Category Archives: Green Life

More On Intangible Gifts

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Green Life, Learnin'

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gifts-and-needs-2011

Sorting through the plastic folder of papers I carry with me everywhere, every day, I found I’d been carrying around a list of my gifts and needs from the last gift circle gathering I’d attended in JP.

I think I’d been intending to do something with the list, though I can’t say what.  Re-reading it made me smile.  Such a departure from my original list at the first gathering, where I described a mere two needs (help washing sweaters and turning over compost!)

My scrawled notes reflect a growing trust, I think, in the process and people involved, strangers though so many of them were. This reminder of my humanity -my own vulnerable desire for connection and understanding– inspires me. Even if those needs are never met through the gift circle, there was value in letting them be known.

Five Month Anniversary

16 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in Bike Life, Bloggin Noggin, Boston Moments, Green Life, Learnin', With Friends

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Mari's Heart hands

I am five month’s happy with Whole Heart Local and, to celebrate, I’ve compiled a list of five favorite posts from 2011.

If you would like to celebrate with me, please post in the comments YOUR favorite post (or five) from your own blog!

Celebrating the elements: http://wholeheartlocal.com/2011/12/22/winter-mornings-jersey-vs-boston/

Daily richness and beauty: http://wholeheartlocal.com/2011/12/08/weekend-wonder/

Growth from opposition: http://wholeheartlocal.com/2011/09/21/wrath-on-the-bike-path/

Cherished time with friends: http://wholeheartlocal.com/2011/10/13/whole-heart-vermont/

Hanging with the gents at City Feed:
http://wholeheartlocal.com/2011/10/08/this-moment-city-feed-supply-jp/

Marking the Season

26 Monday Dec 2011

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Christmas cod

Growing up, my family celebrated Kwanzaa, not Christmas, so I generally feel like an impostor when the wreaths and red ribbons start appearing in our neighborhood grocery stores. My eyes fix on the tempting displays of “stocking stuffers“, on the glossy, classically-colored covers of Martha Stewart magazine, on the Trees of Boston calendar I consider each year but never purchase -yet I understand it’s not quite Christmas I seek to experience.  It’s marking the season; collecting the still-green elements of the natural world into my home, as well as gathering tokens of affection for family and friends.

Compromise (the “spice” of adulthood) is -for me- dipping into the decorating (holiday cards posted over the entry to our kitchen, a handmade ornament dangling from the maw of the wooden cod centerpiece in our living room), celebrating the holiday with my partner’s family, dancing to Ziggy Marley with my nephew, and many moments breathing in the not-quite-cold-enough winter air while watching the sun play at the edges of everything natural. Compromise, for me, is recognizing and graciously accepting what modern American Christmas offers –boundless opportunity– without buying into what our modern American (secular?) Christmas appears to prescribe (consumerism, tense family moments, traffic, sentimentality.)

And to you: happy holidays.  Whichever you celebrate, however you celebrate, I wish  you peace, love, growth, and happiness!  Namaste.

Winter Mornings (Jersey vs. Boston)

22 Thursday Dec 2011

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I realized recently that one of the biggest differences between my life in Jersey and my life in Boston is the time I spend outside. That is: in Jersey my days consisted of moving from house to car to building to another building to car to house. Since I arrived Boston-side back in 1996, my hours in a private moving vehicle dropped dramatically and my time spent walking (quite fast from class to class, fighting through the wind on Boylston and Tremont Streets) spiked.

For a long time, when visiting Jersey as a fully grown (so they say) but car-less adult, I couldn’t decide what was missing in my day.  Then, finally, it hit me: not enough time outside. Now, when I’m spending a day or two at my mother’s place, I’ve added sitting out on her back deck to my morning ritual. Just like Boston, no matter the weather.

The photos below, snapped by my partner, are favorites from last weekend’s visit with friends in Purchase, New York. As you can see, we weren’t deterred by a little drop in temperature!

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Avoiding Holiday Excess

15 Thursday Dec 2011

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Recently a friend asked, quite innocently, “How many pairs of leg warmers do you have?”

The answer: um, many.

Legwamer and muddy sneaker

It’s true, I have at least six pairs rolled neatly and stored in my closet. I used to own more, but I finally deemed a few sets “excessive” and sent them packing to the thrift store to entice some other eighties/dance-fashion refugee.

