Ramblings

"...if we pollute the air, we can not have healthy lungs; if we pollute the rivers, we can not have healthy blood..."
-excerpt from ancient Asian medical poem

In these modern times of miraculous technologies and scientific insight, humanity is still significantly challenged with the unbearable grief of social and ecological crises. In searching for solutions to these challenges, the wisdom of the ancients may help us to steward our planet back to health. This same wisdom may provide a roadmap of not only how to heal the Earth, but offer healing wisdom for our body and consciousness as well.

Ancient Ownership

In the ancient indigenous First Nations culture of the the west coast rainforests, there exists the concept called hahuulhi. The word hahuulhi simply equates land ownership with resource stewardship. For example, if a patch of the wild edible roots is owned, to retain this ownership, the area must be regularly cultivated and "weeded" to increase the size and quality of the roots. Hahuulhi also includes responsibility of sharing the resource with the community and the sacred rituals for honoring the spirits of the resource. If hahuulhi was violated in any way, ownership of the land or resource was lost. Ownership was then up for grabs for another family more capable of hahuulhi ownership. The hahuulhi concept of land and resource ownership is not unique to western North America, it is found in most indigenous cultures, most probably including those tribes found here in Indiana. The inter-dependent relationship of stewardship and ownership is exemplary of an ancient sustainable interconnection of humanity with the Earth found in most all societies that live(d) in harmony with the natural world.

Earth Grief and Illness

The direct opposite example of hahuulhi is the modern title and deed ownership of land. Stewardship is ordinarily excluded from the modern title and deed concept, permitting degradation and exploitation of land and resources. Living in the modern corporate disconnected world, we are subconsciously trained it is ok to pillage resources from the Earth with no thought of promoting stewardship. Many suggest this reflects in our sociological and spiritual disconnect with not only the Earth but also our bodies and health. Chellis Glendinning describes the spiritual illness of "Earth Grief" and how to reconnect with our Earth consciousness in her book, "My Name is Chellis, and I Am In Recovery from Western Civilization". She suggests the only property that we truly are gifted and own on this Earth is our body. If we subconsciously stay disconnected, then we can continue to not steward our body, conveniently perpetuating denial of loving ourselves and the Earth into healthy change. In this way to pollute the Earth is to disown our connection to the body. Self-love may become understood as a responsibility of body ownership and Earth stewardship. This new understanding begins the sacred beauty of transitioning our choices towards loving and respecting the miracle of life.

Although making improvements, our modern health system often fails to include stewardship as well, in the form of nutritional healing and lifestyle change. Allopathic "western" medicine primarily relies on pharmaceutical drugs to cure symptoms of underlying diseases. This medical faliure to include body stewardship in disease treatment parallels the modern failure to include planetary stewardship with land ownership. By giving the stewardship of our bodies to the pharmaceutical industry, we subconsciously usurp ownership of our health. This is evident in the abnormally high occurence of addiction and chronic degerative diseases in modern society. Embracing the hahuulhi ancient wisdom is not congruous with staying stuck in old "comfortable" unhealthy and negative self-limiting patterns of belief. If we let go of our modern disconnect with the Earth, we are able to let in a new unlimited open-mindedness to stewarding our spirit and health.

Healing Our Inner Garden

The direct physical interface of inter-connectedness between humanity and the Earth is food. Growing our own food promotes stewarding the land and helps our physical and emotional health as well. Our choices of food, not only the quality of the food itself, but also the quality of the agricultural practices to raise that food, connect our bodies and the planet to our responsibility of stewardship. Our dietary choices have magnificent potential positive or negative influence on the health of our bodies and the planet. If we accept the ownership of our body involves the responsibility of wholistic planetary stewardship, we then naturally see every food choice and the source of that food as helping or hurting the health of the Earth as well.

The authors John Robbins in "Diet for a New America", Frances Moore Lappe in "Diet for a Small Planet", and countless other books exemplify the connection of our dietary choices with our quality and integrity of life on Earth. These authors also show the direct links to how ecosystem health, world hunger and global food security can be greatly affected by individual dietary choice. Many advocates of eating organic, vegan, raw, and other healthy diets do so not only for personal health, but also ensure there is plenty of food and healthy habitat for All life on Earth. Consider making your diet a gift to the future.

