The question every yoga teacher is asking when offering the teachings to students.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
First flower on a cherry tomato appeared overnight. Peppers are budding. They all like the heat. Dill is going yellow around the edges already. It does not like the heat. One of the things I love most about gardening is noticing what thrives to excess and what struggles, depending on the weather patterns. With the right balance of plants, there will always be a bumper crop of something (both edible and ornamental). Eating locally, with consciousness acknowledgement of the limits of space and time in an affirming way, requires accepting what are the crops of the year and being creative with them rather than finding a recipe and insisting that the ingredients be available to the detriment of flavor, pocketbook, and environment.
Fostering such a relationship to my garden and my food helps me also accept that although I can grow and shift, I ultimately cannot change certain fundamental things about myself. It is better radically to affirm what I have been given than to try and contort myself into something that it seems society (Heideggerian “they”) would prefer.
Joseph
Thank you Joe. I have been giving to WWC since the late 1980s. When I was in my 20s and 30s I had close friends die of AIDs or go through the tribulations of the early drug trials for HIV. I like that I can now give in a more personal way.
Peace and light,
Elizabeth
I get lots of emails asking me to engage in e-activism — write letters to Congress, write letters to corporate executives, write letters to the President, sign petitions — and, of course, requests for donations. The requests I get are from a wide range of public interest organizations, including environmental, women’s rights, peace, civil rights, worker’s rights, care for animals and other wildlife, organic food, good science, enhancing education, the list goes on. Sometimes I just hit the delete button. Sometimes I sign the petition. Sometimes I hit the send button on the form letter. Sometimes I edit the letter personally to make it a more powerful statement. Sometimes I give money. Sometimes I both write and give money. Sometimes I learn something that invites me to change how I consume or invest my money, and I try to make a shift.
I received an email today from the Rainforest Action Network asking me if I would make a pledge to help end mountain top removal. I power my electricity with 100% wind energy, now through Clean Currents, so I am not using coal-powered electricity myself at home. I sent RAN another donation; I really believe in what they do. I also agreed to do a blog post on why it is important to end mountaintop coal mining as part of my pledge. It’s utter and nearly permanent devastation is horrifying and wakens me to the repercussions of consumption without conscious knowledge of the impact. Seeing the pictures makes me think about everything I consume (and I am already an overthinker). I welcomed the invitation to pledge to spread the word.
In yoga, the concept of “sangha” or community carries with it the meaning that you become those with whom you keep company (so therefore keep good company). I subscribe to all these activist list serves and seek out those who are more engaged than am I, so that I will be inspired progressively to live with more consciousness. I thank RAN for inspiring me to extend the invitation to look more closely at how we can shift our energy consumption still to enjoy reasonable fruits of our technology, but not in a way that destroys the possibility of a good life for others in the present and for eons into the future.
