EcoBliss: As Local as You Can Get

Baby grapes in our own back yard!

Listening to: Marchio Bossa singing about Montmartre.

Today's Bliss Formula: Riding my bike to the library to work in children's, which is pleasantly busy this time of year. I love working in a space from which I can see the lake; at lunch, I will go outside and sit at water's edge.

As you know, we've been eating strawberries for some time now out of our back yard. And they just keep coming...These particular strawberries are an heirloom variety, making them extra hardy and disease resistant.

We are also growing an heirloom, hardy kiwi out front. Yes, a kiwi along the Great Lakes. When they are ready to eat, they will be the size of grapes and we'll eat the skin. We've been told they taste like kiwis times ten. Here's a picture of one taken today:


And the grapes at the top of this post are Cabernet Franc, which make a red that is the "father" of Cabernet Sauvignon. With only two vines, we should eventually have a yield that will easily make 30 bottles of wine. With only two more vines... ahh... dreams of bottles stacked up in the basement. From our wine making last summer:


Growing ultra-local food -- otherwise known as food from your own yard -- does not take a lot of space. We only have a small city plot, which is, I think, one-tenth of an acre.

All the greens you could eat can easily be grown in pots. You can also grow tomatoes and strawberries and blueberries in pots. There are some miniature fruit trees that can be pot grown. This is one of my favorite tree and heirloom sites.

Growing food is a relatively new thing to me. I've always been a big flower gardener and so food growing can feel a little perplexing. But mostly it's about sun and water and weeding.

Eventually, we want to rip out our front yard, surround it with English cottage garden flowers, and then grow food in the center -- since that is where our best sun is.

For now, the back yard is a decent food producer.

Growing food for yourself teaches you about seasons. As a city girl, I had no idea what fruit was available when. It was always in the grocery store!

Growing food for yourself teaches you about the delicate balance it takes to feed yourself. The sun and the rain are so easily the "enemy." A little too much rain and the tomatoes are awful but not enough rain and things just don't grow.

When I am "cheating" and watering with my garden hose, I think of the farmer who doesn't have that option.

Growing your own food also, I think, makes you a better cook. I take more time with our foods when we've grown them; I think of ways to eat them that emphasize their individual tastes.

Growing your own food brings home the organic issue once and for all. When you pick that lettuce from your non-poisoned bed, you're thankful for how clean it already is. I love that I can pick a strawberry from our yard and pop it right into my mouth.

And remember, as I've said before, the flowers are still just as important -- they attract the bees and the butterflies and the birds, all necessary to a healthy garden and a healthy planet.

EcoBliss: Keeping a Weather Journal, More Important than You Think

Walking further than I normally would want to,
we happened upon this lovely fern forest.

Listening to: This song, I think, exemplifies how many people feel about "bad" weather.

Today's Bliss Formula: I am luxuriating in the time with my frog today. And in the fact that we have no more trips scheduled at all for the rest of the summer. The only "trip" I want to take is a regular jaunt down to our peninsula's beaches. And a walk to our backyard to sit on our plaid blanket and wait for birds.

As I mentioned yesterday, the best part of our trip this past weekend was the walking. Lots of walks. And the best walk was into the woods. There are patches of old growth forest here and you can feel there is age and wisdom amongst these trees.

During one of our walks, it was starting to rain. This normally would send me running for cover, shrieking even while I do so. Yes, I am a princess. And though my hair is not cotton candy puffy in any way whatsoever and I don't wear makeup or high heels or silk, I think I may melt. I'm not convinced that I won't, anyway.

But this time, Frog pointed out to me that the woods were like an umbrella and I took enough of a breath to realize that she was speaking the truth. So instead of running and most likely slipping and falling, I relaxed and enjoyed myself.

I've had this thing with the weather. I think it's because my father, who if the weather weren't to his liking in some specific way, spent a good deal of time swearing at it. I picked up the habit, sadly.

But being car free has gone a long way to changing my tune.

Also, being depression free has helped. And I think that is a key to this puzzle for many people.

