In April of this year I had the good fortune of running my prayer for the Ocean by the edge of the cliffs in Big Sur...it was the Big Sur International Marathon which happened a few days before the biggest oil spill in our history in the Gulf of Mexico. The immediate response after the spill...even mine...was to point a finger at BP and curse the greed and recklessness of an oil company that could cause so much harm to so many of us and countless species.
Soon after, I remembered...whenever there is one finger pointing out, there are four more pointing back at me...or we. So when I saw a brief ad in the employment section of the Coastal Weekely for 50 Marine Debris Outreach presenters to come to work for a small stipend for Surfrider, I was all over it. It was during the early months of summer when I had no income from my job for Monterey Peninsula College, so the timing was perfect.
Fifteen hours of training on plastics in the ocean later...my boyfriend and I have become avid trash walkers and trash talkers. He also was able to get hired as a Marine Debris Outreach dude.
Yes, BP has caused millions of gallons of oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, but we have collectively been the cause of other petroleum in the ocean. Amazingly, there is a mysterious plastic soup out there in the ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that is estimated to be the twice the size of Texas. Go figure, our individual water bottles that we consume to the tune of 45 million per year just in this country, our individual plastic shopping bags, our single use plastic take out containers all add up to an oil spill in the form of plastics.
Have you ever tried eating plastic? Does plastic soup sound like a yummy dish to bring to a potluck? Nope, to this day no organism is able to get nutritional value from eating plastic. Quite the opposite, it is killing all kinds of species from sea turtles to Albotross birds.
But I certainly would not have guessed that adult Albotross birds go out to that garbage patch in the middle of the ocean between China and the U.S. and eat my colored plastic bottle caps because they look like shrimp or krill then fly back and regurgitate them into the mouths of their babes. That is why of the 500,000 albatross chicks born per year in the NW Hawaiian Islands, approximately 200,00 (40%) are dying of plastics ingestion. We can't blame these birds, who are going out to where real ocean animals were living before and used to be food for them.
I believe if we really were aware of the damage that we are causing the ocean and the beings who live in and rely on the ocean that we would be willing to change our individual and collective habits. We would be able and willing to demand a different way of thinking about our earth and our ocean so that we would not use single use plastics that are used for fifteen minutes but last forever.
So education, color pictures of suffering animals and birds...is one antidote to the suffering caused by ignorance. Being able to talk trash to others, having fun picking up trash on walks. Doing it regularly and telling others about it...this too could be right livelihood!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The Wahine Project
I first met Dionne on a Saturday morning while I was waiting for people to arrive to a beach clean up at a Monterey Beach. It was my first gig as a "Marine Debris Outreach" presenter and I was armed with our freshly made flip chart presentation of big color pictures to help people actually see what happens to ocean creatures from their bottle caps, plastic bags and water bottles.
A woman in a wetsuit with long brown wet hair came up, "Is Ximena here?" she asked. "Nope, she just left," I replied. Ximena is the Marine Debris project director. She looked down at the big pictures in the presentation in front of me. "Can I borrow this?" she asked, "I have a group of girls down the beach I want to show it to."
"Ahh, no...I am about to give a presentation with this. But I am happy to do a presentation for you too..." I replied. After a quick exchange of phone numbers, the wetsuit woman went down the beach where a big group of girls were waiting for her.
Thus was my first contact as Marine Debris presenter with Dionne, the founder of the Wahine Project. Dionne called immediately and we arranged a day for me to come do the presentation for her kids at the beach on effects of plastics in the ocean. It was not until much later that I would sit across from Dionne in a local coffee shop and listen to her story about what brought her to birth the Wahine Project...
The Wahine Project is a 501(c)(3) organization that was created in an effort to reach young girls who would otherwise not have access to the resources that would allow them to surf. Whether geographical, financial or lack of opportunity, The Wahine Project seeks to break down the barriers that prevent the participation of young girls in the sport of surfing and provide them the opportunity to not only become proficient surfers but as a result of surfing, increase their awareness to their global citizenship.
