Bureau Proposes Opening Up Utah Wilderness to Drilling

last weekend i spent a bright and sunny and beautiful weekend with a dear friend exploring petroglyphs in nine mile canyon in central eastern utah. the cultural heritage located is incredible and i wish more people coudl appreciate the canyon. then, today i read the following in the washington post. the canyon (a designated scenic byway and historical site), and adjacent desolation canyon will be up for drilling leases, to be sold by BLM. this makes me very sad. tuesday the list of leases will be posted and i plan on commenting! if you would like to see some of our american history and heritage preserved, i encourage you to comment too!

Bureau Proposes Opening Up Utah Wilderness to Drilling

desert sunrise

this song feels like it was written for a time in my life. it is sweet and beautiful and heartfelt. it was a wonderful time.

Desert Sunrise by Brett Dennen

A desert sunrise, you warm my soul
Painting me in shades of clay
Covering me whole
and I'm a lizard
Sunbathing in
Your radiance
So I crawl out of hiding
So sweet so sweet you are
If i could only have a taste
Wrap my lips around your flavor
Just because you are you
Just because you are
So beautiful

I've been waiting all this life in the company of one
And I know I am young, but I don't want to be alone
If you could only just consider the two of us
And I know darling I could be so good to you

I See you rising on the horizon
Bringing light into the day
And I'm coasting on your rays
When I awoke you spoke through the midst of a mystic bliss
Casting shadows on all my dismal yesterdays
Do you remember that you told me darling that I was so real
I tell you all my tears for you are real
We'll cross that bridge again someday
I know we will
I hope we will

Desert sunset a lullaby
If I could give it all to you
If you'd only let me try
Sing so sweetly
It's my only wish
Music drips from your lips like sweet sips of a summers kiss
Summer raindrops precious tongues twist

I've been waiting all this life in the company of one
And I know I am young, but I don't want to be alone
If you could only just consider the two of us
And I know darlin I could be so good to you

I See you risin' on the horizon
Bringin' light into the day
And I'm coastin' on your rays
When I awoke you spoke through the midst of a mystic bliss
Casting shadows on all my dismal yesterdays
Do you remember that you told me darlin that I was so real
I tell you all my tears for you are real
We'll cross that bridge again someday
I know we will
I hope we will

Desert moonrise into the night
Before we lay our heads I wish to walk under the splendorous starlight
Sing so sweetly
It's the sweetest sound
And I become weak in the knees
And I drop down and kiss the ground
And all my cares lie far below
In this earth I wish to die
In this heart my fire grows

Will Allen - MacArthur Foundation

Will Allen - MacArthur Foundation

peaches!

here we are, in the middle of september, the first day of fall come and gone. and, we are up to our necks in peaches. they are late this year and there was a bumper crop. i talked to a farmer yesterday adn he said they are doing all they can to sell or even give them away. they are going to rot on in the fields. to me this is a food tragedy. where can they go? why can't the school system buy these and feed fresh peaches to kids? why can't they be frozen for desserts later in the year? is there somethign i can do? ...as i try to brainstorm, and eat the peach on my desk, i'll listen to peaches for inspiration... this song reminds me of high school, driving around singing "millions of peaches, peaches for me, millions of peaches, peaches for free" and thinking about how wonderful that'd be. oh, how all dreams come true!



ps. and what's with a.) the peaches on the bamboo type tree and b.) the peach ninjas?

Xcel ditching 2 coal plants, going to solar : Energy

this is good news for those in colorado, and near the coal fired power plants previously operated by Xcel.

Xcel ditching 2 coal plants, going to solar : Energy : The Rocky Mountain News

back from the wet and lush NE

...i had a wonderful trip to the NE last week. and i can't wait to write about visiting friends living in intentional communities, exploring burlington, best friends in quebc city, discussing farm policies and local agriculture in french with old time family friends, and the rain, OH the RAIN. it felt all so good. but until i've got the chance to really sit down...i just wanted to post this picture i took in an IGA (big grocery store chain in quebec) parking lot. it loosley translates to "did you foget your eco-sack in your car." as in don't forget to bring your own bag into the store. quebec loves fads, the people there embrace them (everything from mahogany hair to painting kitchens grey and pink to making colorful plywood butterflies to attach to the exterior of the house...we've seen all these and many more fully embraced over the time we've spent there.) and it's inspiring to see all these people embracing the go-green movement so wholeheartedly!

