Friday, December 18, 2009

THE 11th GIFT

I am so EXCITED! A few weeks ago I wrote a blog called 10 GIFTS about alternatives in this gift-giving season that bless both the person intended AND the Earth by not harming her. Well I just discovered and participated in another one that is SO incredible it gets its own blog! Some of you Internet savvy people may already know of this, and organizations like it, but I'm new to all this global computer connection thing and the wonders it can offer. So here is my new favorite thing:

It's found at http://www.kiva.org/ and the people who dreamt this up need all kinds of extra points from whoever is doling them out. It is a site where you can donate to help people living in poverty in countries all over the world. There are pictures and bios so you can pick who you want your money to go to and read about what they need it for. But wait, it gets better! This is done as a LOAN, so there is a re-payment plan set up! These people are too poor to qualify for loans from a bank, but they need money to help them out for some specific goal. It is empowering people rather than just keeping them in a cycle of poverty. Give them an opportunity and they do the rest. Often someone needs money as a start-up to buy something, and then they can fly! Sweet.

The first woman I gave a loan to lives in Cambodia and makes about 2 dollars a day selling veggies in a market. She was requesting a loan to buy a bike to help carry more produce to the market. Right now she probably carries as much as she can on her HEAD, and walks 10 miles with it! I saw that when I was living in Borneo so I can picture it. The minimum loan is 25 dollars, but honestly what is 25 bucks to most of us? It's one dinner at a restaurant. But to her it is 2 weeks wages. Wow.

But there's even more! When the loan is paid back it goes into my account at Kiva and I can withdraw it if I want to, OR I can use the same money to invest in someone else!!!!!!!!!!!!! Truly the gift that keeps on giving! You don't ever have to invest more money if you don't want to, but with the original gift you get to keep helping more and more people. Incredible. They have gift certificates on the site as well if you are doing the donation as a gift for someone you know, and that person can choose who they give the loan to! I'm so amazed by the whole thing.

So I know it's last minute now, but if you are still looking for a gift for someone you love for this Holiday season, or throughout the year for birthdays or whatever, you could give gifts to 2 people at the same time! Someone in your life, AND someone who can use a helping hand. What could be better?
Thanks for listening.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

MIRACLES

Last night I was watching a movie that depicted racial discrimination against people of African descent in the U.S. back in the 60's and 70's. It's called Pride, and is based on a true story of an African-American man who started an all black swim team in Philadelphia in the 70's and how they were treated, which was HORRIFICALLY. The opening scene is him attending a swim meet 10 years before he began coaching, where the all white crowd literally boos him as he walks in and the other swimmers refuse to get in the water with him. It BLOWS MY MIND that this same country 40 years later has a PRESIDENT of African descent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is MIRACULOUS! How is it even possible that the MAJORITY could change that much in that amount of time? The scenes they show of the discrimination back then were so PAINFUL. I know it still exists today, but it is no longer ACCEPTABLE by the majority. How could something like that EVER be acceptable to the majority????? It was.

It got me thinking. That is the kind of miracle we need for this planet to survive. If it is possible for the MAJORITY to go from completely acceptable public hatred to electing a President in 40 years, then what will it take to go from completely acceptable public desecration of the Earth to placing her in the highest position possible in our society???? THAT is a miracle we need desperately. And we don't have 40 years to come around to that as a majority. We don't even have 10. I imagine if you lived in an all white neighborhood the horrors of how others were treated based on the color of their skin would not be a part of your life. Here in N. America it's like living in an "all white" neighborhood. We don't see how we are destroying people and creatures and oceans and forests so it's not part of our lives to want to stop it. We might read about it or hear about it from someone else, but it's not HORRIFYING enough to do anything about. It's not "in our neighborhood". How can this change? How can we get out of our "all white" neighborhood and realize the effect we are having on the entire world? We don't just poison it in our own little corner. That poison covers the globe. And STILL there are people saying it's not really happening, or it's not that important. That's hard for me to comprehend with all I see. I know that there are some who realize how imperative this is, but they are not yet the majority.

Here in Hawaii I'm sad to say environmentalism is a racial issue. Truly alarming to witness. If I as a person of Swedish descent go up to a person of Hawaiian descent and ask them to please make a different choice with whatever they are doing that is damaging the Earth, they have a VERY different reaction than if a person of their same skin color asks them. When hiring a person to do outreach to the fishing community here, the powers that be actually had to consider the color of skin in order for that person to be effective. Wow. This is 2009. It's hard for me to even write this. When I attended the meeting about the forest at Larsens being cut down, the rancher who wants to destroy it all actually commented on the color of skin of the people present as if that mattered! Even though I've witnessed it so many times since I moved here, it is still shocking to me every single time. How can this be? We need to come together to deal with this issue. We are ALL contributing and we ALL will be affected. Skin makes NO difference to the poisons going into the world. But skin IS stopping us from working together to end this destruction.