We tend to use the weather as a mirror for our own emotions. So if we feel at all bad and wake up to a gray sky, we blame the weather for our mood. When really, the feeling about the weather is coming from the mood.

How I judge the weather -- as either "good" or "bad" or "pretty" -- has everything to do with my own internal landscape at that moment.

The weather is not out to get you.

The weather, really, has nothing to do with you.

Be grateful for the rain; most parts of this country are suffering from drought.

Be grateful for the four feet of snow; precipitation is precipitation and four feet of snow sometimes closes things down. We used to love that when we were little.

Let me also discourage people from seeing the weather as somehow our "fault." Yes, there is something going on in terms of climate change. There is no denying that. (Well, there is, but if your last name isn't Bush, you probably put some stock in real science.)

But...regardless of climate change, you can't change the fact of the rain. You can't blame climate change for earthquakes. Big hurricanes have always happened. Tsunamis have always happened. Stuff has always happened.

If you're that worried about the weather, stop driving.

Now, I have proof about this weather thing not really being a big deal: I keep a weather journal. So when people say things to me like "GOD! This spring is so COLD!" I can say, "Well, actually, last year about two days different from today, it was the same temperature." (What a pain in the arse I am!)

Or the classic in my neck of the woods is surprise at "late" snow. But I can document that we almost always get a bit of wet snow once the forsythia are completely yellow.

My weather journal has taught me about cycles and consistency. It has taught me, for example, no matter what we like to tell ourselves, that each season really is just about the same length of time.

It has taught me about the Buddhist concept of no attachment and no aversion. The weather simply is. Like much of life simply is.

It has taught me to pay attention to the rhythms of the season and thus to my own rhythms. For example, during the hottest parts of summer, I am not likely to do daily yoga and I am more likely to nap. This is just part of my own personal cycle.

So, try this. I am a regular journal writer -- and you should be too if you are in any way a seeker -- so at the top of each journal entry, I write "Planet," and under that I write a brief description of the weather, and if it is the growing season, I track what's happening in our yard or with the trees.

This is an awesome and powerful way to feel more connected to your life and your community. When you notice each tree, each flower, each bird, you feel responsible for their well being as well as your own.

If anything, when you look back and compare the "Planet" section to the rest of your journal, you might start to notice how much you blame the external weather for your internal weather, and maybe, eventually, you'll stop.

That's when you'll know that true change is in the air.

EcoBliss: 15 Bits of Earth Bliss

An American Tulip Poplar who
lives a block away from us.

Listening to: I couldn't find the exact song I wanted, but this will do just fine! (Live in concert they are even more amazing.)

Today's Bliss Formula: Paying attention and sitting still more often. I am "running" too much and that is a not a place from which I am able to be creative. My inner hermit is screaming from the activity, yelling "too much information!"

Are you paying attention?

Yesterday, about halfway through my day, I realized I wasn't. So I stopped all the computer work and went outside and really sat ... still. That sitting still, first of all, completely rejuvenated me. But it also helped me to see my imbalance a bit more clearly and come up with a solution. And finally, it helped me to write in my journal more deeply than I have in weeks.

All from sitting still. For a half hour.

My point being that it doesn't take that long. Though the longer the better. If we don't have time to sit still and notice our worlds, what kinds of lives are we living and are they worth it?

If we don't take time to sit still and notice our worlds, how will we ever be better stewards of this magical place?

And there is magic afoot, let me tell you. A few examples of everyday magic and bliss:

1. Feeding our indoor rabbit her afternoon salad completely from our own garden beds. Our variety of greens -- the colors and the textures -- makes her tail shake.

2. The cardinal who flew almost into me while I sat in the yard. Cardinal totems remind us to be ourselves, nurture ourselves, and add color and play to our lives. Their voices are loud and clear, so Cardinal medicine is about walking your talk.

3. The very small, baby squirrel who let me kneel and watch him eat from a mere 18 inches away. I was taking my walk in the park and noticed him. I could see each of his fingers, that's how close!