Healing the Earth and Body

The concept of hahuulhi involves sustainability because it is self-limiting to natural laws of life. In our modern world, we have broken ties to the self-correcting checks and balances of our miraculous Earth. Fossil fuels and combustion engines have allowed change to occur at an unprecedented rate, disrupting resilient yet fragile natural ecosystems. By understanding the relationship of stewarding our bodies and the planet with our dietary choices, we can begin to connect the dots between our food choices, the agricultural practices we support as consumers, our consumption of energy, our modes of transportation, and our overall polluting footprint on the planet. Modern science has brought us the theory of the Earth as Gaia, a meta-biological entity. In the theory of Earth as Gaia, individual organisms are likened to individual cells of the Earth's body. Ask yourself the question, is your Gaia cell-body cancerous or healthy in its overall stewardship of the planet?

Myself and many others propose we energetically are entering a period of consciousness where applying hahuulhi to our body and personal lives is necessary for our collective survival on Earth. The dire nature of our present ecological crises is representative of the core human disconnect of Earth consciousness. I promote you to embrace your health of body, mind, spirit, and Earth. Consider your diet as an important place to re-embrace hahuulhi in your life. Empower ownership of your health by embracing stewardship of the Earth.

Tips on re-connecting with the Earth and becoming a "wise-user":
  1. Meditate. Open up to your spiritual connection to the Earth. Give your self permission to be healthy. Surrender to your inner voice which may be speaking to you about your relationship with the Earth. Take a front seat to the global change in consciousness!
  2. Exercise. If blessed with health, bike, walk, or take the bus. If not possible, 1) modify your life so it is possible, or 2)self-examine what you are accomplishing by driving, is it truly a worthwhile gift for future generations?
  3. Nourish. Support locally-grown organic foods, the birds and frogs will thank you with song! Consider dietary transition towards a more Gaia-friendly diet.
  4. Garden and Live Off the Grid. Grow your own food and take steps to reduce your global planetary footprint.

from Andy, Member #86847

Health, Justice and Sustainability News
from the Organic Consumers Association

This bill would repeal key sections of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which guarantees consumers the right to purchase dietary supplements.

Please contact your senators now to tell them not to so-sponsor this Anti-Consumer, Anti-Health Freedom Bill.

McCain's so-called Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) would repeal key sections of the popular Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). It would give the FDA unilateral power, with little or no scientific justification, to ban vitamin supplements except for those produced by Big Pharma corporations.

If McCain's bill passes, we can look to Europe for a snapshot of what we may be in for: EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, has sharply reduced the list of available supplements and is in process of reducing potencies to ridiculous levels, such as less beta carotene than can be found in half of a large carrot. Europeans already look to the US to obtain their dietary supplements. If this bill passes, where will we obtain ours?

Please take action immediately. Tell your senators NOT to co-sponsor the McCain's anti-consumer legislation and to do everything in their power to defeat it. Then forward this to your friends and family and ask them to do the same!

Take action

By Bethany Cortale
1/9/10

Yet another Valentine's Day is upon us, and while we are forced to think about our relationship status every 14th of February, I find myself thinking about what it really means to love another.

Birds do it. Bees do it. Even vegans do it - that is, fall in love. Thankfully, vegans are growing in numbers every day, making it easier to find other vegans to love. While it is still difficult meeting that special someone - despite the Internet and its various dating sites - it seems to be even harder finding a good man who is also vegan, vegetarian or, at the very least, open to the many benefits of becoming either one.

While some may think veganism is simply a dietary choice, it is actually a manner of living incorporating a value system that promotes a healthy body, a sustainable planet and compassion for all animals - both human and non-human alike. It is also a social justice movement that involves everyone and stands to benefit everyone. Vegans not only abstain from eating animals or animal by-products, but they also avoid doing anything that harms animals or exploits them, like wearing animals, buying products that have been tested on animals, or attending "entertainment" events that manipulate animals.

