deeply experiencing

After a long winter indoors it feels so good to be outside, open your arms wide in exuberance, and breathe in the fresh moist spring air in big gulps. Ahhhhhh.........Smelling the air is a thrilling experience, just like digging into the dirt and feeling the soil crumble in your hands, touching the tender spring flowers and shoots that are coming up out of the ground, seeing the fresh spring colors emerging, and listening to the gentle breeze whooshing in the trees.

What we don't usually realize is that all of these sensations occur simultaneously. What a much deeper experience to pause and take all of these impressions in together, the way they actually occur.  When you are fully in that moment with nature it becomes an overwhelmingly complex, almost dizzying meditation. How does that moment feel then?

On the other hand, when we dissect a moment's experience into the different names we give it - hearing the breeze, smelling the fresh air, feeling the tender shoots, seeing the fresh colors - we experience these sensations consecutively.   The separation occurs because we put the sensations into words, which inherently happen consecutively, and because we think about them. We can't simultaneously think about three different sensations that happen at the same time. Impossible. But we can experience them if we become still, get the words out of the way, and just BE. Just being makes you shift from seeing the world in consecutive flat segments, to a complex holographic whole.

trash free?

San Francisco diverts 80% of its trash from landfills. Its goal is to become a zero waste city by 2020, meaning that no household garbage goes back into the waste stream, but instead will be entirely recycled or composted (industrial and commercial garbage are a much greater challenge yet).

If you live in a single family home take a look at your own garbage and recycling cans. What size are they? Which one is bigger? If your garbage can is the same size or bigger than your recycling can there is room for improvement. If you live in an apartment and bring your garbage and recycling to the communal building cans you may have less of a gauge of the quantities of waste you produce, and the ratio between recycling/composting and garbage. Still, become aware of which you empty more often, your recycling or your garbage, and where you may be able to improve.

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I must confess that I currently don't compost, although that will change come spring. My composting can is waiting out there, deeply buried in the snow. Other than that, we recycle everything we possibly can. Besides the obvious, such as newspapers and glass jars, it includes toilet paper and paper towel rolls, yogurt cups, aluminum foil, all recyclable plastic bagging or packaging, gift wrap, paper tags and what not. In an average week (meaning no parties) our family of four produces about one big 13 gallon (biodegradable) garbage bag full of waste. That includes what ought to go onto the compost pile (tea leaves, produce scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, tissues and paper towels). Once we compost again our waste output should be about half a big trash bag full per week.

Please return to previous posts on the environmental trash mess, recycling more, buying less and producing less waste. Then become inspired to waste less.

less (household) waste

And now for the last installment on reducing waste. It is better for the environment and our landfills if we keep as much waste out of them as possible.

freecycle

The first tip to reducing household waste is to buy less stuff (especially stuff of the plastic kind), and to buy more carefully. We live a life of luxury and abundance (even if it doesn't always seem that way), are tempted by the many bargains and sales that pressure us into buying, and often make spontaneous purchases that we don't need or even like (hence buyer's remorse). With regard to quality over quantity my dad used to say that he "can't afford to buy cheap." What he meant was that cheap stuff breaks faster and therefore needs to be replaced faster, and so ultimately costs more (and creates more waste).  Better to buy good quality items even if they are more expensive upfront. They will last longer and are a better investment in the long run.

Next tip is to recycle and buy recycled, aka second hand. This also reduces the amount of things that need to be manufactured, and the amount of things going into the waste stream. I buy a lot of clothes at second hand shops (I find more interesting things there, and I do hate mall shopping with a passion), donate unwanted furnishing items to a local shelter coordinator, and unwanted books to my local library. You can also resell your books on cash4books.net, as a friend recently pointed out. There are second hand shops for furniture now, and then there are whole organizations, such as Freecycle.org, that do nothing but help people shuffle their unwanted stuff around. Check it out, they have local chapters everywhere.

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Repair, repair, repair is my mantra. Recently, I had a pair of 20-year-old leather boots repaired that was still in good condition and which I really like. The repair was not inexpensive, but I prevented the boots from filling the landfill some more and I supported my local cobbler. Unfortunately, many appliances and electronics are inexpensive and have what they call "built-in obsolescence," and are often impossible to get repaired. It is frustrating. But I spent a few hundred dollars more on a new washing machine recently, which is supposed to last 15-20 years, instead of another one I was considering with an 8-10 year lifespan.

And lastly, I use www.ourcommonplace.com/yourlocation quite frequently for either donating and selling items, or requesting things I need. A while ago I needed reusable name tag holders for a local non-profit and found them for free from someone who had a box of them stashed away they no longer needed. More recently, we were looking for a ping pong table and I asked the local commonplace forum whether anyone was selling a used ping pong table. Lo and behold, a kind neighbor offered us one for free.

less (paper) waste

Since we take (too many) trees down to make paper, it makes sense to become more aware of the amount of paper we use and be diligent about it. Let's try to reduce its use, save it, reuse it or at least recycle it. Paper can be recycled multiple times before it becomes unfit for another cycle.