4. The good things that are coming from the rise in gas prices: more people buying and riding bicycles, taking public transportation, or just thinking about how they use their cars. My partner has heard people talking at the library about consolidating trips and errands. Something they wouldn't have thought about a year ago.

5. The strawberries! How could I not mention the strawberries? Last night, I cut up a big bowl of them and we ate them atop Julie's organic vanilla ice cream. Julie's rocks! Mmmmm, creamy happiness.

6. The yellow flowers on the early girl tomato plant on our porch.

7. The fattening lily buds -- pictures to come, I'm sure.

8. The cat bird who has decided our crab apple tree is the coolest spot in the city. Last night, he sat and sang and preened and showed himself off. It was quite a display and I am hoping he got a girlfriend out of it!

9. The rain we have gotten -- I have learned to be grateful for the precipitation.

10. My healthy begonias. I plant these for a great aunt who was very special to me and passed away when I was fifteen. Last summer, the species I planted did not like where I put them and I kept having to move them. They flowered but they weren't as happy as I like them to be. None of that this year.

11. The sound of the wind in the trees.

12. The fact that so many people -- people who wouldn't think of themselves as "environmentalists" -- are talking and thinking about plastic water bottles and trying to avoid them. One thing leads to another... (Did I just put a song in your head? If I did, I know approximately how old you are!)

13. The Robin nest in our front tree. I'll try to get pictures. (This is the beauty of digital cameras -- no need to be right at your subject.)

14. The Great Blue Heron who has decided to fly over our house every day like he did last year.

15. Oh, the sky out the window in which I am sitting. The big puffy clouds against a deep blue that we normally only see in the fall.

I'm sure after I post this I'll think of another fifteen things I could have added to the list.

Lists like this can dispel feelings of anger or sadness or despair. Noticing details reminds you that things aren't ever that bad. How could they be when the sun rises and beauty blossoms and the sun sets ablaze with pink and orange?

So, help me out...when you are still, what do you notice?

EcoBliss: Car Rental Crazies & My Aching...

From our strawberry patch.

Listening to: Driving makes me feel like this.

Today's Bliss Formula: We were at a record high yesterday of 93 degrees, so this morning's 68 feels fabulous, and the plants are loving the rain we've gotten. It's nice not to be surrounded by sounds of fans.

As I've talked about here and here and here, we are car free but we do rent periodically to visit out of town family. Over the seven years we have been car free, we have managed to keep rentals below ten a year, sometimes around 6 or 8. No more, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, the new goal is 3.

When we first went car free, the rental weekend was a much anticipated time. I would get excited to be running around. (Not my partner, no, Frog has never been excited about cars.)

But I noticed, as time passed, that that excitement turned more and more into anxiety. After running around for more than a couple of hours, I would be completely outside myself. Off balance. Out of my center. Overstimulated and totally grouchy.

And now it takes days for me to recover -- both mentally and physically.

You may think I'm exaggerating, but I wonder how many problems of sleeplessness and depression and aching backs could be resolved if people would just stop driving, just stop moving at such unnatural speeds.

Because, you see, the problems around cars go far beyond the use of resources and the varieties of pollution (air and noise and water...) and the displacement of wild areas and their inhabitants. Far beyond.

Cars have created, just to start, a society without sidewalks. Think what that means. And if there are sidewalks, is there anyone walking on them?

Cars created suburbs, which creates sprawl and traffic and one hour one-way commutes and dead city centers and dead cultural centers.

Cars create speed and anger and impatience.

Cars are certainly culpable in our obesity epidemic but no one bothers to point that finger.

If you are an average American, and there is a good chance you are, did you know you get in and out of your car an average of ten times a day? That statistic is ten years old, by the way, and I can assure you, it is low.

So how do you feel in your car?

Are you spending a lot of time sighing, holding your breath, yelling, swearing? Be truthful.

Do you feel attacked and inconvenienced and personally affronted by the other cars?

Do you take it all personally?

Do you feel like driving is a competition?

I notice more and more of this each time I drive after not driving.

