Weather to Write

I am looking out my office window watching the wildness of a changing season. The wind’s intensity is rising steadily and I feel it striving to have a stronger presence in this overcast Oregon day. The few, lonely yellowed and brown crunchy leaves that have been desperately holding on to their branches are blown haphazardly from the maple, oak, and birch trees in our yard. They fall reluctantly to their resting place not knowing that this motion sends them on the path towards new life. The sky is a dull, blackish grey with blue hints bursting through at the horizon. There’s a feeling that something powerful is on its way. I’m a bit hesitant to embrace this change in weather—winter is long, wet, and can seem endless.

It’s amazing to me that I can think almost as fast as I write at the computer. The keyboard provides a direct means to my mind. Subconsciously, though, I am constantly aware there is a reluctance to reveal a deeper self. Online communication lacks permanance that does not allow words the attention or time they deserve. My mindful typing may sit unused on a hard drive aging in a plastic shell, like swarms of old digital photos are now, never to be found again; the next blog will hide the last; e-mails are instantly deleted; and web pages surfed past like dud waves. But with paper, it all sits available (as long as you have a good filing system). I can hand you something I wrote back in college as easily as I can give you today’s journal entry. Now, I understand why I refused to write any of my English papers in college on a computer. My inner rebel preferred the Brother typewriter with backward correction and a full bottle of White-Out. I look forward to the exercise of writing with pen and paper in the mornings. It provides a way for me to take hold of a moment in my day, no excuses, and connect with what I am thinking at present. When I home schooled, I encouraged my kids to do this practice as often as possible. This mental touch with the inner self is missing in today’s online world. I’m certain there isn’t a gadget out there to bridge the gap between our soul and reality like creative expression whether it is with paper and pen, paints, photography, play dough or clay.

But wait. As I finish this blog I’ve come to realize this type of computer interaction I’m doing is full of the characteristics of art. It’s creative with the use of extra tools: a camera, a computer, and a cord to connect them both to a world that instantly shares my finished work. Yes, it is different and less-private than traditional writing but immediately satisfying and exciting because of the potential and promise these tools hold.

I’m adapting to online writing, just as I will soon adjust to the new view out my window without the fullness of trees to provide me a secret space. Now, fully exposed to my neighbors outside we’ll often share brief conversation under looming rain clouds before tucking inside our homes for security. November 2009, this season of change is welcome for what life and opportunity lies beneath each fallen leaf.

Living Community

Community. This is a word that generates so much for people. It can mean a place for one person and a vision or feeling for another. It also seems in my lifetime to be an ever evolving concept. It is used to describe many different kinds of subgroups: online community, work community, and global community. I have been trying to define what this means to me because I truly believe that making the original idea of community work in a positive way is key to us as human kind surviving on this earth without destroying it or one another first.

Simply defined, community is a group people with common interests living in a particular area. It seems as though concept of community in America has changed dramatically during the span from the 1950s-1960s until now. Then, our neighbors often served as an extension of our family, coming to fill in when an extra hand was necessary. It was not considered an invasion of privacy because we needed each other. People readily traded their goods and services. I remember in our small town even in the 70s customers would buy on “credit” at the hardware store and either provide a service of equal value in return or eventually pay off their debt over time.

Today we do not look to one another for help or services nearly as often. We frequently just hire a professional to get the job done. Our generation has lost trust and dependence on each other while striving for our own survival financially, forgetting that there is an element of working hand in hand with one another that doesn’t involve money at all. It involves caring and sharing; two concepts we drill into preschool-aged kids and then keep our fingers crossed they retain for the rest of their lives.

Ferenc Mate, author of A Reasonable Life, says, "How did we let the one thing that was the very cornerstone of North America's culture, both native and thereafter, its oldest, proudest, most socially perfect heritage, vanish? Perhaps...the snake-oil salesman got to us all and sold us new and improved progress; a thousand flashy gadgets that not only closed the local craftsmen's doors, but made us all less dependent on each other, so little by little we drifted apart."

I know there are exceptions to these statements; many cases here in our local area. And as the economy toughens for everyone in the world, I think we are witnessing a shift from me, me, me to us, us, us. If you’ve got a great story about your community, share it with as many people as you can. The more we hear about how community can be successful, the more we believe in our own. It is becoming more common and ‘cool’ to belong to a close knit community, volunteer, buy local, eat from local growers, and support businesses in your immediate area. I hope this trend continues, for my kids’ sake, and that someday they understand that giving of yourself is more rewarding than anything you can give to yourself. Mate says, "It's up to us. Each of us...We need to come alive again and live as simply, freely, happily, and passionately as we did when we were children."

My wish is that you all have community to warm you and that you play a part in doing that for someone else. Spreading the wealth of compassion and functionality is so simple to do, but so meaningful. Unfortunately, it is also often forgotten among busy, stressful lives. Our world is made up of a melting pot of communities, tribes, and villages that survive not because they’re the fittest but because they care about preserving each other. So I hope you’ll take time to reflect on your community today and how its impact on you makes this world a better place to be.

