Cool Thanksgiving: Will you join me?

Cool Foods Campaign works with the Center for Food Safety in helping us identify ways we can reduce our carbon imprint on the planet by making food choices grown with sustainable practices AND thus much much healthier for you!  So here’s an email I got from the site recently.  Thanks for reading!

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Getting Back to our Roots: What makes a Cool Thanksgiving, 

Thanksgiving is fast approaching. As you plan your Thanksgiving menu, the Cool Foods Campaign wants to help you have the “coolest” celebration possible!

The holidays come and go in a blur as we struggle to provide the best of everything for our friends and families. Despite our desires for extravagance, we’re all feeling the effects of an economic recession. In addition, news continues to highlight the pressing need to address global warming. To lower our impact on the environment AND watch our budgets, the answers lie in simplicity. Today, more than ever, it’s important to get back to our roots and remember why we celebrate seasonal holidays like Thanksgiving in the first place.

Take a moment to recall why America celebrates Thanksgiving: the holiday is a remembrance of the early settlers’ ingenuity and perseverance in tough times, as well as a reminder of the significance of family. The same can be said for other traditional holidays this time of the year, as Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanza each offer a time to be thankful for what we have. These are all important themes to reflect upon now. Take this opportunity to celebrate as those pioneers did: with the local foods and flavors in your region. You’ll be keeping your dollars local (while spending less at farmers markets), supporting seasonal and small-scale agriculture, and enjoying the amazing (and natural) gifts available in your own backyard!

Our site is full of tips, recipes and information that will help you make this year’s Thanksgiving greener and cooler than ever! Our brief history section discusses the first Thanksgiving and the types of foods that might have been present, as well as the background on how Thanksgiving became a national holiday. Follow our “Ten Thanksgiving Tips” to celebrate the coolest holiday possible. Our “Greening Your Thanksgiving” section will help keep a little extra cash in your pocket. And our recipe sectionfeatures a few signature seasonal dishes from renowned chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barnsin New York and Nora Pouillon of Restaurant Nora— both proud Cool Foods Pledge signers.

Life in the Woods

My Dream Cottage

I’ve always wanted a cottage in the woods ever since I can remember. I grew up in the rain forests of the Philippines and it was paradise to me. The only other dwelling on the 40 hectares of land my family owned was half a mile away where a family who worked for my parents lived. We traveled to the place via motorboat and it took us a day to get there. The meandering river to our place was filled with crocodiles, the trails to, in and around our house were shared by snakes of various kinds. I can distinctly remember a huge snake curled up on the path I was on. I stopped, said hello, asked permission to pass, told it to stay put and I tip-toed around it to pass. The snake never budged! I was smiling as I tip-toed around it!

There was a brook nearby, with a canopy of trees on each side surrounding the cool waters below. My siblings and I arranged some dead logs around a deeper section of the brook (stream?) and designated the area as our bathing place. I loved wading in the shallow waters of that stream where I used my skirt to scoop up fresh shrimps and such. I never kept them. I let them go as soon as I said hello.

My other favorite area in that rain forest was an elevated section of the land. You could say it’s a little hill maybe. I would run up to the top and talk to the birds. I never even considered that the birds may not understand what I was saying! To me, they did. And when they flew down and perched on my outstretched arms, that was confirmation enough for me that they understood. There was a tree up that little hill. I climbed that tree every day. I’d take my naps there. There was never any worry of falling off. I felt as if the tree cradled me in its branches and trusted implicitly that I was safe. I always said hello to the tree when I got up there and said goodbye when I left. To this day, I still talk to the trees when I go for walks in the woods. Except this time, I kind of look around if there’s someone nearby so they wouldn’t cart me off to the nearest mental health institution!

As we got older, our family moved into the next town where there were schools for us to attend. When we outgrew the place, we moved to the next town to continue our education. Availability of schools pretty much dictated where we lived. Each time we moved to more populous areas, I mourned my paradise in the woods.

Now I live in urban America. I’ve spent most of my life in this part of the ‘woods.’ I have a different forest to deal with now. And the variety of ‘wildlife’ is of a more complex variety. Plants and animals are much simpler than people!

The circumstances of my life has kept me in this neighborhood of buildings (instead of trees), cars and people instead of river boats, crocodiles, snakes, birds, bats and monkeys, to name a few. Every so often, I think of my ‘dream’ cottage in the woods. How wonderful it would be to live where nature dwells and talks to you. Lately, I’m beginning to think I can still have that cottage in the woods.

It’s time to let that cottage find me.

A Moderator’s Role

The dictionary defines moderator as someone who presides or arbitrates issues; a leader of a group meeting, one who mediates disputes and avoids violence, someone who makes less extreme or uncompromising; a negotiator who provides a link between parties. Given that, clearly the role of the moderator is not about making a stand on the issue, but to help the opposing views find a common ground?

