Your Rx: A Hug a Day - Paul Zak

You have probably noticed that it just feels good when you hug someone, opening yourself to love and trust him or her. Whether it be family, lover, neighbor or an open expression of empathy, something inside us changes.

Paul Zak, the speaker in the following TED Talk, tells us why. His prescription for you is eight hugs a day. Who would you hug to fill the daily quota?

So Easy

Ready to give up.

Not give.

Selfish, selfish thoughts bring pain.

Choose another?

No, there is no other.

What to give?

Give a shit.

Have hope. Believe

in happiness.

Believe in Love.

Make this easy, please?

Slow Separation

I've lived in Denver for two months. I love it. It's been the start of my personal reinvention-- a rite of passage, if you will, into my 30s, adulthood, a concerted mission to live my life true to my soul's purpose or die trying.

Spiritually, personally and mentally, it's been a huge success.

However, measure the past two months of my life in economic constraints and you will think my life has taken a turn toward the worse. I ditched my consulting job (that I loved) for a part time job (that I also love). I sold hundreds of dollars of items from my home and reduced my posessions to what feels like next to nothing. I quit drinking alcohol, which I have done numerous times in the past, but this time it represents a reduction in the luxury of wasting time. Though on a global scale, I am still ungodly rich.

This is the first of three three stages of a rite of passage. Separation, transition, and re-incorporation are phases that define socialization, according to anthropologist Arnold van Gennep.

My separation began with the purging of the former self. Somehow I was surprised that this process wouldn't happen in a year. I traveled the U.S., shifted my career focus, cut off my hair, returned to a more modest lifestyle and moved two time zones across the U.S. The symbolic separation from my former self is obvious.

On to the other half of separation, the shedding of illusions, habits, mental tricks and cloudy thinking. This cleansing is a like shoving weed whacker down a plant's stem, and ripping the roots then tilling the soil. It expels thought patterns and delusions incompatible with a more enlightened self that pursues its purpose.

Nurturing and Stabilizing

In order for a potted tomato plant to maintain stability, dirt in its pot should support the stalk up to the lowest stems growing from the base of the plant. At least, that's according to a friend of mine, who suggested this as we were admiring my fledgling plant's progress. Today I added just a bit more dirt around it, and saw there are more than a dozen flower buds. It's about a foot tall and thriving. If I hadn't added the dirt, it could have began to topple over. The extra dirt should keep it straight as it extends toward the hot July sun.

Independence?

Brainstorming a fashion, music, artistic collective

"Some call it environmental activism, I call it living simple so that someone else can live." -Ed Begley Jr.

This is the founding principle behind [a]... collective. This is a lifestyle, suggested as one that fortifies a philosophy based on what needs to be. There are no assumptions, yet we, as the collective, can suggest as methods or ideas that counter those suggested by the corporate media and greed-driven person(hoods).

This is what's next.

We are making this world AND it can be whatever we want.

[[“Where did my mind go … I'm suffering in silences; it's just not happening.” - Beardyman]

You suffer in silence no longer; the collective is your voice.

We need to be smarter, stronger, more resourceful and better at managing this world's resources.

What I say is so important to me that it makes my heart ache for what is next, there is a threshold we must pass, but after that we will thrive and survive much more efficiently than before.

Killing the Ego

Among the 18 prayer pouches I created and set free into the sacred Winter Solstice fire was an intention to become aware of my ego.

Ego is taking control at the moment. I'm getting my hair bleached and it burns. This is sick, silly, stupid.

I awaited the appointment for a few moments near the shampoo sinks and watched the hair stylist-savior apply highlights to two women at a time. He and his assistant marched to and fro dispensing foil strips and dollops of bleach in modest rows of female hair follicle.

They marched one by one whipping in tandem plastic measuring bowls squirts of lift, lighten, glow and ego boost.

It was my turn and we discuss the risks of going blond: my original albeit spontaneous intention. Brown was every other day of the past 30 years. Apparently it's my intention to call attention. Blond, I decide.

He worked the purple goo into my scalp and covered it under plastic to keep it warm. It tingled at first then the sensation ceased.

He left me to write, to literally reflect in the 30-foot wall-to-wall mirror.

Gone was some of the anxiety that had been churning my stomach this week. Gone was the fear of being mistaken for the beaten and bruised trailer park whore twin of Eminem.

