Take Back Your Life!

Hey questioning ones!

Yesterday, Jimmy and I drove by a field filled with lots of children wearing red and blue shirts doing some kind of organized exercise. Simultaneously, we turned to each other and said, “Mao’s Cultural Revolution?” Something about it left me with a unsettled feeling. The same feeling I get when I bike by a pre-school in a nearby town where the children spend 6+ hours a day “learning/playing” inside a chain-link fence. It feels like captivity has become the new childhood normal, a radical departure from my own. (more…)

Hi rebellious readers,

I spent part of Sunday cleaning out my bureau drawers. For the first time in years, I now have enough room inside for the things I actually use, the stuff that’s usually sprawled on top.

I tossed out buttons for sweaters I no longer own, holiday cards from the last 7 years, airline/hotel info from a trip taken 4 years ago, yellowed shopping receipts, old lipsticks, empty plastic checkbook covers, broken earrings, random pieces of scribble, a 2 foot piece of rope, a ripped swim cap, medals from 20 years ago, broken jewelry, nail files, stretch bands for exercises I’m never going to do, old cat toys and dust.

There’s even more that I’ve heaped together for my first ever yard sale in the spring.

What was I saving this stuff for? What are you saving your stuff for? And why do we have so much stuff to begin with?

For a good chuckle, here’s a link to Comedian George Carlin’s timeless routine about stuff.

CARLIN ON STUFF

Way too much of life is spent managing stuff, protecting stuff, dragging around stuff, hiding stuff, crying over stuff, comparing stuff, worrying about stuff. If we can get out from underneath the weight of all this stuff, maybe we can lead the lives we desire?

How about you? Do you control your stuff or does it control you?

Happy 2010! The year of less stuff.

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hey wishcasters and others,

I really enjoy Jamie Ridler’s Wednesday Wishcasting circles. The questions send me in new directions. Today’s question: What step do you wish to take? This is an easy one for me. I want to start a huge movement to save open space, to help people see that saving open space is long-term economic development. If land is finite, how can we keep turning it into asphalt fields and not ultimately harm ourselves? Again, the powers that be have us galloping so fast that we don’t even know why we are galloping and where we are galloping. But I can guarantee that is we don’t stop and figure that out, we’re going to be in trouble as a civilization.

There is a huge tract of land behind my home that is home to animals, birds, flowers, plants, sunlight, air, wildness, freedom, rocks, soil, water, history, life. It’s for sale because open space is not valued. If it were, there would be grants available or companies & governments rushing to save it from destruction. I believe that open space saves money in the long run, saves our health in the long run, saves our food supply in the long run, saves our wildness in the long run, saves our creativity in the long run, saves our humanity in the long run.

Did you ever run through fields as a child? Or lay down on your back in a  meadow for a summer nap? Or run through cornfields? The more we lose open space, the more we lose our connection to the Earth and ultimately our connection to each other.

Psst. We need to save open space. Pass it on …

Muse thx, Giulietta

p.s. Here is a local non-profit trying to do the above too! LCA Trust. Stop by …

Hey lovers of life!

A fun woman I follow on Twitter, picked a word for the day. On a whim, I decided to pick one too! Unpredictable. Today I’m going to mix up my routine as much as I can. Maybe start my daily walk going a different direction. Read a book backwards. Eat desert first. Wear two different socks. Go through the self-service at the supermarket two times. Write an essay beginning with the last sentence. Do three twirls on my way to the mailbox. Make a to do list with only things I WANT to do on it, ad infinitum.

Take a look at your own predictable behavior. Can you mix it up? The best thing about changing my life up is that I get to see things from a different vantage point. You know those “see if you can find the differences between the two photos” exercises at the back of magazines? I often turn the page upside down. It bring a new perspective and makes it easy to find some of the harder to see differences. Reach out and say, “hi” first. Sit in a different seat if you take a class.

Just now I turned to the last page of a book I’ve been reading “forever” called Agenda For A New Economy. Been stuck in the middle for about 4 months. Last two lines?

“We have the power to turn this world around for the sake of ourselves and our children. We are the ones we have been waiting for.” Good words to start the day with. I’m a huge advocate of rescuing yourself. Just get the ball rolling. If it isn’t rolling nothing will happen.

Go forth and be unpredictable!

Muse thx, G.

Howdy,

I’ve noticed a lot of folks run around crying for change. Way fewer folks actually stand up and do something about it. That’s probably the number 1 reason life/governments/economies tend to stay the same – complete lack of action. I know it’s fear. Just wondering why we continue to reign each other in when that method clearly doesn’t work?