For the past two months, I’ve been participating in a blog site moderating readers’ comments. I very quickly learned that my way of moderating was puzzling to my colleagues. You see, my responses to comments first acknowledged the writer’s point of view, or at least tried to understand where the person is coming from, before pointing out the error in the writer’s reasoning.  This was construed as not making a stand on the issue. I thought my job was to point out when the writer is out of bounds or off topic or breaking the rules in one form or another. But the fact that I do this without reprimanding the writer only confused those who read what I wrote. I remind, I offer an alternative point of view, I ask questions, will warn, and if need be, boot the person out, but I will not insult the writer no matter how misguided his/her opinions maybe because the moderator’s role is like that of a peacekeeper – creating accord, not discord.

The word moderator implies you expect to see divergent views on issues. If everyone voiced the same opinion, what have you got?

On Global Warming & the Holidays

Three decades or so ago, I came to this country totally in shock at how much waste we, as humans, produce. That realization, prompted me to reuse stuff I acquired and recycle whenever possible. At that time, you were hard pressed to find recycling bins anywhere. I remember using blank pages of junk mail as my writing paper!  I didn’t even think how people would react to receiving correspondence written on the back of some magazine subscription solicitation letter. It was my private protest to the wastefulness I saw around me.  And of course, every chance I got to remind people to do the same I grabbed at. I was young then. I had the energy to perch on top of tree stump and preach!  Of course, people also ran away from me whenever I was in that mode.

In time, I chilled a bit. My children may disagree, but I no longer chide people for buying stuff only to throw them away so they can buy more stuff. I do remind, yes. Can’t help it! So while not intended as criticism, it can still be and often received as such. (Sigh) I do still reuse, and recycle. Over time I’ve learned NOT to buy products with excessive packaging. Even better, if I could avoid packaging completely, I will. If I don’t need something, I will refrain from buying it no matter how enticing it looks. (Except for Apple products! Although I thought I did a good job not running to the Apple store to get the new MacBook Pro like I did when the iPhone came out.

At this time of the year, I sound more like a scrooge than anything else. Instead of presents, I do ‘good deeds’ on behalf of someone. They don’t really even know that I am doing it. So as far as they are concerned I could very well have forgotten about them!  I discourage family from buying me presents. And I declare I am not giving any either! Not stuff anyway. I may give money or good wishes or something that money can’t buy and need not be shipped. Once when my children were young I used  newspaper for wrapping their Christmas or birthday presents!  I told a friend about that and he thinks I’m a bit much.  I agree.  So sometimes my holiday cheer could simply be refraining from bringing these things up if people have already done them. On the other hand, if they’re just contemplating buying stuff, then I might chime in. But that’s dangerous territory. Most don’t really want to hear about what impact, if any, their actions may have on the planet.  Which is sad. It is precisely during times like this that we need to ask ourselves the following:

• What am I doing?
• What is the immediate impact of this action?
• What is the long term impact?
• Do I really need to do this?

Try it. You might find a no creeping up in your consciousness every so often.

Due Respect

Respect – due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights or traditions of others.

So self-respect then means one’s due regard for his/her own feelings, wishes, rights or traditions?  But wait. The dictionary defines ’self-respect’ as “one’s pride and confidence in oneself; a feeling that one is behaving with honor and dignity.” The trouble with definitions is that it brings into play more words to be defined. How about due regard for one’s nature?  Would that work?  Isn’t that what we’re talking about? Therefore, respect for others is due regard for their nature?

This is hard. We use the word respect as if we know what it means.  In the same token, we use the phrase self-respect as if we know what it means. But do we? It seems to me we can only know if we have some sense of who we are, what we really are.  There is a difference between granting due regard for feelings driven by self importance and due regard for feelings that come from a fundamental sense of right action without attachment to outcome. Due regard for feelings driven by self importance is indulgence and a source of so much trouble both for the indulging mind and consequently for those around him/her. It is a selfish act. Respect for a fundamental sense of right action without attachment to outcome is unselfish. Expression is driven by a sense of celebration, with no accompanying self-righteousness nor indignation.  It is not insisted upon as a right, but simply right.

Self-respect is only possible when one has a sense of who he is, what he really is. How many of us have that sense? And if we don’t, is it any wonder we know nothing about due respect for others?

Growing nettles, wheatgrass and sunflower sprouts!