I also notice that I feel like crap, physically, after being in the car for even short bursts of time. This weekend we drove four hours and halfway there I noticed my right arm was asleep thanks to a pinched nerve in my shoulder thanks to the design of the headrest that forces our heads slightly forward on our spines.

My lower back hurt. My right hip ached. And when we got out of the car at a rest stop, I noticed a number of people having to carefully exit their cars and then stand and wait and then slowly start walking, working out their constricted muscles.

Hmmm...I wonder how well we all slept that night?

And what if you do this every day? What about repetitive stress injuries? Our bodies are made to move. We are designed, physiologically, to walk and stretch -- not to be confined.

And I wonder about the air we are breathing in our cars.

So there is the stress on the muscular and skeletal body, the stress on our hearts (due to the panic and anxiety and anger), the stress on our immune systems (again, panic and anger), the stress on our lungs (the bad air, the holding of breath, the constricted breathing).

(For a paper by two Phd psychologists, go here.)

And then there is the stress on our minds. The speed. The anticipation. The primal fear responses. As I mentioned yesterday, the awful combination of over-stimulation and boredom. The ever increasing need for this kind of stimulation all the time.

The need for speed.

No wonder we toss and turn in bed. No wonder our minds are racing, monkey minds that cannot handle even a moment of down time.

No wonder we are becoming a species of angry, self-important, competitive, unhealthy, fat, impatient animals.

We want everything right now. Fast. We want everything. We don't want to pay for it. It better be cheap. I don't have to change -- someone else will figure out how to keep me living like this.

We are committed to this misery. How many of us can truly claim happiness -- the kind that comes from deep inside and does not depend at all on having or being anything other than what we have and are?

It has to stop. This madness. But it seems it won't. Even my friends who claim to care, don't stop. Then there are those who can't even see the problem because they are so busy moving so fast. Hamsters on giant wheels.

So this is what renting makes me feel like. This is what renting a car makes me think about.

For me, cars and bliss just don't go together.

EcoBliss: Hinduism & the Environment

Ganesh

Listening to: This great voice.

Today's Bliss Formula: Not going anywhere. Yesterday, I took the bus to the bookstore to try to brainstorm some writing ideas. Sitting on a warm rock, waiting for the bus, I did just that. The bookstore was ... distracting. A warm rock seems to be all I really need.

Last week, I wrote about the Catholic church's recent addition of environmental pollution to a list of social sins and how this was really just a clarification, that being good stewards of the environment has always been a part of this theology if you take into consideration the concepts of greed and gluttony, both listed as "deadly" sins, meaning actions that prevent spiritual growth and maturation.

I had intended to write about many religions at once, but that was a silly idea! There's too much to say.

So, onto Hinduism and yoga...

Nonviolence is the supreme law of life.
--Indian proverb

At some point during a yoga class, most of us have heard about ahimsa or nonviolence. We have read lists of questions about what this concept might look like in our own lives, how there is nonviolence toward others and internal nonviolence.

And maybe this has led many of us to vegetarianism.

But it's so much more complex than that.

As thoughtful humans trying to wrap our brains around this concept, one of the first things we have to come to terms with is that the very act of our being alive results in destruction.

But this is not bad. This is the way of life. There is no light without dark; there is no life without death.

Being a vegetarian does not somehow exonerate you from this cycle. To grow enough vegetable for an entire planet of omnivores to be vegetarians would create mass destruction in terms of water and land usage. It takes so much more vegetable based food to consume enough daily calories to live.

I think, in terms of food choices, the larger issues have to do with where you are getting your food from. Are you eating bananas from Central America or are you trying to eat whatever fruit is in season within a reasonable radius from your home?

Do you care how your food is produced? I eat meat (gasp) but it comes from local farmers who raise those animals humanely and do not use hormones and chemicals to make then unnaturally large.

Also, without meat in my diet, I am exhausted. I was a vegetarian for ten years and I was a "good" vegetarian (meaning that I ate well). But bodies change and I could not sustain that lifestyle any more if I wanted to be a productive and happy human.

