Posted on

Get a Universal Hug!

World Tai Chi & Qigong Day sat on my bucket list for several years.  With no events offered in my small, semi-rural community, I made up my mind last year to drive 1.5 hours to participate.  The powerful group energy felt like a profoundly calming universal hug, not to mention the good people I met and now have the pleasure of studying the Tao with.   Yes, I make the 3 hour roundtrip drive to do this monthly but it brings me so much pleasure it’s a worthy investment.  Now, World Tai Chi & Qigong Day is an annual must do event for me.  (FYI, it’s always the last Saturday in April at 10AM local time.)

As an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person),  safeguarding my own peace and serenity (aka well-being) is critical for me.  Detaching from the bombardment of frenetic and frantic energy through sensationalized “news” while staying engaged with humans and the environment is key, and I’m meeting numerous others with similar observations.  Like the waitress who sadly said, “I’m serving more and more families who come in and sit glued to their phones rather than talk to each other.  It doesn’t make sense!”  Or the fellow concert goer who high-fived me after first responding in shock, “You did what?!  I’d like to give up this thing too and get my life back.”

tech free

For the record, I recognize some value in having technology like GPS or locating a restaurant in an unfamiliar city, but it’s not worth the expense to me — financially, mentally or emotionally. I just don’t need technology. My life M.O. has changed to “discarding” rather than “adding” non-essentials. I value my time more. I see how easily I could become addicted. And I see the stress — whether to the user or those around them — from constantly pinging phones interrupting each moment, deteriorating eye contact and banishing personal interaction. I see others trying to remedy their lives after their electronic financial accounts were hacked… What I don’t see is the value of turning my life over to technology.

seth-macey-396196-unsplash
Photo by Seth Macey on Unsplash

But anyway, the point of this post is to encourage you to try World Tai Chi & Qigong Day if you haven’t already.  Whether you are or aren’t engaged with technology, Tai Chi and Qigong are certain to bring a calmness into your life.  And couldn’t we all use that these days?

Visit this site to find an event near you:  http://www.worldtaichiday.org 

 fhug

Posted on

It’s More than Just Earth Day

I grew up seeing public service messages of a Native American crying about litter strewn across the land and water they honored.  The message stuck.  I don’t litter.  And I honor, I love, Mother Earth and our environment.

When Earth Day began in 1970, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  It still does.  We just need 364 more days of it.  Worldwide.

In my lifetime of globalization, littering escalated to what you see below.  The five major oceans on our planet all have garbage patches.  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is larger than Texas.  Unthinkable, isn’t it?!

Today, I am the one shedding tears for how humans and corporations worldwide are polluting our land and oceans.  There are plenty of examples showing how we are destroying our environment.  You’ve seen them.  I have too.  Some become active or proactive but too many turn away in apathy saying “there is nothing one can do” yet it is up to each of us to care, to not look away.

A long time ago I heard the sentiment, “Ignore your health long enough and maybe it will go away.”  That stuck with me too.  Ignore problems and maybe they’ll go away… maybe.  Maybe they’ll snowball and be harder and more costly to solve. Or, maybe they’ll become unsolvable. Call me an insurance salesman’s dream — I’d rather pay now than pay later. Maybe, probably, if we ignore the environment long enough, it will go away.

“From poisoning and injuring marine life to the ubiquitous presence of plastics in our food to disrupting human hormones and causing major life-threatening diseases and early puberty, the exponential growth of plastics is threatening our planet’s survival.” from the Earth Day Network.

Has the message stuck?

What are you willing to do to honor Mother Earth and our planet?  Will you commit to stop using plastic bags, bottled water, and plastic tableware?  How about microbead cleansers?  Will you educate others about plastic pollution in our environment and to our bodies?  Share a video on the sea of garbage, lobby for bio benign plastic packaging, boycott companies responsible for oil spills?  Get creative.  No matter how large or small, we each need to do our part.

