SHIFT LIST

A friend of mine made a list gleaned off the Internet of things that could be done to be kinder to our Earthly home, and it inspired me to make my own list. I started writing down things that I have shifted in my life as I become more and more aware of how damaging they are. Most of them are things that everyone can do. I apologize in advance for how long this is! But as I started writing the list I was amazed at how many changes I've made, and in many cases they have made my life more beautiful AND saved me money AND helped the Earth! How can you beat that? So here is my Shift List (that title makes me laugh), which is always being added to as I discover more things I can do to stop contributing to the avalanche.

This first bunch all pertain to food, which we all need to survive!

1. Buy bulk. When you buy from bulk bins you not only stop all that unnecessary packaging, but you save money as well! The health food store I shop at has produce bags for bulk items that are biodegradable, made from corn, so there is no plastic. YAY! At some stores you can bring a container to fill and they will weigh it before you fill it to determine how much you have bought. Then you take it home in the container it's going into anyway!

2. Go organic. Since I started growing my own food I have become so aware of how we are poisoning the soil and water by the chemicals dumped on commercial produce. Everything you buy organic not only stops poisons from going into the soil and water but also going into your own body. Science is now discovering how toxic these chemicals are to our health, but they have not yet been banned. The more we choose organic the better off everyone will be.

3. Buy local. This was a new discovery for me when I moved to Kauai and had an "all Kauai meal". Every single thing grown on this island! Wow. The emissions spewed to transport produce thousands of miles across oceans and continents are enormous, and seldom thought about. If there is not much food produced in your area, see how close you can get to an "all local" meal, and how often you can do that. Maybe something local with every meal! Every mile makes a difference, and every item makes a difference.

4. Less meat. World leaders are FINALLY talking about the huge destruction the meat and dairy industry have on soil, water and air, and the U.N. suggested one day a week to be all vegetarian. I would suggest more! The animal industry has surpassed the auto industry in pollution. The less meat you eat the less pollution you produce. It's even better than not driving a car. I have found life without eating any animals to be fantastic.

5. Grow food. This is pure joy. There is nothing fresher than picking food at home, it costs almost nothing, and you can grow organic produce and not pay extra the way you do at stores! Even if you don't have a yard you can grow food in window boxes on a balcony or lanai, or even indoors. I have a friend who grows food in pots!

6. Food waste. There is a ghastly amount of food thrown out from kitchens every day because people have bought or cooked more than they need so they throw it out, and then more is bought and thrown out the next week. Help stop the waste. It just requires paying more attention to what you already have that needs to get used. Sometimes fridges are a bit scary, but get in there and look around.

7. Compost. A large amount of landfills is kitchen waste that doesn't need to be there. Because of the way landfills are compacted and no air or microbes can get in there, even food doesn't break down and biodegrade. There have been studies done where they dug up portions of a landfill and found apple cores completely intact several years later. Here in Hawaii there are free compost bins offered by the State. It breaks down quickly and actually helps the soil. Even if you don't use it for your garden just keeping all that out of the landfill is a gift.

8. Yummy drinks. Many people are addicted to soda or iced tea or coffee and buy them DAILY in containers that then get thrown out. YIKES. If you crave flavours and sweetener these can be added to water at home and carried in a re-usable container. I make a pot of deliciously flavoured tea every morning, cool it, and the yummy lasts all day.

9. Bottled water. This has become such an out-of-control craze. The biggest bottled water companies like Dasani use TAP WATER! It's not some pure spring water full of minerals from deep in the Earth. The craze has moved people away from taking a re-usable bottle with them and filling it wherever they are. They just buy a new one every day, or even take a new one from their very own fridge next to the tap with the same water! Madness. The amount of plastic being produced for this one industry is unfathomable, and it is completely unnecessary where there is access to a tap that has the same water in it. Researchers have discovered that chemicals from the plastic leach into the water and then are deposited in our bodies. Yikes. So re-fill a stainless steel water bottle right from the tap (filtered is better), and save your own body as well as reducing plastic production.

The next bunch relate to energy use in your home.

10.Phantom Energy. This is a relatively new term referring to a new phenomenon, electronics that never fully disconnect from energy use. This includes your t.v., computer, stereo, v.c.r., DVD player, and a host of other new inventions. Used to be they would stop using power when you turn them off. Now they are constantly using power even when "turned off", and can be 30% of your monthly electric bill. I recently was in a room where I counted 9 things drawing power and not one was in use. That was just one room! Most people don't even know they are burning electricity when things are "turned off". Here in Hawaii our electricity is 95% oil, so we are creating emissions like we are driving cars 24 hours a day with our gadgets. On the mainland lots of electricity is produced by coal which does enormous destruction. The easiest way to stop this energy bleed is power strips that can be turned off with all these things still plugged into them, rather than unplugging everything if it is not in use.

