little poet game group. We'd have haiku and limerick wars, take turns writing chapters of a story, "translate" poems written in languages we didn't know. One day the fab S. Elsemore started what he thought was going to be a beginning of a group story, only to have it hit the page all done. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
By the way-- the pic was a group doodle done through some nifty ap.

Microfiction by Stephen Elsemore
-------------
A couple was having breakfast. The man was reading the travel section of the newspaper.

He said, "You know what's funny? Sometimes I have the feeling that if I just found a good place to sit and watch somewhere, and sat there long enough, then it wouldn't matter how remote or small the town or how side the street. Eventually there's just about nothing and nobody that wouldn't come passing by."

She said, "Yeah? Why don't you go try it."

It was a joke, but too quick. He said, "OK, I will." Then he went out to his car and started driving. He got on the highway and headed south. He drove four hours straight, then he started to feel a sadness pulling at him. He decided it was coming from all the weird little towns that were just a half-mile or so off the highway; the ones whose exit signs didn't say gas and didn't say food so there was
no reason for anybody to do anything but whoosh on by. But how could they help but feel all that whooshing, even if the highway wasn't close enough to hear it?

He took an exit and several minutes later he was in one of the towns. He parked in front of a broken meter and got out to walk. All the meters were broken. Between the bar and the diner he hesitated, then went into the diner. He sat down at a booth with a view of the street and started his waiting and watching. While he
waited he listened in on conversations at the other booths.

A lady said, "So what a lot of people don't understand is that past lives don't have to be in the past when it comes to years. Like, your last life might have been as a lawyer in the 2100's, and your next one might be as a poet in the Ming dynasty. Eventually, I think, we all of us get to each be Jesus once, which is the ultimate goal, then we're through with lives and we kind of get thrown back
into the mix and become part of everything."

Someone else said, "Hmmm." And ordered some cherry pie.

"Sure beats 15 minutes of being famous," thought the man who had been driving. He tried to remember the last time he'd had cherry pie.

At another booth a good-looking young man was talking to a pretty young woman, probably his wife. He said, "Sure I told a bunch of people about your buttfoot, but they were friends and I said it with love."

The waitress came over to the waiting and watching man. He ordered a cup of coffee. She said, "I don't know what it is about you. There's something. You have that look like you're the hero of some story." He said, "I'll take that coffee black." She walked off, shaking her head.

There seemed to be a simultaneous lull in all the conversations, so he got up and walked over to the jukebox. He put in a quarter and pressed B4, which was supposed to be a blues number. What he didn't know was that the chef, who was also the owner of the place, had a joke he liked to play which was to switch a few of the songs so that somebody who thought they were playing something cool and soulful would end up playing something ridiculous and hopefully end up real embarrassed, which could be funny to watch. He was a good cook, although still several lifetimes away from being Jesus. But he was god of his jukebox.

The man said, "Huh." He walked back to his booth while the voice from the jukebox went on about somebody leaving a cake out in the rain. A woman smiled at him as he passed and said, "I remember that song." He smiled back and sat down at his booth, where his coffee was waiting. After a few minutes he put two dollars on the table and left the diner and drove home to his wife.

Resolution of the Day: CREATE

It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.  —Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Inspiration originates from the Latin  inspirare-- to breathe in.  When we add our breath to an idea, we emulate the Creator.  We are born full of ideas.  Don't give them up.

In my work as a therapist, it has been my good fortune to midwife some undiscovered poets, artists and writers.  I truly believe creativity may be the stabilizing leg of the good life and an essential element to wellness.   Where else can we have such control and generative power as in our imaginations? 

Creativity can become rusty and dusty when left unused.  It can be timid if unsupported.  But it's rarely extinguished.  Give it a little light and air, and it will give back to you in spades.

Julia Cameron has made a career out of encouraging creativity in her books series starting with The Artist's Way.  It's a curriculum designed to nurture the reluctant or undiscovered artist; find it at your local new or used independent bookstore or library and try it out a few weeks.

There's plenty of websites that will jumpstart you if you're nervous or just want to dip your toe in the water.  Try these:

languageisavirus.com with poetry, character and other generators
Mr. Picasso Head --DYI picasso portraits
auto modrian:  Create your own Mondrian painting
National Gallery of Art interactive zone:  from Spirographs to collages

But you don't need a computer to make stressless art.  Go to the woods and build a fairy house in the roots of a tree using mosses and found objects, or try your hand at a Andy Goldsworthy inspired piece. 