ACT. To make a difference.

And as Earth Day approaches on April 22nd, remember the oceans too.

 

Posted on

Can You Love More than One Day?

Pets are on my mind.  I’ve finished viewing “The Truth about Pet Cancer” which I alerted you to in my previous post “Your Pet Trusts You.”  And with today being National Pet Day I’m thinking about these beloved creatures more than usual.   According to PetSecure.com, “Americans spend over $50 billion annually on their pets, and 36% give their dogs birthday presents.”  But why wait for one special day when animals freely give us their love, forgiveness and attention 365 days, year after year after year?

Don’t have, or can’t have a pet you say?  It doesn’t matter.  Approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter American animal shelters every year.  These animals don’t have a pet parent or pet guardian — their only hope is caring humans.  Cats and dogs come in varied sizes, so are the ways you can help.  Here’s some options:

dog-hugShop on Amazon Smile and get 0.5% of your purchase donated to a 501(c)(3) pet charity registered on their site.   Even better, buy some pet supplies via Amazon Smile then donate them to your local SPCA, no-kill shelter or rescue group.

dog hug soldier

Support no-kill shelters.  Look for no-kill shelters in your area:  https://www.nokillnetwork.org/no-kill-animal-shelters.php

horse-hug girl

Aid rescue groups.  Some rescue groups are breed specific:

http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/maps/feral-cat-groups/feral_cats_list.html

https://www.habitatforhorses.org/state-national-rescue-links/

For some tips on rescue groups visit:  http://www.dogster.com/lifestyle/dog-breeds-breed-specific-rescue-group-adoption-tips or http://www.avianwelfare.org/links/organizations.htm

dog hug boyAssist with dog transport and save the life of a dog on death row:

FreedomTrainTransports: http://freedomtraintransports.com

If you’re on FB or Yahoo, take a look at these sites to see what you can do:

Animal Rescue Transport Network: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Animal-Rescue-Transport-Network/117998798306519

Rescue Angels on Wheels: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RescueAngelsonWheels

goat hug ladyHelp find homes for orphaned pets by signing-up for Shelter Pet PR and promoting the pets on your social media site:  https://www.dosomething.org/us/campaigns/shelter-pet-pr

And what about that beloved pet you do have?  I thought I gave good care — at least until I realized that Big Farma and Big Pharma have also corrupted the pet food and medical “industries.”  Remember, your animal friend relies on you to give them the best of health. It’s not that difficult (and you’ll become healthier too).

 

Animals in my adult life who have graced me with their love…
EPSON scanner image
Beloved Bess!

Feed a breed-specific diet and the best diet you can afford.  For instance, use quality canned food for cats who can dehydrate easily and need more moisture; and if your dog can’t tolerate a totally raw diet, select kibble without soy, corn or rice, and is preferably organic.  Supplement a few times each week with raw meat-based scraps and chopped brightly colored veggies like spinach, kale, broccoli and carrots.  Blueberries and even a raw egg now and then are good too.  Just skip the pizza crust and other highly processed foods!  That includes colored food treats too.

Offer plenty of clean water — spring or distilled rather than fluoridated city water — in metal or ceramic bowls.  (Get rid of plastic dishes.)

Play with nontoxic toys, get lots of exercise and sunshine!

Consult a holistic vet especially if your pet buddy is already not feeling well.  They are trained to help pets achieve quality living without costly surgeries, pharmaceuticals or side effects:  https://www.ahvma.org/find-a-holistic-veterinarian/

Bess still thanks me for taking her for acupuncture.  In two treatments she was running like a pup again — even though she was 11 (and now doing well at 13).  She’s not leaving a spec behind of the raw purple cabbage and kale with flaxseed oil and organic raw chicken added to her kibble!

