ThinkLady

Loving our Mother, loving our kids

Happy, happy Earth Day. Love your Mother Earth today and always. She’s the only Mother Earth we have.

Sometimes I think we ought to consider merging Mothers Day and Earth Day and celebrating them on the same day. It just seems as though the two are really one and the same.

And I like to imagine what would happen if we cared for Mother Earth in the same way we do our own mothers – hopefully, gently, lovingly, and with great kindness and compassion.

Speaking of imagination, one of my favorite books for helping us consider a different way of being in the world is “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.” And one of my favorite quotes from the book, shown below, touches my heart every time I read it.

“How can we support and perpetuate the rights of all living things to share in a world of abundance? How can we love the children of all species -- not just our own -- for all time? Imagine what a world of prosperity and health in the future would look like, and begin designing for it right now.”

– William McDonough & Michael Braungart, “Cradle to Cradle”

Imagine.

Technorati Tags: Family,love,hope,species,Earth Day,Equity

Please, just call me Ed

I'm voting for Ed because when I met him, he firmly shook my hand, took the time to look me in the eye and said, "Please, just call me Ed, just like you would any of your friends." He had me with "please" on that one!

As we talked, he was in no hurry to move to the next person waiting to speak with him. He was cordial, he patiently listened and responded to what I said (rather than using campaign talking points or speaking in vague generalities), and I watched him take that kind of time, pay that kind of personal attention, to each person he spoke with.

I'm voting for Ed Shadid, candidate for Ward 2 councilman in Oklahoma City, because he's pledged to bring openness, accountability and transparency to the MAPS projects and to push for all the projects the people voted for (not just for those the Chamber of Commerce wants). Ed believes in innovation and has great ideas for continuing the momentum in OKC in a way that benefits all of us.

I'm voting for Ed because he's an advocate for healthy, sustainable and resilient communities, for a strong local economy grounded in encouraging and supporting lots of local entrepreneurs and small and mid-sized businesses, and keeping more of our money here, in our community, where it can circulate and provide more and better paying jobs.

I'm voting for Ed because he's pledged to be an advocate for neighborhoods, for health, for senior citizens, for school kids, and because he's accessible. I've seen him out and about in our neighborhoods, making the rounds at all kinds of events, talking one-on-one to everyday people versus hobnobbing at high-dollar fundraisers.

I'm voting for Ed because he is not a professional bank lobbyist like his opponent Charlie Swinton, who I've yet to meet or see anywhere but on a cheesy billboard and in those disgusting mailers that have made me sick to my stomach with their hateful vitriol.

I'm voting for Ed because Swinton's very profession, bank lobbyist, means his loyalty and first responsibility is to the banking industry. This is deeply concerning to me, and in my opinion carries immense potential for numerous conflicts of interest.

I'm voting for Ed because while I appreciate all the good that the Chamber of Commerce, Chesapeake, Devon and Sandridge do for our community and am supportive of them in many ways, I don't feel that gives them the right to run our city and call the shots behind closed doors. I think we need at least one city councilman who will openly question the maneuvering of these power players in a civil, logical and fact-based manner. From what I've seen and heard from Ed, he's has the courage and wisdom to do just that.

I'm voting for Ed because he accepted no money from the Political Action Committees (PACs) that are making a sham of democracy. A half a million dollars spent on city council races is ridiculously wasteful. One in four children in Oklahoma are going to bed hungry every day -- what would have happened if these same cowardly PAC donors hiding behind a nonprofit organization set up to launder dollars for them instead spent that money on reducing childhood hunger? This is an opportunity to resoundingly repudiate the notion that he/she/it who spends the most money buys the office, to take back our democracy at the most local level from the insidious poison of money and the hideously undemocratic influence of special interests.

I'm voting for Ed because our democracy was founded on "we the people." That's not "we the people with a lot of money and power," but "we the people" with no regard for how much money any of us have. "We the people" is working families just barely scraping by. It's the just-out-of-college young adults who can't find decent jobs, and lonely seniors who can no longer drive and have no safe place to walk or a grocery store to walk to. It's moms and dads working multiple minimum-wage jobs just to make ends meet. It's people living in neighborhoods with bars on their windows and doors where it takes 45 minutes or more for the police to respond to an incident.

