Happy almost Earth Day! May you find healing in the out of doors, enough so to motivate you to work to reciprocate that.

Greetings friends,

    I'm writing at the end of a day full of moving things, during a weekend that feels euphoric with sunshine and warmth in this rainy city.  On Friday after work I went and busked outside of the DMB concert and was pleasantly surprised by the response to my first street performin' of the season (and I am of course a bit rusty!).  Then today was full of sun as well as heart and thought provoking events.  In the early afternoon I went to see His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.  (to see more about the Dalai Lama's visit to Seattle check out http://www.seedsofcompassion.org/ ). His words were regular and down to earth, beautiful and ordinary, but the energy of a stadium full of people coming together to open our hearts, was so moving.  Then Melvin and I went to the Green Festival (http://www.greenfestivals.org/content/view/767/390/ ) and listened to Mark Anielski talk about Genuine Progress Indicators (as opposed to the GDP).  You can read more about this at http://www.rprogress.org/sustainability_indicators/genuine_progress_indicator.htm .  His talk was also beautiful, talking about the spirituality behind the environmental movement (in some sense) and what we really value in this life.  Another exciting thing about the green festival was the food samples!  Melvin and I brought home some of the "compostable" dishware to see how long it takes to break down in our worm bin, heck yes!  We also found out about and signed up to volunteer with Cool State-Washington, a program that seeks to address Global Warming on a state level.  They are a cool bunch of folks (pun intended!) http://www.coolstatewashington.org/  Such excitment around sustainability makes me long for Berea and SENS again... and Arcata as well. 

 

Another provocative thing that has been on my mind (and the fact that this is only on my mind some of the time shows my white privilege) is race.  An article in Colors Northwest Magazine provided a perspective on environmental involvement that I hadn't thought much about.  You can read that article at http://www.colorsnw.com/cover_story.html .  These are the lines that stood out to me in the article as eye opening (or particularly succinct:

 

"'People of color care about environmentalism, but they might not care much about the environmental movement because the environmental movement hasn't shown to care much about them,' Bonta says. Part of the problem is that many mainstream environmentalists and organizations have focused the movement's efforts on the 'natural' environment, or the outdoors. This focus marginalizes and excludes other more-urban environments and the people who live in them."

 

"The "Six Sins of Greenwashing" – a study published in December 2007 by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing – found that 99 percent of 1,018 common consumer products were guilty of "greenwashing" their image, including "energy efficient" appliances, "organic" beauty products and "natural" clothing. All of the mixed messaging about what's truly "green" can lead to over-consumption of products that are impacting the environment in negative ways. In terms of waste reduction, the truly "green" products are the ones people don't buy."

...And another article in the same issue is about youth getting outdoors http://www.colorsnw.com/youth_outdoors_april08.html ...and a section that I found poignant:

 

"Often people of color don't imagine themselves as belonging to or enjoying nature. One reason is the lack of images and depictions of people of color outdoors in popular media and culture. There are rarely any people of color in magazine ads for outdoor recreation, for example. Another reason is the negative historical relationships that some people of color have with the land in the United States. The impact and memory of oppression creates a barrier for people to see themselves in the environment."

 

...All this Earth excitement and I'm about to travel home to see family.  I, of course, feel silly, ironic, and hypocritical to travel so much.  It is certainly my environmental vice.  Interestingly, I think it's a pretty common one for folks who otherwise try to lead a really green life.  I do realize too that I'm in this program for a year, and may or may not always be such a distance from my family...and too that I am very privileged to have family who can afford to bring me home to visit them...and also that I miss 'em and am pretty darn excited to see folks!

 

On a different note entirely, I have been thinking a lot about how distance has given me perspective enough to really understand where I came from (well, more so at least).  This perspective, from being more "on my own" than I have before, has also taught me a lot about whom I came from, and which parts of me were learned (or maybe handed down genetically) from my parents.  Overall, I'm just really humbled by the fact that at my age, my mom and dad  were parents already and embarking in a life of parenthood (translation: sacrifice, commitment, responsibility).  I can't imagine what that would be like.

 

On yet another note, our garden in used tires is coming along nicely.  I've been pleasantly surprised at the response of my housemates.   

Our next community night is going to be our garden and yard work dreaming/schemin'/brainstorm night.  And too I'm excited that Sarah will be coming over to play in our garden as well as the crowd of Seattle University folks (and other random folks) that she knows who want to get their hands dirty.  It's so wonderful to see our odd little yard be changed into something that gathers people and (we hope) grows us some good eats and pretty flowers. 

 

...and another random note- Sula is corn free this week.  (read more about why we were interested in this at http://www.kingcorn.net/ )We wanted to see how much food corn is in by going without it (and it's a lot!).  We wanted to acknowledge the high cost of cheap food (like a market flooded with corn so much so that for Guatemalans, for whom corn is sacred, it is unaffordable).  We hoped to use our privileges of having a) enough money to buy more whole foods and b)enough time and energy to prepare them, for good use.  For most of us it turned out that our home diet stayed mostly the same, we ate our homemade granola and bread and dinners were mostly the same too.  What changed was our eating habits at work.  I'm certainly not saying that our diet as a house is perfect, but that I'm pretty happy with it overall.  I don't think that the week of corn-free eatin' has much of a concrete effect (as far as our grocery dollars, it was only one week!)... but I think it has helped raise our awareness about the topic. 

 

And finally, the evenin' was topped off with a walk down to the docs on Lake Washington.  I am certainly beginning to appreciate that spot in the realization that calm is relative (it's still in the city and I wouldn't have considered it tranquil if I didn't know the hustle and bustle elsewhere) and that sanctuary is more about a relationship to a place than the place itself.  It's a bit of a shame that I might be leavin' in August, I'm just figuring out how to live in this ol' city.  Along those lines-my heart is being sufficiently broken open by L'Arche these days.  It has totally surprised me!  I'm in love with the mornings at Angeline House.  There is nothing more beautiful than helping people start their day.  I even wrote a little song about it :)  I think all of my songs might sound the same...and I'm okay with that.  For me it isn't about the music as much as it is tellin' stories. 

 

...well that was one rambling entry, thanks for sharing in the life and adventures of my heart these days!  Please do tell me about the adventures your heart has been on as of late!

 

Grateful list:

-the opportunity to see His Holiness The Dalai Lama

-The energy at the Green Festival

-the calmness of the lake at night

-a few stars I saw tonight, hooray!

-sunshine (even though I got a little pink, which I know isn't good.... but I reckon it my best attempt at being a plant--turns out I still can't photosynthesize sunlight...well shucks...)

-gardens

-plants!

-water

-food

-busking this weekend

-my sweet green banjo

-music, in general

-my own room

-a bed to sleep in

-the fact that I'm somehow unattractive to bedbugs (I'm the only one out of 7 in the house who hasn't gotten bitten yet)

-the tie dyed tank tops that Jessa baby sent me that I celebrated the sunshine in today

-seeing Rich and Mahia at the bus stop (they moved here from Arcata, it was a great surprise!)

-morning prayer

-sandals

-Seattle