The world is but a canvas to the imagination. — Henry David Thoreau

Resolution of the Day: LOCALIZE

Saturday morning at farmer's market meant Saturday lunch of fresh black trumpet mushrooms, eggs that remember what a chicken looks like, luscious butterball potatoes and a memorable creamy havarti "from a single herd of happy local cows." I cannot personally attest to the cow's happiness, but that was a heck of a good piece of cheese.
Local food supports sustainable farming practices and the farmers that make them possible.  When food doesn't have to be refrigerated and shipped long distance, there are real energy savings-- energy that contributes to the true cost of food not just on our pocketbook but on our planet.  An oh my-- that short distance between farm and palate makes a tremendous difference to the palate.  
Take the local challenge.  See how close to home you can keep your mouth and pocketbook this week. If you are lucky like we are in Corvallis, you'll get lots of help from your local co-op, farmer's market and that endangered species, the local supermarket (we love you, Richey's!).  Don't feel like cooking?  Several Corvallis restaurants pride themselves on serving fresh local fare.  If you live elsewhere and don't have such luxuries, try the classified ads to see who's selling what.  In the summer, grow your own and trade your neighbors.  We always have too many grapes, plums, pears and tomatoes and squash and love it when we can swap those for crops that didn't get in the ground.
Bon local appetite!
By the by-- I realize I devoted all this local thought to food, but there are also huge community benefits to applying the localizing philosophy to our other purchases as well.  Think globally, invest locally.

Book of the day:  Animal, Vegetable, Mineral:  A Year of Food Lore by Barbara Kingsolver
Site of the day: http://100milediet.org
Group of the day:  Slow Food USA
Movie of the day:  Ingredients, featuring farms from our beautiful valley

Resolution of the Day: PERSEVERE

Some things never change. In August, maybe even July, our neighbors gave us a bag of tomatoes from their garden.  Included was this gem, about the size of a slightly flattened softball.  There was some mention of it being an unusual variety that would turn greener as it ripened.   It's still sitting on my counter, six some months later, as the crocuses start to bloom around town.   Far as I can tell, it's the same color, heft and firmness it was last summer. I don't know what sort of tomato it is, besides a real genetic freak, and extremely persistent. To what end?

At least it can serve as an example for me-- an example of hanging in there despite odds.  Seasons change, the news gets grimmer and yet we get up in the morning and do what needs to be done. Love wins out.  Or hope.  Or tomatoes.

Song of the day:  Hang On, Little Tomato:  Pink Martini
Book of the day:  The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollen (a history of adaptation and the perseverance of genes)
Movie of the day:  Away We Go (2009)-- holding on to love in spite of evidence to the contrary
Quote of the day:  "Fall seven times, get up eight".  --Japanese proverb
Quote redux: "If you are facing the right direction, all you need do is keep walking."  --Buddhist proverb

Resolution of the Day: OBSERVE

Photo:  Carbon antlers ( Xylaria hypozylon) McDonald Forest, Corvallis, OR

Yeah, yeah, yeah-- I know I fell down on the job for a few days--

Today's quote:  "The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."  --Marcel Proust

Five things I saw today I would have missed had I not walked to work:
1)  The yellow and purple crocus buds that I at first mistook for plastic trash--  what are they doing here, in Janary?
2)  The beautiful pink elephant painted on a wooden board, nailed to a telephone pole.
3)  The miniature Chinese gardens of mosses and lichens on the tree bases
4)  The homeless man sleeping in the doorway
5)  The single lonely boot by the gutter

Take some time today to pay attention to what normally would be background.  For inspiration, read this article from last Sunday's Bew York Times:  "In a City of Renters, the Theater of Life on a 27-Minute Cycle."

Are you, as my parents often said of me, "of the world, but not in it"?  What will you miss, if you aren't paying attention?

Resolution of the Day: GRIEVE

Today we said goodbye to our sweet Labrador, Jetta.  She's been an uncomplicated, devoted companion and a bonding part of my family's history for 15 years.  A couple of weeks ago she started wandering out under the sheltering cypress.  A few days ago she began refusing her food.  It took us a week or two longer than it took her to accept that she was ready to go.
   I work to hold gratitude for all our time together in the same heart as my sadness for the loss.  As much as I wish we could have avoided the pain of this day, it is a bargain for all gained from her.

----
Three benefits of crying:

--Releases stress (both psychologically and physiologically)
--Communicates distress and our need for comfort
--Communicates connection and compassion for others in grief
-----

My Cup

They tell me I am going to die.
Why don't I seem to care?
My cup is full. Let it spill.   --Robert Friend


Song of the day: You Can Close Your Eyes (James Taylor song covered by William Fitzsimmons)
It's a repeat, although I originally planned to use it on this post.  We had a reprieve, and I didn't need it yet.  Thanks for the extra time, Jetta...rest now.

"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight."  --Kahlil Gibran

Resolution of the day: NURTURE

What you feed, grows.

