Growing up in recent times usually means that we have been coached somewhere along the way about global warming and small steps we can take to make a difference. Most certainly everyone nowadays can recite the 3 R’s on demand: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
My concern is this: do we know how to rercite the 3 R’s so well that we don’t actually stop to think about what they mean?
In my opinion, judging by the what the people around me tend to do, Recylcing and Reusing are being done (although, for the most part Reuse is being applied to simply reusable bags when it can extend far beyond this). But the most overlooked R is REDUCE. This is one that is incredibly hard to implement, for a few reasons.
One minor reason has to do with repair. In order to reduce our consumption we would have to repair broken gadgets, items, and so on. But when repairing costs almost as much as buying a brand new replacement, it’s difficult. As a result there are less specialized people around, making it even harder to repair our things – we have to travel farther and/or pay more. Most often times we opt for the newer, shiner version instead of repairing our scratched and outdated one. But this leads to 99% of goods manufactured and consumed in the trash within 6 months! This is not unintentional, unfortunately, it was all planned and perceived.
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Because of the ever-increasing popularity of yoga, it’s hard to turn a street corner and not run into someone toting a rolled up yoga mat. Conversations between yogis can be overheard at gyms, cafés, bookstores, bus stops, bike paths, parks, you name it. Sometimes the things overheard seem so out-of-this-world it’s easy for someone to want to roll their eyes and burst the yogis’ bubble by telling them that no-one in their right mind would be saying things like:
“This morning my consciousness shifted away from my normal perception of reality to some esoteric space where I was witnessing myself have this experience.”
“I could no longer feel the boundaries of my body. I couldn’t define where I began and where I ended. All I could detect was this energy. I felt lighter in my body.”
“I felt my energy lift and my spirit surrender. I felt enormous and expansive. My spirit soared free. Nirvana, I found Nirvana.” Read the rest of this post»
Gone are the days of daily morning milk and egg deliveries, specialty food stores on every block, and farmer’s markets being the norm. Whether we like to admit it or not, we live in an age of processed foods, large multi-chain supermarkets with less than fresh produce, and dozens of unpronounceable ingredients making up one flavor in our multi-flavor, multi-colored foods.
With a seemingly never-ending list of ingredients, most people pick up their familiar and favorite food item without even reading, let alone understanding, all that is listed. To help us understand exactly what is in our foods, here are excerpts of an article sent to me, titled “Ten Quirky Facts About Mass Produced Food.” Bon appetit!
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This has been an emotional week for me for a couple reasons: a 10-day intense backbending workshop (known to increase sensitivity) and the untimely death of Michael Jackson. It seems out of place even for me to be hurt by MJ’s passing, since I was not a real fan of his. Although I loved his music and greatly appreciated his contribution to entertainment, it did not extend beyond that.
After his death there was an outpouring of emotion that seemed somewhat hypocritical to me, as I’m sure for others as well. For over a decade he was judged and ridiculed incessantly. But as soon as he died, all the judgments ever written about him seemed to slip from everyone’s memory, showing us that we didn’t know a good thing until it was gone. Read the rest of this post»