Although Dionne had just started surfing herself a year ago, she was no stranger to the ocean or the beach. Her x husband is a surfer and taught surfing so she was around it for about sixteen years. Her son also surfs. "But I would not go in past my ankles," she said.
"I was raised to be afraid of the ocean by my mom," Dionne confides. "She told me there was a canyon that I would fall into if I went too far out." Growing up in East Salinas as a young girl, Dionne did not start transforming that conditioned fear until she was an adult living in Pacific Grove. Her first victory over the fear of the ocean was the decision to do a triathlon that required an ocean swim. That triathlon six years ago was a step past her fear of the ocean.
Then came the a face book invitation from a friend to meet her at a surf spot. She decided to go for it and it ended up just being the two of them. "Sitting out there in the ocean I started thinking about all of the doors that had opened for me...that I would be here in the ocean, living in Pacific Grove."
At thirty eight years old Dionne was at a point of asking herself what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. I was reading "Rowing Across the Atlantic" by Roz Savage (who was the only woman to successfully row across the atlantic) and I would start crying at points in the book." She felt such a connection to the message she also explored the author's blog and later emailed her. To Dionne's delight, this author and adventurer responded to her email.
The seeds were planted by reading the blog which addressed how to know if you are doing what you are meant to be doing. Do you wake up every morning excited about life and feeling good about what you are doing? Can you apply everything you have ever learned in your life up to that point to do what you are doing now? Are you sharing the journey with others?
When Dionne asked herself, "What do I want to do with my life?" the answer came.
"I want to see more women and girls surfing, especially girls that would never even have the chance to surf." She started scribbling her ideas on sheets of paper. What are the things that prevent girls from surfing? Cultural boundaries, finances?
She started making phone calls to Quick Silver, Billabong, Surfaid...sponsors jumped in. She sent press releases out and contracts came in from groups like girl scouts as a non profit was born. The idea took on a life of it's own. People stepped in almost immediately with all kinds of support from getting a logo for the project to building a web site.
But the core of the project remains simple...
"Bring 'em to the beach...the whole point is to see the world is bigger than where they came from." Dionne continues, "I wou
ldn't think that surfing would make me change how I think about the world...but it has."
Just as Dionne faced and embraced her fear of the ocean, so are the girls that come to the Wahine Project doing the same. "As I was out in the ocean with one of the girls, I saw she was crying. I asked her what was up and she said, 'I'm afraid. I am afraid I am going to fall off the board.'"
"It was totally flat out there. I just walked her through her fear. 'What if you did fall off? I am right here for you...'" she said to the little Wahine. Soon the girl saw what she was really afraid of was her own fearful thought.
Dionne also has had her own feelings of fear. "Sometimes I am afraid of the responsibility," she said of Wahine Project and it's growth. "But maybe I am just afraid of my own thought too," she adds.
"Someone asked me the other day, 'So are you the Wahine Project?' I said, 'No, it was my idea but no-no. There are so many arms, legs, heads and toes to make it work." Just as one wave comes in after the next, so do the resources and connections continue to flow in to help support more girls and women dive in through The Wahine Project.
A woman in a wetsuit with long brown wet hair came up, "Is Ximena here?" she asked. "Nope, she just left," I replied. Ximena is the Marine Debris project director. She looked down at the big pictures in the presentation in front of me. "Can I borrow this?" she asked, "I have a group of girls down the beach I want to show it to."
"Ahh, no...I am about to give a presentation with this. But I am happy to do a presentation for you too..." I replied. After a quick exchange of phone numbers, the wetsuit woman went down the beach where a big group of girls were waiting for her.
Thus was my first contact as Marine Debris presenter with Dionne, the founder of the Wahine Project. Dionne called immediately and we arranged a day for me to come do the presentation for her kids at the beach on effects of plastics in the ocean. It was not until much later that I would sit across from Dionne in a local coffee shop and listen to her story about what brought her to birth the Wahine Project...
The Wahine Project is a 501(c)(3) organization that was created in an effort to reach young girls who would otherwise not have access to the resources that would allow them to surf. Whether geographical, financial or lack of opportunity, The Wahine Project seeks to break down the barriers that prevent the participation of young girls in the sport of surfing and provide them the opportunity to not only become proficient surfers but as a result of surfing, increase their awareness to their global citizenship.
