common wealth

I have a secret when it comes to the news. Usually when I drive to work with the radio on – CBC 1 or 2 because I don’t have the patience for commercials – the news comes on and I turn it off. Yes, I am someone who likes to consider myself informed and aware, but I turn the news off. Most times I can’t take it. My heart pounds when I listen to climate change stories, it gets war-torn up with stories of countries plotting against each other, and it bleeds when I hear about cyclones and earthquakes and drought-stricken countries. And don’t ask me about the polar bears. I bawl on cue when they land up in the news.

I hate this about myself. But when the news comes on, and I hear stories like that, I grow weak and feel powerless and lose my will to move forward – even when moving forward includes positive changes that help battle these calamities. So I turn the news off instead.

These past few weeks though, I’ve been reading Common Wealth by Jeffrey Sachs, as part of the Be a Bookworm Challenge over at Green Bean Dreams. Now when the news comes on, the horrifying details don’t drag me down. Instead there is a bigger picture that comes through it all. Mr. Sachs explains with startling simplicity, how the things that weigh heavy on my heart are all connected. Before I just knew enough to say that we are all connected, now I see direct links. Mr. Sachs is helping me to understand how overpopulation, climate change, and extreme poverty, among other things, are just different sides of the same coin.

So, only halfway through the book and already it seems clear to me – our common fate as a planet. I took that line right from his book. It echoes within me as I listen to the news these days.

ketchup catchup

I am a slacker these days with much fewer posts on HPD. I’m also slacking on my own blog surfing though, so maybe you’re like me and you are too busy enjoying the outdoors to notice. I’m hoping to blog about some of those outdoor happenings soon, but in the meantime I will leave you with this: yesterday I counted up all my tomato seedlings that have hardened off successfully. There are 50 of them.

Call me Heinz.

buried nose

Just as I was finishing In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, Green Bean Dreams issued the Be a Bookworm Challenge for the month of May. And since my family, friends and co-workers are soon going to be sick of me saying (in a screechy-high voice no less) “Well, MICHAEL POLLAN SAYS blah blah blah…” I thought it was the perfect opportunity to pick up another book.

And WHAT IS IT? you ask. Well, let’s just say that Jeffrey Sachs has caught my eye of late.

P.S. I will be doing my DARNEDEST to get this book done in May, but… remember when I said I was abandoning all coursework this summer? Well I caved. Textbooks and Jeffrey will be in direct competition this month. OH! and gardening!!! More on that later.

why… I’m blushing!

I do love ranting, raving, pondering and plundering through this blog, so it is SUPER rewarding to have others take note of it. I was touched to get this award from Deborah over at From Here to Eternity:

I’ve been thinking about who to pass this on to – as I understand that’s the custom – and I’ve come up with a list of some of my favourites. Now I think I am supposed to pass it along to ten others, but that doesn’t seem quite as special to me as acknowledging my genuine favourites, and I’m a rulebreaker, so here goes. I’m passing this award on to my favourite breakout bloggers – even though some may not really be breakout, somehow they are for me, if only because of my recent discovery of them:

• Hello Trees
• Unstuffed
• I Wet My Plants
• Naked Tomatoes

Thank you all for making my blogosphere that much richer!

Oh Earth, this is what I do for you

My Earth Day post is a little late. Perhaps it is because I thought I would celebrate the Earth and its precious resources by doing my taxes online. No paper, no carbon footprint from postal deliveries, what could be a better way to say “I LOVE you PLANET EARTH!”?

Well, Earth, I do love you and I am terribly concerned that my fellow humans and I are abusing your bounty. So for the past few evenings, I have dutifully worked on my taxes online. Last night, I thought I was going to file, but when I went to hit the “Send” button, I received an error message telling me that there was an error in my return.

So tonight I spent five hours trying to chase down the root of the problem. Finally, after having spoken to Sharif, Lynn, Amod, Mike, Sekkhomang, Amy, and Jackson, I solved it. And now, after all that effort and all those people, I am really not sure if I saved any resources at all. But I filed.

you’ll never guess…

You will never guess who else hit pay dirt! Ohhhh, the irony… I love it!!! LOL

Make no mistake, this HPD is the better deal. 😀

i still love my husband, i swear

I’ve just gotten back from a mini vacay with my beloved. Not too far away, but far enough to forget everything on our to-do list. EXACTLY what we needed – It was perfectly wonderful to just BE together without thinking of all the baggage that we tend to bring along in our daily packed-up lives. I’m still new to this wedded-bliss stuff… and I DO love my husband, I really do. But how about this: Survival +Anyone+Mini-Vacay = Continued Survival.

Carry on.

a bad taste in my mouth

For the past few months I’ve loved maintaining this blog. When I think that I must be the only one who can possibly care this much about a local meal, or the only one who feels the weight of the world on her shoulders when her tomato seedlings die… well, this blog and others prove me wrong. Blogs make me feel connected and a part of something. But this… this just leaves a bad taste in my mouth about blogging.