Like Paper in Fire

I've been going through my CD collection lately and also soliciting suggestions from friends about songs that can be used as sources of inspiration for meditation and ritual. I received back quite a number of great ideas (thanks, AODA Public friends!) and have begun to comb through them. But this morning, while going through the music I already have, I came across this old favorite: Paper in Fire, by John Mellencamp. The verse that really struck me today was this one:

"There's a good life
right across the green fields
And each generation
Stares at it from afar
But we keep no check
On our appetites
So the green fields turn to brown
Like paper in fire"

I couldn't sleep this morning, so I got up for a while around 3am. During that time I read some of the online blogs I occasionally visit. One of them, The Automatic Earth had a guest article from a young man living in Kenya, who wants to know what is going to happen to his generation and the generations that come after now that we, the elders of our time, have incurred debt unimaginable, as well as burned through the majority of the "easy oil" on the planet and have used it to joyride in personal automobiles, wage war all over the globe, make stupid throwaway trinkets out of plastic, and pile all the residue and packaging from our excesses up in gargantuan landfills on the land and continental size "garbage gyres" in the sea. As painful as it may be to examine our own culpability here, well - I believe he has the right to ask. I just wish we had a good answer for him.

The bottom line is - "we kept no check on our appetites." For all our vaunted human brainpower, for all our supposed ability to reason beyond the moment - we chose to behave no differently than the simplest of single cell creatures. We behaved just like yeast do when given a rich environment. We used the easy energy to grow fat, procreate like mad, and then, in true yeasty fashion, to piss in our own nests. We gave no serious thought to the future, to what our children or grandchildren would need to live healthy and happy lives. We set up an economic system that rewarded our own short-sighted greed and pushed the payment for it upon the next generations. We, the generations who unlocked the potential behind the "black gold" from the ancient past have partied hearty on our inheritance and have refused to acknowledge that we are just as bound by limits as any other lifeform on this planet. We refused to keep a check on our appetites so that future generations could make use of this wonderful legacy of millions of years of fossilized sunlight. We chose instead to blow the vast majority of it on one continuous drunken binge - the energy that took geologic ages to accumulate and concentrate will be effectively gone within 100 or so years of its debut. Within just one human lifetime, give or take a decade or two, we blew an inheritance that could have lifted not just one, but many generations of our kind out of abject poverty, pain and despair. All that will be left to show for the party is a mountain of debt and a planet full of trash and poison.

We could stop squandering what we have now and save at least some of this bounty for future generations, but most of us are too selfish, shortsighted or ignorant to make the sacrifices required. We would rather pretend that the limits do not exist, or that somehow our super brains will figure out a way to make them not count. And we will do this right up until the end. And what we will leave for our children and their children will not be pretty or healthy. They will live their lives in the stinking mess that we've created. And they will be the ones that pay for what we, their parents and grandparents, have done.

Kids, I'm truly sorry for my part in this, but I don't quite know how to stop. I guess it's time to put some serious effort into figuring that out.

Oil People: You are what you eat

This is a set I'm calling "Oil People: You Are What You Eat." It's made from a lovely matte metallic glass, and expresses the fact that most of us are actually made of oil.

No, really - we are. You see, there used to be a whole lot fewer of us on the Earth. Then along came the discovery of cheap and relatively abundant energy in the form of fossil fuels, mainly oil. The unearned largess left to us by the captured solar energy of the past enabled us to create huge and complicated machines to do a lot of the work of survival for us, and mandated huge and complicated social and economic systems to support those machines. On top of that, we use oil and natural gas to mine phosphates and to create nitrogen for fertilizers that enabled us to artificially sustain much-heavier-than-natural growth of the plants we and our food animals eat, so another consequence of all this cheap energy was a suddenly much greater supply of agricultural products (especially food) which has enabled our human populations to literally explode.

Now there are a whole lot more humans alive than there has ever been in all of our planet's history. However, most of us wouldn't even be here without the cheap energy oil has provided - this is why I chose a glass for this set that has a lot of the visual characteristics of an oil slick. But the problem is, oil is a finite resource. Some day soon we will have to fully face that fact, and our population will once again drop back to sustainable levels that reflect what our planet is able to carry without "cheating" by using up fossil energy from the way far back past.


Unfortunately, our species has shown a lot of signs that we will likely choose to fight and to kill for the last energy effective drops of this limited resource. And that is the reason why the all of the focals in this set are skulls. If we had only listened to what the earth was trying to tell us about limits before we reached this point, we could have avoided the wars and death that are likely to follow. But, we didn't. People are just not very good at planning ahead, especially when it involves sacrifice. And what is to come will be all the more tragic for our species because of that.

Earth Path Report for 2009

The Earth Path has three goals. I will list them and then give a report on my progress for the year below each.