"The state of bliss is constant, unaffected by gain or loss." That's what a tiny piece of paper propped against a model of the Sears Tower inside my medicine cabinet reminds me every time I open it to brush my teeth.

Tehro, the stylist-savior, checked on me.
"When your natural color starts coming in," he started, then I interrupted, "I'll bring it back to brown."
"You don't want to go blond one more time?
"If you let me take some pictures of you for my portfolio we'll have Mandy put some makeup on you and take a few pictures. I'll do it again complimentary."

I never even considered that after my bestie gave me a very poor bleach job that I would receive a silver lining of a modeling gig of sorts.

I am feeling better already.

Funny how that works. I'm just completely immersed in the material world. A silly hair dye gone wrong rocked my superficial world and sent me into a plummeting malaise.

And now I'm going to let my self worth skyrocket because I'll look edgy and someone wants me to smile for a camera.

Ah, the irony of Maya.

Cleanse of Spring

Discarded remains of human waste, infrastructure
and transportation
slowly disappear behind leafing tree branches
and creeping forest undergrowth.

Soon the forgotten roads, long-ago fallen bridges, stray garbage
and abandoned houses and autos will go away
until autumn reveals their jagged lines once more.

Through this season and the next,
we can pretend
this earth is cleansed of our influence.

June 7, 2009

Forgive me if I seem furious

Open Letter to Virginia Senator Stuart, my representative to the Virginia Legislature:

I am curious what you had in mind when you voted in favor of SB 1025 last week.

Was it your constituents? Clean water and land? Lobbyists for the coal industry? This is 2011 and elected officials who obey the coal industry are so 1900s.

Votes like this belong in the last century.

As one of your constituents, I am extremely disappointed that you voted for this bill. It will make it easier for mountaintop removal sites, and their associated toxic mining waste dumps known as "valley fills," to get permits.

The bill will tie the hands of Virginia officials, restricting their ability to use the effluent testing and water quality monitoring necessary to protect Virginia's waterways and communities from the severe impacts of surface mining.

The bill also repeals the State Water Control Board's authority over an important category of pollution discharge permits, eroding the authority of this board of citizen experts.

To do their jobs, Virginia regulators must be able to use all tools at their disposal to assess water quality impacts when evaluating and enforcing permits. This bill will unnecessarily restrict their authority to gather and consider evidence, leading to dangerous leniency in permitting and enforcement.

Finally, SB 1025 sets a bad precedent by creating an exemption in state implementation of the Clean Water Act and repealing the State Water Control Board's authority over a critically important category of permits. Similar measures could be proposed to create loopholes for other pollution sources.

In the future, I hope you will vote to INCREASE protections of Virginia waterways, and the people of Virginia, not to allow easier destruction of Virginia's precious natural resources.

Autumn Wanes

Winter is approaching
Cold, crackling leaves

DEATH

snaps frozen trees
shaking among a frigid


14 degrees


This upcoming winter solstice will bring a clearing, cleansing tide of change magnified by the full moon's powerful aspect in conjunction with the December 21 change of season.

Breaking and Entering

Love and kindness

Soft side
Photographs
moving picture
It's all a part of me
... parts of you


However brief

be free again


A horizon
Skyline
Perfect
Imperfect
Poisoned

I don't need you
take me anywhere
but right here
This present.

Waste Free

Opposite late-night
convenience,
pre-made meals
and doggy bags
is a life that lives
without waste.

A waste-free life is not easy,
it's not quick
it contradicts
your entitlement.

Live without waste
consider consumption days ahead,
weeks ahead,
months
seasons
ahead
instead of minutes.

Fawn

Delicate fawn with bristly rust-golden hair
Your hooves press thin columns of leg into hardened February snow,
the likes of which you have likely never seen.

Your black eyes follow the sleek silver passenger train rushing through the forest.
This is where I saw you.

And this is when I wondered, is the heat of your breath puffed from your snout warm enough to melt snow hiding berries and leaves?
Did mother deer teach you to make a woodland bed to keep you alive through blizzard-brutalized nights?

Fawn,
what God wouldn't share
its intelligence with such an innocent creature?

DUST

Until the desert knows
That water grows

His lands suffice.

But let him once suspect
That Caspian fact

Sahara dies.

