Week 13: How might we deal differently with environmental pollutants?

How about if we didn’t create them in the first place? And if they are created, why not practice some Green Chemistry approaches and have zero waste? There’s a concept for us. I mean really, did we have to create a let loose over 80,000 chemicals into the environment? Wasn’t anyone paying attention to the havoc we are wrecking on the earth’s atmosphere, waters and land and the health of all the species of life that inhabits it?

Last week the New York Times came out with an article that the leading scientists are now thinking that these 80,000 loose chemicals are what might be causing the huge upswing in various forms of cancers, degenerative diseases and autism. Really, it just occurred to them? And, then we have to consider what happens when those chemicals combine with one another…because it’s not like they aren’t combining and creating yet more deadly, hazardous combinations amongst themselves.

We need to go back to the premise that Paul Pitchford urged us to practice: don’t put anything on your body that you wouldn’t put in it! And that goes for the environment…if you wouldn’t let whatever the pollutant is loose on your own family and property, then don’t let it loose on the rest of creation, either!

Week 13: Do we rely to heavily on supplements to provide antioxidants?

Absolutely! The problem is that the most vital antioxidants are Vitamins C, A & E -which- disappear quickly from veggies and fruits within a half hour of them being picked. The reason we rely on supplements, if because of the state of our food supply. We regularly fly and truck foods from other states and countries, when they are under ripe, only to have them ripen en route to their destination. Any farmer can tell you this vastly under rates the effectiveness of the enzymes, vitamins and nutrition in the food you are eating. Until we make some radical changes in the way that we grow, deliver and eat our foods…we will have to rely on supplements to provide antioxidants. But, it is not in our best interest to do so. Our bodies then become accustomed to being provided the building blocks of life, instead of creating them themselves. Plus, there is the whole question of the purity of those ingredients as well.

So, for these reasons, we have to go back to doing what our Mom’s told us all along (with one caveat*): eat your fresh (organic*) fruits & veggies!

Week 11: Memory & Magic

There is an article in the most recent Scientific American that speaks to this very tendency to see what we believe to be true, not what is really there. We project meaning onto life and based on our perspective and perceptions, this colors our experience. Apparently, this is means to continue the species that we have developed over time. And who hasn’t seen a stick or rope in the road and at first glance thought it was as snake? Jumped back in fear, only to realize, sheepishly that it was just a ‘trick’ of our minds. After all, what do we really see? It’s not as if we have windows in the front of our heads. The perceptions that we call our sight, is the function of synapses and neurotransmitters and flashes of electrical activity deep in our brains where no light can even penetrate!

Small wonder that some enterprising humans have thought to use this tendency to create ‘slight of hand’ illusions that have mesmerized us for eons.

Week 11: “to live is to know” (Santiago Theory)

Personally, I whole heartedly agree with the Santiago Theory, because since “living systems are cognitive systems”, as Maturana states, this means that as such they are imbued with consciousness, the ground state of all being. It is because of this consciousness that cognition is possible. And indeed all that lives is conscious, alive and imbued with that same underlying spark of divine energy.

In fact, Descartes had it completely wrong…it is our thinking minds that take us out of the ‘present moment’ as Echhart Toley states in the “Power of Now”. The thinking mind is a construct of the ego, and necessary perspective and function of being in form and functioning in the world. However, neither our minds or our egos are who we truly are. Rather, they take us into the past (which we regret and fret about) -or- into the future (which we become anxious about based on past experiences, which we project there as happening again). Whereas, true being and life occur -only- in the present moment of the hear and now. The place where consciousness also resides.

Week 10 Spike’s Gallery

Wow, these images are sooooo beautiful! Even the tick, flea and worm! And the algae looks like miniature plants…so exquisite. But, then again, I am a fan of extreme close-up photography…which this is! Wow just amazing. And the lighting is just perfect. It reminds me of the time I had a chance to look through the electron microscope at the UCLA School of Public Health when I worked there. It’s amazing the life forms that are busy have lives all around us, that we’re never even aware of!

Week 10: Links on cells

It’s amazing how different the various cells are from life form to life form. Clearly, the animal cells are the most complex, followed by the plants -which- are strikingly similar. And I have heard that analogy made that the chlorophyll that runs in plants veins is very similar in structure and function to the blood that runs in animals. What really struck me was just how alien the virus cell make-up and structure is. Very chilling. Reminded me somewhat of the Borg’s on Star Trek…definitely another life form, and one you don’t want in your body!

Week 10: Examine your own immediate environment for diversity of species

We are lucky in that we live in the woods and as such have abundant wild life! Some of the species of birds that we see on a daily basis include: chickens, ravens, turkeys, crows, quail, robins (my favorite), humming birds, common wrens, palliated woodpeckers and stellar jays (blue birds)...and boy, are they noisy!!

In addition, we regularly see the following animals on our property: squirrels, raccoons, skunks, jack rabbits, deer, and our domesticated dogs and cats. Rarely, we will see black bear, mountain lion and bobcats (tyring to eat our chickens).

As far as the insects go, we have frogs (especially this time of year!), toads, praying mantis (I love them!), all kinds of butterflies and moths (the sphinx moth pollinators of the lavender are the coolest), bumble bees and honey bees, lady bugs, yellow jackets (booo!), worms of all kinds and various garden ‘pests’ (potato bugs, snails, leaf minors, aphids).

We also are blessed to have the following one-leggeds and green nations surrounding us: pines, oaks, redwoods, madrone, Manzanita, apple trees and lavender (22 varieties), yellow dock, dandelion, plantain, soap root, evening primrose, poison oak, to mention only a few!
Plus, we have a diverse human species in Laytonville: loggers, ranchers, hippies, rednecks, pot growers, back-to-the-landers, latinos, African-Americans, gay, straight, polyandrous individuals…in other words, a really eclectic group. So, I think we can say we have a pretty diverse environment in Mendocino County.