Archive for Environment
Ocean Wave Energy: Limitless Energy Gift
Posted by: | Comments2009-06-01
Good Morning Everyone!
In all the discussions about renewable and sustainable energy, how often have we heard anything about Ocean Wave Energy? I know I haven’t.
This morning there’s a really informative story in McClatchy News detailing the fact that the current proposed budget will cut research funding for this type of sustainable energy source in favor of an 86% increase in funding for solar and wind.
The article goes on to say that this technology is already being used in Europe and could be online in Puget Sound by 2011.
Seems to me that with America being blessed with two enormous lengths of coastline, and most of each coastline having the highest population densities, that this is a no brainer.
The technology was developed by Seabased AB, a Swedish company; and has projects considered, planned or installed in Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Ireland and Norway. There have also been discussions about projects in South Korea, the Philippines, India and Canada’s Maritime provinces.
Still another company,OPT,is under contract with the US Navy right now for a similar technology to supply the Navy world wide.
I’ve traveled the United States by car many, many times and have seen the windmills. They are NOT attractive and they do change ground weather, not to mention being at the whimsy of the wind. Wind power has it’s application in small projects, to be sure, but certainly not the large scale of supplying electricity to all of America.
Similarly, solar’s draw backs are those batteries and solar panels. They’re fine on roof tops, but to cover large portions of our deserts again means messing with the ecology of the desert and the life forms there. In defined applications, sun is appropriate, just as wind; but here’s a solution that promises big return for the long haul.
And get this, the technology is – simple. Holy Toledo!
Let’s keep it simple. Use our dollars wisely and put them where it makes Good Common Sense.
If you’d like to make comment to the White House about redirecting the dollars in sustainable energy research back to ocean wave technology, you can do so directly . I already have.
Put your two cents worth in! This is your government, and it’s your tax dollars, so participate!
Thanks for reading!
Kath
We Can Solve It
Posted by: | Comments2008-07-18
Hello Everyone,
Today a friend sent me a speech by Al Gore. You can listen to it here.
My comments are confined to the concept that we can solve anything we put our minds to. While I understand the necessity of addressing the negative, let’s keep it in perspective. The “negative” that we perceive as such is simply the platform from which we can be very clear about what it is that WE NOW NEXT.
Energy independence is certainly in the top three of what we now want, to be sure. I am certain that we want clean, cheap energy as well, that is available to everyone like the air is. These things are within our grasp if we STOP FOCUSING ON THE PROBLEM AND REFOCUS ON THE SOLUTIONS.
Yesterday I watched a marvelous movie, In the Shadow of the Moon, a Ron Howard film about how America put a man on the moon. We were inspired to reach beyond our grasp by President John Kennedy. When Kennedy announced that he was calling on American for a “new enterprise” we did not have the technology at hand. We had to reach into the infinite, within ourSelves, and create the solutions along the way to Apollo 11′s successful flight.
Indeed we are at a place in America where a “new enterprise” is needed. Many in fact, but it is by blessed way of the powerful negative that we have arrived at these new conclusions.
Each of us can contribute to this new enterprise by envisioning what it is we want and by ceasing immediately from the constant dwelling on what is wrong. Write to your chief news media and tell them you want to hear what is going right. Tell them you want in headline news, the good progress and cooperation that are happening in key areas. Tell them you will turn them off, if they persist in beating the over tired drums of doom and gloom.
We get what we are focused upon by the Law of Attraction. Imagine if we were told daily briefings on the progress of hydrogen fuels, solar and even new promising ideas such as sound. Can you imagine what new ideas that might spark in yourself? Imagine how much more uplifting it would be to go to bed at night with a new promising idea in your head?
America, you have to speak up. Now is the time. Stop settling for inferior, sleazy, low quality in anything and everything. Turn off the mind-numbing stuff and turn on the exciting, inspiring, and motivational things that enliven you, which enlivens us as a nation.
Write your senators and representatives. Tell them you want to hear of non-partisan progress in energy, the economy, the quality of our food, and whatever else you wish to see changed. Identify clearly the change you would like to see. Add not only your voice and vote, but add your vibrational thought energy to it by seeing it as a completed creation of good for everyone.
We alone get to choose what we think about. Choose carefully what you wish to see. Nurture that like you would a new baby. Feed it love, feel its joy, adore the people who are contributing and appreciate every single step of the way until its birth into reality.
I applaud Al Gore for taking the lead along with T. Boone Pickens in spearheading creative and clean solutions for America. Let’s keep it positive. Let’s keep it creative. Let’s keep it non-partisan. I call on America for this great new enterprise – recreating America anew.