 I sit in front of my computer checking email and my gaze wandered off to ‘my garden.’  I see  Stinging nettles leaves and blades of wheatgrass glisten in the morning sun, dew drops perched  at the tips of each blade of grass, defying gravity. The first leaves of the sunflower patch are  just beginning to stretch out of their shells, as if relieved to finally greet the sun.  The  wheatgrass and sunflower sprouts are inside a 12×12 planting tray; the nettles are in 24×8x8  planter ‘box.’  They sit on a 15×24 redwood table by the living room window of my apartment. This is my indoor garden.

My ‘outdoor’ garden is on the other side of my apartment’s windows. Two planter boxes outside my bedroom and two outside my living room window. Those planter boxes contain various species of rosemary, Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s Wort), nasturtiums, chives, mint, and pineapple sage. In my back porch, I also have hibernating echinacea purpureas, thyme, oregano and more rosemary.  Soon my nettles will migrate over there. They might be happier there. I don’t know. This is an experiment.

All these plants have nourished both my body and soul.  It is joy to say hello first thing in the morning. I could gaze at those dew drops for hours! And when I catch myself doing that, I find that there seems to be a smile permanently etched on my face.

I am thankful for my garden. Although my apartment is in the middle of an urban area, it gives me the feeling I have my little cottage in the woods.  More on that later.

Finding Quiet

I just came back from a meditation retreat that, in retrospect, I’m glad I participated in.  I didn’t want to go.  I thought the few days I was going to spend in a place that required traveling two days was going to basically nullify any good the contemplation would bring, if at all!  So somewhat muttering under my breath, I went.  Cranky and sleep-deprived upon arriving at the site, the smile that greeted me immediately washed away the crankiness.  I said hello to the rest of the group and begged off the day’s practice so I could sleep. I didn’t think there was any point in sitting when my mind would most likely wander off into all sorts of distractions!  I was convinced there was no point!

I found the sleeping quarters, was too tired to make my bed so I plopped my body unto the couch and took a nap. To my surprise, I woke up well before the scheduled first lecture and joined the group settling around our teacher.  The first few words that came out of his mouth literally felt like someone was bushwhacking inside my consciousness and cleared away all the clutter I had held on to in there and for the first time in two months, my mind was relatively quiet – and clear! I was filled with gratitude and knew that I was in the right place.  I needed this retreat more than I owned up to. And so glad that despite the mind preoccupied with distractions, I found my way to quiet.

What are you really saying?

These days I do a lot of watching.  I watch people.  I can’t help it. I pick up conversations that I don’t really want to listen to.  Mostly I pick up the tone of people’s voices.  For the most part I am left shaking my head convinced of the following:

• No one is listening;
• No one wants to listen;
• And most often, the words do not match the affect or tone of the communication

It makes me squirm when I hear someone say impatiently, “You’re welcome!” Me thinks the speaker meant something else? I squirm when someone proclaims love with a distinctly annoyed look on one’s face – as if the declaration of affection is indeed a chore!  I don’t know about you, but when someone says that to me, I want to run the other way.  

Have you ever listened to a conversation where the parties are both saying the same thing and both accuse the other of not listening?  It is quite funny!  We are so entrenched in our own thoughts that there is no room to hear.  We’ve already decided WHO the other is and all our ideas about that person come into play. We don’t really see how they’re doing. We don’t really know who they are.  Even if the other is someone we live with.

And we wonder why there are wars.

What’s in your Surround?

I live in the city. It is a small city, but not really. It is a small city next to other cities that make one fairly large metropolitan area.  My small second floor apartment in an old building overlooks a busy street. Cars go by at all hours of the day and night. When I moved into my apartment, I almost freaked out. I couldn’t sleep. The street noise was a bit much for my ears.  But the apartment I liked, still like.  And at the time, the price was right.  I needed to find a way to co-exist with my surroundings!

My bedroom is on the street side so that didn’t help. I like sleeping with the windows open, but that wouldn’t do this time. I could open the side window, but not the one facing the street. I went shopping for curtains to help absorb the street sounds. Feng Shui-wise, the best position for my bed would place my head facing the street.  Hmmm … what to do? I definitely did not want my head on the same side as the door. That wall is full of electrical outlets and aesthetically, that placement did not appeal.  

My intuition tells me the situation is workable.  Everything is workable.  There is a mind that hedges on that one, but on the whole the notion rings true.  Taking a deep breath, I surveyed my bedroom and found the answer.  I created an energetic headboard framed by ribbons and crystals – really nothing to crow about, but for some reason, encasing my whole sleeping area in that ‘bubble’ of energy allowed me to sleep.  

I also said hello to the energy of previous tenants, my neighbors below, across the street, the trees outside my window, the stars above, the fog that rolls in. In short, anything and everything around me. I announced my intent to live amongst them – in accord with everyone – as much as I knew how. For some reason, the peace that eluded me the first night settled in the following day. My body relaxed. I got into looking at how to make my apartment my home, my sanctuary.