Sadly, too much of our culture - concocted by big agribusiness and spread by the media - dupes many people into believing that they have to eat animals and their by-products, like milk and eggs, to be healthy or considered patriotic. Men are especially pressured into believing that they have to eat meat in order to be considered "real" men. (Does anyone remember the fast food commercial that had men picketing in the street for hamburgers while singing an "I am Man" rendition of Helen Reddy's "I am Woman"?) No human needs to eat animals. In fact, Rory Freeman, who brought veganism to the mainstream with her best-selling book Skinny Bitch, has written another book titled Skinny Bastard in which she and co-author Kim Barnouin prove that eating well and looking good is not a "girlie" thing.

There are many good men and women out there who love and care for animals, but whose love ends at the dining table. All too often we forget about those who suffer to end up on our plates, on our designer clothing or on our laboratory benches. For those men who think eating animals validates their masculinity; keep in mind that most women seek out men who are compassionate, thoughtful and considerate; men who are independent-minded, who don't think only of themselves and don't feel compelled to compete with the Jones'. The essence of a "real" man is in his capacity to love and have compassion for others...which brings me back to Valentine's Day.

I'd like to think that Saint Valentine would not object to changing the name of his feast holiday to Vegan Day. What better way to spread love than by choosing not to do harm to ourselves or others. Anyone who elects to eliminate cruelty from his life and diet, who opens his heart to the sentience of all creatures, is the embodiment of love. Just like love, veganism is about honoring all beings and working towards something greater than ourselves. If we open ourselves to this love - not just on Valentine's Day - I am convinced that we will receive love in return each and every day.

http://www.veganvine.blogspot.com

Hello Dear members of The Green Singles, my name is Lubomir Stoyanov, i am studying Bioinformatics in Germany (i have also studied Nutrition Science). I had the honor to do a speech about the compassionate veggie-way of life, on the Frankfurt Book Fair - the world's largest trade fair for books, on 18.10.2009. Since the doubts about the nutritional adequacy of the veggie diets (with their positive impact on our nature, health and ethics) are a reason for the smaller distribution of the veggie diets, i think such information should be more mainstream: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eHoIzXxwUw Maybe you would use this little speech (with different subtitles) for your acitivities. Sincerely yours, L. Stoyanov

During the State of the Union speech President Obama mentioned clean energy over twelve times. In just three weeks a coalition of 100 national organizations have come together to declare Feb. 1-5, 2010 as Clean Energy Week with over 15 events scheduled throughout Washington, DC and the Nation. CEW kicks off with a press conference at 9:30 AM EST featuring nationally recognized clean energy thought leaders promoting clean energy policy as basis for solid economic development for the nation and future generations.

Clean Energy Week activities will emphasize the shared concept that climate solutions, renewable energy and energy efficiency policies are essential engines of job creation and economic growth. For more information and a list of events, please go to: http://www.cleanenergyweek.org

The news conference will be webcast live in streaming video with an opportunity for questions for those who are not in the Washington, D.C., area or who cannot attend in person. Preregistration for webcast is required and is now available at www.visualwebcaster.com/CleanEnergy.

WHO:
Michael Eckhart, American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)
Kateri Callahan, Alliance to Save Energy
Jeff Anderson, Clean Economy Network
Reed Hundt, Coalition for the Green Bank
Christopher Van Atten, American Businesses for Clean Energy

WHEN:
Monday, February 1, 2010; 9:30 am

WHERE:
National Press Club; Holeman Lounge; 14th & F Streets, NW, Washington, DC 20045

Thank you for supporting a Clean Energy Future!

Chip Comins
National Coordinator
Clean Energy Week
President
American Renewable Energy Day
(202) 777 7586 direct
(970) 948 9929 cell
www.areday.net
www.cleanenergyweek.org

We’ve been pressuring Trader Joe's to adopt sustainable seafood purchasing policies throughout all of their stores for months. Store managers and corporate big-wigs have felt the heat from Greenpeace’s mock website, relentless phone calls from supporters, poignant karaoke songs from shoppers and in-store demonstrations across the country.