time for large scale conservation

woot-woot...there have been some wonderful examples of large scale land conservation happening in the past month. in florida the state has made a bid to buy property from big sugar to work on protecting the everglades, a group of conservation organizations have made agreements to buy and conserve property in montana over the next few years, and in in ontario a huge swath of borel forest will be protected. i appreciate land conservation on any scale, a few acres can make a big difference to a community in the right place, but there is something so impressive about the large scale projects. partially because the large parcels of private land are becoming fewer and farther in between, and partially because, once in a while, conservationists can actually apply some of the theories behind landscape scale ecology...looking at ecosystem level projects. these opportunities come up rarely, and will get rarer as time goes on, so i am excited to see large scale conservation happening, right now, and those further down the line will hopefully get to appreciate and benefit from the foresight of those making these landscape scale projects happen.

(of course, i also recognize that some of these projects, especially those with the various logging companies are only happening because of the recent economic downturn-lowered real estate values-decreased housing market-decreased new construction...thus a hurting logging industry... but it's a great opportunity for conservation, we've got to take advantage of these situations as they come up!)

The Canadian Press: Ont. premier pledges to preserve giant swath of northern boreal forest

Florida to Buy Sugar Maker in Bid to Restore Everglades - NYTimes.com

Rocky Mountain land deal tops $500 million - Environment- msnbc.com

what we all deserve

a woman on our board came in and told us she had the best story for us. her in-laws just passed away, within 5 days of eachother. in their mid 90's they had been married for 72 years. when the wife passed, her husband gave up and passed on a few short days later. i realized that, there is probably nothing else as wonderful in the world as knowing for 72 years that you are with a person you love, so real, so true, so honestly. we all deserve to be loved that way.

local forages

a few weeks ago i wandered around my neighborhood picking mulberries. tons of mulberries. i came home and put them in the fridge and ate a few here and there and then was too busy to do anything with them before they molded BUT, i felt that at least i had given the little free fruits a chance at a second life, rather than them lying on sidewalks, getting trampled and sworn at by people who's yards they came from. it makes me feel terrible to see fruit go to waste, uneaten by it's owners or the neighborhood birds and squirrels.

i wonder if this comes from a childhood of foraging. i remember picking pomelos and avacados and mangos from neighbors' trees and gathering coconuts on the beach in hawaii as a kid. and of course the summers were filled with picking fresh fiddle heads from ditches and forested streams, wild strawberries in roadside fields, raspberries from abandonded rockpiles, blueberries in the forest company owned bogs (which had a kind of guerrilla feeling to it like "hey-big logging company that tried to rape this area of all the trees and vegetation, look at all these magnificent blueberries you left. you missed out, big time!"), and tagging along with my parents as my dad collected hundreds of cutting and suckers from abandonded heritage apple trees while my mom dug up chunks of the perennial flower beds remaining from farm houses long gone.

so, i was so excited to find these two links, and find that i am not alone. both of these talk are groups that have attempted to map out fruit trees in public spaces that others can pick. the first one, fallenfruit, is based in LA (i cna just imagine the wonderful fruits there!) and has done some maps in other parts of the country. the second one, a group based in portland, actually maps the trees and schedules group harvests where 1/2 the fruit goes home with the volunteers and the other half goes to community food banks. what a wonderful use of this naturally occuring food! (the only thing is to be cautious of sprays that the owners or the city applies to the fruit...other than that, gather away!)

http://www.fallenfruit.org

http://portlandfruit.org/WebPages/About.html

dare

over two years ago, i was eating a dove promise. the exta dark kind, with the smooth foil wrapper. the quote inside read, simply "Dare to love completely." and it resonated. and i cut it out and taped it on my monitor. and i tried to love as completely as i could. and i did. and i do. and i will again.

and today i looked up and consciously saw that quote for the first time in months. and it resonated. again.

summertime

it's been a long, long, cold winter. not to say it wasn't filled with fun snow filled sports, and lots of time spent with family and friends and newfound love. but it was long and cold. and somewhere in there i became too distracted and too uninspired to post anything. but summer is here, (or will be in 3 days) and i'm feeling the rush of energy that comes with all this daylight. and i am feeling grounded and steady and at the same time the energy of the sun is pulling me up towards the sky, leafing, branching, stretching.

and yay, do i love summertime!!! eventhough we no longer get summer vacations, it's still feels different. maybe it's because the days are longer, maybe because i don't have to stress about not-speeding through school zones on my way to work, maybe it's because i can hear kids playing at the pool from my house, maybe it's because the festivals start up in the mountains, maybe it's because it's so hot out, maybe it's because farmers' markets pop up. whatever the reason, i love it.

and i am reaching up and out and fully embracing this season. this world. this life.

yay!

on the beach in big sur. a little happy moment. a happy memory. and fun new reality!