In this case, what is violence? Forcing myself to do something out of a sense of "rules and regulations" or being good to myself, taking care of myself, providing what I needed to be a contributing member of my community?

I spend this amount of time on vegetarianism, because I fear it is where a lot of people's thinking stops when pondering nonviolence.

I wonder about people driving to yoga class, rather than walking or taking the bus or riding their bikes or practicing at home.

I wonder about people flying many weekends a year to go to large yoga conferences and retreat centers rather than working within themselves.

I wonder about all the materialism that accompanies so much yoga these days -- the clothes and the special bags -- the accoutrements that show the world you are a yogi.

Isn't it our way of being that shows the world we are yogis?

We cannot walk lightly enough on this planet. No matter what choices we make, there are consequences. We are not all meant to sit and breathe through masks so as not to kill bugs.

But there are really large choices that we can make that would result in really large differences. Choices that go beyond "to meat or not to meat."

Don't drive so much. Try not to fly. Don't buy so much but... Buy local. Buy organic. Buy handmade.

And then sit back and practice the ultimate nonviolence: love yourself, love everyone, and stop worrying so much.

EcoBliss: Catholicism & the Environment

A missing-her-hand Mary in the cemetery.

Listening to right now: This (though I don't remember seeing the movie)

Today's Bliss Formula: Later today, I will work on the artist interview I have lined up for tomorrow. It's a rainy and cool day, so lots of indoor work -- including more yoga than I have been doing; I'm trying to increase my daily "intake."

(Next Tuesday, I'll look at Hinduism/Buddhism and the environment.)

Pagans aren't the only ones concerned about the environment.

If the majority of the citizens of the United States claim to be Christians in one form or another, this is an important point.

It's time for environmentalism and environmentalists to stop restricting themselves to fire circles. It's time for environmentalism to enter the pews.

The mystics have known this all along:

The Word is living, being, spirit,
all verdant greening, all creativity.
This Word manifests itself in every creature.

--Hildegarde of Bingen
(1098-1179)

Every creature is a word of God
and is a book about God.

--Meister Eckhart
(1260-1328)

And recently the Vatican seemed to show signs of playing catch-up. They released a list, not of "new" deadly sins as some media outlets liked to label it but, of social sins that were meant to clarify the concept of personal responsibility and how individual actions affect the larger community.

This list includes environmental pollution, which means, I suppose, that the Pope will stop flying all over the world in his personal jet...

And yet, they included it, and that is, in itself, big news.

Yet the "old" list of deadly sins, which the Church released 1500 years ago, seems just fine to me -- if we were to pay attention and think about its relevance in our own lives. This list already includes gluttony and greed, both of which relate to environmental "social sinning."

How do gluttony and greed show their ugly heads in our own lives? Take a footprint quiz just to start. (These aren't perfect, but they are helpful.)

Or listen to what the UN is saying about the use of biofuels. In particular, a UN representative for food rights says that "burning food today so as to serve the mobility of the rich countries is a crime against humanity." Strong language, that.

Gluttony and greed pretty much sum up the behaviors that are causing our current problems:

We want cheap food and we want lots of it.

We want strawberries in the middle of winter and bananas year round.

We want 24/7 entertainment.

We want 24/7 access to everything.

We want houses that in most countries could hold a small village.

We want always to be comfortable -- never too hot and never too cold.

We want and we want and we want.

And we don't care what it costs as long as the physical price tag is cheap.

If that isn't a sin, I don't know what is.

If Catholics or other Christians need a role model for better living, who better than St. Francis of Assisi? How many statues of St. Francis do I see in yards -- some not even Catholic yards? And I wonder if we ever stop to really think about him and his lessons -- or if we just think he's cute, like some version of Snow White, with all those birds on his arms?

I don't think we have to wear sack cloth and tolerate fleas, but finding our pleasures and joys in the natural world would be a good place to start.

As a matter of fact, scholar Eloi Leclerc believed that for St. Francis salvation meant an "enchanted existence." How many of us, driving around frenzied from one place to the next, feel we are living such a lovely thing -- an enchanted existence?