Reading your paper online, your books on an e-device, and sending emails and e-cards (and who writes paper thank-you cards anymore?) helps to reduce the amount of paper that needs to be manufactured. Although tedious, unsubscribing from catalogs you don't want is an important action. I save and reuse paper gift bags if they are in good condition. And in general, I am a dedicated, bordering on obsessive, recycler of all household paper and cardboard, such as cereal and other cardboard packaging, newspapers and magazines, Amazon shipping boxes (if I can't reuse them for sending out something else), envelopes, toilet paper and paper towel rolls (if I find them in the garbage I will take them out).

Since I get me eggs from friends or local farms I always bring the egg cartons back for reuse. Books you no longer want can be donated to your local library, or be given to friends who have not read them.

In my home office I make double-sided copies or print-outs, or print on back pages (the kids generate tons of one-sided school related paper I print on).  I also use shredded paper as packing material instead of the terribly environmentally unfriendly styrofoam peanuts or bubble wrap (I shred everything with a name and address on it, which makes for quite a bit of packing material).

If you do need to buy paper and paper goods, and we can't get around basics such as toilet paper and paper towels, paper napkins for the occasional party, or copy paper, consider buying products made from 100% recycled paper. But even I have my limits - I don't buy tissues made from recycled paper because I find them scratchy.

yummy soil

Big-food (the industrial food producers) attempts to compare the difference between organic and non-organic food by asking the wrong questions (on purpose) - whether organics taste any different from non-organics, and whether there is a difference in the nutritional content. Tastewise there may or may not be much of a difference. Regarding the nutritional content, if you simply count the calories and other building blocks you may not find that much of a difference either. The most important difference between organics/biodynamics (a sort of Über organics - see a previous post on that) and non-organics has to do with soil and micronutrients.

For one, non-organic produce has pesticide residue on the outside. But perhaps more importantly, non-organic produce grows in depleted soil that must be enhanced with chemical fertilizer. And to top if off (pun intended), it gets treated topically with fungicides, pesticides and herbicides, all of which seep into the soil. The produce then absorbs this chemical cocktail through the roots, which becomes part and parcel of the produce you eat, an issue the two questions diplomatically leave aside.

Soil that gets enhanced naturally with manure and compost is inherently much richer in minerals and trace elements and devoid of chemical toxins. You know if you have such soil in your home garden if it is dark and crumbly and full of happy little creepy crawlies. It should look like Mississippi Mud Pie. Produce that grows in such Mississippi Mud Pie soil is in turn much richer in minerals and trace elements. It is this richness that makes such food packed with real nutritional value.  Not only is it much more nourishing, we also need to eat less of it (!) to feel satisfied. No empty calories here.

So even though our soil has been depleting steadily with the advent and the spreading of industrial agriculture over the past hundred or so years, it is still better for our health to opt for organically, or better yet, biodynamically grown produce and grains.

why heirlooms?

Heirloom fruit and vegetables are older varieties that will reproduce exactly the same kind of plant again from its seeds (hybrids can't).   Biodiversity is also a very important reason to choose heirlooms over hybrids (and let me not even mention the G word), as we need as many plant varieties around as possible, and especially those that grow well under specific local or strained weather conditions. As a matter of fact, I read somewhere that Peruvians have almost as many potato and corn varieties as growing places, because these plants were all developed for very specific local conditions, and would not perform as well if planted elsewhere. Now that is biodiversity!  In addition, heirlooms are often more disease resistant and have more intense flavors - think intensely flavorful strawberry or tomato instead of those watery spongy supermarket kinds. There are now even seed libraries to preserve heirloom varieties for future use and generations. Sometimes you can draw from them, but you have to return seeds at the end of the season in exchange for your loan. Lastly, it is infinitely more interesting to taste many different pepper or tomato or apple or carrots kinds (love the purple carrots) than the one or two same old same old you get at the supermarket.

Hybrids, in comparison, while having some desirable characteristics, can't reproduce from their seeds - think of seedless watermelons or grapes.

And by-the-way, heirloom breeds exist among animals as well, and some farmers are now bringing these older breeds back for the same reasons heirloom produce is desirable.

please don't take my sunshine away

The whole controversy about sunscreen and skin cancer has made us scared to be out in the sun without a thick layer of white sunscreen on our face, long sleeves and a hat. However, this prevents us from soaking up vitamin D through the skin, which the body needs for calcium absorption and a healthy immune system.   So we put ourselves between a rock and a hard place and take vitamin D supplements (and make the whole supplement industry very profitable along the way), although those supplements are not the same as sunshine au naturel.

In addition, we need at least 10 minutes of real sunshine a day to reset our circadian rhythms, which promote a healthy sleep cycle.