"There is no doubt that we can make major changes, not in a generation, not in decades, but in weeks. Maybe we should call this a war--that seems to unite us best. But there need be no shots fired, or bodies mangled... And we will all win a habitable earth, livable cities, and unpoisoned, verdant land. And some sanity. Some calm, some time to know our children Some pride in being human." --Ferenc Mate

Lifelong Birthing--What's Your Story?

Yesterday, while reading about writing, I came upon an interesting concept. The author was trying to get her audience to write about themselves, from the beginning of their life--to tell about their own birth and research what the world was like on that day. She continued saying that over the span of a lifetime, people have the potential to have multiple births on a different level. If we define a birth as a life changing event such as a career change, a death, an illness, a divorce, a tragedy, an incident that brought about significant change in one's life path we recognize the breath of new life as a welcome renewal to our journey here on earth.


I continued to read shorts that students of this author had written about their "births" and found them fascinating. I realized that most people I know on a deeper level have had this experience. Possibly even describing themselves to be quite different after the event. What is your story? One of mine, obvious to those that know me, would be when our family left in 2004-2005 sailing. I often say, "Before our trip..." or "After we got back...." as reference points. We all were "changed" or "refreshed" through that experience. I feel so fortunate we were able to show our kids that taking risks, following through, and succeeding at them can be so empowering.

Initially, preparing for our departure seemed a monumental task. Like a pregnancy, we planned, prepared, bought, constructed, sold, and planned some more. There were many tears, conversations about fear, and moments of sheer disbelief that we could pull it off. But when we left Oregon, we had no doubts in our minds that we'd have the adventure of our lives and no matter what happened, we'd never regret it. And what a time we had.

Then, incorporating ourselves back into our busy American lifestyle was a difficult task that took time, just as adjusting to a new child. We were hesitant because we had formed a bubble of safety, commraderie, and dependence on one another that we treasured. We were also critical of material things, cars and gas, and overabundance of everything. But soon we quieted and learned to appreciate community, neighbors, friends and family again. We clearly had all matured and put the memories of those 8 months, like photos of a new baby, in a precious place in our hearts to look back to whenever we need them. As time passes and we get further away from that time together, I look forward to birthing like that over and over again.

Fear of Facebook Revealed

Okay, time to explain why I'm blogging not subscribing to Facebook. There is something about Facebook that keeps me from jumping in. While I've had discussions with many of you about the whys and why nots of using the medium, today I actually had an experience that helps me identify more of why I hesitate to take the leap.
I was writing (on paper) as I do every morning and recalling an experience I had in high school. When I finished writing about it, I had the urge to go find a person that was involved in my story by looking them up on Google. I found that person's Facebook profile, saw a picture of them, and whew--it was like I was hurled back into my senior year. A weird familiarity with that person on the other end that I was looking at but that they could not feel because they had no idea that I was looking straight into their eyes into this picture. I was invading their privacy. And yet, they put themselves out there for everyone to see. It's interesting because when you are creating something for a blog or Facebook page you have a positive feeling, right? You're sharing a bit of yourself, telling the world how you feel, showing them something you love or feel passionate about. A proud sense of "ME". But to feel an almost weird, negative sense of "I'm invading someone else's space and they don't even know it" is strange to me.
I guess most everyone has felt this at some point. And most people get past it without feeling that Catholic guilt that I'm experiencing. Okay, truth be told, it was an old boyfriend. I'll have to keep the rest to myself and write about it somewhere else, or maybe if you see me in person you can ask me. Alas, the other strange thing about this experience was the flood of emotion I felt. A sadness because so much time had lapsed since I last saw this person which is funny because the last time I saw him I never wanted to see him again. Also, I have experienced a lifetime of living and I became curious about his experiences so there was an immediate temptation to contact him. Then, guilt. "Why would I do that?" I'm perfectly satified with my life and really don't have any interest in reliving that part of it. The internet has made it so easy to connect to a moment in the past. My experience was a memory, not a particularly wonderful one, not a bad one, but just a memory that was part of my history. And now it has returned, with a picture and a face that has the same memory as me because they were are the same place and time.
I love that Facebook connects so many people knowingly, don't get me wrong. My kids are connected with many of you, their family, great friends, etc. I'm certain my hesitation is just me overthinking and being neurotic. But for some reason, I feel just a bit safer over here on my blog. So those of you who have asked me to join Facebook, be patient. I'm critical, cynical, private, and often refuse to conform. But I have also been known to give into peer pressure and in the end will probably become your "friend" because of the community you've created.

Great Performance by Dave Matthews

Hunter and I loved this Dave Matthews clip. Joan Baez also does an incredible performance at this event. Check out more video at the PBS Great Performances page. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/pete-seegers-90th-birthday-celebration-from-madison-square-garden/preview-pete-seegers-90th-birthday-celebration-from-madison-square-garden/793/

You Must View this About the Plastic Garbage Heap in the Pacific

Please share this with others. This massive amount of litter is trapped in the Pacific gyre and estimated to be twice the size of Texas. We need to be aware of the damage done so that we are motivated to do something about it.