Orphaned Elephants in Kenya — and Hope

Posted on October 4, 2011 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Orphan Elephants in Kenya; Photo by National Geographic

Good Morning, God!

I’ve been reading more National Geographic magazines, God. It comes with sitting in waiting rooms.

Yesterday I learned about an orphanage for elephants in Kenya. It’s the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi. There’s a lot of Youtube videos, too. Seeing humans feeding young elephants with huge baby bottles was very touching.

The killing of their mothers — for meat and money — is so distressing, God. It’s distressing enough that it is happening. Even more distressing is that it is being done by my fellow humans. We ought to know better, God! We ought to see elephants as fellow sentient beings on this planet.

Hmmm. About the pork ribs I ate last night. Pigs are pretty smart, too. Drat! I didn’t want to get into my being a “meat eater” — I am not wanting to go there. Not now. Later!

Sigh, well, there’s the problem, God! I suppose Gandhi was right. We must become the change we wish to see.

Change comes with experience. In the National Geographic article they showed how baby elephants were being taken to schools to let the children see them and touch them and experience them as fellow creatures.

Fellow Creatures. Oh, would that we could see our fellow human beings as fellow creatures. Please help us, God. Help us reach out. Help us not to give up. Fill us with HOPE.

Tagged with: compassion, orphaned elephants in Kenya, sharing the planet with fellow creatures, understanding
Posted in Changing, choices, growing toward up, Help me to see, hope, Understanding

Spark! Reading, Thinking and Running

Posted on October 3, 2011 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

Good Morning, God!

I’m listening to the book, Spark, for the second time and am realizing I need to hear it several more times. In fact, I have ordered a hard copy. I want to be able to copy and cite several facts.

The fact that really hit me was that we have a brain because we move. Dr. Ratey then goes on to illustrate that by talking about a small sea creature with a 100+ neuron “brain.” The creature goes swimming along amongst the coral until it finds a place to anchor. Once it has its place on the coral, it proceeds to digest its brain. It isn’t going to move and it no longer needs its brain.

Yikes! I think a lot of us no longer “need” our brains. We aren’t moving — not physically and not mentally. That’s a scary thought, God.

In fact, that is one of the many facts in this book that have pushed me into jogging again — and going to the gym. It isn’t so much self-improvement as it is self-maintenance. I at least want to stay where I am as long as I can.

Our brains are certainly underutilized gifts, God! At least, mine is. I want to keep on learning. But not just facts or interesting new ideas. What I really need is to keep on upgrading my Mental Maps. I need to resist the need to stay stuck in Being Right.

This is a new concept for me, God. I confess that I suffer from the syndrome of “being pretty sure I’m right about almost everything.” That is no way to learn and grow and change!

Maybe it’s the exercise that is helping me embrace (well, consider) humility?

Tagged with: humility, motivation, moving, Spark: the new science of exercise and the brain, The Thinking I'm Always Right Syndrome
Posted in accepting my ability to REDESIGN, choices, choosing HARD, exercising, hope, humility, Motivation

A Pet Fox? Physical clues to Domestication

Posted on October 2, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

A Domesticated Fox

Good Morning, God!

I guess everyone knows that some wolves — way back when — figured out that hanging out with humans was a good idea and slowly became dogs.

That worked out well for dogs and for humans. And, it seems clear that an early human with a dog had a better chance of surviving than a human without a dog. Actually, I had never thought about that Dog / Man relationship helping both parties. I’d just thought it was good for the dogs.

In fact, God, I hadn’t given much thought to the process of domestication until I read an article in the March 2011 issue of National Geographic. Over 50 years ago, a biologist named Dmitry Belyaev gathered 130 foxes from fur farms with the idea of re-creating the evolution of wolves into dogs. It was a planned experiment in which the researchers selected for breeding the foxes most “comfortable” with people. It didn’t take long before they had young foxes that wagged their tails and wanted to bond with humans.

But, the program wasn’t just to breed friendly foxes but to study the genetics of the process. After just nine generations a “domestication phenotype” began to appear. The kits were born with curlier tails and floppier ears, and their coats were no longer a solid color. They didn’t just act different. They looked different.

The article concludes that domestication “appears to be a very complex phenotype.” So, I am sitting here thinking, God: What if “friendly” humans came with a telltale phenotype? What if we had “markers?”

Hmm. But, we can’t. And now that I think about it — isn’t that what prejudices try to get us to believe? That we can tell — by looking — what a person is like inside?

Ah, God, please give us a spirit of discernment.

Tagged with: a moment with God, changing, pet foxes, selective breeding, tame vs domesticated
Posted in Transitions, web of life

Our Water World

Posted on October 1, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

The Water off of Waikiki

Good Morning, God!

It is a Water World that we live on, God.

And the water yesterday off of Waikiki was clear and green and gorgeous. And I enjoyed it even more than usual because I got to go out on an outrigger canoe!