11. Turn out the lights. Same thing as the last one with creating unnecessary emissions from burning electricity when a light is not being used. Lots of people have lights on in every room, sometimes even in the daylight, when they are only in one room at a time. Unless of course you are more talented than I am and can be in lots of rooms at once!

12. Dry clothes in the air. The hot water heater and clothes dryer are the 2 things that use the most energy in a home other than the fridge. We need our food to keep cool, but we don't need to dry clothes quickly unless we are REALLY in a hurry. Even if you don't have the luxury of Hawaii's wind and sun as your dryer, most things will dry overnight indoors just hung up out in the open somewhere. Even when it is raining here things will dry indoors. Every time you don't use the dryer you have stopped pollution from entering the air we all breathe.

13. Cold water. Since the hot water heater is also in the top 2 energy hogs in a home, every time you wash anything in cold water you have helped. This goes for clothes that aren't really dirty, dishes that aren't greasy, and even your shower, unless you live in the Cascade Mountains and the water comes from some underground glacier! (my sister's water will give you frost bite).

14. Fans. Summers bring a HUGE swell in electricity use for air conditioners. So much of the time the same thing can be achieved with a breeze. Fans use a tiny fraction of the electricity an air conditioner uses, and it is done without chemicals. Even better.

This next batch can all help reduce the amount of plastic and other trash floating in our world.

15. Re-usable bags. Some people still get plastic bags with every single purchase they make and then throw them away. The amount of plastic created and thrown EVERY DAY is mind blowing. There are so many sources of re-usable bags now, and the County of Kauai just gave away free bags made from recycled plastic! YAY! Don't leave home without one. If you normally drive to stores leave a stash in your car so they are always available.

16. Alternative containers. The more things you can buy that are NOT made of plastic the better. I discovered how great glass jars are for storing things, so rather than recycle them, I re-use them! Ceramic also makes a great container and if it is for food it won't leach chemicals.

17. Leftovers. This one I don't do often because I usually eat every crumb on my plate, but if there are leftovers at a restaurant, bring your own container and avoid all that Styrofoam that is a really insidious form of plastic as most places won't recycle it even if you want to. My parents have containers that just live in their car as they ALWAYS have leftovers and plan on it!

18. Buy less. It is so hard to buy anything now without some kind of plastic attached to it. So just an act of frugality and not buying it unless you really need it is helping to slow that plastic onslaught. Even if it is not packaged the cost to the Earth just to get it to the store is huge. And since we all live with limited space if we keep buying more and more we have to throw more and more.

19. Buy used. There are so many great places now to get things used besides garage sales. Craigslist is a perpetual garage sale and everything there can not only be kept out of the landfill, but if you buy something previously loved there is no "new" packaging created to house it before it gets to you.

20. Recycle. Here in Hawaii recycling is still in the dark ages. NO TIN CANS for instance. Are you kidding me? In 2010, on an ISLAND. It all goes to the landfill. And there are only a handful of recycling depots on the entire island with NO pick-up, so if you don't make the effort to store it and take it yourself, which most people don't, it ALL becomes trash. But then even in places with curbside pick-up I know some people don't bother. Sigh. Having said all that, there is a lot that CAN be recycled even here including paper, box board, cardboard, number 1 and 2 plastic, newspaper, and glass. The more we do keep using again rather than tossing in the garbage the less is piling up on the Earth.

Finally here are some random things that all help.

21. Drive less. There was a time when I went for long drives in the country just to "unwind". Yikes! Now I know what is happening to the air on our planet, so those days are over. If you can walk or bike, fantastic. If not, being organized to combine trips and buy food for a period of time is better than driving to the store every day for one or two things. Lists have become my friends!

22. Bio-degradable. I've written about this a few times, but here it is again for anyone who may have missed it. The chemicals in our products going down the drain now are not only damaging our own water supplies but killing creatures we love, and coming back to us through the food we eat. There are so many chemicals that cannot be flushed from Nature and they just build up until they kill. There is bio-degradable stuff everywhere now. Soap, shampoo, dish detergent, laundry soap, household cleansers, toothpaste, hand lotions, even sunscreen. Did you know the chemicals and oils in most sunscreen coat the reef and smother it? Now you know.

