With compassion, love, and discrimination (in yoga viveka), we can do far more–for ourselves individually and for society and the planet’s ecosystem as a whole. If you haven’t already, please get out and vote.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
It was really quite beautiful when I took a break from my work computer to go outside and shovel.
My nearly 90-year old neighbor, Mrs. G., was also out shoveling, though no one else on our side of the street had made any effort either this snow or the last to clear their sidewalk.
When I was mostly finished, I went to say hello and to tell her, though we have never really socialized, how much I love and appreciate having her as a neighbor. She thanked me for saying so and said she has always tried to be a good neighbor.
I asked if I could give her a hug. She hugged me and then asked rhetorically when that had last happened. Her doctor. Before Christmas. Gave her a hug. “It’s always good to hear,” she said, “that you are appreciated.”
I offer my appreciation to you for reading and for how much so many of you enrich my life.
I received this email last night that I wanted to share. If you own a house in the District and haven’t gone solar, think about it. If you rent, write your landlord. If you live in another jurisdiction, work with like-minded citizens and work for alternative sources of energy. FYI, since my solar panels were active, my highest electricity bill was $20 (and for the past two months, the meter has run backwards).
Here’s the full text of the email (with a link on how to get involved at the bottom):
Today, thanks to your hard work the Distributed Generation Act of 2011 (19-10) passed the DC Council. The vote was unanimous!!! We only await the Mayor’s signature for the bill to become law. Although, there may be a lag of up to a year for SREC prices on the spot market to recover–we expect the bill to create a strong vibrant solar market in DC for the next DECADE!! In response to the expected improvement in market conditions SOLSYSTEMS announced today the availability of an upfront SREC payment through its installer partners of $1,200/kw installed. This means for example, that you could get $4,800 up front for a 4kw system!
Many many people worked on the bill! Many of you showed up to testify! More than a thousand of you signed the petition in support of the legislation. http://signon.org/sign/build-dc-solar-dont-let?source=s.em.cr&r_by=118605 Many of you sent emails or made phone calls. Many of you showed up to deliver our petition to each of the Council Member’s offices. Many of you turned out to create a field of sunflowers–in the Council Chamber during the first reading of the bill! A special shout out to MDVSEIA that worked hand and hand with us throughout the process!
It is important that the DC Council understand that this bill has very strong, and broad support from across the city. We want them to feel good about passing this bill and feel good about passing similar legislation in the future. This bill will create the market mechanism to allow homeowners, churches, community organizations, businesses and government buildings to go solar! While there is much left to do to make solar affordable and accessible to every DC resident—this bill is a very important step.
PLEASE write to the DC council today and THANK them for their support! dccouncil@dccouncil.us A quick email, a quick thanks! Thank them for leading DC toward a solar future.
Anya Schoolman
President
DC Solar United Neighborhoods
Thinking of Going Solar? Want to Get More Involved ? Become a DC Sun Member– Join the Discussion at
Last night at house practice, we were led to think about humility (in Sanskrit vinaya). Yoga, similar to religion, tends to privilege the idea of humility.
From a one perspective, it is easy to think of the benefit that those in charge–the priests and the moneyed and privileged classes that support religious institutions to get help staying in power–get from preaching the virtues of humility. If the relatively powerless are led to believe that they will benefit spiritually from practicing humility before humans and institutions that hold sway over them, that certainly helps perpetuate a patently unfair status quo.
We can recognize our own skills and talents and relative worthiness and actively seek justice and fairness, though, and still be humble. However much intrinsic power we have and extrinsic fairness in distribution of power we seek, we can still recognize that we are not ultimately in charge of exactly how our life will play out in the vast and complex web of being. Feeling humility in the face of all that we do not and cannot know is just living in awe at the wonder of life. This, I think, is true and sustainable humility.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
