Plans for Life, not just New Years!

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Thinking about plans for the New Year, I came across something that made me want to plan for life. So, I pulled out some of my artwork to accompany the following.
 

Practiced regularly, Thai meditations are said to lead to enlightenment by overcoming the Ten Fetters, or negative states of mind. . . and to help generate the Ten Virtues, which can be cultivated at every opportunity!

What are the Ten Fetters? The Ten Virtues?  

Find out, become aware and be inspired.

The Ten Fetters

1. Self-illusion - the belief that your ego is real

2. Ignorance - willfully causing negative mental states

3. Sensual craving - craving after objects which taste, smell, sound, feel, or look good

4. Ill-will - anger, hatred, jealousy, bitterness, etc.

5. Skepticism - doubt (especially self-doubt)

6. Restlessness - inability to sit still and concentrate

7. Conceit - self-centeredness

8. Attachment - to religion and rituals

9. Craving for material existence - desiring endless life on earth, or being afraid to die

10. Craving for non-material existence - desiring to die

The Ten Virtues 

1. Generosity

2. Morality

3. Non-attachment

4. Wisdom

5. Energy

6. Patience, tolerance, and forbearance

7. Honesty

8. Determination

9. Loving kindness (metta)

10. Equanimity

Adapted from The Spiritual Healing of Traditional Thailand, 
by C. Pierce Salguero (Findhorn Press, 2006).


info borrowed from 
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/ten-fetters-ten-virtues.html

Photo Friday - A Time for Reflection

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This is where I live and how we celebrate the welcoming in of the New Year. The scenes are taken on Pacific Avenue considered the heart of town for many generations.

The college students, street musicians and strangely dressed people are a common sight in this popular area known as Downtown Santa Cruz. Actually, it looks a lot like this to me on any given day except not quite so many. The only thing missing from this video are the homeless, often seen quietly sitting in a doorway on a sleeping bag and maybe a dog, with a sign propped in front. "Please Help". It is against the law for homeless to approach anyone and verbally ask for help. It's called panhandling. So that is why the signs are used.

Wandering up and down the middle of the street with large groups of people dancing only occur at important events like Halloween and New Years. The streets are cordoned of to prevent traffic and people can enjoy the atmosphere. These events are heavily policed, not to put a damper on the big party, but to help make it a reasonably enjoyable time for everyone. Anyone not behaving respectably, carrying alcoholic beverages on their person or is obviously intoxicated are asked to leave, or arrested.

The most emotional part of any public gathering, whether it is to demonstrate a protest, celebrate an election, hold a vigil for someone, or in this case, welcome in the New Year, we meet at the heart and soul of the town, our most precious, Clock Tower.

You may ask, "Why a clock tower?" What's so important about that? It doesn't even look like a unique piece of architecture or work of art."

I cannot pass by the clock tower any time, day or night, without at least glancing at it. Inevitably a sad swallow comes to my throat and unavoidably teary eyes. I'm sure this is not only my reaction. Anyone who has lived in Santa Cruz a long time surely has the same. Newcomers catch it like a virus. They cannot know the story without it opening their heart. Strangers may be in the crowds, but how can they be surrounded with such charged energy of emotion without feeling the specialness of the place?

The clock tower has been of historical significance since Santa Cruz existed, having first been erected about 1860. It has a checkered history of it's own. But, suffice it to say that the townspeople have cherished it enough to save it many times over the century and a half it has been in existence.

It's not just the history that creates the nostalgia and empathy of the people. It is something the clock did on October 17, 1989. It stopped running, its hands stuck at 5:04 p.m. Some say that with the automatic workings of the clock, that should not have happened. Some say the clock could not help but to stop to mark the occasion.

There was a massive earthquake that day, the epicenter just a couple miles away. Most people outside the area remember the news programs showing views of San Francisco and Oakland. There was no way for news people to take videos here, as all the main roads were damaged and closed. There was no way in and no way out.

Downtown Santa Cruz, the street where the revelers are shown in this video, was covered with debris from the buildings razed by the earthquake.

What the clock tower represents is tragedy overcome by humanity. It represents loss, and recovery. It signifies an act of God, traumatic destruction, and intensely driven human cooperation in rebuilding that which was destroyed.

The clock tower is a beloved symbol. It represents our phoenix raised from the dead, our precious downtown resurrected. It is a sign of our joyous and grateful continuation. That's a good reason to gather there at midnight to celebrate. Don't you think?

I hope you will enjoy watching the video until after the countdown. If so, you will be rewarded with a very good view of the people dancing in the streets including the very happy, naked woman.

Take a good look because that's me!

(only kidding!)

Happy New Year!
 

May your blessings be many and your troubles, few.

The War on Cold

The cold war had begun. But the children didn't know what that meant, not really.