--Emily Dickenson

*Editors note: every single day we change

Departure Day

No coming No going
No after No before
I hold you close to me
I release you to be so free

Because I am in you
and you are in me...
Because I am in you
and you are in me

The Discovery of Energy Fields in the 1940s

We live in the information age and as for human neurological evolution, I'd say, if you don't know you don't know. Messages, data, maps, videos, text, impulses, feelings, rumors and lies are storming our consciousness.

Managing the in-flow of information to our minds challenges the psyche that resists pollution of personal mind-space or, conversely, evades recognition altogether.

Supposedly, I can only speak for myself in this regard of awareness, however, I'm going to risk it and say there are many others who share an ability to absorb information--knowingness--from the universe. And that's why I share with you the following:

The Astral Body of Life Energy
Scientific discovery of the electromagnetic energy that forms an organizing template for the physical body is described in Vibrational Medicine (Rochester, Vermont: Bear and Company, 2001), by Richard Gerber, M.D.: "Neuroanatomist Harold S. Burr at Yale University during the 1940s was styuding the shape of energy fields"-- which he termed "fields of life" or "L-fields" -- "around living plants and animals. Some of Burr's work involved the shape of electrical fields surrounding salamanders. He found that the salamanders possessed an energy field roughly shaped like the adult animal. He also discovered that this field contained an electrical axis which was aligned with the brain and spinal cord. Burr wanted to find precisely when this electrical axis originated in the unfertilized egg.... Burr also experimented with the electrical fields around tiny seedlines. According to his research, the electrical field around a sprout was not the shape of the original seed. Instead the surrounding electrical field resembled the adult plant."
-- The Yoga of Jesus by Paramahansa Yogananda

How to channel your anger over the Gulf spill into actual change: all it takes is two phone calls

I have to hand it to Senator Lisa Murkowski.

She really knows her stuff-- how to please her donors. She receives some of the highest donations from coal and oil lobbyists in Congress. That's why she's trying to strip the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate industries that cause Climate Change and nasty "little" accidents in the Gulf.

But here's something that you and I can do that costs nothing and takes less than 5 minutes-- and actually makes a difference! We can participate in this process-- your senator needs to hear from you, otherwise, they can assume that you are OK with this!

The New York Times is reporting that "several of the moderates who are wavering on it are more likely to vote "yes" this week."

Watch Gillian Caldwell from 1Sky explain:




Now, here's something easy and effective you can do to make a difference: call your Senators (you only have two!--it's super easy) and let them know how you feel about the Murkowski Amendment. Personally, I'm going to advise mine to vote no on S.J. Resolution 26.

Find your representatives here: http://www.1sky.org/lookup

Is an oil spill on the East Coast near? Gulf Stream model shows a frightening possibility

Today brings reports of 15-feet-deep sludgy water, a Gulf Stream simulation predicting oil movement up the East Coast and a filmmaker who says there is a media blackout quelling coverage of the ceaselessly gushing Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Fifty days into this tragedy and the U.S. government cannot estimate just how much red-rust filth is spewing from an uncontrollable leak in the earth's crust.

Is there a culture among oil industry leaders and government officials that lacks accountability and the responsibility of environmental stewardship? Seems so.

Alas, it gets deeper.

Today Rich Matthews, an Associated Press writer, described his dive into the Gulf. As he lowers into the water, his goggles immediately smear with globs of putrid, deadly oil.

"The oil is so thick and sticky, almost like a cake batter. It does not wipe off. You have to scrape it off, in layers until you finally get close to the skin. Then you pour on some Dawn dishwashing soap and scrub. I think to myself: No fish, no bird, no turtle would ever be able to clean this off of themselves. If any animal, any were to end up in this same puddle there is almost no way they could escape," wrote Matthews.
Deepwater Horizon isn't the only accident that has Department of the Interior and oil industry experts stumped.

The leak at the drilling rig Ocean Saratoga in the Gulf of Mexico has been leaking on and off--it's not clear how much-- for up to six years.

"Assuming the leakage rate was always 14 daily gallons, that’s more than 30,600 gallons since 2004," according to Time.

Given that there are thousands of oil wells in the Gulf, it's not surprising that small spills are the norm.

The Deepwater spill promises that there is much more at stake. An informed public that catches a corporation raping mother earth in mid-act does not take the situation lightly. What's terrifying for the oil industry is possibility that Americans could realize we all share the blame.