But, they still haven’t changed their ways. Have they been ignoring the public’s cries for ocean protection? Or are they simply unwilling to tell the truth about their actions to their consumers?

Take action and tell their Merchandising V.P., Matt Sloan, to clear up the story for Trader Joe’s with this simple message: "We’re still waiting for Trader Joe’s sustainable seafood policy!"

Ocean conservation is important to all of us. Please take action today!

Friends,

This morning, five Supreme Court Justices stabbed at the heart of democracy, our electoral system.

They overturned over 100 years of statute and precedent, and declared that corporations can spend all the money that they want to buy elections. In fact, these five men in robes declared, they have a constitutional right to do so.

Now, we have to fight.

You can sign Rep. Alan Grayson's petition to support his "Save Our Democracy" platform, because we cannot have a government that is bought and paid for by huge multinational corporations. We need a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Click this link to sign the petition:
http://salsa.mydccc.org/o/30019/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4&tag=corporatespeech_taf

• Renegade Pictures are looking to speak to people who are engaged and planning their big day!

• Whether you've only just got engaged or your wedding is already meticulously planned... we'd love to hear from you.

• We're also keen to hear from anyone who is thinking about proposing!

Please contact Jennifer at marriage@renegadepictures.co.uk
0207 449 3264 with your name, age, phone number and details about your plans.

No age restrictions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/beonashow/marriage.shtml

(what I know about quantum physics)

All around yet unseen
Struck once, forever rubbed
Infused by One, felt by many
The vibration pure of white light
Filling our soul, expanding our heart
The sound touches us with life and Love
Like the ring of a bell, but just a small part
Reaching beyond the horizon, echoing between each of us

The field is that part of the ring that is everywhere but no longer heard.

Hano Wiliki

Who: group of people who are eating less meat as a way to curb carbon emissions and do their part to solve the climate crisis

What: peaceful, positive rally to send a message to President Obama and world leaders in Copenhagen, showing a viable, cost-efficient way to solve the climate crisis problem

When: 4:30pm on Thursday, Dec. 17th (just one day before President Obama travels to the COP15) a press release has been sent to reporters, inviting them to come at 5pm, so please arrive at 4:30

Where: Corner of Marietta St and Centennial Olympic Park Drive, across from CNN Center
How to get there: Take MARTA to the CNN center station.

View our banner: http://bp0.blogger.com/_JXvXNsy6Fxo/RpKS7wNJYAI/AAAAAAAAACg/hTep2je-cLw/s1600-h/CIMG0669.JPG

Other posters you can make: "less meat=less heat" "We're willing to do our part for the Planet" (must be less than 3 feet by 2 feet)

Dress for sunny, chilly weather. "Mainstream" clothing preferred.

Please RSVP to one of the organizers:
Melissa Martin at melisma13 at mindspring dot com, Steve Won at swon88 at gmail dot com, or Eric Kremer at eric.wildone at gmail dot com

A recent report published by the World Watch institute concluded that over 51% of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions come from Livestock.

With the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit on December 10, 2009, it is vital this information be shared the public and our political leaders.

A 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that 18 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are attributable to livestock . . . however recent analysis by Goodland and Anhang co-authors of "Livestock and Climate Change" in the latest issue of World Watch magazine found that livestock and their byproducts may actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions!

Please make the truly environmental conscious, healthy and compassionate choice to reduce the amount of meat you eat or simply go vegetarian. Meatless Mondays is a great start.

We have the opportunity to save ourselves and this planet for our children by simply choosing plant based meals. This is the single most powerful action for preventing global climate change.