23. Excess mail. Even places you want to hear from, like the enviro organizations I donate to, send WAY too much mail out. I do most of my reading and donating online now, and found that if you call and ask to go paperless they will happily take you off mailing lists. Whew! Of course the paper can be recycled, but it doesn't have to be created in the first place. Consider getting magazines you like to read at the library or do a sharing with other people who like to read the same ones. Keep more trees from being cut down!

24. Rent. So many people own things they maybe have only used once and then it is stored. Consider renting things. This goes for entertainment too like movies that are watched once and then sit on a shelf. There are lots of great places to rent all kinds of things rather than buying a new one. I get my movies at the library now and it costs one dollar. Sweet!

25. Paper. All paper we use and toss, like paper towels, plates, napkins, toilet tissue, can be made from paper already in circulation in the world. There is no need any more to buy "virgin" paper for these things. Look for a 100% recycled label for the ones with no new trees cut down. Some I have seen are only 20% recycled, so it's o.k. to cut down 80 trees, just not 100? I vote for ZERO trees cut down.

26. Sustainable materials. This is something I am just discovering, but there is now clothing in lots of stores that is made from things like bamboo and hemp that grows fast and doesn't require the huge amounts of pesticide that cotton does. These two plants also are made into other things like paper and wood, and since they can grow in fields that already exist no forests need to be cut down. I have a bamboo shirt that is one of the softest most luxurious things I have ever felt.

27. Soaking. I thought of another one related to power use, but I'm too lazy to change all the numbers to put it up with that batch! When you soak things you can cut down the cooking time required by a lot. I now soak my lentils and beans at least overnight, sometimes longer. This actually starts the sprouting process which apparently releases enzymes that are even more beneficial than just cooking it before it began sprouting. Lentils get so soft just overnight they don't even need to be cooked and can be thrown on salads, or tossed in a pot at the very end with other greens that only need to be barely heated to be tender. And I just learned the coolest thing: when making pasta you don't need to keep the stove on! Just bring the water to a boil and throw in the pasta, turn off the stove, cover it, and let it sit the normal amount of time. It works! Same thing with oatmeal in the morning. I just tried it with my rice too (pre-soaked use 1/2 the normal amount of water), and it even worked with rice. Wow. That is 20 minutes of electricity I don't have to use any more. Fantastic. I love discovering new ways to go lighter.

28. Make lunch. Take out is one of the daily things that creates MOUNTAINS of trash in our society, and it really doesn't have to. Make lunch at home and take it with you in a re-usable container and all that waste disappears. The food you make at home is almost guaranteed to be better for you than anything you get as "fast food", so you get to help the planet AND yourself. YES.

29. Pick it up. Every single day we all encounter a bit of trash laying somewhere. Or lots. Don't pass by it any more. Pick it up. I know it's overwhelming and maybe disgusting, but think about this: if it is washed into a river or the ocean, then broken down into small bits and eaten by some creature that eventually winds up on your dinner plate, that is even MORE overwhelming and disgusting! So don't eat it a few months from now. Pick it up and make sure it gets into a trash bin it won't blow out of.

30. Volunteer. Find an organization you like that is helping the Earth in some wonderful way, and help out. There are so many fantastic groups now doing so many things all over the world, and they all can use more help. It is a beautiful way to learn about your area and specific things that are a concern right where you are. Or do a service trip to some exotic place you have always wanted to visit! There are organizations that do eco service "vacations". You get to see the country and help it at the same time.

Well congratulations if you made it through this entire thing and can still see! There are so many ways to tread more lightly on the Earth and these are only some of those ways. I hope this list inspires you to do as much as you can, and continue to find new ways to help change our legacy of destroying Nature. Looking at the list written out like this I see my choices in life to go lighter on the planet have really shifted a lot. More keep showing up as I keep learning. I'd love to hear what things you have found that help our planet in your daily living. I invite you to leave comments (you can do that under this post. P.S., I love reading comments on all my blogs!) May you find hundreds of ways to help stop the avalanche!

Thanks for listening.

CRUNCHY LUNCH

THE WHALES ARE BACK!!!! They are such magnificent creatures and I LOVE when they return to the islands. They go to Alaska all summer to eat, and then come back to Hawaii to have their babies in the winter. They must swim here very pregnant because they have only been back a month and there are already cute tiny fins following the huge fins. Today while I was watching them from the cliffs above Larsens there was one that began breaching over and over and simply didn't want to stop! NINETEEN TIMES! Usually they do one or two and stop. Breaching is when they jump out of the water and crash back down, sometimes their entire body coming out for a moment. These creatures weigh several TONS! Can you imagine what it takes to hurl several tons into the air above the water? It's like a house coming out of the water. Even more amazing is when you see it through binoculars as they seem to be jumping just 20 feet in front of you. Researchers have theories about why they do this but they don't really know. I think they do it because it is so much FUN! Maybe they want to pretend for a moment they are birds. That is some BIG bird!