Rainbow Goddess

oh, goodness. all my talk about my inner goddess lately has made me laugh. but, now i at least know the color of that inner goddess. i am, the Rainbow goddess...."The RAINBOW Goddess represents all aspects of the color spectrum.Those who are Rainbowed have the deepest significance to people throughout all the phases of their life. They have more influence on those around them then one can possibly imagine. They often help others by strengthening, soothing and inspiring them. "

"

A High Price for Healthy Food

oh, things liek this really get me! i agree that whole foods and healthfood stores seem expensive. this article deatils the cost of eating, calorie-per-calorie "health food" such as veggies and fruit, in place of twinkies or ppizza. sure, you get way more calories in twinkies. also you get more chemicals and artificial colors and polysaturated fats and other things our bodies don't love. i understand that poorer households have a less healthy diet and buy more of this "un-healthful" food. but how do we address this? how do we make people realize that buying beans and lentils and whole grains in bulk is actually very chep? and very healthy? how can we make healthy food a prioirty for all people, rather than percieved as a luxury for the welathy?

A High Price for Healthy Food - Well - Tara Parker-Pope - Health - New York Times Blog

an improptu trip!

So, i just decided to go to San Francisco. My good friend D lives there and for the past year has been inviting me out for a visit. I’ve always been too busy on the weekends when there were cheap tickets...but finally this weekend I was just like hell with it, I am going anyway! (Especially since he is moving in a few weeks and this was my last chance to visit.) So I did. I bought a $180 ticket Thursday night and left work early on Friday, drove through a snow storm en route to Salt Lake City, flew out of Salt Lake that night and after a short and very comfortable flight on Jet Blue (here is where I just want to say that I really enjoyed my flight with Jet Blue, there was so much leg room and they have great snacks and great music) arrived in San Francisco in time for dinner. Daniel met me at the airport and the second I saw him I got SO nervous…like, what am I doing here with this guy-friend-whom-I-kinda-have-a-secret-crush-on?! Ok, let's be honest...I have felt that we connected since we met oh that long time ago at Rally 2006. But when I walked out of security he hugged me and picked me up off the floor and spun me around in this big warm hug and we both just laughed and laughed all at the same time. Then we drove into town and went to a total hippie-cute-love-fest-raw-food restaurant. Which was surprisingly delicious. Then we walked around and got ice-cream from a locally owned, local dairy ice-cream parlor.

We were up early in the morning Saturday for a day of exploring the city. San Francisco is so FUN…those of you who’ve been I guess already know that, but it was my first time and it was great! We walked around a lot and did some shopping and café-ing and laughing and serious talking and more laughing and hand holding and visited Golden Gate Park and walked along the trail that runs along the bay. As we were walking along the trail, we walked out on a rock outcropping to look over the ocean, and there was a huge walking labyrinth someone had made with stones. We just started walking through it and after about 10 minutes of silence and not even looking at each other we got to the middle where there was a little offering type rock and we had just picked some flowers and added them to the small pile of flowers and coins. While we were standing there, in a very comfortable hug, D said "Ilana, I want to be with you when I move to Santa Fe."...yes, he did. And I was like "well, that would be wonderful, I’d like that." And we kissed and we both just started smiling and the sun, quite literally, came out from behind a cloud. And we walked out of the labyrinth and watched the sunset on the ocean and went out for Thai food and then met up with his friends at the yacht club to listen to some fun little music. There were all kinds of freaky-hippie-hipster types at the music thing, but they were all so friendly and lovely…it was great.