Here’s the video of Al Gore’s speech followed by Boone Pickens speech.
Check out www.wecansolveit.org
This is Applied Spirituality in Action!
Thanks for Reading!
Kath
American Ingenuity
Posted by: | Comments2008-03-05
Good Day Everyone!
Thinking about things lately has caused me to be grateful for 4 years of Latin. I went to public schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania where Latin was offered. I had two great teachers who really made translating Vigil, Pliny, and Caesar’s Commentaries fun and very enlightening.
Today I use Latin principally for getting the original meaning of a word – its etymology. If you aren’t familiar with ancient Latin or Greek, it is improbable that you know how far afield our modern day words and our common meaning that we associate with them have strayed from the origin of the word.
Take the word ingenuity for example. According to Dictionary.com ingenuity is:
| 1. | the quality of being cleverly inventive or resourceful; inventiveness: a designer of great ingenuity. |
| 2. | cleverness or skillfulness of conception or design: a device of great ingenuity. |
| 3. | an ingenious contrivance or device. |
Miriam-Webster.com is quite similar:
2 a: skill or cleverness in devising or combining; b: cleverness or aptness of design or contrivance3: an ingenious device or contrivance
Now, check out the entomology of the word: ingenium from the Latin. The root words for ingenium are ‘in’ meaning within and genus which is birth. So the original word means
‘innate’ or ‘inborn‘ genius.
So what is innate or inborn? Our creativity. Our capacity for ingeniusness, which comes from our own innate Godchip: Our direct link to the Infinite Possibilities.
Years ago a friend said, “You have to ask the right question.” Truly.
When you look again at the word ingenuity, our current definitions imply with the word an invention – a thing, a contraption that we made or invented; but the origin of the word implies that it is not a thing but rather an inborn talent to create.
So let me, right here and right now, say that American Ingenuity is our innate ability to be creative. Our inborn capacity to seek out a new solution that has never been seen on planet earth by first desiring something (usually our freedom) from some perceived constraint and then our natural, inborn ability to allow that solution to come to us as first and idea, and then a thing if that is required.
American Ingenuity is a term I grew up with. We always had a way to make things better.
We knew we could; we did. There was nothing facing us that we couldn’t create our way out of and towards a better way.
Thinking about our famous American Ingenuity, I began to wonder why we had gotten ourselves into such a fix with respect to oil. I can’t think of anything that Americans hate more than feeling we have no options. There is always a way. Always.
So I started rummaging around online and saw a few signs of our great inventive and creative natures. For starters find out how to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen for fuel to run a car.
Of course creativity is not limited to just Americans. They are rolling an air car off the assembly line in India. Where are you GM, Ford and Chrysler?
The point to this little excursion into ingenuity with respect to cars and oil is that our ability to create solutions is infinite and above all inborn with each of us.
It’s the Godchip in each an every one of us that has the answer. You with your free will must apply your focus to ask ‘how can I?’ rather than spending your energies fighting against what is. Turning your focus towards what is wanted is the first step and then staying that focus with free will discipline on the creativity; allowing IT in as IT guides you towards your answer.
The fun is watching it unfold, like in a treasure hunt. Each day something comes in because you have asked and now Law of Attraction can bring it to you as you allow and are looking for the stepping stones.
American Ingenuity has been sleeping. We have been lost in fear of this and fear of that. Every time you allow ‘what is’ to occupy your thoughts, what ”might be’ is delayed and postponed.
And, someone else, who is actively pursuing the “how can I” mode is allowing in the solutions.
Come on America! Turn off that blinkin‘ TV and get busy creating the Nation we envision.
Now what if…
Thanks for reading!
Kath
The New View for 2008
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2007-12-15Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – Some Thoughts
Posted by: | Comments2007-12-06
Hello Everyone,
One great thing that is a constant thread in my life is, of course, The San Diego County Library. Every month I try to do about a month’s ordering. Living here in the back country we use our small library as a kind of ‘book post office” of sorts. So months ago I ordered a book that arrived, as always, in the nick of time.
I think I’ve mentioned that my all time favorite author is Barbara Kingsolver; and she’s always worth the wait! Her last book, just before this new one, was a book of essays published in 2003 called, Small Wonder: Essays.
Barbara Kingsolver is a small wonder herself. Maybe it’s her tone, or literary skills, or the way she chooses her words, or just her humor; but always it’s Spirit that flies through her onto the paper. Her newest book that just arrived is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)
To my mind, Kingsolver’s writing is quintessential Applied Spirituality.