After the show, which of course got a standing ovation, I went down to the sand to do my trash pick up and there is more than usual because of the big winter swells right now. As I was picking up small pieces of plastic literally every few inches, it occurred to me that this is now part of a whale's lunch. Even though they are the biggest creatures in the ocean, they eat one of the smallest creatures, krill. Think baby shrimp. Actually it's more like drinking lunch, but it's crunchy. They simply swim into a school of krill, open their mouths, and drink. Then the water gets filtered out and the rest gets swallowed. But the amount of plastic floating in the ocean now in among the krill is enormous. What have we done? Is this really what we want to give as our gift to these majestic creatures? Crunchy, toxic, plastic lunch.

So I ask every single one of you reading this to start picking up trash, especially plastic, wherever you are. And ask other people to help. We create so much garbage as a society, but it is not sequestered. Too much is just thrown loose in the streets, on sidewalks, hiking trails, beaches. Doesn't matter if you live in the middle of the continent. Every time it rains the water carries these garbage pieces to the storm drains, and the storm drains empty into rivers, which empty into the biggest storm drain of all, the oceans. And there it is. The candy wrapper from Idaho is in the stomach of some whale. Right now there are more people that throw trash than people that pick it up, which is why there is always trash laying around. Too many of us walk by it. There were 16 carloads of people down at the beach today and they ALL walked by it. Don't walk by it any more. The time for blaming is past. It's not "someone else's trash". It belongs to Humanity and we need to clean it up. We need to create more people picking up than throwing. Be one of those picking up, and think of the whale's lunch less that piece of trash you just got. Be the part of Humanity that DOES something about it.
Thanks for listening.

LOVE OR MONEY

When I got into the water today I was enfolded by LOVE. And guess what? Love is colorful! I was completely surrounded by a school of fish of mixed species, swirling and playing around me so no matter where I turned there was brilliance. Purple, blue, green, yellow, black, orange, red, white, glinting in the sunlight and flashing from one color to the next as they swarmed in perfect, wild disarray. There was nothing to do but stay still and take it all in, deep within. Remember this moment and how it looked and felt. For this is the reef that the rancher above wants to cover in cattle dung. How can this be? Money.

Love of Creation, or money. How often does love of Creation come into our thoughts when we are about to make a decision to spend or earn money? When you head into Starbucks, does love of Creation enter into your mind? When you buy a new car, or clothes, or the latest gadgets, is there at least a moment when you stop to consider the effect these things have on the beauty of this planet that is disappearing? And if not, then it is time to consciously invite those thoughts in, and let them inform the decisions we make on a daily basis. Getting money and spending money has become all-consuming in our society (pun intended). Love of Creation has been pushed to some far away corner only to be hauled out in our "spare time" or when we are on "vacation". Love of Creation needs a promotion. Front and center of EVERY decision.

The world conference on the environment that just happened in Copenhagen in December was shocking in it's inability to motivate the richest Nations to step up with agreements to curb pollution of our Earth. And why? It would harm the wealth they are committed to. So help the Earth or help their wealth and the big Nations unanimously choose wealth. At what point do we wake up to realize money will be absolutely useless on a planet that is not livable???? Money will not buy another planet when we have made this a toxic wasteland. There were truly poignant, impassioned pleas from smaller Nations that are already suffering the ravages of the Earth being poisoned, and the only answer they received from the big Nations was that it would adversely effect their wealth to stop polluting. WOW. Not only has love of Creation been left in the wake of money, but so has love for Humanity.

How can we turn this around? We need to let the leaders of our Countries know this is no longer how we want to live our lives. They are responding to the way we live our lives as consumers. The majority needs to not only be willing to change the way we consume, but actively STATE that it is no longer acceptable to put money ahead of love. No more silence. No more being afraid to ask others to make choices that don't harm. No more dismissing those who are asking us all to pay attention. They MUST BE HEARD. Everything we do to make money and spend money must start reflecting a love of Creation and Humanity as a whole. There was a time in older societies where ALL life was Sacred. The life of the Earth and the lives of others. It is time to live that again. The time for money as the number one motivation is done. It is time for love to take that place again. PLEASE be part of a new majority. Talk, listen, think about what is happening to Creation, and then ACT. YES!