It is illogical to suppose that complacency has created a culture allowing oil to flow uncontrollably. No one wants to see tar balls floating in the beautiful blue waters of the Gulf -- oil companies included. American demand for oil ensures that this black gold is accounted for to the best of their abilities.

Meanwhile, Memorial Day kicked off another summer swim season.

And AccuWeather's Carly Porter warns that there is a high likelihood of the East Coast's Gulf Stream snagging tar balls and washing them along the eastern seaboard. There is a 100 percent chance that the sludge will hit Pensacola this week and a 40 percent chance that Key West will see tar balls wash up on its shores in the same period. Click here for details.

The University Corporation of Atmospheric Research released this simulation that predicts that after three months, oil will have seeped to North Carolina's coast and beyond:

Humans lack the understanding and technology to stand up against geologic pressure and ocean currents that contain more complexity and power that we care to imagine or acknowledge.

President Barack Obama said he's looking for an ass to kick over this.

The anger rising among us should be channeled and put to use finding a real solution to the conundrum we have found ourselves in. We are the ones we have been waiting for!

To build resilience, courage and community?

What other than a broken oil rig spewing into the Gulf of Mexico 210,000 gallons of sweet crude a day to remind us of the urgency peak oil?

When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
- Cree Prophecy

"I die a little inside everytime I read something new about the spill." It's a sentiment I suspect is shared among millions. We are responsible and we have made a terrible mistake. Pacha Mama's veins bleed unfettered into the Gulf of Mexico to poison the life that nourishes half of the United States. There are already hundreds of people lining up to clean the Gulf. How can I help?

What a divine, sobering opportunity to do the right thing. With 3,858 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico drawing oil at less than efficient rates, could this be time to change? Bill McKibben thinks so.

He and the group 350.org have an invigorating "Get to Work" pledge to shift the energy paradigm in America and around the world. Again, how can I help?

McKibben says we need to buy local and support our local economies.

Great, I feel like I'm already doing something positive. I'm buying more foods from farmer's market a few blocks from my house. I try my darndest to boycott things that aren't made in the U.S. Though I purchased a new spool of DVDs tonight, my computer is rebuilt from used parts and I'm going on year three of my iPhone. I participate in this petroleum-fueled economy with cautious steps and I'm learning more each day.

Thought it's impossible, I try to eliminate waste in my life. This means I've found ways to take responsibility for my waste -- this has had a profound effect on my eating habits. I'm eating things that come inside their own packaging such as apples, bananas and carrots. It's as if there's a direct correlation between the health of the earth, Pacha Mama, and myself. It seems to me that lives are more healthy when they close the "cycle of life" with nature. When we are connected with the source of our foods and goods, everyone gains. Yet, I digress.

Where to start? I've found The Transition Handbook, which promises upbeat and encouraging ways to wean ourselves off of oil. I like the way this sounds:

"These changes can lead to the rebirth of local communities that will grow more of their own food, generate their own power, and build their own houses using local materials. They can also encourage the development of local currencies to keep money in the local area."

If you don't have time to read the book, I offer this TED talk with Transition Handbook author Rob Hopkins. It opens the dialogue on peak oil and what's next-- descent plans, transition plans and emerging movements that foster hopeful ingenuity among strong community relationships. Sounds like a good start to me.

Where has all the litter gone?

Droplets collect in puddles.

Rain spills into drains and worms gasp breaths above soaked soil.

The drops follow ancient, earth-eroding patterns down into streams, down slopes, amassing at the banks of a swirling, churning river of feminine energy.

Low tide pulls in waves the gravity defying currents. It’s as if someone very large lifted the edge of the shore like a blanket to draw the water into the bay, back into the ocean.

Inspired by Virginia's Rappahannock River and the Atlantic Garbage Patch

Do you have courage to see yourself?

The following is from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo.

"How much you do, how little you do, how honest you are, how real you are, how well you apply yourself, it’s really up to you. On this path, literally, the ball is in your court. You can do anything. You can achieve enlightenment, and you can also do absolutely nothing while you're working real hard looking like you are. Think about that and have courage. Have the courage to really walk through the door. That is all anybody asks of you. I want to see you walk through the door of liberation and be free. That’s the point, isn’t it?"

-- Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

All that's in between

All that's in between

Take my feet
so you can travel to the places you love

Take my hands,
fold them in prayer,
and know god again.

