December 29, 2008 at 9:16 pm (better health)
Tags: exercise, fitness, relax, yoga
During the last few weeks I let my yoga routine slip away. I know better. Yoga doesn’t have to take more than 15 minutes and I feel so much better when I do it on a regular basis.
Anyway last night I finally told myself I needed to do some yoga. My body felt all tense and tight. Almost like it was starting to shrink.
So I did a 40 minute routine, a little longer than usual for me. I felt so good when I was done. I was relaxed and all the stiffness in my body was gone. Yoga never fails to amaze to me.
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December 28, 2008 at 2:33 pm (general)
Tags: business, holiday season, work
Although it’s been said many times many ways, this six week marathon holiday celebration season has got to stop.
From the week before Thanksgiving until next weekend (after new years) this country just gets stupid.
Trying to get any type normal business done is almost impossible. Every place you go there is a line. Not so much because there are more customers than normal, but because half the work staff has taken ”off for the holidays” or they are at their “holiday party” many of which are now held during business hours.
Retail sales might be down this year, but look at productivity numbers from almost any business and you will notice that during the “holiday season” they almost always go in the toilet. Trying to get grown people to focus on the work at hand and stop all the “holiday gossip” is like telling a bunch of middle school kids to pay attention, it’s not going to happen. Everyone is more concerned with the new party dress than they are their regular work.
Payroll numbers sky rocket, our largest payroll’s are always holiday weeks. Business people have the same the amount of work to do, but because of holiday time off less time and people to do it in. So the pour sap that is still working ends up doing the job of three people and working lots of over time.
I could handle all of this for about a week, but each year it seems like it extends out a little further and it has gotten out of hand. I know it’s the holiday season, how on earth could I miss it. But some of us still have business’ to run and are trying to make sure they are around for another year.
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December 18, 2008 at 1:21 am (Mother Nature)
Tags: darkness, lights, rites, rituals, winter solstice
As we approach the winter solstice it gets a little darker each day.
Our Christmas or holiday lights are an ancient ritual to keep the darkness at bay and help the sun find it’s way back.
The lighting of trees and buildings is just one just of the ancient rites associated with the winter solstice that we still practice today.
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December 15, 2008 at 11:10 pm (Mother Nature)
Tags: Christans, Christmas, rituals, winter solstice
There is another holiday coming up. I’m not referring to Christmas or even New Year’s.
The next holiday is the winter solstice. It is Sunday December 21st this year and yes it celebrates the beginning of winter.
Over the last couple of thousand years or so it has gotten lost in the shuffle with Christmas. Many believe that the winter solstice was incorporated into Christmas in order to make Christmas more appealing to the new Christan’s.
Over the next week I’ll share some more about the ancient rituals of winter solstice.
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December 14, 2008 at 9:16 pm (Cost of green)
Tags: atlernative cars, economy, planet, recycle
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year or so, you know the US and world economy are in the tank. And that may not be the worst of the long term news.
Recyclable items, everything from paper to metals, are not worth what they were a few a months ago. As a result recycling centers are either closing or charging a fee to accept items.
Fuel prices have dropped and the excitement about alternative cars dropped with it.
We are buying less new items, everything from cars to washing machines to clothes to shoes. That is good for the planet but bad for economy, or so they say.
So why do most of us only recycle when we can make a buck at it? Why do we only want cars that get 40 mpg when gas is over two dollars a gallon. Why don’t we always insist that the durable goods we buy are just that durable?
It is more than the economy that is out of balance, it is our sense of priorities. We need to fix our economy, but not at the price of our planet.
I am deeply concerned about the economy, but I am just as concerned about our planet.
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December 10, 2008 at 11:14 pm (Mother Nature, journey)
Tags: bike, fitness, gardening, Mother Nature, walk, yoga
The final part of my journey with Mother Nature was fitness. So here’s the question, what does Mother Nature have to do with fitness? Everything of course. She wants us to enjoy life and experience all of its wonders. It’s hard to do that if your out of shape.
At 45 I’m not big on high impact sports. I love to walk though. I walk around my neighborhood and admire my neighbors gardens. I also ride my bike. A bike with a basket is great to run errands with.
Gardening is an all purpose exercise. Bending squatting, lifting and digging. Gardening has it all. It’s about as a complete work out has you can get. And all of it done outside.
This time of year with snow and ice it’s hard to get outside for any type of exercise and I’m really not a gym type person. My solution is yoga. I discovered yoga in earnest last winter and love it. It keeps me in shape for the spring and helps me relax anytime.
I was never a big on exercise. I knew it was something I was supposed to do, but just didn’t get around to it most of the time. I’m glad I finally started.
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December 9, 2008 at 12:05 am (Mother Nature, journey)
Tags: food, healthy, medicine, minerals, nature, protein, vitamins
I hate to admit it, but my mom was right. Yours probably was too. You need to eat your vegetables. You also need fruits, grains.dairy and protein.
Food is some of the most powerful medicine there is. If we eat the way we should, most of us could throw out our multivitamins. With a few exceptions food contains all the mineral and vitamins we need.
However, in the United States food is literally killing people. People are eating way to much food in general, to many sugars and not enough food in its natural state.
Mother Nature provides most food they way it was meant for us to eat it. Apples for example are perfect the way they are. We do not need to bake them with sugar and eat them with ice cream.