This book documents a year in the life of her family when they move to the family farm in Appalachia with the sole intent to buy all their food locally grown or grow it themselves. This totally appealed to my sensibilities. It conjured memories of my childhood: first my Dad working in our garden, shirt off and hoeing between the rows of his 1/4 acre garden, all of which was either canned or frozen by my Mom and Gram. Then we took a local trip to a farm where the air was redolent with the smell of maple syrup. Here they tapped their trees and we bought the most delicious syrup and became friends, of course, with the family. In Pennsylvania we bought our milk from a family farm just “over the ridge”. Mom sterilized the glass milk bottles in the dishwasher, and we bought raw milk from the dairy. In the course of moving all up and down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, at every new home, Dad and my first project was installing a fruit cellar into the basement.
The point being is it was an “organic” existence. We ate locally all the time. When peaches came into season, I can recall Mom and Gram discussing whether they should buy a bushel or two? When tomatoes came into season, the same discussion. All our fresh vegetables were purchased at the local farm stand. In those days there was no question that he or his wife had actually grown those vegetables. For about 5-6 years of my life, once Dad stopped gardening, I took up the post and grew food for us.
Recently I went to Trader Joe’s Market and purchased some “organic” garlic as my own home grown stocks were depleted. When I got home I read on the label that this garlic had been grown in China. CHINA!!!! “Why?” I heard myself saying aloud. Gilroy, California is not far and the garlic capital of the world.
Kingsolver’s point to the book is how much petroleum fuels are spent in flying exotic foods all over the world. If we would adjust just 10% of our buying we could make a huge difference.
My point is that we each one can make a huge difference if we just pay attention. The benefits of eating locally from local organic growers is huge.
The nutritional factor is the biggest benefit. Organically grown foods have to develop “muscles” in order to survive. These muscles are in the form of antioxidants. All organically grown foods have as much as 60% more nutrition that industrially grown foods, and that’s just for starters. So when you balk at paying more for organically grown – think about it this way: you can pay now or pay later. You can pay now for the Quality you deserve and require for a healthy body and immune system, or you can pay later with supplements and even later with poor health and medical bills.
The benefits to buying locally and even growing a few plants yourself – well, you have to do it to understand the benefits of gardening, reconnecting with the dirt, the quiet of your garden, and the myriad miracles that happen out there. Critters come to play with you. You see the first flowers, the bud, the fruit. The absolutely orgasmic taste of the first tomato of the season. I promise you, if you grow your own heirloom tomatoes, you will absolutely never buy one in the market again.
The land, the dirt, the air, the food, you are all so connected. Every decision you make, with your dollars, with you time, with your choices matters and ripples across each and every one of us. When you choose more quality for your life – be it food, be it the products you use, the car you drive, the books you read, the movies you see, the conversations you have and choose NOT to have, the thoughts you think and the thoughts you choose NOT to think…it all ripples through to either add more Quality into the world or not.
When my boys were small I used to tell them “Garbage in, garbage out.” “Quality in, Quality out.”
Choosing Quality for yourself in every single tiny detail of your one life will make a huge difference in the Quality of this world. You Do Matter. This is Applied Spirituality in Action. Knowing the Value of You and honoring that with each and every choice….choosing what feels best and moving always towards that. Your Godchip is constantly beckoning you to come this way, it’s easier, it’s more loving, it’s full of more goodness, it’s better for you, there’s more joy this way, it’s more abundant here……follow your heart always. What you may start with your head (saving money and fuel) will end in a love affair of Life.
Thanks for reading,
Kath
additional resources for this topic: The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
I Have, I Have, I Have
Posted by: | Comments2007-07-18
Good Day Everyone!
Things are never what they appear. Take for example the desert in Darfur.
First off what strikes me as funny is the description of this as an ancient lake. Well, the earth is very, very old; yet, new lakes are forming all the time. Perhaps as the result of the most recent earthquake in Japan, new lakes, new rivers, water is being released in new directions.
What makes this item newsworthy from the viewpoint of Applied Spirituality is that there is always enough, no, more than enough. The appearance of “lack” is always just that, simply an appearance. Can you look through the appearance to see the fullness. Someone did over there in Darfur. Someone(s) asked for water in the midst of the most desolate of circumstances, and they believed beyond what they were looking at. They believed beyond what is appearing. Perhaps they felt the coolness of the water, imagined it flowing, visualized things green, and felt the new reality of what they wanted. They imagined it as if the already had it. I have, I have, I have.