They thought the snow was part of it, the ice, the leggings, boots, mittens, mufflers and coats. All were needed to fight the cold war.

On New Years eve they were sent to bed early, too young to stay up that late, unheard of. Their parents the lucky ones, to sing farewell to the old year. They would be having fun, a party with drinks.

Was it the hangovers that started this tradition? Give the parents a break, the children out of the way? Or was it a vestige of the past carried forward with that feeling of nagging necessity that New Years was to be brought in by the little ones.

Elsa's mother wrapped her up, gave her the noisemakers from halloween, clackers and whistles, pot lids from the cupboard, put them all in a sack.

"This is what you do," she said. "to welcome in the New Year, to get rid of all the bad things from last year. Make as much noise as you can. Make a parade. Get some other kids. March up and down the sidewalks, but only up to the corner and back. Then, afterwards we can have cocoa to drink."

Elsa thought perhaps this is part of the cold war, to make it go away.

She felt warm inside as she went to Bobby's house. His mother understood. Elsa and Bobby clanged on the pot lids, heartily yelling, "Happy New Year!" in their little child voices as they marched up the sidewalk to Janet's house.

The parents knew. This is the way it is done. And it will help the headaches from celebrating the night before, time to make the bleary eyed peep out the window go away. A quiet house, the children playing outside. That's what they did when they were little.

More children joined them, "Happy New Year! Happy New Year!" marching up the street all the way to Frankie's house. His mother wouldn't let him come outside.

That was when the children turned around, heading back to their warm houses, their mothers and cocoa. That was when snow crept into the top of Elsa's boots and melted into her socks. Her breath crystalized into her muffler making her nose red.

The sky turned grey. The trees crackled.

Good bye, Tommy.

Happy New Year, Janet and Mary.

See you tomorrow, Dickie. Are you going to have Cocoa, too?

The snow began to fall. Elsa clanged the pot lids together one more time.

She didn't yell anymore. She had done her part to fight the cold war.

Elsa thought of hot cocoa and smiled.

Please respect my copyrighted story and contact me if you wish to use any part of it.
Thank you,
Elizabeth Munroz

(total word count for today: 808)

How many words written?

2.644 words today

Dishwasher VS. Hand Wash

I think that the average dishwasher uses too much water and electrical energy. Until everyone has an energy saving dishwasher I'm putting my own energy into washing by hand. But, some say dishwashers sterilize dishes better than hand washing. The reality is that I don't have a dishwasher, so I must add here that I have not been very conscientious about thinking green until recently. One thing I do that sterilizes my dishes just fine... I use vinegar added to water to rinse my dishes.

I probably don't have enough information to determine if hand washing is entirely better than and electric dishwasher. But, in my present circumstances I want to work with what I've got.

I once contacted the author of a website promoting ecologically sound methods of living. I asked about this dish washing issue and his response was pretty judgmental and severe, in my opinion. He was totally against dishwashers, and didn't have much regard for the so called natural product I use to wash with. His comments also included the admonition that I wasn't doing any good if I didn't have pipes going outside into a container so that I could use the grey water for the garden. And, I must do this and that. Yada, yada, yada. It was very discouraging. I began to feel like a planet Earth leech! I didn't bother to write back and tell him I don't water my garden as I have mostly native plants and adaptables growing. I also don't have a traditional lawn with grass that needs weed and feed and mowing.

It's too bad that someone with a wealth of knowledge on the subject thinks only one way. Surely, it would be nice if we could all make a cleaner footprint. But, it is not realistic to think everyone can do it at once. Some must come to it one step at a time. Like me.

Since, I am not always well, I have a supply of paper plates and plastic cutlery. I have become much more judicious in using them. I keep wondering how much it harms the environment, but who to ask? How to determine one factor against another? One paper plate, one plastic fork vs, one regular plate and fork being washed with hot water and rinsed.

Of course, it would take a mathematician to weigh the odds of how many tree resources would be used up against the water, the filtering of it by a water utility company, the heating of the water, the disposal of the water, the filtering in a public waste water utility, the spoilage of water source such a plant would empty into. Since the paper can be recycled if it is clean, or it can return to the soil more naturally (I think) perhaps the paper plate is the better option.

On the other hand, the plastic is probably not a very good option. If recycled it has a saving grace, I suppose. I simply don't have enough information to go on with this. I understand there are paper forks and knifes, but haven't found them. I'd feel better about using them than the plastic.

So, I try to do without dishes and cutlery as much as possible, eating food that is carried in my hand, an apple instead of applesauce, for example. But, then I am faced with another dilemma. What if my food has just enough moistness that it needs to be held by a paper napkin. If I use cloth, then I will need to wash it at some point. What is the cost benefit ratio of washing cloth napkins vs paper napkins. In the long run do the paper napkins waste more ecologically than the cloth napkins?