Take my ears and
listen -- the vibration of love surrounds you

Take my lips.
They will whisper, "I love you."


I'll give you my eyes so you can see in this mirror,
your magnificent soul of a saint.

Use my arms when yours are weak
to gift to the world your grace

Use them to embrace
your dreams,
your desires,

your children.

If you find your voice won't cry for help
my lungs will shout for you

And if the burden weighs too much,
take a rest -- I'll carry you.

You can have my heart
when you forget how much I love you.

The Sun Would Boil

The Sun would boil the Potomac River right now if it weren't for this fog suspending it above high tide.

From this section of river the sun has lept into the air, feverishly thawing, simmering and warming.

The sun has punched a perfect circle through the fog, a thick paste smeared over the lens of the sky.

Spicy Toes

Today I added cayenne, garlic and hypericum to my homeopathic regime. These supplements are intended to aid circulation and the nervous system, with my foot and ankle being the most needy these days.

The five toes on my right foot wiggle very slowly. Today my foot is elevated here on the desk next to the keyboard. The skin on my toes is a technicolor tapestry of icey white to spicy pink and burgundy. If it wasn't a foot, but rather a bouquet of flowers, I would consider it to be quite a pretty palette.

Its been three months since I've enjoyed a normal gait.

What happened? Tedious circumstances, uneventful injuries piled atop one another until my toes throbbed, tingled and said "no more walking." I sprained my ankle then experienced ligament damage in my foot, where five years ago I ground my foot's soft tissue into a curb. If I were to mimic the injuries in my other foot I would press the soft tissue surrounding the ball of my foot against the swift blades of a food processor.

Simple solution: go to the doctor. A podiatrist in town X-Rayed the foot and put me in a cast for six weeks. The diagnosis was sesamoiditis. The bone in the ball of my foot could be dead. We shied away from paying for an MRI. I have no health insurance. I feel as though I have attained the maximum healing on my own and I just can't "climb" to the peak without more help.

Reaching out
Last week I asked to borrow a friend's cane. What a relief from the pain! It is beautiful as an accessory, a linseed oil stained tree root reaching from the palm to the floor in a sturdy and lightweight curve. I step carefully with it in what must be a painfully slow pace for able-bodied companions. Tuesday tallied the third re-injury when I rolled my ankle over the edge of a sidewalk. It's no surprise -- the muscles in my right calf, ankle and foot are withered and half the size they were in November.

I do what I can to help my body heal. In addition to taking Arnica Montana for inflammation, I have added the supplements Cayenne, hypericum and garlic to aid my circulation and nerves. It feels like the tip of my longest toe has nerve damage, a "sleeping" tingle, and I hope that doesn't bode poorly for the parts of my foot that I can't see.

Acupuncture is a viable treatment for nerves, as I have heard, so this is next on the list-- as is buying a health insurance policy to help me cover the cost of the MRI.

Dear Mr. President, show us your leadership, vision

Today the White House phone line, 202-456-1111, is busy. It was busy yesterday, too, so I wrote a note to support President Obama in his effort to negotiate a meaningful agreement in Copehagen. (You can submit your email here, too.)

Dear President Obama and Cabinet Members,

Thank you for your support of and attendance at the Copenhagen Climate Summit.


The health care plan for the world lies in your hands.

Please continue to lead our world to a sustainable, realistic future and seek a binding agreement among world leaders at the Copenhagen Summit today.

Stay longer if you have to.

We need an agreement at this crucial time.

Limiting greenhouse emissions also keeps carcinogens from our air (lungs), water (bodies) and soil (food). Please consider this when you come home to Washington D.C., which is polluted by coal fired power plants just west of our region.

Consider this also for the people in China who suffer from lung, throat and stomach cancer here.

Again, thank you for your leadership and vision during this crucial time.

I hope all of you and your staff have a Blessed Holiday Season!

With Global Love,

Lillian Kafka
Fredericksburg, Virginia, U.S.A., Planet Earth

Heartbreaking Images of Pollution in China

The health of people is intrinsically linked to the health of the earth. These images are two in a series by Lu Guang, a freelance photographer from the Peoples Republic of China. His work here examines the relationship of villagers in China with the industries that often employ and sicken them.


http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

We are challenged to find a more sobering portrait of the ill health of our earth than the air, water and ground pollution depicted these provinces.