I leave you with a quote that was spoken long before we even got to the point of destruction we are at today:
"If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it."– President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Thanks for listening.

NEW YEAR

A New Year, New Decade, New Chance for Life. Last night was New Year's Eve and one of the most beautifully perfect nights of my entire life. I had just flown home from spending the Christmas week with my family on Oahu and was SO happy to be returning to my beloved Kauai. Oahu is an absolute battle zone on New Year's Eve. For some reason it is fun for people to simulate bombs exploding all night long all over the island, like they are in a war. Perhaps if they actually had to live through a war it wouldn't be so fun. So this year I decided to fly back in the afternoon and see what it was like here on Kauai. GOOD CHOICE! When I got to my house I could hear night insects and the waves from the ocean. HEAVEN. Bringing in the New Year with peace. What a concept!

As I drove by Kealia beach I discovered this magical gathering happening there, so I had to stop and partake. A large magnificent labyrinth had been created right in the sand with 7 circles enveloping each other, and there were luminaries placed at intervals in between the rings, with candles glowing gently from within. There was a live musician quietly playing sacred music, the surf was rushing the shore to add it's own rhythm and percussion, and over all this splendour the COMPLETELY FULL MOON lent her glory. It truly was a transformed space and time. I danced the labyrinth slowly, savouring moments with the feel of the sand under my bare feet, the sounds of the gentle waves, the light of the moon illuminating gracefully the faces of other blissful people meeting me on the circular path. Even though I knew only a few of the people I met, it felt like joining a community that sought to create something very different from the war simulation on Oahu, with all that polluting smoke and debris. So much damage to the Earth on one night in the name of having "fun". Imagine welcoming the New Year listening to Nature rather than burying her in smoke and trash! Yahoo!

It had been 8 days since I had been with my beloved Larsens, so on I went for that reunion. WOW. It could not have been more perfect. The moon was so bright it was silvery day, and complete wilderness with not a person in sight. Walked the entire length to my "yoga spot", and my body thanked me profusely for finally taking time to do a full sequence, breathing the delicious air right off the sea. It was so bright I could pick sea spinach by moonlight, and go for a dip in the calm water with sparkles playing all over its surface around me.

Drove home just in time for the countdown with the family next door, and hugs from their adorable little kids who were SO excited. Truly the perfect balance of community and solitude.

Since I began my life here on Kauai almost 2 years ago, focusing on our Earth and what is happening to her, I have learned sooooooo much, and continue to shift my own choices to reflect that knowledge. As I talk with people about what I am learning, one thing comes back over and over. People feel that what they do to harm the Earth is so insignificant. I lived with someone for 4 years who would say "it's just a small amount" every time I suggested making choices that do no harm. Small amount of paper, small amount of emissions, small amount of trash, small amount of toxic chemicals down the drain, on and on. But if 7 billion people in the world have the same thought, "it's a small amount", suddenly it is no longer small. Every single person adding their own small amount becomes the crisis we are in. Those small choices become the mountains of trees cut for paper, the huge emissions spewed by our inventions, the trash that requires impossible amounts of landfill space, the toxic chemicals that now poison even the water buried deep beneath the Earth's surface. Nothing is a small amount any more, because there are too many people contributing their own "small amount". The only thing that can shift this is people realizing they are part of the MASSIVE destruction going on every day. It is not one person, or corporation or country creating it all. It is literally billions of "small amounts" from people who think that what they do is insignificant. When do we wake up and see that what we are doing is contributing to the ENORMOUS destruction of the Earth we all live on? Some people seem to think that if they do a few things with the Earth in mind, like recycling and carrying a re-usable bag, that it somehow cancels out the other things they do that are damaging. The Earth doesn't have a tally sheet. EVERYTHING we do that does damage adds to her dying. We CAN make different choices from now on. Choose to not be part of the destruction.

So as we all begin a New Year,a New Decade, and a New Chance for Life, this is my wish: each person in the entire world changes the thought that what they do is a "small amount". Each person finally takes responsibility for the damage they do every single day, and makes different choices. And all those small choices gather together to become an enormous movement to STOP destroying what is left of Creation. We are all so richly blest by the Earth every moment, and how do we repay her? With poison. That must change. I appeal to the heart of everyone reading this right now. Make this a year of Life for the Earth in all your choices. Start really looking at the things you think only do "small amounts" of damage, and imagine all the billions of other people saying the exact same thing. Then make a choice for Life, over and over again. Let's make this a truly New Year.
Thanks for listening.

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.

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.

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.