Hindsight 2020

What have you learned now that you have 2020 hindsight?  What has our country, our world learned?

For most of us this was our first pandemic. Will it be our last?  What can we do as humanity to prevent another pandemic? More importantly, are we willing to do what is necessary?

Crisis, revels weakness and strength. The past year was full of media exposing our weakness. Divisive, hateful politics, extreme economic and social injustice and the ease in which the mass public can be manipulated. Misery loves company and fear can cause us to react irrationally and feel helpless. Scapegoats were rampant in 2020.

If you were able to disconnect from the drama and focus on the positive, then good was also revealed. People made friends with neighbors that they have lived by for years and never knew.  Food and clothing were given freely to others. Families reconnected and had quality time together.  Pet shelters were emptied.  Strangers offered to help out the elderly. 

For me 2020 confirmed my knowing that everything is connected. We are all one. Humanity, nature, economics, social, religion, everything is connected.  My unexcepted revelation was just how few people actually believe this.  The idea of “ I can do whatever I want and you can’t make me….”, is childish.  Yet, it is this very attitude that has helped create the pandemic.  The believe, “what I do is my own business and it doesn’t hurt you”, is the lack of ability to conceive how we are all connected. The flip side of this train of thought is, “ what I do as an individually, doesn’t matter.”  This is often the excuse when trying to deal with issues like climate change, or social injustice.  It all seems too big to change.

The new year is a traditional time to vision a better life.  We lay out our goals and objectives in the various areas of our lives.  We feel good about it and stay on track for a little while.  Then something happens, and our resolve fades.  

2020 showed the world just how important it is to stay connected.  We need each other to create our supply chains. We need each other to provide food, clothing and shelter.  We need each other to overcome crisis and pandemics. 

Long term stress and lack of social interaction can be exhausting.  It is easy to take a position of hopelessness or to allow fear to create your reality.  Another choice is to focus on the positive. This may be difficult at this time. So try something easier.  Focus on connection.  My word for 2021 is connection. How am I personally connected to other people in my neighborhood, tribe, family, community, organizations?  Do I like the way I’m connected?  Do I want something different?  What can I do to improve the connection? How am I connected to nature?  What actions can I take to improve my relationship with nature? 

We all want to be part of something better than just self.  Even, fringe groups connect to each other because they want to be heard and no that they are no alone.  So, I encourage you to reach out, connect to something, someone, organizations, events, neighbors, pets, horses, nature, whatever it is that brings you comfort and joy.  Focus on the positive, find those little things that help you know that you are part of the whole.   Now go out there and make it a GOOD YEAR.

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The World as We Know It Has Ended

I have always been fascinated about words and how we attach meaning to them. Words mean different things in different languages, time periods, geographical areas and to different people.  The translation of words brings an even broader layer of meaning.

When I was young, I read everything I could about the Mayans. I was fascinated about a culture that just disappeared from the planet. Much of the recorded history I read was translated from Spanish, then I came across a direct translation of what was considered the Mayan language. When discussing the end of the world prediction, this translation said “The world as we know it has ended.”

That translation has stuck with me all of my life. I thought of it when a loved one died, when I got sober, when I met Deb, when I moved and when I changed careers.

The world as I know it has ended many times.  Sometimes, it was by choice, other times it was forced upon me by other people and events. 

How I handled the end of the world varied on my perception. I looked to other people, places, things, activities and beliefs to save me. Eventually, I saw my world end enough times that I realized it was part of life and how I handled it was up to me. That is when I became more compassionate with the world and more excited about the power I have within myself!

The world as we know it has ended for almost everyone on our planet. This disruption has the opportunity to create a world that works for all. We as humanity and as individuals get to focus on what is important. We are at choice to be victims or our own hero. For me, I choose to focus on the positive and trust that I am surrounded by people who will hold me up when I’m down.

With this in mind, I want to share what I seeing working well in our new world. I want to share the positive and good news.

Quantum physics is proving what the mystics have known. We get more of what we focus on.  Now is not the time to be in denial. We are social distancing, the coronavirus has spread throughout the world and our economy is in unknown territory. It is OK to feel scared. Now is the time to be more than who you were before your world ended as you knew it.

I am sure in the next few months there will be great change. People will rise to improve the new world, and individuals will find a power inside themselves that could only come from all of this. We are so much more than we ever imagined! I encourage you to look for good.   

Right now, a good thing for me that is happening is that I am actually starting this blog.  It is not what I thought it would be and that is OK.  There is a need inside myself to write and share and give people hope.

So it begins. 

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Living the Green Life

I am at a season in my life where I am enjoying the fruits of my labor.  I have taught others about green building and green living so long that I am called the “Grandmother of Green”.  At first, I was taken aback by the idea that anyone thought me old enough to be a grandmother.  Then I remembered how much I had learned from my Mamaws.  So, it is with respect and honor to my roots that I have embraced my Mamaw Love.

The concept of “green living” has been around for several decades.  Over the years, it has meant different things and called a variety of names.  Today, the popular catch phrases are organic, local, zero waste and sustainability.  In the past, it was vegetarian, hippie, environmental and tree hugger.  Whatever term is popular right now, it all comes back to the core concept that humanity and all of nature do better when we are in harmony with one another.

I realized my direct connection with the earth as I grew up on a farm.  Today, my family would have been referred to as sustainable farmers. Back then, we were just poor dirt farmers who didn’t have enough money to buy those fancy fertilizers and pesticides. My extended family, especially my Mamaws, showed me that nature was abundant as long as we understood and worked with her natural cycles.  We planted with the moon, saved seeds and used our farm animals’ manure to enrich pastures and gardens. We canned, froze, dried, smoked and stored our seasonal harvest.

For me, nature, the woods, creeks, trees and rolling meadows were my playground as well as a safe place to escape.  When I climbed to the top of a tree and silently swayed with the wind, I became one with something so much greater than I could express. When I crawled inside a dark small cave, I could feel the heartbeat of the earth. Those moments were when I knew my true self and understood the connection of everything.

As I grew, I learned more about what we considered progress, and the good for humanity often have unforeseen consequences.  I loved science and the cause and effect of everything.  I felt a deep sense of responsibility to honor the earth.  On one of my hikes in the woods, I came across an old paved road. Pieces of black top were staggered between dirt, grass and weeds.  It occurred to me that the earth didn’t need saving, it would be fine if we left it to do its natural thing.  Mother Nature just wants us to pay attention to how we interact with the planet and with each other.

Society’s denial of how everything is related often frustrated me, and I was delighted when Environmental Science became a field of study.  Finally, there seemed to be a logical connection.  However, I was frustrated as we broke into specialty areas without showing how they interrelated.  For years, the main jobs you could find were chunked into waste management, nuclear, and air pollution.

When building science became a field, I was hooked.  I loved the idea of seeing a house as a whole system – the work every step of the building process. It thrilled me to know we could now create buildings that utilized nature’s building process.  Plus, there were all kinds of cool tools that gathered data to prove how these processes all work together.  Building science had the formula to create a sustainable world!

For me, the concept of “Green Living” just comes naturally. It is so much more than conservation or alternative energy. It is more than how to build a house or live on the land or reducing plastic. It is also about social justice and honoring the process of where we are as individuals, communities and as humanity.  “Green living” is also about looking to nature to find strength and connection. We as human beings are part of nature. Individually and collectively, we can create amazing, wonderful, positive change for the earth and for each other.  Our journey through life always gives us opportunities to see how we are all One. Nature, the woods, sunshine, flowers, food, animals and humans all give us a chance to see how we affect each other. “Green living” is our opportunity to thrive as we all learn how we interconnect.

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