Oh what joy! We caught two waves and paddled by the Sheraton and the Halekulani hotels. What fun to see them from the ocean side.

In fact, God, I longed for a waterproof camera. The absolutely BEST view of Diamond Head is off of Queen’s Beach. It is wonderful to see that iconic crater without buildings in the view!

But water isn’t just about beauty. Water is about Life. I was just reading about the opposition to the TransCanada pipeline that has sprung up in Nebraska. The problem is that the Keystone XL Pipelinee will cross the Sandhills — a wilderness area in Nebraska — and under the Sandhills is the giant Ogallala aquifer. And it isn’t way down under, it is only a few feet under.

The Ogallala aquifer is under 8 states and supplies 65% of our country’s irrigation water. Hmmm. Oil in our primary aquifer? Not a good idea. And the TransCanada pipeline into Illinois already has had spills. Of oil. It seems, God, that oil is causing quite a few problems.

Will these protesters stop the pipeline? They might, God. Part of my reason for hope is this photo of a protestor marching while wearing a tie. Conservative, land owning, protestors? Hmm. I think they are a force to be reckoned with.

Posted in Rethinking, Transitions, water and love, web of life

Ah, For An iPhone Life

Posted on September 30, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

The iPhone

Good Morning, God!

When I first saw an iPhone it was love at first sight — or as my husband Kit calls it, techno lust. And now, having had an iPhone for over a year, my connection with it is even stronger.

It was the black space around the apps (applications) that drew me in. I knew I wanted my life to look like that. I wanted more space around my activities.

Of course, I don’t want to have as many activities as I have apps! In fact, God, there is now a scanner app! It turns the iPhone into a scanner. Amazing! The trouble, God, is that just as with life, there are so many wonderful apps to choose from.

Speaking of apps, God, I just learned how to turn them off. That’s important because, as I just learned, apps say on, draining the battery, if they are not turned off.

All it takes is a “tap tap” on the home circle. Then the apps that are ON appear at the bottom of the screen. If you press and hold one of them down, they all start to shake and have a red circle with a minus sign appears at the top left. If you touch the minus sign for an app — that app turns off. It works for the iPad, also.

Apps running in the background and decreasing our battery strength . . . . That makes me think of the “responsibilities” we carry as, invisible energy drains. Ah, God! Maybe that is one more reason I like to “share” my responsibilities with YOU! — and sometimes just dump them all in Your Lap!

Posted in Abundant Life, an invitation to abundant life

A Relaxed Time, Waiting for the AAA

Posted on September 29, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

looking up at the Spire through a monkey pod tree

Good Morning, God!

There are days when locking my car keys in my car would have been a disaster! But, thank You, God, yesterday wasn’t one of them.

I was at my women’s prayer group at church. And it was just my car keys I’d locked up, not my purse or cell phone. So after calling Kit (not home yet), I called AAA and wandered into the church thrift shop, spent $4, chatted, and then sat down near this tree — to wait. To wait peacefully!

I played solitaire on my iPhone, took photos, and talked on the phone. In a little over an hour, AAA arrived.

There was still time to go to the gym, shop at Longs, and visit my Mom before coming home for lunch. How good it is, God, to go at a slower pace. I’m even doing better at eating slower.

I guess, God, that Superman — Faster than a Speeding Bullet, Leaps Tall Buildings in a Single Bound — influenced me more than I realized. We are all prisoners of culture, God. Chained with invisible expectations and unseen aspirations.

Years ago while setting up the software specifications for a library circulation module, I had to fill out a matrix. It was a complex list of yeses and noes for each category of borrower and loan period. That is as close as I can come to “visualizing” what our inner invisible “programming” might be like. There must be thousands of options . . . millions?

My first thought was that I sure would like to be able to edit them!

But, on further thought I realized that if You gave me that gift I could — very quickly — make a real muck of things. Sigh. So, I guess, changing will just have to be done the old, slow, hard way. Just as well, God. Just as well.

Posted in Peace, relaxation, time

The Joy of Bumbling Along

Posted on September 28, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

One of the tool cabinets at jewelry fabrication class

Good Morning, God!

My Jewelry Fabrication class continues. And the Details to be Remembered are now piled up around my ears. I have observed many of the young women in the class taking notes. Smart!

And, I hope, in just a few more classes, to be able to divert enough of my attention from the instructions to be able to write them down.

As with so much of life, the richness of reality far exceeds the capacity of instructions to clarify. It’s a good thing, God, that we are designed to learn by doing — and redoing!

So, every Tuesday morning, I am learning and playing. I still might be a bit too purposeful. But the joy of creating balances my desire to do it “right.”

People who have been doing this for years assure me that every time we do something, it is a “new time.” I saw that when as I was having trouble lighting my blowtorch. The instructor came over and he had trouble, too. He finally went off to get a bigger tip for the torch. It is encouraging to see instructors have difficulties, too.

