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so, it is autumn, even here, even in northern coastal-ish california, where there are still tomatoes on the vine and i have the temerity to start bok choy and peas, in case i can get a crop in before the real chill comes.
but it is autumn. the days are shorter, the nights darker-feeling. our election less than a month away, and it seems it will be a battle (i made phone calls for Obama last night).
still, i have hope. there are figs ripening on the trees at uni, and apples, and i have found two persimmon trees there as well; uni itself, the coursework, goes as well as it can, and the reading and movies continue to be both interesting and food for thought.
i know the economy world-wide is ricocheting off people's lives with little care for individuals. in my own mind, this is the 60-year cost-come-home for maintaining nuclear arsenals and living as consumers rather than producers, as creatures of habit and want instead of partners with nature and each other- but i find that, once i've used those ideas as a way to settle my own thoughts, i have to step back from them or i become arrogant, and judge, and i have no extra energy to devote to being right or condemnatory. i need to focus on keeping my personal economy honest and functioning as best i can, not giving my life energy over to this latest round of bread and circuses and sleight-of-hand.
i've mentioned it before, but i shall yet again: the ideas and practices in Your Money or Your Life have given me a way to live in this world and be of it, and yet not be completely at the mercy of prevailing winds of woe and upset. it's easy to find the book on www.alibris.com, used, for not very much- and support independent booksellers by buying it there- and it's worth the reading and taking your time but doing, eventually, the steps it takes to reach financial intelligence, financial integrity, and financial independence.
so. time for a nap before uni. then native american studies, come home for a bit, study, perhaps nap again, then work tonight at the lads.
be well, be gracious, be kind, be blessed. be excellent to one another.
ETA: The Kindness Offensive in London. *G*
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amazing. month's half gone. how does that happen?
Anyway.
Film analysis paper due in two weeks. I will be doing mine on Real Women Have Curves, because I enjoyed it AND I think it will do me good to look at it again, not from the point of view of having been 'the fat girl' or 'the rebellious one' or whatever, but trying to get out of my white privilege corner and see what I can be taught by, learn from, this movie, these characters, this life.
Also, I am finding it interesting to be one of the people on the edge in this odd financial world. I don't know if it's really clear, but Your Money or Your Life notwithstanding, when I finish uni at the end of this term (god willing, saints providing, rain don't fall, creek don't rise, etc. etc. etc.) I will have about $46,000 in student loans due. Just exactly how I'm going to pay all that off, being as how I'm already 57 years old and not exactly earning at the top of my profession (that 10% cut I came home to in July? Still in effect. *sigh* and not exactly clear how/if/when the California budget situation will affect that). What I do know is, I'm getting healthier each week, night shift notwithstanding, and more intelligent about my money and my life energy and my fulfillment curve, and so the uproar about financial markets and disaster relief and war and all the rest of it, while it brings me cause for unhappiness and sorrow and compassion, does not make me crazy-with-worry like it would have before I started working with YMOYL.
Am going to try growing watercress. I like it, it's supposed to be fairly simple, something I can grow inside even, maybe, and it'll be a fun project.
So that's today's post- I'm glad I've put all this time and effort into finishing uni, old as I am, and by god, I propose to enjoy the heck out of life for the rest of my years, watching movies and traveling and growing vegetables here and there in whatever yard I've got access to, and just being alive.
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This from the NYT- Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization.
(prior links dump Here.)
What can you do about it?
City Farmer
Community Gardening and Kids
Community Greens
Moss in the City: Urban Gardening
Urban Gardening Magazine
ETA Pick Your Own gardens and farms in US, UK, Europe, Canada, Italy, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa</a>.
Perhaps you and some friends get together and lament not being in better shape. Can one of you donate land to a group project garden? Maybe all you have is a balcony in a climate with a short growing season. Can you grow herbs? sprout seeds?
Maybe you think it's inefficient to grow any of your own food. Well, maybe it is from a strictly commercial business point of view. But in terms of best use of the calories you take in / the calories you expend, which is more worthwhile? the giant pack from Costco or Tesco? or the oxygen-producing, carbon-dioxide reducing pot of chives or basil on your sill? The tomatoes you get from the pot on the balcony? the lettuce from the box on the verandah? Remember, even some flowers are edible. (I use nasturtiums in my salads. mmm, peppery!)
I dunno if the problems caused (to some extent, unwittingly) by globalizing trade and industrializing farming are all curably by home food farming. I do know that even if you have a 'black thumb', over time you can learn to listen to plants and come to recognize what it takes to have an honest relationship with sun-converting chlorophyll-using beings, and that in itself can be balm to a wounded soul, and help right some of the imbalance in the world.
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a) I voted.
b) I have read my studies for the day's courses.
c) I have double-dug in my compost! [have been taking the kitchen scraps, veg/fruit only except for washed egg-shells, out to compost in 15-gal buckets- works pretty well- a layer of kitchen scraps with a layer of leaves/dead nasturtium vines/grass cuttings- the worms found the buckets and had gotten going in them!] My five buckets were full, so it seemed prudent, since yesterday was pretty much dry, and today's dry and sunny, to go out, double-dig, layer it in, and let it start working!
d) now that i've done all that [had time today because my Gov't class was canceled], it's nap time. See you when I see you. xoxo
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