Please go to the link below to send a letter to the EPA's & Environment Ministers Worldwide to ask them to share this information at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit:

http://51percent.org/?page_id=75

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

Greetings from the staff and volunteers of the Organic Consumers Association. As I write this letter, the papers, TV, and the internet are. all broadcasting non-stop bad news about the climate crisis, war, deteriorating public health, and what is now called the Great Recession. On World Food Day, global hunger organizations reminded us that a billion people across the globe are malnourished or starving, while two billion more, mainly small farmers and rural villagers, are living in extreme poverty. Meanwhile, public health advocates continue to decry the fact that . a full two-thirds of the residents in our Fast Food Nation are either obese or overweight. Agronomists warn of impending crop failures and a serious decrease in global grain reserves. With a destabilized climate and weird weather now routine, it seems almost normal that Minnesota's autumn fall colors have been cut short by an early snow. Our Via Organica staff in Mexico tell us that the region's, farmers are going through the worst drought in 50 years, with corn and bean crops seriously stunted.

Mother Nature and our billions of brothers arid sisters down the block and around the world are obviously trying to tell us something: it's time for a change, big change. The "change" that the new administration promised us in January, opposed every step of the way by powerful special interests and lobbyists, has turned out to be, at least so far, small change. Out-of-control corporations, indentured scientists, Wall Street banksters, and politicians seem perfectly content to maintain business as usual, no matter the cost- even if the cost is human survival.

It's time for a change. We are the organic grassroots force that can save the planet. We are the antidote to hopelessness and fatalism. We are the messengers of hope. We are fortunate to have a practical organic solution to offer for the climate crisis, a solution which has the power to resolve our, public health and economic crisis as well. But let us not talk falsely now. There is no time to lose. The hour is getting late.

We need your help more than ever to broadcast our message and mobilize the grassroots around OCA'S life-affirming, positive message: organic food and farming and ethical green'living are the practical solution to our crisis. 85 percent of our funds come from individuals like you, our grassroots supporters. Please use the enclosed reply envelope to send us a tax-deductible donation. Thank you so much for your support.

Regards & Solidarity,

Ronnie Cummins, OCA National Director

We are the organic grassroots force that can save the planet. We are the antidote to hopelessness and fatalism.
www.organicconsumers.org

A thought for your consideration -

It's not "the environment,"

It's "our environment."

Using "the environment"
gives the impression
we are apart from it,

While, "our environment"
properly reminds us
we are part of it.

with best wishes,
-=David Dilworth

Robin Chappell
====================
It's the Ecology, Stupid.

Despite all of the hot and heavy issues of the day pouring off of Capitol Hill, (and there are many -- The "Patriot Act" re-authorization being to me among one of the most pressing [aside from the Economy, of course]), the primary issue of concern to All should be... Yes, The Ecology of Our Planet. Without which, all those other issues become a moot point (a soot point?).

We as a Nation still seem Hell bent on doing whatever we want, despite the consequences. Even with reducing the national carbon footprint, going a long way towards capping the pollution that has been an integral part of our heavy industrial process (go see the documentary "Fuel" if you have any doubts whatsoever as to this monumental damage done), we are still far far away from being able to survive beyond 2020.

We need to take drastic national steps toward creating a sustainable environment now, including but not limited to actually enforcing the environmental laws we currently have on the books.

We can no longer afford to hide our collective heads in the shifting sands of our desires for more and more without seeing the huge costs those 'luxuries' entail. To do so will ensure our collective destruction.

And it's hard to see the damage and the toll on the soil, air, and water on a day such as I am experiencing right now in Los Angeles (where I currently live -- subject to change any day due to That Economy). I see absolutely gorgeous blue skies out side. If I walk over to Venice Boulevard, I can actually see the San Gabriel Mountains off in the distance. And the Hollywood Sign is clear as a bell not too many miles to the north of me.

And I bring this up why? Because these 'new found vistas' would not have been possible to see (except on days when the Santa Anna winds were blowing) back when I first moved her in 1996. And this is all due to the much more stringent air quality enforced via LA's favorite past time (and lifestyle), The Car. The environmental strides made back in the last years of the last century cleaned up what had been the Industrial Age Nightmare. Our 'needs' at great cost.

It's Time for a Real Change. Now. Or else.

Become better informed and active.
Find sources of sound environmental and natural resource information and access them regularly. Attend local public meetings and become active in your community. Understand your local environmental challenges and accomplishments. Protect your local open spaces. Learn about local watershed initiatives. Volunteer.