Include animals in your will.  If you have a chunk of cash to leave behind, consider naming a charitable pet organization in your will.  None of us will be here forever so make sure your pets will be cared for in the event you depart first.  For some helpful info, visit: https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/protect-your-prized-pet-create-a-pet-trust or https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/pet-trusts.html

Of course, the standbys of donating money, supplies, and volunteering your time are always needed.  Hopefully, National Pet Day is the kickstart for you helping animals all year long — just like the love they give to us every day.

Oh, and if you missed National Hug Your Dog Day yesterday (4/10) — just give them a hug every day too.

Posted on

Contemplating Compost

Death is not so permanent as one might think.  When contemplating compost, you more fully understand the cycle of life.  Fruits and vegetables provide nutrition to us.  Flowers offer beauty.  When their peelings, parings, stems and leaves are tossed into the bin to decompose, in time they become nutrition for the soil.   Black gold I like to call it.

compost in bin

This rich compost continues nurturing us by transforming the soil to produce nutritious fruits and vegetables, and flowers to soar the spirit.

And so the cycle of life continues.  Quite simple, really.  Nature shows us how.  So what is all the fear about?

compost dirt

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…

artur-rutkowski-97622-unsplash
Photo by Artur Rutkowski on Unsplash
Posted on

A Language I do not Know

I do not understand the language of texting, or bar codes containing paragraphs of information.  I do not understand how people do not know how to count change, what their own phone number is, or how communication and society have morphed into a world of antonyms.

cheron-james-481530-unsplash
Photo by Cheron James on Unsplash

Words such as cooperation, negotiation, impartial, conversation, politeness, and respect are no longer understood.  They have become foreign concepts in this foreign land I no longer understand.

“Customer” service now means self service.

A “doctor” visit means getting a prescription.

“Friendships” have become 1,000 or 100 strangers I don’t really know.

“Conversation” was an informal exchange of ideas but often appears as a one-sided dump.

Once upon a time a “debate” meant a public discussion of opposing arguments on a particular topic.  Today it is who can interrupt the most and shout the loudest slander.

Microwaving a prepared meal is called “cooking.”

“Excuse me” has fallen to the wayside for immediate interruption or unacknowledged bumping into.

Here you go replaced “thank you.”

Intimidating hurtful trolls lurk on “social” media.

“Personal responsibility” now looks like lawsuits and blame.

Family time means individual members sitting next to each other staring into screens.

priscilla-du-preez-341138-unsplash
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

“Unbiased journalism” is dead.  Infomercials disguised as articles, and fake news abound.

Health “care” is really the health industry.

“Public” servants are politicians passing legislation written by lobbyists.

Marketing is the sugar-coated word for lies.  Companies tout their products to take my money yet when I attempt to get help for the “failed product” it is usually in the Philippines, Dubai or any other place I can barely understand the instruction to fix the problem for the “inferior product” that was advertised as “the world’s best” that I now wish I hadn’t purchased.

annie-spratt-462127-unsplash
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

My telephone landline use to bring news from friends or family.  Now, I cannot answer it for fear of telemarketers and scammers breaking into my home.

The tech industry told us they were making our lives simpler, less complicated, paperless, and more convenient when in truth our lives are more complicated, more disrupted, more vulnerable and disconnected, and I pay to discard more junk mail than food or household waste.

I do not recognize what I was taught in school.  Like being an American meant I was free and there was liberty and justice for all when in actuality my government sold out my rights to self-serving corporations.

America has turned topsy-turvy, upside down into a country of antonyms.  I am native to this foreign land where nothing is as it’s purported.

redd-angelo-581203-unsplash
Photo by Redd Angelo on Unsplash

My dictionary indicates virtual reality is “not physically existing but made by software to appear to do so.”  As far as I’m concerned it’s based on a book of antonyms.  I’m not ready to discard my dictionary and thesaurus for a new reality.  I prefer to call it what it really is while I still have the mindset to know what it really is.

reality
Photo by pine watt on Unsplash

Reality – “the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.”

via Daily Prompt: Foreign

Posted on

A Non-Religious but Spiritual Palm Sunday

The calendar indicates today is “Palm Sunday.“  Being a religious holiday, I often wondered in my youth why it wasn’t called “Psalm Sunday” but as a gardener I’m just as happy to see green palms after a long, grey winter.