Maybe if more of us lived the spirit of Catholicism more closely, we would have more in common with Pagans than we ever thought possible.

Change: A New Way of Doing This

Later today, look for a post about dealing with anxiety, but for right now, I wanted to take a moment to outline a change for BlissChick.

I will be trying out a new way to organize my week of writing and so here it is, BlissWeek:

Monday: InnerBliss, where I will write about yoga, Buddhism, Taoism, or whatever spiritual or philosophical systems I am currently reading about and exploring and think may be helpful to others in their quest for bliss and peace. For an example, read this.

Tuesday: EcoBliss, where I will write about how your happy life affects this happy planet. For an example, read this.

Wednesday: SharedBliss, where I will post interviews and open threads, which, eventually, will alternate week to week. For an example, read this.

Thursday: RandomBliss, where I will write about any old thing that catches my fancy -- because that's what bliss is like and you never know where you'll find it. For an example, read this.

Friday: BlissQuest, where I will write about bliss in a more theoretical manner and give suggestions for activities and/or journal writing that can help all of us to live more blissful and artful lives. For an example, read this.

Saturday: BardBliss, where I will post my own poetry or the poetry of others. For an example, read this.

Sunday: MysticBliss, where I will post quotes from great spiritual leaders or texts and where I will get my own Sabbath of sorts, a day of rest from writing my own material! For an example, read this.

There's our week. We'll see how this works for a while.

More later!

EcoBliss: "Return to Nature" is a Lie

Right in the midst of a busy part of our city,
there is a fair and lovely park.

Listening to right now: Natalie Merchant, Kind and Generous

Today's Bliss Formula: My new set up: I've moved my computer to a window in our wee library. A dormered window, so I sit in a nook. One of my favorite things.

Right this minute, I am not feeling completely blissful, to put it mildly. My internet is wonky today, and I just figured out (thankfully) that my feedburner feed has not been working for some time...and now the (not-bliss)quest of trying to fix that.

To add to this atmosphere of frustration, my sweet grey cat is growling at my sweet white cat. It's one of those days...

It's one of those days when many of us start to think about living in the woods with pen and paper, maybe a manual typewriter, and no other technology. Oh! we think, a composting toilet, solar panels, a wood stove in the winter. Nothing that can break or blow up or can't be fixed without a help line.

I hang out with enough pseudo-hippie types and liberals that I get this a lot. This dream of going "back to nature," a dream I have had myself.

I imagine the different person I would suddenly become. A long braid down my back, I would be calm and centered every minute of every day. (Don't ask -- there's always that braid for some reason -- a braid I could never have because my hair is so very thick that it would snap my neck to grow it that long.)

But this is all an illusion. The illusion begins not where you assume, perhaps. It begins at the beginning of this dream: the part where I think I have to "go back to nature."

I can't go back to something I have never left. I am nature; nature is me.

You can no more separate me from nature than you can separate a fish from water...no, more than that...you can no more separate me from nature than you can separate a fish from its fish-ness.

The separation between us and nature is a mirage.
The perception of separation is the result of ignorance.
It springs from the arrogant belief that a human being
is unlike animal beings and plant beings and rock beings.
It is reinforced by the false teaching that technology
has lifted us above the web of life...We do not seek
a "back to nature" movement; instead, we emphasize
the realization that we can never leave nature.

--From Mother Earth Spirituality by Ed McGaa, Eagle Man

This all goes way back, of course, to the Garden of Eden story and the concept that we are bad and that nature is good and that we had to be kicked out. (Pout.)

So then we romanticize nature as the starting point, the point we can't get back to. We turn nature into an object, the "other." And then the real story making begins.

And these stories only enhance our feelings of separation.

But that is all this is -- a feeling of separation and then we interpret that feeling as fact, rather than seeing it for what it has always been -- an illusion and a lie.

This leads to further disconnect. The kind that propels people out to protest pollution, but they get to the protest by driving their cars. The kind that compels people to play the blame game with a government that is not nearly as powerful as are their own personal, everyday actions.