Resolution of the Day: VOTE

Your vote is your voice.  Use it.  We mostly think of voting as being about elections, and here in Corvallis there is a very important one on the horizon.  If you are registered, use your ballot to support your values.  There are other ways we vote, though.  We vote with our wallet-- every time we pay a little more to buy at the independent bookstore or coffeehouse, we vote to keep those people and the services they provide in our community.  When we buy organic or avoid caged hen eggs, we vote about what's likely to be more available at our stores as well what we value and desire in our food supply.  When we show up at a local event, we vote to keep events like that coming in our community.  When we donate to the food or blood bank, we vote that these needs are important and should be met. What do you value?

          

Resolution of the Day: WALK

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk.  Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness.  I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.  --Soren Kierkegaard

 

Ten good reasons to walk, by Wendy Bumgardner.  Live longer, lose weight, prevent diabetes, and more.  "When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fiber of your body.  I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out".  --Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

And there's also

1.  Time to think.  "Thoughts come clearly while one walks".  --Thomas Mann

2.  Savings in time and money:  See the math here.  

3.  Carbon load reduction: Each gallon of gas used equals 19.5 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions according to US Department of Energy.

4.  A chance to observe things you would otherwise never see.  "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."  --John Muir

5.  Community building:  chat up your neighbors, get to know your town.

 See you 'round the block--

Jana

Resolution of the Day: RELAX

"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop." Ovid               OK, I admit, this is sort of a cheat.  Not that much different from the resolution on REST.  I also admit that I am exercising my already well established imperfection by giving up on getting thirty of these in thirty days. It was worth a try...  But meanwhile, about that relaxing... I'm going to argue (in a really relaxed way) that it's a bit different than resting.  I'm not that great at sitting still.  Sometimes I relax best by shutting up my chattering monkey via occupying another channel, say by writing limericks or doing a crossword.  Walking in the woods always works.  This time of year in the Wet North West, strolling the streets and checking out the rambunctious growth of mosses and lichens is a good salve for my soul.  Listening to music, writing a short story, folding laundry--I'm easily entertained when I am relaxing.  What works for you? 

Great website:  Take Back Your Time.  They are even more relaxed about deadlines than me, considering they are still talking about the October 2009 celebration.

Quote for the day:  "For fast acting relief, try slowing down."  Lily Tomlin

Today's song:  You Can Close Your Eyes, James Taylor tune as covered by William Fitzsimmons

Resolution of the Day: Remember

Quote of the day:  "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it".  --George Santayana

Happy Martin Luther King Day!
When my kids were little and attending preschool in SE Texas, I asked the teacher why there was nothing on the monthly curriculum outline about MLK day.  She informed me that nothing was planned and when I pressed her, said "We already have a plan that week to study community helpers, like policemen and mailmen."  I replied first, that MLK most certainly met my criteria as a community helper, and secondly, not all police or letter carriers were men. That fell on deaf ears, but I felt it important to say.  We pulled our kids out of school that day and with some friends, had our first MLK party.  We made a big banner for the front of the house honoring Dr. King.  The kids reenacted Rosa Lee Park's historic bus ride, and learned songs about civil rights.  Then we made cookies (gingerbread, chocolate and sugar) cut out to people shape and distributed them to firefighters and others who did not get a holiday that year.
   Not all resistance has to be violent, or even disagreeable.  Resolve today to stand up, in a kind but firm way, to dismissals of inherent worth and dignity of all people.  It doesn't have to be a grand gesture to be part of the positive tide.  

Further reading:  Xenophobia door number two blog

Song of the day:  Sister Rosa, by the Neville Brothers

Video of the day:  

Resolution of the Day: ACCEPT

"God, give us the grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other."
  --from the original Serenity Prayer
     Reinhold Neibuhr, 1892-1971

Psychotherapist Thom Rutledge says the mathematical equation for pain equals the difference between expectation and performance over time.  Although the tenets of Buddhism suggest that suffering is inevitable, it is notable that suffering increases in reaction to our resistance to reality as it is, rather than as we wish it would be.  While we cannot avoid all suffering, we can choose acceptance as a path to reduce some degree of pain. 

Acceptance does not mean approval. It means relinquishing resistance to a reality you cannot change.  Then, possibly, the energy that is freed can be used to bring changes where you can.  For example, one’s suffering for the suffering of others does not aid them, unless it is transformed into direct action to ease that original suffering.

Today, experiment with accepting at least the minor realities, and use your efforts to affect what is within your power .  Rather than griping about the rain, bring an umbrella.  Rather than lamenting others' bad behaviors, contribute where you can to the general good.

Today's website:   When It is Hot, Be Completely Hot; When it is Cold, Be Completely Cold, by Rev. Kenrei Bassis
 Today's song:  Willy Porter: Unconditional Love