1. Performance of a regular series of experiences and practices designed to increase your awareness and knowledge of the natural world, and to decrease the negative impact of your own life on the living Earth.

Hiking and camping: We again spent a lot more time outdoors camping and hiking than we did the previous year. We bought a little old used camping trailer and fixed it up - now we have a mobile home base that will allow us to stay out longer, sleep in comfort, and still get in plenty of sunshine, fresh air and take in beautiful views. One of our favorite places this year was Toppance Canyon, which we visited twice this year for long weekends. It has a lovely creek running through it, Toppance Creek, and a nice mix of open meadows, feeder creeks and woodsy hillsides. We did a lot of hiking and some grouse hunting up in the hills this summer and fall there, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

We also spent a lot more time fishing and tried a couple of new places we'd never been to before. I re-discovered how much I enjoy being out in a kayak on a lake or stream! And fishing from one proved to be just the ticket - we spent several afternoons out on a local pond fishing from kayaks and caught our limit of delicious young trout nearly every time. Instead of flies or bait, though, we used roostertail spinbaits. The trout just tear those up - can't seem to leave them alone. :-)

Our goal for the next year is to continue to explore Idaho further, including taking some trips to special places for hiking and rockhounding purposes. Because I like to make "meaningful jewelry" from semi-precious gemstones and my lampwork art glass, I thought I might enjoy finding and personally preparing some of the stones that I will use for future projects. Idaho is a rockhound's paradise, so this coming year I have in mind at least two, and possibly three outings to places that are known for having interesting finds. I especially want to try my hand at panning for Idaho garnets, and if I find some of the right size, tumbling and polishing them, then drilling them for use in jewelry.

Eating more local food and wasting it less: This year we've met our goal of eating locally a consistent 75%. We've done this by buying local basics in bulk, gardening intensively here at the house, buying produce from local vendors, and preserving what we can find locally in season so it can be used later in the year. Something that made a big difference this year was finding some local folks raising beef and pork. We bought the animals "on the hoof" and then paid a local butcher to slaughter, cut and wrap them for us. The animals were raised in humane surroundings, butchered close to home and the steer was also grass fed and not given unnecessary hormones or antibiotics. Turns out the Farmer's Market, while cool, isn't the only game in town. Craigslist is a virtual cornucopia of places to get local foods! We split both the half beef and the pig with some friends of ours that live in north Idaho, and both families were well pleased with the meat. We're planning to do this again this year and to branch out to local chevon and lamb, and perhaps split a farm-raised elk in the fall.

The garden this year was a tremendous success, in spite of some very odd weather and a rather significant reduction in our already short growing season. We literally had wheelbarrow loads of tomatoes! We are STILL eating some of the "Long Keepers" as I write this, nearly three months after harvesting them! Those are definitely going back in next year, it's a wonderful luxury to have fresh home-grown tomatoes so far into the winter. They aren't anywhere near as tasty as summer 'maters, but they'll definitely do.

This year we froze a lot more fresh vegetables, but I still managed to can 3 or 4 hundred more jars of local fruits, vegetables, meats and broth, condiments and pickles to replace what we ate last year and augment our storage. I also ventured further into making our own condiments, putting up some very tasty homemade ketchup, chutney, bbq sauce and hot sauce in addition to the sweet and dill relish, jams, jellies and other things I already do.

Next year we are going to add more storage foods to our garden by using some space at my folks' home to grow things that require a lot of room, like corn, popcorn, sunflower seeds, winter squash, dry and green beans. If all goes well, we should be able to keep our 75% local goal and maybe even do a little bit better. I don't think we will ever be able to be 100% local unless the food system collapses, but 75% is pretty darned good, I think. Especially for people who must, for now, live in the city.

Composting and recycling: We joined our local recycling program this year, and I'm happy to report that this has enabled us to recycle a much larger portion of our refuse than in the past. We probably are recycling around half of it now, whereas before it was more like 10% or so. I am happy with this improvement, and don't mind paying the extra 5 bucks a month to help make it happen.

We are doing a little better with our composting efforts. We have a bucket for scraps on the kitchen counter now and if we will only try to remember to empty it more often, then I will be happy with our progress there, too! That's unfortunately what you get when you have two rather absent-minded adults running the place...

2. Participation in a regular series of seasonal Druid celebrations, including at least the two solstices and two equinoxes, which are traditional in the AODA.

Again, as I said last year - since I'm a solitary here, nearly all of my holy day celebrations have been either just minor affairs for my own benefit, or "virtual" gatherings with the AODA Inner Grove group. I've attended *all* of the Inner Grove rituals this year. I've also begun some preliminary work on some rituals that I'll be using in my Third Degree project.