Maybe we should replace some of the holidays we have — the ones that seem to be shopping-oriented — with action days. People have the day off from work to take a chance and be the first person in line to do something. I used to need to know that someone was going to be in line behind me. 9 out of 10 times the person who said they’d support me lost his or her own nerve and I ended up at the front, alone, facing a not so happy authority figure. I got used to it. Now I have no problem being the first one to speak up, to write up, to walk up. Makes me feel powerful and alive.

If you’re serious about changing the world, you need to get comfortable being first in line … What’s something you’d be willing to be first in line for? (Besides gelati and new high tech products.)

I really look forward to Jamie Ridler’s wishcraft Wednesdays. Her prompts are great ways to take my writing in new directions, give me new essay, newspaper column or blog post ideas. Today’s, “What Luxury Do You Wish For?” feeds into the books I’ve been reading lately, “Shadow Cities,” “Planet of Slums,” and “A Nation of Farmer’s.”

I’ve been blessed with a most fortunate life, for which I am truly grateful. When I read about the suffering & starvation that takes place on this beautiful planet, the number of people who live in slums (1 out of 6, soon to be 1 out of 4), I would like the luxury of being able to alleviate their suffering by giving them their land “back” so they can grow their own food and rebuild their own homes. There’s no reason for anyone to starve.

Once the starvation stops we can weave our collective magic together and recreate a healthy, livable world abuzz with creativity. So, I wish for people to realize that we’re all in this dream, this fantasy, this Earth-body together, that the left Earth-hand has to know what the right Earth-hand is doing for the whole to work in unison.

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Dear folks who care about the planet,

It’s wishcasting wednesday and Jamie Ridler asks us, “What do we wish to stretch?”

I wish to stretch my water usage. Until a few years ago, I took the fresh water streaming out of my tap for granted. I thought nothing of letting it run while I brushed my teeth or wandered away from the sink for a few minutes. I assumed potable water would always be there for me. Then I started reading about water and other nonrenewable resources. The findings shocked me into changing my behavior.

In the next 10 years, 35 U.S. states will experience water shortages. At present, somewhere around 2 billion people on the planet do not have access to safe, drinking water. The problem? Only 3% of the Earth’s water is fresh and of that 3% only 1% is easily reachable, but the world’s water demands continue to grow. Melting glaciers, which provide 69% of fresh water, have further eroded fresh water sources. Yes, other parts of the world convert ocean water into drinkable water. But it’s costly, uses lots of energy, and dumps the extracted salt & brine back into the ocean endangering marine life.

If you’ve watched Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, then you can picture a world where people fight over water. Not very pretty. Will you join me in stretching your water usage?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

I’ve been hauling bag after bag of clothes and other stuff I bought at discount stores to the local charity. In some cases I’ve outgrown the look, but in most cases the lack of quality made the clothes hard to wear. After a washing or two, the shirt or pants just didn’t look or fit right. (Not that they fit 100% right to begin with. The cheap price made me overlook inherent design flaws.)

It struck me that I could have bought the one expensive shirt I really wanted, the one that fit me instead of the 25 poorly fitting shirts that I ended up with. I can now see that it’s more expensive in the long run to buy items I don’t really want just because they are cheap.

But that’s what we’ve become a nation of quantity-obsessed junk buyers.

It makes more environmental sense to return to the days of full pricing, when quality determined the likelihood of purchase rather than quantity.

How do you determine whether or not to purchase something?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

I’m doing this wishcasting circle right now. Ran across it on Twitter and since I love to do new things, it sounded fun. Check it out to get on the wish list …

http://jamieridlerstudios.ca/wishcasting-wednesday-july-22

I wish that young men all over the planet would turn to each other, their tribal leaders, their governments and say, “I refuse to fight.” Because if all the young men realize that they hold the key to world peace, we might finally have some.

Yesterday, Jimmy and I went to a State Park and took a walk along its “Sensory Trail.” It meandered through the woods, over boardwalks covering marshes, along the sides of a large brook. Normally, we hike to get exercise, to go as fast as we can. Today was different. We ambled. Jimmy spent a lot of time taking pictures of turtles, flowers, swans and even his first hummingbird! During a brief moment when the hummingbird wasn’t humming he managed to capture it digitally.

I walked slightly ahead, often finding myself waiting for Jimmy on the wooden benches I found at every turn. During those waits, I relaxed into the bench and listened to the birds “tweet” to each other and the water lap up against the shore.

Instead of just hurrying along a trail like we normally do, we took our time, feeding our senses with all nature had to offer.