And while it’s (sadly) becoming increasingly unpopular and even dangerous to identify Frond-Lwith any religious affiliation, I will say organized religion is not the source of my spirituality.  Yes, I was baptized and confirmed a Christian, but I also practiced Buddhism in my teens, then investigated Catholicism, Judaism, Unity New Thought and A Course in Miracles doctrines.  I have friends of all faiths and of no faith.  I pass no judgment if someone chooses to be religious or not, or the path they have taken to their own spirituality.  What I do have a problem with, though, are acts of cruelty, hate, torture or killing — evil, in the name of religion or God.  So contrary and senseless to me.

Thankfully, I was not raised to believe in a condemning and punishing God but instead one as loving protector.  Studying Taoism and working in nature have deepened my understanding of life and some of the religious teachings of my youth.  To me, all of these sources are akin to tendrils of a plant, offering various meanings and interpretations of life, expanding with my maturity.

Frond-RAs a variety of flowers constitute my garden, and a variety of races and ethnicities constitute the world, I am open to a variety of religions in life.  I do not believe that one religion has all the answers, or that only one particular religion has the only true God.  I believe there are as many spiritual roads to God as there are in the names we choose to call Him or Her or whatever is meaningful to the particular person in that particular part of the world.  Opening my mind opens my heart.

And so, today is “Psalm” Sunday for me — spiritual being synonymous with psalm, and psalm being a sacred song.   I acknowledge this day not in blasphemy but in honor of the sacred songs each of us carries in our hearts.  As a gardener, I view this day as the triumphant arrival of Spring, a fresh start after a long winter, the Pre-Easter beginning of infinite life, and with gratitude for the richness Mother Nature offers.  I believe God is everywhere as in nature, but also in our hearts.  And in the end, isn’t that all that really matters — what is in our hearts?

“…Every day something new

Open mind for a different view

And nothing else matters…”

 

Happy Psalm Sunday!

Posted on

Spring, Life’s New Start!

yellow tulipMissed starting over for the New Year, like so many do?  Don’t feel bad.  It may have been Day 1 on the calendar, but Mother Nature begins anew with Spring.  You can too.

Becoming more aware of the paradoxes of life while studying the Tao, I suppose it’s not so unusual that I occasionally rant about technology addiction.  Afterall, it’s the antithesis of nature (and of growing concern to me).  So, if you’re among the trapped “millions” who bought into technology to have the latest and greatest, be like your friends, were attracted by “convenience,” or became hooked on virtual life rather than “living” your real one, you already know how crummy you feel.  Be honest.  (If you don’t know or believe that technology is addictive, ask your Smartphone for the answer.)

annie-spratt-523899-unsplash
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

I’m not completely kicking technology in the butt.  I admit, there are “some” conveniences and I realize even flowers need rain.  But, I also see how easily the technological scales tip to losing one’s self (not just through identity theft either), a sense of community, and an appreciation of nature while adding stresses like being hacked, internet bullying, lost privacy, constant interruption and distraction, unrefreshing sleep, increased onset of macular degeneration, mood impairment, etc., etc. purple tulip(Isn’t that enough?)

Yes, it takes courage to change, to not follow the crowd, and the only one who can do it is you.  If you want to de-stress and take back control of your life (and mind) this recent article will help.  Remember, only in the dark can you see the light.  It’s time to turn over a new leaf — it’s Spring!

 

March 20 Second Stage

 

Stop the technology virus from mutating the human brain and natural living.  In 2014, there were 420 million internet addicts.  In 2012, 84% of the population couldn’t go a day without their phone.  What do you think the numbers are now?