we all staying in touch more
I want a specialist within
help disentangle this problem
Could be which is you!
Awaiting
brightly as from the rich man’s
the simple gladness
But Now I actually laugh
I’m happy to seek.
What are you seeing in the sky on these days that are said to be when the veil between the living and spirit worlds are thin?
It was wonderful to get some rain yesterday, but our area really has been way too dry, suffering from storms going to the north and west or to the south and east of us. Here are a few ways for those of us staying on the grid to reduce water consumption:
1. Short showers (under three minutes)
2. Longer showers or baths only an occasional treat.
3. If you have space (I don’t; though I keep thinking about how to work it) get a rain barrel or two for your garden.
4. Re-use water when you can. For example, when changing a pet’s water dish, water plants instead of pouring out dish. Soak pots without soap (needs longer soaking) and use soaking water for house plants. Same for water from your hot water bottle (to stay warm while keeping the heat down).
5. Practice the old drought adage all the time (“if it’s yellow, let it mellow”).
6. When it is time to replace a toilet or faucet, use a water efficient model.
7. Turn off the water while brushing teeth, shaving, or lathering.
8. For container plants in the garden, use “Soil Moist” or a similar product.
9. Drink tap water (it takes about 60 ounces of water to bring you a 20 ounce bottle of water). If you don’t like the taste, filter it.
10. Forget about washing your car (if you have one) except for keeping the windows clean enough so you can see out.
11. Replace lawns and annual flowers with hardy, native perennials.
Please share your tips. I’m always looking to learn.
After a day of teaching and more discussion and emails regarding the upheaval, I had a memory of petting one of the temple cows at Chidambaram. I was jetlagged and in sensory overload, and then I petted a most wonderful cow. I dropped into a space where I was perfectly at peace and unaware of the time and all the things going on around me. This space is always there for us, even in the absence of a sacred cow, and we practice so that we can find it more and more consistently, especially when we are being challenged.
I did not photograph the Chidambaram temple cow, although a nice Indian lady asked me if her husband could photograph the two of us with the cow, so she has a photograph of herself with the strange American lady in a sari who was petting the cow. I stopped to pet many cows after that. In one town, a man told me, as I was scritching a cow between ears and horns, that the cow would enjoy a banana.