Participate in a local environmental education.
Visit a new or nearby nature center, science center, park, cooperative extension office, museum or conservation district office. Ask questions.

Get your hands dirty!
Participate in a river cleanup, pick up litter or plant a flower garden.

Enjoy nature!
Sit and rest in the woods or along a stream. Take a hike, go biking, try camping, have a picnic, go fishing, look for hawks, rent a canoe, investigate a cave, look for fossils, fly a kite, take photographs, paint some scenery - enjoy the outdoors!

Protect water quality!
Clean up after pets. Test wells annually for bacteria and nutrients. Don't dump used oil, paint, coolants or other chemicals into the ground, stormdrains or garage drains. Participate in stream bank and wetlands restoration projects and local watershed management planning.

Use products that produce less waste and pollution.
Substitute water-based products whenever possible when buying paints and household cleaners. Or, switch from chemical-type cleaners to natural products like soap and water. Use fertilizers and pesticides properly and reduce use by implementing biological and mechanical controls. Read and follow instructions and precautions for all such products and dispose of them properly (and not into storm drains or the ground). Buy products in bulk or with minimal packaging materials.

Recycle!
Purchase products that contain recycled-content materials as often as possible.

Save energy!
Turn off unneeded lights and appliances. Replace standard light bulbs with energy efficient fluorescents to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Buy energy efficient household appliances and yard tools. Consider energy efficient construction and building design when building, buying, or adding on to a home or office.

Use your car less and take good care of it.
Keep the car tuned and leak-free, and get it inspected regularly. Keep tires properly inflated and dispose of used motor oil and cooling fluids at designated recycling centers. Try using mass transit, carpooling, walking or riding a bike as often as possible. When shopping for a new car, look for the most fuel-efficient and investigate models that accommodate use of other fuels besides gasoline.

Conserve water!
Install flow restrictors on all faucets and use low-flow shower devices. Do not let the water run wastefully when washing anything. Water the lawn in the early morning or late afternoon. Run washing machines and dish washers only when full. Repair leaky pipes, faucets and toilets.

Tell Congress: "Organic Is the Answer to Climate Change!"
Watch this new video from the Rodale Institute's Demand Organic Project and learn how, if the world's 3.5 billion tillable acres were transitioned to organic agriculture, organic farms could sequester 40% of yearly carbon emissions. Then, tell Congress "Organic Is the Answer to Climate Change!"

WATCH VIDEO: http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=14110646

If you look into my eyes you will see
a bitter loving mystery
If you dig into my mind you will find
not a trace of eternity
but if you reach into my heart that's a start
to coming closer to knowing me
and that's the way it aught to be

   I don't know what you would hope to find
   I don't know which words are true
   for they are shells in which your meaning lies.
   My different meanings go there too

So look into my eyes and you will see
a lot of love with the misery
and dig into my mind you will find
as many shells as are by the sea
then reach into my heart that you'll reveal
beneath my Mask of Eternity
and you'll have solved our mystery.

If you look into my eyes you will see
a bitter loving mystery
If you dig into my mind you will find
not a trace of eternity
but if you reach into my heart that's a start
to coming closer to knowing me
and that's the way it aught to be

   I don't know what you would hope to find
   I don't know which words are true
   for they are shells in which your meaning lies.
   My different meanings go there too

So look into my eyes and you will see
a lot of love with the misery
and dig into my mind you will find
as many shells as are by the sea
then reach into my heart that you'll reveal
beneath my Mask of Eternity
and you'll have solved our mystery.

As you gaze from the pane,
those are blue fields above,
an expanse you have claim to.

Claim sky, that heraldic shield.

Whatever this season, agree then
to be amazed
that sky follows on a leash,
you,

as it did when you were a child,
climbing sentinel blues to the ridge,
safe-guarding the child
whimsical tracery
against elongated blues.