I would like to see a ban on these industries and the products they produce. When will there by a dialogue in the U.S.? We can effect this degradation of our fellow humans and our home, the earth, by mandating certain manufacturing standards on products shipped and sold here, can we not?

2 Days Left in Copenhagen: A Plea from my Heart

Greetings, friend!

As you may or may not know, there is a summit going on in Copenhagen to determine how people of all countries will agree to coexist on this earth over the next five decades and beyond.

Climate change is a dire human rights issue that is dependent on our good will and love for all species on this wonderful earth. The earth's health effects our health, and it's precipitous that we in the U.S. are trying to tackle our personal health care system. The Copenhagen summit is being held to create a health care system for the planet and it ends in two days.

Unfortunately, the leaders of these countries won't be able to reconvene after Christmas like the U.S. Congress. We must seize this opportunity! That is why I am pleading with you to sign an online petition today, before the summit ends.

Also, if you are voicing your opinion about our health care system, take advantage of the situation, and voice your opinion on the health of our earth. The phone number for the State Department is at the bottom of this email! (Scroll down)


The goals of this movement are to:

• Encourage world leadership to sign a binding treaty
• Enable future generations to live a life free of worries of climate change
• Offer financing ($10 billion per year ) to aid climate refugees

"You cannot keep quiet now. . You cannot just simply hide behind your own borders because people will be able to find out what's happening will be able to tell the word." - UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Avaaz spoke to UK's Prime Minister Gordon Brown the other day. You can listen to this enlightening interview here.


"Over the next 48 hours it's important for people around the world to register their determination to support action on the environment .. There are millions of people around the world who feel strongly about the climate change agenda ... who would fight [for this]. I would not underestimate the effect [on leaders]. email and twitter that they want an agreement and they want one now! this public expression of opinion will have an effect." - UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown in an interview with Avaaz Sept. 21, 2009

Climate change threatens the lives of people today. Read about it here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6321351.stm and
Read about the effects of climate change on animals at http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/


The following is the sample email provided by AVAAZ. Normally I send these emails without a personal note, but everything you just read was from my heart and soul. Please contact me at http://lonalang.blogspot.com/ if you would like to discuss this issue or provide feedback.

With Global Love,

Lona Lang
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi,

I just joined over 11 million people in the world's largest ever climate petition.

There has never been a more important time to add your name - our message is being delivered to leaders at the Copenhagen climate negotiations later this week.

Please add your voice at

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen_now/98.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

Thanks!

Dear Friends,

With three days to go, the crucial Copenhagen summit is failing.

Tomorrow, the world's leaders arrive for an unprecedented 60 hours of direct negotiations. Experts agree that without a tidal wave of public pressure for a deal, the summit will not stop catastrophic global warming of 2 degrees.

Click below to sign the petition for a real deal in Copenhagen -- the campaign already has a staggering 11 million supporters - let's make it the largest petition in history in the next 72 hours! Every single name is actually being read out at the summit -- sign on at the link below and forward this email to everyone!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen_now/98.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

An Avaaz team is meeting daily with negotiators inside the summit who will organize a spectacular petition delivery to world leaders as they arrive, building a giant wall of boxes of names and reading out the names of every person who signs. With the largest petition in history, leaders will have no doubt that the whole world is watching.

Millions watched the Avaaz vigil inside the summit on TV last weekend, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu told hundreds of delegates and assembled children:

“We marched in Berlin, and the wall fell.
"We marched for South Africa, and apartheid fell.
"We marched at Copenhagen -- and we WILL get a Real Deal.”

Copenhagen is seeking the biggest mandate in history to stop the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. History will be made in the next few days. How will our children remember this moment? Let's tell them we did all we could.l them we did all we could.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen_now/98.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

With hope,

Ricken, Alice, Ben, Paul, Luis, Iain, Veronique, Graziela, Pascal, Paula, Benjamin, Raj, Raluca, Taren, David, Josh and the whole Avaaz team.
-------------------------------

A note from my friend Dec. 17, 2009:

One last plea: Please call the State Department (202-647-6575) and tell them you stand in solidarity with the youth sit-in happening at the State Department right now and the sit-in that happened at the Bella Center in Copenhagen last night (I know some of the brave activists in both): http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/12/17/live-blog-dc-sit-in/

Here's a recap of last night's sit-in in Copenhagen: http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/12/17/live-blog-youth-activists-refuse-to-leave-before-everyones-voices-are-heard/

First Friday of Nov. 2009 in Fredericksburg

Come view the works of Jenny Zoe Casey, Meg Martin, Patty Ormsby and Ruth Ann Loving this Friday at the November gallery reception at Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts. Reception is 6:30-8 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009.