Then it was another early morning Sunday and we picked up a rental car (which after 15 mniute we realized smelled horribly like puke…but we were already out of the city so there was no turnign back) so we could drive down the coast to Big Sur where he had to look at a protected property for work (D works at a land trust and does most of their monitoring work). It was GORGEOUS. We stopped at a few beaches and had lunch along the way and explored the tide pools and sang along with Van Morrison and ate fresh oranges and dark chocolate and talked about our families and what we wanted in life and our plans for traveling. And we hiked a little on this gorgeous protected property (the one he had to visit for work) at sunset when the clouds were rolling in and the darkness settled around us when we reached the top of this little meadow overlooking the mountains to the east and the ocean to the west. After the visit to the property, we then checked into a totally beautiful hotel that the land trust staff (and guests, ahem, me) get to stay at when monitoring the easement. It was SO perfect…our room was gorgeous (we were in the Tree House) and had the world’s most comfortable bed and were up in the redwoods but with a view of the ocean. And then went to bed and fell fast asleep until 12:30 am…when we had to wake up to drive 10 miles down the coast. We had a 1am reservation at hot springs at a retreat center that only opens the hot springs to the public from 1-3am. There were these gorgeous outdoor tubs, literally on the edge of the cliff about 50 feet above the ocean.

And yesterday morning we woke up early to a soft sunrise and took a leisurely morning breakfast in the all glass restaurant over the ocean and then D had to meet with the ranch manager for work stuff and i took a hike in the redwoods and along the cliff edge. And then we drove back along the coast, having excellent, soul exposing, heart opening conversations and stopping at a couple beaches to run in the edge of the waves and laugh. And he dropped me off at the airport and that was that. Or that was the beginning I should say of something so much bigger. We were both so happy, so happy. And all weekend we talked, not just about fun things, but about serious things and our own pasts and things that bother us and our fears and our hopes and desires and our student loans and deep loves and our spiritualities and families and our jobs and career goals and desires for kids and real love and really just opened up about anything. It was so, so nice…I can’t even describe it. And really, this weekend, was so great, it almost seemed unreal. D kept pinching me and saying, “Hey, Ilana, this is real! You are here! There is the ocean!” wow.

It almost felt funny to be having such a wonderful…and slightly romantic time…with this good friend, especially since it’s just been a couple months since Greg and I broke up. But Greg and I have nothing to do with D and I and I realized it’s ok for me to move on…then I was like “hey, this is my life, this is awesome, I need to accept all this wonderfulness and just go with it!” I am falling for a dear, sweet, deep, funny, intelligent, witty, intense, good looking man!

a different kind of holiday please

so, wow, we went from thanksgiving straight into Christmas....and it's not even december yet. actually, let's admit it, the christmas decorations were in the store practically the day after halloween. does it get earlier every year? whatever, unless you are 12 or younger, you are likely tired of christmas before it even arrives. and why woudl you want to be tired for christmas. you're supposed to be spednign time with family and making nice dinners together and helping out at some local organization and trying to work for a better world and making the world a better beautiful place....at least that's what i think jesus would have wanted, isn't that his whole sotry really...trying to make the world a better place?

and is that accomplished by going out and spending lots of money and time and getting stressed about shopping for people whom are doing the same for you? and then we all go home at the end of the day and are not happy because we are stressed and don't feel like we spend enough time together and so sometimes we aren't even nice to those same people we just went shopping for.

instead, imagine waking up with same special people, spending the day together on some outdoor adventure, volunteering, or just hanging out at home working on projects. then eat dinner together and paly a family game. wow...all of a sudden that sounds a lot more appealing right...and less stressful. i had a wonderful time over thanksgiving with my family. one part i won't forget is i was trying to make a bunch of beads and my parents and brother sat down and helped me for an hour, it was so nice just sitting there, working on a project and chatting.

now, my family is fairly traditional when it comes to christmas. both sides of the family still love buying christmas presents and in our big family of 6 the presents come exploding out from under the tree. some of those things i wouldn't want to control....i will not call my grandparents and wax on environmentally and sustainably for a good long time so that they stop buying us stuff. i think that would be, well, rude. they honestly love doing it and think it's fun and i can only be thankful for what i might recieve. with my immediate family it may be a little differnet. we all appreciate our time together and hvae often times made homemade gifts. by speakign gently and explaining what i really want at christmas time (love, time together and eachother) i think my family will understand.

it's a difficult path to manuever as none of us want to insult others or make them think we don't appreciate all they do. that said, if we want to make christmas more about what it really is (a celebration of the birth of a wonderful example of love and selflessness) we can approach the discussion with the same love that we want to impart to the holiday.

and here's what bill mckibben has to say about that.