Somewhere more expansive,
pistil and stamen tremble
as each cloud reveals its blue-tinge
as each bird in its rising heartens the child,
as ticking of unseens in the grasses,
green fields at dusk,
meadows and quadrants,
blue plums dropping violet
to banks of smalled streams,
stand-ins for river a child is wading in,
amazed.

Remember amazement.

This is the ground on which you have run.
Hope for harmony in what you have now
in your sights,
rich, fleet, grace-given.

Amaze yourself with your charity
for the perishable,
the mute, the immutable.

Inhale. Breathe deep.

And why not the rising up of a vein
like sun at dawn,
the impervious single hair
an August blade, green-glistered,
eroticizing the wrist?

I know there are creatures
that traverse by their lumber,
that suggest something alongside us
is plundering
in a slow-breathed shuffle,
that the arpeggio of wings, and crying sounds,
crude rush
are universal memo,
migratory patterns, a kind of
green tendering,

as is the love thump,
portaging of the young,
foraging to stay alive,
we humankind lofting the illusion
we are not alone, we who laugh, who
humanly
weep for our ineptitude

who cannot produce
the melancholy note of the loon,
who stutter for annealing
who crave music for anodyne-
less rampage, less farrago,
more carnival,

Who dreamed the idea and envisioned roads
As paths of life?
They had once been dirt,
Trod and soiled only by dray horse or mule.
Now hard, unforgiving concrete and macadam.
We parade them noisily
In our trucks, SUV's, sedans, convertibles And motorcycles.
All fuel gluttons, some more than others,
But all clouding our atmosphere
As we indulge ourselves in our goings
To and from somewhere or nowhere,
Ignoring the sounds Of polar ice caps, glaciers and children
Crying.

As much a part of us as life itself,
Yet more ethereal;
Never seen nor heard,
It may be high or about.
We cherish spending it together,
Pass it, bide it, take it out,
Or we let it lapse, waste or kill it,
Always saying we need more.
Such contradictions!
Though measurable, it is fleeting
Yet with us all our days
Until they close, when it leaves us to go on
With those and theirs remaining,
And on and on and on Ad infinitum, we think.
It is time.
With so little left and so much awry,
Isn't it?

I am writing to let you know that your website is mentioned in fresh new writer Vanessa Farquharson's debut memoir, Sleeping Naked is Green: How an eco-cynic unplugged her fridge, sold her car, and found love in 366 days.

The synopsis of the book:
"No one likes listening to smug hippies bragging about how they don't use toilet paper, or worse yet, lecturing about the evils of plastic bags and SUVs. But most of us do want to lessen our ecological footprint. With this in mind, Vanessa Farquharson takes on the intense personal challenge of making one green change to her lifestyle every single day for a year to ultimately figure out what's doable and what's too hardcore.
Whether confronting her environmental hypocrisy or figuring out the best place in her living room for a compost bin full of worms and rotting cabbage, Vanessa writes about her foray into the green world with self-deprecating, humorous, and accessible insight. This isn't a how-to book of tips, it's not about being eco-chic; it's an honest look at what happens when an average girl throws herself into the murkiest depths of the green movement."
Because Vanessa has written at length about your website and her experiences with it, we thought you may be interested in mentioning the book to your customers, or linking to it on your website to let them know that Vanessa is a fan.
If you would like more information, or to buy copies online, please click here:
http://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Naked-Green-Eco-Cynic Unplugged/dp/0547073283/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244148418&sr=8-1

Reviews of SLEEPING NAKED IS GREEN:
While the details of her environmental crusade can weary, her griping about the efficacy of chemical-free shampoos and deodorants and the ugliness of sustainable footwear is fresh and funny; in these moments, Farquharson's appealing candor and non-sanctimonious attitude make other ecowarriors seem dour by comparison.
-- Publishers Weekly

One step a day doesn't seem like much, but over the course of a whole year it adds up to a world of difference. This isn't just a well-written and fun book about going green, it is about watching a personal transformation. Being inspired was never so entertaining.
-- Lloyd Alter - TreeHugger.com