The good news, God, is that it is all ART! And in Art sometimes our “mistakes” are better than what we intended. Hmm. Now that I think of it, that happens in Science, too! Post-it notes and teflon spring to mind. [Click here for more “accidents”.]

Ah, God, this World of Art is full of surprises and delights — and redeemed accidents. Kind of like us, yes?

Tagged with: back to Beginners Mind, beginning jewelry fabrication, letting go of expectations, remembering the principles, the joy of creating
Posted in appreciation, Art, being a beginner, Creating, delight

The Comfort of Green — and Connections

Posted on September 27, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

The Ko'olaus at the top of our valley

Good Morning, God!

The Ko’olau Mountains at the top of our valley are always green. The ridges turn to a brown as summer lengthens but I can always see green as I look up the valley.

Green is a comforting color, God. Green means things are growing — alive. Hmm. I just turned around and saw the two palms that I have in my office. Yes, I like green.

I wonder if there are any studies done on the effects of plants on peoples’ health and mood? Ah, God! One has only to think of the question and Google has answered it!

Yes, plants do positively affect the perceived health and well-being of office workers when foliage plants are present. So says an article in the Journal of the the International Society of the Built Environment. The article reports: “Complaints regarding cough and fatigue were reduced by 37% and 30%, respectively, if the offices contained plants.” Interesting.

I know that interacting with pets also seems to be good for our health, God. Hmm. A supportive web of connections with our fellow humans is especially good for our health. It seems that You have designed us to be connected. I like that, God. I like connections.

Posted in Colors, comfort, connections, web of life

An Unexpected Dash of Hope

Posted on September 26, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

The 4-Hour Body

Good Morning, God!

Yesterday was slow and sleepy. A lovely Sabbath Day. After church I prepared brunch for us and then fell into a deep sleep. Kit went over to visit my mom — who beat him in Scrabble — while I steamed beets, watered my plants, made almond butter, and later pesto.

Then we both went to bed early. Oh joyous day!

But, in between all of that I rediscovered The 4-Hour Body and read it, off and on, during the day. I have such a weakness for self-help books, God.

I suppose it is because they offer me hope — offer me an opportunity for more self-control. Hmmm. Anorexics are looking for that sense of self-control, too, aren’t they God? A serious thought. But our need for a sense of self-control is vital to our well-being.

In listening to Dr. Servan Schreiber’s video yesterday, it was the part about rats, stress, and personal control that lodged in my mind. I shared it with Kit and it keeps coming back into my mind. It seems that when researchers injected cancer cells into rats, 56% recovered. But in an identical set of rats given cancer cells plus random electric shocks, only 23% recovered. Demoralized, those rats had given up.

The key part of the experiment came in the third group of rats. They got the injection of cancer cells, they got the random electric shocks. But they had a lever in their cages that when pressed would shorten the shocks. Those rats had a 63% recovery rate.

So, God, I guess, for me, a good self-help book acts as a “lever,” providing an enhanced sense of self-control. Please, God, may I expand both my self-control and my self-care.

Tagged with: control as a buffer against stress, hope, self-control, The 4-Hour Body
Posted in Changing, Cherishing our Bodies, Choosing to respond, hope, self care as self compassion and humility

A Strange Craving

Posted on September 25, 2011 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

a close-up of a piece of seasoned seaweed

Good Morning, God!

I have developed a craving for seasoned seaweed. I had some at a friend’s home on Thursday and loved it. She told me it was on sale at Longs so I went right out and bought the limit of 5 3-packs. I have now eaten my way through all but one 3-pack.

There are ten sheets to a pack and they weight a total of 5 grams. So, this isn’t really a lot of seaweed. On the other hand it is a total surprise. Seaweed? Seaweed is not part of my culture so it is odd that I stumbled on it.

I’m wondering if this craving is because I’m deficient in iodine? I just looked on the web for possible health benefits of seaweed. And, sure enough, seaweed does contain iodine which is important for good thyroid functioning. Hmmm. Yes, I guess my thyroid could work better.

All of this is making me think, God. When we get our nutrients from food, our bodies can let us know that we want more! But, that doesn’t happen when we get nutrients from supplements. I can’t imagine “craving” a vitamin pill.

Still, I take supplements. A doctor friend of my dad’s used to scoff and say: All that will do is give you expensive urine. He wasn’t alone in that view. That was the prevailing “medical” opinion. So SAD, God!

Now, there are doctors like David Servan-Schreiber who are explaining that food really can be our medicine — just like Hippocrates said back in 400 BC. (The food part of this video comes at minutes 35-45.) Thank You, God, for having made our food — real food — both enjoyable and healthful. And, please, God, help us resist processed food with its sugar and slow fats!