Voila! Better said, “Eureka!” It is manifest. It becomes the new what is and an ancient lake is discovered with water below it.
I really can’t think of a better example to use than finding water in the desert. What appears is dire lack. What really is, is the fullness. So it is with every “appearance” of lack on earth, in each life. The hard part is to stop looking at what is and start seeing what you want, the fullness.
The truth of Who We Really Are is God having this physical experience. We see or hear and we feel in response to those stimuli. We don’t feel good when there’s not enough money, or water, or health, or love. You know why? Because that is not Who We Really ARE. We are the fullness of everything. And the lack of fullness is painful. The lack of love is painful. When we are full we are realizing our Self in this physical setting.
So, what are you challenged with thinking and being mesmerized by the “lack” of it? It’s an illusion, a mirage. Change your focus away from what is and start focusing on what feels good and full. Use your imagination, feel it’s presence, why it’s so lovely. And stay there. This my friends is how we manipulate our energy, our environment, and create our own reality. Thought by thought. Feeling by feeling.
Believing is Seeing.
Thanks for Reading!
Kath
Earth Shrugs: Her Rebalancing Act
Posted by: | CommentsGood Morning!
It has dawned a sparkling perfect 11 day here in the mountains of San Diego County. We had a wonderful rain this past Sunday/Monday.
For those of you who might not know our weather here, it can be, and often is, the land of extremes. Until last Sunday I would venture to say that the official fire season was still not over, as we had so little moisture and lots of Santa Ana winds, which are usually hot and dry. This winter they have been cold and dry. However a wonderful soak finally happened and I am quickly reminded of how good it is to be where it actually rains and how happy everything is when they get a good, long drink of water. Ah, I so remember Ohio and Pennsylvania!
You also might not remember that this where we had a huge fire in the year 2003, the Cedar Fire which burned nearly 300,000 acres of San Diego County. That was quite an adventure to witness Mother Nature in all her glory. What I have noticed in the three years since the fire is the perfection with which the “recovery” happens. Fire it seems is the renewal, which is to say, that out of every death there is rebirth and resurrection.
Immediately after the fire it was truly a moonscape here. We dashed about putting all kinds of sand bags, straw wattle, netting, whatever to brace ourselves for the winter rains. However, the rains came slowly and sweetly that winter. In fact, it was that first rain of the season that enabled the fire to finally be contained.
All winter I noticed acutely that when it rained, just as it was about to be just a wee bit too much, it would stop. Then a day or two of sunshine would ensue, then another gentle rainfall. We had no landslides. Then the surprises: wild peonies poked their heads up where once they had been overshadowed by white sage. The white sage began to show leafing at the burnt stumps. True enough lots of oaks were lost, but also true that many were sick with Sudden Oak Death (who knows why they were dying) and almost all the pines were infected with a the Western Pine Bark Beetle. The forrests were sick and now where it was burnt, new and healthy growth could be seen anew.
The wild flowers that spring were astonishing, many of which I had never seen before. As the year progressed we noticed that the rodents were definitely having a field day. It seemed that anything that lived below ground was flourishing, even exploding. While their predators which had been caught in the fire were scarce and rebuilding. Here again one would think this was a travesty, how sad! But I can tell you that there is a rebalancing that is underway. I even remember learning this in biology in high school. When the food supply is abundant (rodents), the next thing to flouish is the predator. Last night I heard the yip, yip, yip of carousing coyotes, once again on the mend and growing as a community. In the last year I have noticed many more owls flying low at night as well as hawks which are proliferating. Of course we have mountain lions; and once, I suppose, we had wolves and bears which is why my neighbors are complaining that deer are now eating all that they have planted.
So life goes on, resurrects….even improves.
The newspapers called it a tragedy. The reports were all about the suffering and devastation. The truth is that many lives have vastly improved since the fires. Properties that were marginal in code and safety have been rebuilt or replaced with new and better. Places that had become dump sites have been cleaned anew. Mother Nature, had a tantrum. She said, “Clean-up Your Room! or I’ll do it for you!” Well, she did.
Perhaps we should notice that the Earth, a living organism, will do a giant shrug, a huge belch, or a tremendous sneeze in order to clear her sinus, and shake off something unhealthy. She does react to imbalance to preserve her own balance. Perhaps we ought to notice from the “small” shrugs...Katrina, Cedar, etc…that she’s feeling a bit unblanced and she will rebalance if we don’t do it for ourselves first.
Thanks for reading! k
Kath