“We the people” is kids who go to schools without working kitchens, where the lunch menu is high-fat, high-sodium, processed foods; kids who -- unless we change the school food system -- are far more likely to become the first generation to die at a younger age than their parents. It's the poor, the tired, the huddled masses yearning to get a decent, well-rounded education, make a living wage, take care of themselves and their families, be happy. “We the people” is me, you, us.

I'm voting for Ed because for the first time in a very long time someone tore down my wall of cynicism and dared me to believe that not only will my voice be heard, but that it matters.

You matter! Please consider voting for Ed Shadid for Oklahoma City Ward 2 councilman tomorrow, Tuesday, April 5th.

Technorati Tags: Community,change,politics,democracy,freedom,hope

An open thank you to Ms. Sally Kern

Dear Ms. Kern —

Thank you so much for bringing to our attention this upcoming event for our school children with President Obama!

I’ve contacted my daughter’s school and let them know how excited our family is about the wonderful example our president is setting by encouraging kids to stay in school and get an education so they can learn how to read classic works such as “To Kill A Mockingbird,” “The Color Purple,” “Black Like Me,” “A Raisin in the Sun” and of course “Invisible Man,” by our own native son, Ralph Ellison! I’m sure, because you are so well-educated, that you know Mr. Ellison’s book won the National Book Award in 1953 and have read the book many times.

Anyway, as you know, these and other insightful works help break down the barriers of racial bigotry, hatred and social injustice that continue to haunt and plague our state to this day. Reading is kind of useful that way isn’t it!?!? LOL.

With leadership such as yours, I know that one day our state and country truly will become a place of “liberty and justice for all,” regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, religion or socio-economic status. Many thanks again for all you do to help us all work together for a better, more cooperative, more tolerant and accepting community. Your exemplary civility in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and skills as a unifier are truly amazing.

Peace, love and justice --

ThinkLady

You have two bodies

Bet you didn't know you have two bodies. There's the one you're acquainted with -- the one you feed three times a day, the one that walks your brain around the house, takes you to work, the one that performs thousands of simple and complex tasks each day to keep you alive. This is the body you're most aware of, the one many of us try to keep healthy with thoughtful diet, exercise, rest, good health care.

Your second body gives you water to drink, air to breathe, food to eat and millions and billions of resources. This body isn't yours alone. This body connects you to every other species, human and non-human. This second body is reeling from the effects and impact of so many first bodies. This second body is the earth.

Such is the discourse and unfolding epiphanies in "The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology," by Thich Nhat Hanh, teacher, author, poet, peace activist and Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk. More from Hanh's book:

... I have many other hearts. The sun in the sky is also my heart. If my own heart failed I would die instantly. But if the other heart, the sun, explodes or stops functioning, I will also die right away.

... We're imprisoned in our small selves, thinking only of having some comfortable conditions for this small self, while we destroy our large self.

I've been reading this little book almost daily and find it so rich, so full of meaning, I'm reading only a page or so at a time to meditate fully on the concepts.

Hanh's approach to the meaning of time and wealth, of how chasing after money ensnares us, embodied here, is a useful reminder on navigating the murky waters of a consumerist society where success is often defined by how much money you make:

We have constructed a system we can't control. It imposes itself on us, and we become its slaves and victims. For most of us who want to have a house, a car, a refrigerator, a television, and so on, we must sacrifice our time and our lives in exchange. We are constantly under the pressure of time. In former times, we could afford three hours to drink one cup of tea, enjoying the company of our friends in a serene and spiritual atmosphere. We could organize a party to celebrate the blossoming of one orchid in our garden. But today we can no longer afford these things. We say that time is money. We have created a society in which the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, and in which we are so caught up in our own immediate problems that we cannot afford to be aware of what is going on with the rest of the human family or our planet Earth.

Upaya Institute and Zen Center in Santa Fe published a portion of Hanh's book in their latest newsletter here. Read and enjoy.