Gallery info: 813 Sophia Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 Tel: 540-373-5646. Hours: 12-4 pm Thurs-Mon; 11-4 pm Sat (Closed Tues.-Wed)

Focus and intention

Perhaps he was looking out for my health, or maybe he just doesn't like the look of his buddy picking up muddy, germ-infested pieces of plastic from the ground. Either way, a dear friend of mine once gently soothed my urgent mother earth-saving psyche with the following words: Don't worry about saving us from a world that's so far gone it'll destroy itself in short order. Start working on meditating yourself off of it.
However thought provoking and expansive his advice, I feel a compulsive need to make even the tiniest daily material effort toward cleaning up the mess my fellow humans seem to compulsively make.
Therefore my life's goals are blending in such a magnificent way that I feel compelled to share them here, in a way to focus them and make them real.
To date, my goal is whittled and polished as follows: To learn ways to compassionately interact with all living beings, lovers, family, friends and strangers while sharing insights on how to live a compassionate lifestyle within the bountiful yet finite realms of our physical planet and its resources.
The first portion of this goal wishes to cultivate compassion on a personal scale to enable me to think, act and speak with loving kindness seeping from every breath. The second is a wish for the cultivation of universal compassion for the earth, and for each and every living, telepathic cell.
Perhaps one day these goals will be the same.

Peace, please

We could all benefit from dusting off this track and listening to a needle sweep the trough of its timeless grooves.
Fortunately there's nothing dusty about Yoko Ono's remixes of the celebrated peace anthem "Give Peace a Chance." Electronic, tribal and world beats steadily shuttle messages of peace and nonviolence through mixed genres of the 21st century. Even though the last four decades hastened a march toward relevant technological, musical and social advancements, a violent context of war and greed still permeate our social consciousness -- and uncannily at that.
The most recent release of Ono's tracks approach the 40th anniversary of John Lennon and Ono's first recording. "Give Peace a Chance" is, again, well timed and needed.
You could be blessed with such youth as to have never heard the original live. Or you did and you remember the passion of the peace movement. Prepare to transcend to 1969, when hopeful young minds wished for a life without violence.
Producers include Tommie Sunshine, Morel, Mike Cruz, DJ Dan, CSS (Brazil), Karsh Kale (India), DJ Tszpun (China), Kimbar (Russia), Death in Vegas’ Richard Fearless (England), DJ Meme (Brazil), Blow Up (Italy), Alex Santer (Greece), and Findo Gask (Scotland).
Take them all for a spin. The updated rhythms and underlying wisdom allows you to wander into a familiar state of mind that stumbles upon a message of peace for the first time. It's novel again. Hopeful again. Possible.

Give it a chance: http://imaginepeace.com/news/archives/5496

THE NATIONAL PARKS: My Parks

"Voyage confirms plastic pollution"

The BBC's environment reporter Judith Burns writes in the Aug. 27,
2009 online edition that yes, the great Pacific trash vortex is real.
It's too late when this debris is polluting out water. We need to stop
it before it gets there.

"Scientists have confirmed that there are millions of tonnes of
plastic floating in an area of ocean known as the North Pacific Gyre."

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8225125.stm

Recycling is Angelic: Japanese aethetics and "what's missing"

I am enjoying this blog by Roland Kelts via Adbusters on Japanese culture and minimalism.
"In Japan the concept of kirei, or beauty, is analogous to being supremely clean..."

"Urban residents in Japan comply by stuffing their bits of garbage into briefcases, pockets and backpacks and carrying them until they arrive at a recycling corner, where they methodically drop each item into its assigned receptacle."

Read more.

Cleaning up the river: update

For the second time this weekend I stopped by the river shore to pick up some garbage (and enjoy the water). This time a woman started gathering cans and wrappers with us. Then her husband told my friends and I that they would take their kids out to pick up litter before the next time they romped in the water.
I'm learning that it's easy to get people to help take care of this planet. I just have to show them how.