What does this have to do with holiday excess? Well, as I don my leg-warmer-pair-of-the-day and set out on bike, I consider who is left on my holiday list and how I should treat them to my love this year. The problem is, we all have so much stuff! I mean, do I really need six sets of leg warmers, three of which were gifts from friends?

My dilemma-of-the-moment is what to give my friends -all of whom are working adults- when I know most of us have houses a-burstin’, but I also don’t have the time or energy to craft, or even bake, gifts? Cows, goats, geese, and rabbits are enticing (or tasty, depending on the families who receive them), but giving a gift that can’t be touched doesn’t exactly satisfy my desire to collect the bursts of good will that come from giving something tangible yet thoughtful.

If this is something you struggle with, how are you solving holiday-gift-excess in your life?

Friday Favorite – Pin Oak

09 Friday Dec 2011

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At the edge of a parking lot near my house sits what I believe to be a pin oak. Each day, as I bike or walk past, I inspect the oak. I notice it’s straight and subtly regal form, how the streetlights turn its night-shadow into art, the tiny leaves as they grow and unfurl each spring, and finally, the dry leaves of winter, hanging on, hanging on.

I’ve long wanted to photograph the tree and ended up shooting a whole roll, including this first attempt at night photography.

Oak at night

Make It New

30 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Green Life

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ripped vest

My old life: if it’s broken, ripped, or torn keep it around for a few months or a year, finally, regretfully throw it out.

My new life: if it’s broken, ripped, or torn, keep it around for a few months, remember the tailor, do some research on the internet, take it in for repairs or attempt (more than once) to repair it myself, once repaired, add back to my collection.

As illustrated above, you can infer that I dislike throwing things out. Ever since I learned about landfills (or worse, dumping castaways into the ocean), I’ve cast a doleful eye on trash. Curious, then, isn’t it, how long it still takes me to remember the tailor, the internet, my own two hands -capable of simple mending and/or surfing the web to locate someone with more skill!

Black, Brown, Green, and Cyber

28 Monday Nov 2011

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Leaves fly by

This year, I had the idea to convert Black Friday into a crafting/reading/writing day. Instead I took a nap.

If I hadn’t been so exhausted by the week’s earlier activities, I might have answered the call of quilt, book, holiday cards, novel-in-progress, or blog. In my younger years, I participated in cruising shopping mall parking lots for that elusive empty space, bleary-eyed scanning the piled boxes of new electronics, hunting for something good (and cheap) that may or may not exist (or actually be cheap.)

Since moving to Boston, I’ve adjusted my habits from participating in events like Black Friday (or Brown or Green Saturday) to devoting my teeny holiday gift budget to farmer’s market finds, craft fairs, and local, independent shops. Certainly, this marks a change in my values and capability (um, can’t haul a TV home in my panniers and IKEA is too far to bike) but also I’ve realized that the true appeal of shopping at 1 AM wasn’t the shopping, it was the togetherness.

The goods, the economy, that tiny surge of purchase-conquest -I’ve realized that none of these marked my true reason for braving the money-slinging hordes. It was sitting in the back seat of the car, my mother and brother up front, music on, street lights flashing by, headlights and tail lights of approaching and passing vehicles reflecting on all our faces.

This past Friday, I continued my true tradition: pulled on my shoes, hoisted my reusable shopping bag and bleary-eyed from my nap, set out on a walk down the ave with my closest available family –my partner.

How did you fare this past Friday -what color did you paint it?

Whole Heart Vermont

13 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by in Green Life, With Friends

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Over Columbus Day weekend, I had the opportunity to either travel down to New Jersey with my partner, or camp in Southern Vermont with friends.

I enjoy car rides with my partner because they provide a rich opportunity to catch up, to connect.  As both our families are settled on the Jersey Shore, I considered traveling to the city (NYC) with my mother to explore the MOMA, an activity planned as part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days project.

And then Vermont.  The friends I was to accompany are somewhat new in my life –sweet, bright-eyed, earnest world-savers.  The weekend included sleeping in a tent (I’m a bed/indoor plumbing sort), apple-picking (to which I look forward to every year), and other outdoor activities.  It was a risk.  Would I have fun?  Was it fair to attend while my partner pried shingles off his parent’s roof in the hot sun?  What would I eat?

Somehow, somewhere in me bubbled up my old resolve that, if intimidated, all the reason to rush in.  I called on the girl I’ve long appreciated for her tenacity and resourcefulness.  The girl who says oops! and then laughs.

So glad I did.