The consequences of this disconnect are pervasive. Just look around. The companies destroying rain forests. The countries fighting over oil.

And it all starts with a lie.

If we are nature and nature is us, then everything we make is part of that web -- including the technology. When we truly understand this, we will then know how to take responsibility for our actions. But only when we get over this lie.

Only when we realize that our feelings are what lead to actions that reflect the illusion that then reinforce our feelings -- a deadly spiral if ever there was one.

Standing at the edge of the ocean, I feel a certain kind of thrill that includes fear. I am drawn to the beauty but also feel a pull...there is death in that powerful water, death that does not see me as separate.

Nature is beautiful and so we idealize it. Nature is also ugly and mean and strong and deadly. Like us -- because we ARE it.

I used to think the Indians were talking
metaphorically about sister mountains and
brother buffalo, but I have now known
the quest and seen the vision. I am beginning
to understand! If there were no rocks,
my body would have no minerals and I would die.
If there were no sun, the plants would not grow,
and I would die. If there were no water, my cells
would dry up and I would die...They have known
that if we profane the earth, we will corrupt ourselves.
What we do to Mother Earth, we do to ourselves.

--Ed McGaa, Eagle Man

There is no getting back to something we could never leave.

When you are walking on a sidewalk today, do not lament the cement but feel your feet's roots dig down past it, imagine them connected to the earth from which you came. Dust to dust.

When you are downtown, do not lament the buildings but see how they sprang forth from earth and from our beautiful imaginations. See under to the good intentions, the human intentions, the natural intentions that built them -- equal to the intentions of a bird and her nest.

When you think you must move to the mountains to be your true self, find a spot in a park or your backyard and sit like the mountain you already are.

Remember, where you see poison, there will be poison. Where you see negativity, there will be negativity. Where you see lack, there will be lack.

Let these spring winds blow clean your mind and make room for a new and real perception.

Pay attention: in what ways do you feel how you are embedded in this web?

EcoBliss: Walkin', A Terrible Way to Travel

A picture taken on a cemetery walk.

Listening to right now: Lila Downs, Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps

Today's Happiness Formula: Later today, we get to go to our neighbors' to drink wine, eat cheese, and embarrass their daughter as she leaves for her prom. Doesn't get better than that!

Following My Bliss By: Continue working on nonfiction. Journal. Read that great book I mentioned yesterday. Make lists (oh, how I adore making lists!).

I took a long walk to the cemetery during some exceptional spring weather to take some photos, in particular to photograph the trees which were bursting in pink-osity. When I got there, I realized all too late that I had managed to drink too much water before I left!

You can imagine, I took photos fast that day. And during the whole walk home, I was cursing myself for not having ridden my bike. A much faster mode of transportation when there are not public bathrooms to be found.

But slow was my point that day. And even a bike can be too fast once you get used to really witnessing this life you are living rather than speeding by it in a car.

Above all, do not lost your desire to walk.
Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being
and walk away from every illness; I have walked
myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no
thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it."

--Soren Kierkegaard

My favorite walking story:

We were on the bus because we had to go the mall area for some god forsaken reason. (And a mall area truly fits the definition of "god forsaken," don't you agree?)

It was summer but where the mall is located is a bit too dangerous for my biking tastes. And there aren't sidewalks for walking.

But some people had braved all of this and were walking toward where our bus was waiting for the light to change.

A large woman who looked rooted right into her seat, leaned into the person next to her and said:

"Walkin'." She shook her head and paused dramatically. "Now that's a terrible way to travel."

I almost peed myself (and I hadn't had an excess of water that day).

But that story is sad, too. She may have been a stereotypical bus rider in these parts (where bus riders tend toward the lower socio-economic levels), but I think most people -- regardless of socio-economic status -- would have nodded in agreement with her.

Walking. It's slow. If it's hot, you might get sweaty! Gasp! If it's raining, you might get wet. If it's snowing, you might get cold.

Yes, that's right, when you walk...you might actually experience the weather!