Cleansing the shore, cleansing the soul

Hurricane Bill's arrival in Fredericksburg began with a softly falling rain.
I approached the Rappahannock River wearing my gardening gloves and carry two empty garbage bags as a smooth drizzle promised to cut an oppressive heat lingering for most of August. Perfect timing. I was there to scoop up the plentiful garbage along the riverbank before Bill could wash it into the Rappahannock and, eventually, into the Atlantic.

In this area of the city's shore teenagers splash to cool themselves and fishermen draw small- to medium-sized fish from the rushing water. Beer bottles, blunt wraps, condoms, plastic drinking straws, take-out containers and plastic food packaging litter the trail.

In the time that it took for gray clouds to float overhead and burst a steady rain, I gathered about 15 pounds of trash from a small section of the river along Rivershore Road.

The rainy forecast did not preclude a vacant shoreline. I saw two young men swimming and a group of fishermen throwing nets and wearing goggles who were diving into the water for the fish. One of them walked by as I was ripping out strands of fishing wire from the sand and tree roots. Garbage was everywhere.

He asked me if I would like them to "ayudar." Yes, I said. Since they were already waist deep in the river, could they hand me the floating plastic bottles? We were getting soaked one way or another. He came back twice, then a again with handfuls of bottles and trash. His help made me ecstatic.

I had been meaning to pick up trash along the river, just near my house, ever since a few weeks prior. I was there swimming and saw a shameful amount of litter. Every other step was met with a potato chip bag or a beer bottle. I found a plastic bag and filled it to the brim, explaining to my swimming partner that I wasn't there to pick up after other people, I was there to prevent my friends in the rivers and oceans from swallowing these floating plastic pills of poison.

The drizzle turned into a downpour. "You should go home, you're going to get all wet," said one fisherman wearing a "Mexico" shirt. I would leave when the bag was full. I intended to fill one bag per visit and it wouldn't take long. There was plastic bottles, straws, fishing line, glass beer bottles, aluminum beer bottles, plastic forks, chewing tobacco containers, bottle caps, cigar holders, a flip flop, socks and broken Styrofoam cups.

I scaled a rocky ledge, a sure storm water chute whose angles encouraged velocity to whisk into the current all debris lying in its path. One of the fishermen walked around the bottom of the rock outcropping. "Do you have another bag?" he asked. I was thrilled to toss it down to him. "We have some things to put in it," he said.

I found a few more pieces of plastic wrappers and drink containers, cinched my bag and lugged it up the hill to a trash can along the street. I hoped for a minute that someone wouldn't see me, soaking wet, and think I was dumping my own garbage. Driving home I pressed the A/C button and let the cool air dry my arms. Even though my feet were muddy and I had bits of sand and dirt on my clothes, I actually felt cleaner than when I had arrived.

HDR testing

This is my first attempt at creating high dynamic range (HDR) photos.

A Confederate Cemetery in Fredericksburg.

A second HDR attempt went slightly askew because the wind blew the limbs and created a sort of 3D effect.

Sunshine's breaking through clouds.

An angel's somber gesture.

Define LOVE

Love can be expressed through action, the gestures of care and respect for another. Yet inaction can be a more powerful gesture of true love.
Divine love does not seek to control. Pure intentions do not give way to judgement or disrespect for another's need to walk their own road in life.
True love doesn't fall victim to the burden of judgment because love forgives unconditionally.
How does one fall in love?
What is the chemical reaction that causes a lover to admit that his romantic feelings for her have reached an intensity that he recognizes as "love"?
Where does this chemical process occur and is it caused by a chemical at all?
Can love be defined by the scientist in a lab where lust and complimentary personalities are condenced into their respective liquid and gas compounds, then blended carefully in a beaker that will glow with the combusting energy produced by this phermone-induced explosion?

Commute - Nov. 19, 2008

Hush, my child, you have control of your world
Those tiny, fleshy fingers of yours have got it

That oil-squirting teet of lurching nightmares and lead
Is your mind playing tricks

It's the eleventh month
And this clean air is my promise

Your ancestors fueled their dreams
by the gallon,
But, baby, they saw mammals dying by the dozens,
then the wiser of our race outlawed oil decades ago.

Now hmmmmm
Let this electric motor lul
hmmmm
mmm