Are you brave enough to say no to a high-stress holiday? By Bill McKibben

thank full

i missed thanksgivng yesterday. i thought about posting but we were up to our elbows in tofurkey-cranberrysauce-pumpkin-pie-making-craziness. we always say that we actually have no interst in traditional thanksgiving day food...none of us really like it. but johnny wanted to have it traditional. and can you blame him? ...he spent all week in school learning about thanksgiving and what it means, and here we wanted to serve him lasgana. geez, it is so great havigng a little person in the house. his enthusiasm and energy keep us all cheerful and excited about life. i am thankful for simply being here. my family is amazing and the more time i spend with them, the more i love them. i have wonderful friends who do wonderful things with their lives. i have so many people to love, and the more i meet the more love i feel surrounded with. i live in a beautiful part of the world, and try to appreciate it every chance i get. even with the gray of winter approaching, i love the sandstone walls and big open skies that fill with amazing stars every night. i'm thankful that i can appreciate that beauty and that i have met people that feel the same way. i am thankful for the clarity that has come to me over the year about my relationships, dreams, and goals in life and that has helped guide decisions both big and small. i am thankful for people's understanding and love. i am happy with my career and the satisfying beneficial work we do and all that make it happen. i am enjoying the creative energy that has been flowing through lately and for the spirituality that has begun to blossom. i am thankful for my new friend that is helping me see even a deeper level of beauty in the world and for the envelope of seaglass. i am grateful for so many people and places and ideas that have made my life as it is.

Message From the Hopi Leaders

(a friend sent me this message, beautiful and true. i'm looking forward to my life, my path, the river with whom ever may be by my side.)

You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.
And there are things to be considered.
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold onto the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart and they will suffer greatly
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore,
push off into the middle of the river,
Keep our eyes open and our heads above the water.
See who is in there with you and celebrate
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally.
Least of all, ourselves.
For the moment that we do,
our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle
from your attitude and your vocabulary
All that we do now must be done
in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we've been waiting for.

renewing in the desert

Over the past few weeks Greg and I have been doing some serious soulsearching, wrenching heart opening, and simple honest communcation.And after all was said and done we decided that, though we couldliekly have a simple and beautiful relationship, at this pointneither of us was ready to take any leap of faith to be nearer tothe other. And so, we parted ways, with a great deal of sadness anddeep emotional turmoil. There were no harsh words or fights, asimple letting go, which is a lot harder than one might imagine.So, last week was pretty much filled with sadness and crying in theshower and on my way to work and in my pillow at night.

And, this weekend I headed out with a friend for the high canyon country. What a wonder filled weekend. I felt like we were little kids exploring this big huge world and every little thing we found was an object of beauty; every little flower, or twisted juniper trunk, or shard of pottery, or shooting star, or golden cottonwood leaf, or anasazi house, or fern growing out of the rock. The deep hike down into the canyons, and the ruins, and the swim in cold dark pool, and the scramble up steep sandstone walls, and the nap in the warm sunlight of mid afternoon, and the shouting of echoes across the canyons beneath shooting stars, and the running around the canyon rim in fairy wings, and the being under the open sky all night as the stars fell and Pleiades journeyed across the sky and Venus and the moon rose in tandem and shined down on our beating hearts. I felt that we shared and connected with this beautiful world.

I was pulled into the beauty of nature that I find, continuously throughout life, renewing and refreshing and reminding me there is a much greater goodness, the spirit of oneness out there. I really needed it. Life is truly a wonderful gift and is really what we make of it. I am overflowing with a desire to fill my life with beauty in thoughts and actions. I am so glad to be here, now.

words that make me happy

flowered dress, camp fires, sister and brother, sweaters, twinkle, harvest, joy, chocolate, daisy chains, full moon, firefly, barefeet, complete, ocean, pico de gallo, periwinkle, laugh lines, kitten, powder day, beach, contentment, children, topo maps, bouquet, courduroy, golden, fjords, omm, raspebrries, shadow, independence, shooting star, honesty, friends, butternut bisque, travel, peace, sprouting, sunshine, pops and mops, twirling, fields, crystal clear, yarn, van, love, strawberries, rainbow, sewing, twilight, laughing, creamy soup, together.