And, talking about the absence of sunshine in our life, people have gotten so used to wearing sunglasses for fashion looks that their eyes are becoming overly sensitive (have you ever seen an indigenous person with sun glasses?), when in reality our eyes were made for sunshine (other than extremely bright conditions, such as a walk in the Sahara, skiing in the mountains under a sunny sky, or a sunshine filled glacier walk).

Get some real sunshine in your life by going out at lunchtime, parking your car a bit further on a sunny day and walking that extra half mile, sitting on a park bench and soaking up that sun, getting off the subway or the bus one stop before your's to get that extra bit of sunshine, and a bit of hiking and biking on the week-end.

organic soil and flowers?

A lot of people are now aware of the notion of growing food organically. But did you know that there is organic potting soil and that you can buy organic flowers? "Huh," you might say, or maybe "enough already with all this organic stuff." But if you recognize the value of organic food - to your health, to the environment's health, and to the farm workers' health - buying organic potting soil for either your houseplants or perhaps, more importantly, for your vegetable garden, makes a lot of sense. Organic potting soil doesn't contain pesticide and fertilizer residue, ergo better for your houseplants or the vegetables you grow in it. In addition, this soil is much richer in natural nutrients and minerals, as it hasn't been chemically enhanced and "propped up."  The vegetables or houseplants you grow in this soil will be more resilient and the former more nutritious to eat.

Now, what about organic flowers? Even more far fetched? The cut flower industry uses huge amounts of fertilizers, fungicides and pesticides, the same way conventional agriculture does for growing produce. Furthermore, when the cut flowers come from outside the US - and most of the cut flowers in this country are imported from huge Central American cut flower farms - they were likely grown with chemicals that have been banned in this country for their high toxicity. These poisonous chemicals leech into the soil and groundwater, are lethal to bees and other pollinators, and are of course toxic for the farm workers. We are less aware of this problem because it happens so far away, but it's worth a thought.

climate marching

Our family climate marched this past Sunday 9/21 - yes, it's a verb now. And I think we must do this every year from now on until We The People get the message to our politicians to act now, not later, because later is too late. Together with 300,000 to 400,000 fellow protesters in NYC, and tens of thousands more in all corners of the world from Paris to Melbourne, from Berlin to London and Rio, we participated in what MIT researcher Jesse Jenkins calls "one of America's largest mass protests," and Amy Davidson from the New Yorker "the largest climate change protest in history."

It was powerful and emotional to experience so much synergy and togetherness on the single most important issue of our times, climate change, which, if we are successful in shifting, will propel us beyond the singularly profit oriented oil age into a more cocreative and aware age of earth stewardship.

From the perspective of our evolving human consciousness this is the first time in history that we are awakening to the incredible realization, empowering but also sobering, that we can actually change and steer our existence, that our consciousness and drive are what creates everything around us. We don't all have to become activists. But we all can do our bit to help this momentous evolutionary process along, whether by buying more organics, insulating your house, getting a more fuel efficient car, eating less meat and only the sustainably raised kind, buying less stuff and recycling more, voting environmentally aware politicians into office, and on and on.

I'd love to hear what you are doing to help since, as one of the signs said, "There is no Planet B."

on quietude

We have been living in a very old house in the countryside on a fairly busy road for the past two decades. Before that we lived in New York City, where you hear car alarms and fire trucks at all hours of day and night, and where there is always background noise. As a matter-of-fact, except for a few years when I was young, I have always lived in big noisy cities. You do get used to the constant background noise, but it becomes like a chronic illness. After a while you only notice how noisy it is, when there is silence in between. I know they say that quiet comes from within. But then they also say that we create what we connect with, what we need, what we are attracted to.  When I was young I was always looking for inspiration from the outside - travel, experiences, moving to yet another place, or starting another career. You can create a certain amount of inner quiet, but at one point or another, peace and quiet around you are helpful for tuning out chatter, staying grounded, concentrating on your work, and promoting peace and balance.

It is wonderfully grounding and balancing to just sit in nature with no other noises than chirping birds, buzzing bees, the wind quietly sweeping through the grass, or the waves of a lake lapping at the shore - and in between utter silence, nothing. No electronic beeps and alerts, no planes overhead (just heard one), no cars passing by (several just drove past), no phones ringing (yep, just rang), no kitchen machines running in the background (I hear the faint noise of the dishwasher humming). All those mechanical human made sounds are less harmonious to our ears and grate at you after a while.

Inner and outer silence make room for creativity, for concentration, for going deep within. It's what they mean by a pregnant pause - the in-between space, the space that came before the Big Bang. This space is empty but so full of potential.  I am looking forward to this quietude as a basis for increased creativity in the coming years.  When I open the windows in our new house all I hear is birds singing, the wind swishing through the trees, and occasionally the neighbor's rooster crowing (ahh, such a European countryside sound to my ears, love it).  Pure bliss.