We also need to be concerned about how our food is grown and raised. Mother Nature did not intend for cows and chickens to be forced feed and kept in pens in which they can not even turn around. Nor did she mean for them to be pumped full of water, antibiotics and steroids.
There have been studies done that show that the eggs from a chicken that spends it’s day outside pecking around the barn yard contain more protein than chickens that are caged.
We now have corn and grains that are disease free and grow to a uniform size. They also have less vitamins and minerals.
We need to be less concerned with convenience and more concerned with healthy food. We need to be less concerned with price and more concerned about the living and growing conditions of the food we eat.
Think of it this way. No parent would allow a child to reach their hand into a jar of antibiotics and eat them. But we don’t think twice about feeding them food everyday that has been pumped full of antibiotics.
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December 7, 2008 at 10:07 pm (Mother Nature, general, journey)
Tags: alternative medicine, bark, herbs, nature, poison, roots
Never fails, I make a list and leave something out. If you’ve been following along with the journey then you will know that aalternative medicine was not on the original list.
Well it should have been. Alternative medicine as always been a big part of my life. My mother used to treat me with the remedies she learned her from grandmother. I’ve taken that knowledge and added to it.
Mother nature has provided all the medicine that we will ever need. It is all around us everyday, literary in nature. Herbs are the most common medicine found in nature, but barks, roots and flowers are also used. On some plants all the parts are used. Mother Nature doesn’t like waste.
However natural treatments and remedies are not something to play around with. Mother Nature also provides some on the most powerful poisons on earth. Alternative medicine should only be practiced by someone that knows what they are doing.
Finding a person qualified in alternative medicine can be tricky. Most states have no guidelines. There are however numerous good books available on herbal medicine. Most of them include basic remedies and will also list harmful herbs.
I believe that traditional medicine needs to embrace more of the alternative medicine ways. There is room for both approaches in the treatment of humans and animals.
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December 5, 2008 at 12:33 am (Mother Nature, journey)
Tags: compost, energy, environment, nature, recycle, reusable, thrift
The environment and nature are almost the same thing, but not quite. For anyone with a Christan background think about the trinity. Each part is a whole but all the parts also make a whole. Confused yet?
Anyway, recognizing my connection with nature made me more aware about the environment. Yes I taking better care of my little piece of land but what about else could I do?
Turns out there was a lot I could do, and most of it was painless.
I’ve always composted our grass and leaves. Now I compost a lot of our kitchen waste. Coffee grounds, eggs shells, vegetable scraps, paper towel and stale bread. These are just a few of the things that go into the compost bucket.
I now have canvas shopping bags, all the light bulbs are now CFL’s, we recycle and don’t use things like paper plates anymore. I buy biodegradable soaps and cleaners. I read a lot of labels and consider how something is packaged. I have a reusable lunch bag and a set of regular silverware in my desk at work.
We really watch how we drive and make the most out of those trips. I drive by the grocery store on my way home, now I stop then instead of going back later. I also walk and bike.
Me and my daughter both shop at second hand stores. We also make a lot of our bath products instead of buying them.
We try not to throw anything out. We either try to find a new use for it or find a new home for it. My daughter has a lot of friends that are just starting out. They all love to receive things at no cost.
I’ve researched solar and wind power and will probably be adding solar panels to our home soon. Our next car will at the least be a hybrid if not completely electric. We’re not buying one now because our cars run fine. When your thinking about the environment not throwing away things that work perfectly good is part of the equation. It takes a lot of energy to make new things.
To my surprise, I also noticed that I wasn’t spending near as much money. This is not what I set out to do, but it is a direct result of being more environmentally friendly. So you if you could care less about the environment, then do these things for your bottom line.
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December 3, 2008 at 3:23 pm (Mother Nature, journey)
Tags: alternative religion, bugs, garden, nature, plants, wild life
I have another word press blog, it’s call playing n the dirt. It’s main page is about gardening. Any type of gardening, but a lot of vegetable growing. I’ve always loved to play in dirt. My mom could keep me busy for hours when I was a kid with a spoon, a bowl, some water and dirt. When my mom or grandfather wanted to garden, I wanted to be with them.
As an adult things didn’t change much. Even if it was just house plants in an apartment, I’ve always grown something. I’ve never used chemicals of any kind. Long before I read all the bad stuff about them, it just didn’t seem right to me.
Shortly after I started researching Alternative Religions, I found a group of them called earth based religions. It would take several books to describe them all, but most earth based religions have one thing in common. They all have a strong link to nature. They respect nature and it’s forces.
Most of these religions have roots that are much older than any type of Christianity. There are still traces of the religious rites in our societies today. Ground hog day, February 2nd is one just day. So is May day and any harvest festival.
It all began it click into place for me. I had always felt so at peace outside. I loved the smell of dirt in the spring and waited each year for the first sign of tulips. I could stare for hours at the night sky or the clouds. I had struggled for years to understand Christianity, for it to make sense. But all of nature was in my soul, it always had been. No one needed to teach me about this, because some how I just knew.
I have continued to garden and with even more respect to nature. I no longer till the dirt, it destroys the ecosystem of millions of living creatures below the surface of the dirt. I try to make sure I can replenish the nutrients in the soil the plants take out. I try to grow native plants. I try to provide for wildlife, birds and squirrels to name a few. One rule my daughter hates, if the bug is outside you can not kill it. If it frightens you, move. I try to study any new garden area before I plant in it.
As a result of reading a lot about earth based religions I feel more connected with nature than ever. My gardens are also doing better than ever.
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