I can thank walking, actually, for my new love of winter. Winter was a season I detested. Besides the snow sitting on Christmas lights, I had no use for winter. But then I started walking in those storms and after those storms. When most people stay inside. When there are barely any cars on the road.

The peace of it. Walking taught me there are different kinds of silence and the one after a snow storm is heavy and complete.

Do not lost your desire to walk...

How many problems have I solved walking? How many story ideas have I gotten? I have plotted entire novels on walks. When I start my day with an early morning walk, all goes well. When I take the time to remember to go for a walk in the middle of the day, it slows me down just enough to remember my priorities for the rest of the day.

Perhaps the truth depends
on a walk around the lake.

--Wallace Stevens

We are built for walking, we humans. We are built for moving around, feeling life through our physical shells.

So what is happening to us as we sit inside metal shells for so much of the day?

Take a walk today and see what comes of it. Go by yourself. Walking with someone is a wonderful way to connect to another but this walking is about connecting to yourself.

I stroll along serenely,
with my eyes, my shoes,
my rage, forgetting everything.

--Pablo Neruda

EcoBliss: Urban Living is Smart Living

First buds on dwarf apple tree.

Listening to right now: Paolo Conte

Today's Happiness Formula: The sound of Italian first thing in the morning! Waking with books in my head. Waking and feeling truly awake (thanks to obeying my wheat allergy).

Following My Bliss by: Today I'll ride my bike to my chiropractor and then to get wine to go with homemade corn tortillas tonight. Yum. A friend is coming this morning to pick up the incorporation papers for an adult creativity center we are in the process of opening. Later, I will finish writing a grant and doing edits on my partner's novel.

We live on one-tenth of an acre in the city. We are in a zone 6b (for you gardening nerds) that acts a lot like a zone 7. We are in a clean watershed. Our bio-region is diverse, to say the least.

And right here, in this tiny yard, there is so much going on:

We have been eating asparagus for about three weeks already.

There is edible kale -- it overwintered -- and there are baby kales, chard, dandelion, greens of all sorts coming up.

Our kiwi vines -- yes, kiwi, there is a hardy variety -- are trailing and filling out the front arbor. I can already see buds aplenty.

Our grape vines are robust.

Our dwarf apple that we planted two summers ago has its first flowers. Perhaps we will eat an apple this fall from our own yard.

Our almond tree is healthy -- for now. Almonds in California are being plagued by an unknown disease and I fear for ours.

Our strawberries are covered in flowers and we will eat strawberries into the fall -- and this is only their third summer here.

This is all in a yard that has a ton of flowers. Besides being good for bees and birds and butterflies, they are good for my eyes. And we still have too much grass -- which in my book means we have grass. I would like to not have any and someday we will accomplish that goal. For now, we mow with a reel mower.

For every vegetable or fruit we eat out of our own yard, we are decreasing our footprint on this small planet.

I won't go on and on about the evils of sprawl. Here's a place you can read about that. But from what I have observed about people who live out in the country, they spend a lot of their time driving into cities. Everything they do takes more resources. Think about how much more fuel it takes to get them their groceries alone. Add to this the fact that they most often do not work any where near their homes. They are constantly commuting.

City living can be the more relaxing option -- if you approach it intentionally and mindfully.

We don't have to have a car. Which you know by now. At the very least, could you get rid of one of your cars? (It is pretty safe to assume in this country that if you have two adults in your household, you have two cars.)

There's no public transportation out in the country. There's barely any in the suburbs.

We live within a 3 mile radius of absolutely everything we need. Think about that. It's all walkable! We don't have to drive for anything -- we can walk to our food, our entertainment, our work.

And if more people opted out of cars and into bikes, walking, and public transportation, imagine how much more wonderful and human-friendly city-living could become.

We could remove driveways and add gardens! We could make kid-dense areas car free. There are parts of London where you can't drive a car. Downtown Freiberg, Germany is car free.

Living off the grid might sound ideal, but grids work because they are efficient in that they serve many, many people. What we suck into the grid is where the