I giggled up a storm while reading it.
-- Shala Kerrigan, Amazon.ca

I started reading it and found that I could not put it down. It took me about two days to finish it, and about three weeks to stop talking about it (sorta). For some reason I find myself talking to everyone I know about this book.
-- Maira Black, Amazon.com

"The ambition for broad acres leads to poor farming, even with men of energy. I scarcely ever knew a mammoth farm to sustain itself; much less to return a profit upon the outlay. I have more than once known a man to spend a respectable fortune upon one; fail and leave it; and then some man of more modest aims, get a small fraction of the ground, and make a good living upon it. Mammoth farms are like tools or weapons, which are too heavy to be handled. Ere long they are thrown aside, at a great loss."

Wintercount
Life gets simpler the moment
you round the corner, take the bend
around towering spruce
and the road tips toward the ravine,
rides a lip of small precipice
where ocean meets shore
and gnaws its patient bones.
Simpler and rarefied the other side
of that curve, suddenly no more
suburbia. The trees don names,
the grass grows exuberantly
to its own design, or whispers
names of missing felines, and the few
emissaries of the outside world are more
themselves-punctual, but
relaxed: the schoolbus driver,
every morning ten after eight,
on rounds for neighborhood
children, never minds stopping
midstream to show off the herons
fishing in shallows, the postman
parks his rig, view toward islands
in noontide sun and has his quiet
lunch.

Step through a door
to feel knots in your heart open like
fists as it spreads in unaccustomed
space and heaves a perceptible sigh,
earthen arms spread wide
and gardens implode
to rival buoys that line the fence,
washed-up blue ribbon flowers
on wooden stems. Salt-air-charged
abundance and bees ride currents
in communion with blossoms,
store dark harvests to remedy any
darkness.

0, to live aloft in a treehouse here with the squirrels
and sky, in the path of honeybees, their traffic rattling
teacups in tiny wooden cupboards.

Could I have known my own life
took a turn, not the same since I first
navigated that corner, the last
to arrive for a drive up the coast
to celebrate celestial return
(and our long coast back to light)
with a bonfire on the beach.
I carried embers away
under starlight, spoke in constellations,
felt in the dark for openings,
warmed by a thousand collisions
as all I held down sought the
surface (and beyond), launched
small fleets across forgiveness,
waters that warned:
Everything impermeable will
bar you and is no one's
fault but your own. Undress.
Count yourself among
the luckiest alive. 

Richard Garrigus 2002

Sick and Green Over Earth Day, By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist | April 22, 2008
(Excerpted. View full article here)

Here is some promotional material from the website Take Part on how to "green up" my sex life. They are hawking Fair Trade Aphrodisiacs, a bondage starter kit made from 100 percent organic hemp rope, and the inevitable vegan condoms. These might prove quite useful for assignations on greensingles.com, a dating website that features "personal ads for progressive singles in the environmental, vegetarian, and animal rights community."

GS has a spinoff website, veggielove.com, "a place where single vegetarians, vegans, raw foodists, and others who seek and value a plant-based diet can meet and network for friendship, dating, marriage and the exchange of information and ideas." A member using the log-on "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" writes: "Lately I've found myself in my Prius in the middle of a multi-fast-lane freeway surrounded by Hummers, wondering what happened to the environmental idealism of the sixties?"

Good question. Maybe it took a wrong turn around the time that the Red Sox started issuing press releases about their solar-powered trash compactors. I was recently alerted to the comic possibilities of an Oregon company called Eco-Luxury Fur, which purports to sell "the world's most eco-friendly fur." Among people who oppose slaughtering animals for their pelts, there is a lively trade in faux, or synthetic fur sometimes made from cotton, wool, or acrylic blends.

But that's not what Eco-Luxury is about. Their suppliers slaughter brushtail possums in Australia, and greenwash the whole venture by explaining that the possums pose a threat to Australia's "unique biodiversity." But as they would be happy to explain to you over at the greensingles.com website, "green" killing feels pretty much the same as plain old killing, if you are the ox being gored. As The Wall Street Journal explained, succinctly: "The Problem With Eco-Fur? It's Still Fur."