There is a global environmental conference happening right now in Copenhagen. The Nations of the world are coming together to take a look at what is happening to the planet, and come to agreements on what needs to be done to turn the tide of devastation around. It is SO important that the issues of color disappear completely between the Nations so that we FINALLY see that there is only ONE human species on this earth, and this is the only home for EVERYONE. We need that miracle to happen. I believe in miracles. I have seen them happen. It's time for one now.
Thanks for listening.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

BEAUTY

Never before have I lived in a place where I am in wilderness every single day, and it is so powerful. There are so many beautiful images I get to witness, and the gifts are different each day. The following are just some of those moments from my life here on Kauai, for those of you who don't get to contact Nature much! Come see what I see. It's AMAZING.

Tonight was gorgeous. There were streaky slithery clouds like incense that got covered in all kinds of different colours as the sun went down, reflecting in the water punctuated by the white froth of the waves. And because the full moon was already in the sky it never got dark, everything just changed colours from sunlight to moonlight. Truly magical.

What a peaceful, serene day. For some reason the surf and wind stopped and everything stood still. The water was clearer than it has been for about 4 months and I never wanted to leave, but I was freezing! (It's all relative...) This is the night once a month when the moon comes up full right out of the water at sunset and there were no clouds to hide her brilliance. Truly takes your breath. I couldn't move for awhile. I had been doing my trash pick-up, and suddenly there she was so I had to just sit down and gape. The sky was still mauve from sunset and the water was reflecting that mauve with a bright white shimmering carpet down the middle from the moon. WOW!

This moon deserves to be ADORED! Tonight again was calm with no clouds, and she came up after dark so it was really mysterious. First a gentle glow on the almost black horizon, and then suddenly a solid line of pure neon ORANGE on the ocean, swelling to a mountain that became an ENORMOUS DARK ORANGE GLOBE! I've never seen it so dark before. Couldn't do yoga because I just had to stare!

It is SPECTACULAR here with plumeria blossoms strewn all over the place looking like a wedding just happened, and scenting the air with their glory.

I wish you could hear this right now. The sound of the waves on the shore, singing of insects, and a small dripping from the rain. I LOVE LIVING IN THE COUNTRY!

Today was blessed solitude. I realized I hadn't had a day of solitude for a week! How in the world did that happen? It was grey and rainy which actually was perfect. I even swam in the rain which is so fascinating, feeling the little drops on your back, and when you dive down you can see them break the surface of the ocean and plop a few inches below the surface before they become part of the sea. Mesmerizing!! Walking back in the rain was a long beautiful outdoor shower with amazing scenery.

Bliss day at Larsens. Calm. Blue. Warm. Long slow renewing walk along the shore. Beautiful gifts in the water. So much beauty out there. So much extraordinary life. The coral that people walk on is actually a living creature,(most people think it is inert like a rock), and where people haven't been walking, it is magnificent as it gets a chance to grow. Fantastic shapes like crystal formations, all the colours of the rainbow, and amazing textures. There is a place in the middle I call the coral garden that really is like swimming through something that has been planted just for the sake of being beautiful to behold.

Such splendour in the water today. A honu (Hawaiian sea turtle) that just circled me gently, surrounding me in love. An adorable trio I've never seen together before: spanish dancer, red, yellow and white; sea hare, bright green, white and black; and sea urchin, striped black and white. All had crawled out of their caves and were congregating on a piece of coral. The colours were incredible! Maybe discussing us crazy humans?

Sunset was very quiet tonight. No big splashy show of colours, just the subtle shift of bright blue to a pastel yellow and gently into the deep night blue, with stars appearing beside the half moon. So peaceful. Today was a bit calmer in the water so I got to see more, and another HUGE eagle ray soared by! Amazing. Found all four of the red pencil urchins that are so rare and I'm so happy they are still alive!

These are glimpses of the things I want to save in this world. There is SO much beauty offered to us, and we are just stomping all over it. Sometimes I get so saddened by how people don't seem to care if they do damage to the Earth and I wonder if my one part makes any difference. And then comes a quote by someone I revere: "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. " Mother Teresa. Yes. The ocean would be less. So for all of the people out there who really DO care and really ARE doing things to no longer harm the Earth, may all those drops swell the ocean of compassion into a mighty force that can turn the tide toward healing this world while there is still beauty to save.
Thanks for listening.