One thing that is new this year - I'm making some plans to start a study group here at some point in the future - just in case someone else in the area decides they want to experience and study druidry. As far as I know I'm the only AODA druid in this area - for all I know I may be the only druid in the area, period! But, you just never know what the future holds. I'm going to call the study group the "Golden Aspen Group" after the lovely aspen trees we have here. We saw some this fall while out exploring and I have some pictures that are just wonderful. I'll try to post them later. This aspen grove was an old grove we stumbled upon while hiking. The tree trunks were pretty massive for aspen, and the trees themselves were tall and lovely. It was a magical spot. I wish it was closer so I could visit it more often, but if it was, it would probably get spoiled.


3. Practice of a regular series of spiritual exercises including daily meditation.

My meditation practice is becoming a bit more regular. I'm meditating now whenever I can find even a few minutes spare time and some quiet space. I would like to meditate more often and for longer periods of time, but sometimes it's just hard to get that much time alone and uninterrupted. I'm going to keep working at it, and as long as I can say every year that I've improved, then I'm going to call it "good enough." Maybe some day my life won't be quite so hectic, but for now, this is the way it is.

Earth Path report for 2008

The Earth Path has three goals. I will list them and then give a report on my progress for the year below each.

1. Performance of a regular series of experiences and practices designed to increase your awareness and knowledge of the natural world, and to decrease the negative impact of your own life on the living Earth.

Hiking and camping: We camped and hiked several times this year, concentrating on areas that are closer than usual. It was a lot of fun exploring places we never knew existed, but which are no more than an hour or two's drive from home. We hiked the Robber's Creek trail south of town intending to do an overnight, but the rattlesnakes we encountered in broad daylight in that area rapidly changed our minds. So we just made it a day trip, but it was still a lot of fun. We also explored and camped out in the Sawtooths for the first time, and that was an awesome vacation. We are hoping to go back there again next year for a bit longer. The area is beautiful - except for where the huge self-driven dredges had devastated some small valleys. It will take a few hundred years more before those areas are viable again, unfortunately. It made me upset to see how much damage had been done by the search for gold and silver.

Eating more local food and wasting it less: This year we've managed to bring our local eating up to around a consistent 50% by buying basics in bulk, gardening and buying produce from local vendors, and preserving what we can find locally in season so it can be used later in the year. We've even managed to drink local milk around 50% of the time, which given that we have to buy it from another city is an accomplishment. (We don't make extra trips, my son picks up enough for the week when he goes there to teach.)

This year I managed to can around 400 or more jars of local fruits, vegetables, meats and broth, condiments and pickles. We made local sauerkraut by the gallon, and local zesty dills by the gallon as well. We found local onions available at Sam's, of all places, and Costco - and also did our normal 150 lbs of local potatoes buy for storage and use throughout the winter. I picked a bunch of stuff from a local farmer with a pick your own place during several trips at summer's end, and canned much of it for the winter. This helped to round out what we grew here. Our tomatoes were wonderful this year, and we saved seeds from the best to try again next year. We got a few nice golden beets, and some lovely carrots in white, yellow, orange, red, and purple. Our winter greens cloche is finally planted (early Dec) which is late (again) but we should be getting some good greens from it by next February. Hopefully, in time for Imbolc.

Next year I hope to increase our local eating a little further, with an eventual goal of eating at least a consistent 75% locally. It is healthier for us, it supports local farming families, and it is much less wasteful than buying food that has been shipped over a 1000 miles. The fact that we have to work harder to get the food and to preserve it for later also means we appreciate it more and, as a consequence, waste it less.

Composting and recycling: We composted a little bit more this year than last, but not nearly enough. Next year I plan to double our composting efforts. This is something that I often forget to work on, and I think our garden would appreciate me giving it more of my attention in the future. ;-)

This year I concentrated on finding new uses for things that would otherwise be thrown away. For instance, I saved some clear tempered glass shelves from a dead refrigerator to be used as windows for a future solar oven and a future solar beeswax melter. (We hope to set up our own top bar honeybee hive in the back yard next spring.)

2. Participation in a regular series of seasonal Druid celebrations, including at least the two solstices and two equinoxes, which are traditional in the AODA.

Since I'm a solitary here, nearly all of my holy day celebrations have been either just minor affairs for my own benefit, or "virtual" gatherings with the AODA Inner Grove group. I've attended all of the Inner Grove rituals but one this year, and have kept up with writing some of my own as well.


3. Practice of a regular series of spiritual exercises including daily meditation.

I'm still having some issues with meditation. This, for some reason, seems to be the hardest part of my studies. I'm getting better with it, though, by trying to remember that meditation can be done in many ways and at many times, and does not always require an hour to onesself alone in a room with no family and no pets in attendence! Which is good, because those circumstances are rather hard to come by here.

So, I meditate while pulling weeds, and while I'm walking, or when I have to wait in line for some reason, or if I'm out in the car while my husband is in a store running errands, or at my desk at work during lunch... taking this tack has really helped me to get in more meditation time this year.