Although Dionne had just started surfing herself a year ago, she was no stranger to the ocean or the beach. Her x husband is a surfer and taught surfing so she was around it for about sixteen years. Her son also surfs. "But I would not go in past my ankles," she said.
"I was raised to be afraid of the ocean by my mom," Dionne confides. "She told me there was a canyon that I would fall into if I went too far out." Growing up in East Salinas as a young girl, Dionne did not start transforming that conditioned fear until she was an adult living in Pacific Grove. Her first victory over the fear of the ocean was the decision to do a triathlon that required an ocean swim. That triathlon six years ago was a step past her fear of the ocean.
Then came the a face book invitation from a friend to meet her at a surf spot. She decided to go for it and it ended up just being the two of them. "Sitting out there in the ocean I started thinking about all of the doors that had opened for me...that I would be here in the ocean, living in Pacific Grove."
At thirty eight years old Dionne was at a point of asking herself what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. I was reading "Rowing Across the Atlantic" by Roz Savage (who was the only woman to successfully row across the atlantic) and I would start crying at points in the book." She felt such a connection to the message she also explored the author's blog and later emailed her. To Dionne's delight, this author and adventurer responded to her email.
The seeds were planted by reading the blog which addressed how to know if you are doing what you are meant to be doing. Do you wake up every morning excited about life and feeling good about what you are doing? Can you apply everything you have ever learned in your life up to that point to do what you are doing now? Are you sharing the journey with others?
When Dionne asked herself, "What do I want to do with my life?" the answer came.
"I want to see more women and girls surfing, especially girls that would never even have the chance to surf." She started scribbling her ideas on sheets of paper. What are the things that prevent girls from surfing? Cultural boundaries, finances?
She started making phone calls to Quick Silver, Billabong, Surfaid...sponsors jumped in. She sent press releases out and contracts came in from groups like girl scouts as a non profit was born. The idea took on a life of it's own. People stepped in almost immediately with all kinds of support from getting a logo for the project to building a web site.
But the core of the project remains simple...
"Bring 'em to the beach...the whole point is to see the world is bigger than where they came from." Dionne continues, "I wou
ldn't think that surfing would make me change how I think about the world...but it has."Just as Dionne faced and embraced her fear of the ocean, so are the girls that come to the Wahine Project doing the same. "As I was out in the ocean with one of the girls, I saw she was crying. I asked her what was up and she said, 'I'm afraid. I am afraid I am going to fall off the board.'"
"It was totally flat out there. I just walked her through her fear. 'What if you did fall off? I am right here for you...'" she said to the little Wahine. Soon the girl saw what she was really afraid of was her own fearful thought.
Dionne also has had her own feelings of fear. "Sometimes I am afraid of the responsibility," she said of Wahine Project and it's growth. "But maybe I am just afraid of my own thought too," she adds.
"Someone asked me the other day, 'So are you the Wahine Project?' I said, 'No, it was my idea but no-no. There are so many arms, legs, heads and toes to make it work." Just as one wave comes in after the next, so do the resources and connections continue to flow in to help support more girls and women dive in through The Wahine Project.
For more info go to http://www.thewahineproject.org/
Monday, August 9, 2010
Maybe This Is Working
The art of re-framing how we think about things is the difference between happiness and suffering. I find if I am being kept up at night by the teenager next door playing video games or watching movies into the wee hours and I remember being in Israel and Gaza and I think what it must be like for those in Iraq and Afghanistan...the noise seems like a very minor inconvenience and I gain some inner peace by putting it in perspective.
Sometimes looking at my part time employment and self employment I often think that there is better than here. You know, there...we all have our 'over there' where we are not yet. When I make this amount of money or have that relationship or have this body...over there.
Self employment is not different. There is there in self employment land too. When I have this many clients, when I have published that article, when my income is bigger than my bills... And the magical mind always finds another there to put over there as soon as one gets actually accomplished.
Re-framing is about seeing in the moment...hey, maybe HERE is pretty cool. I am happy right here. I had one of those moments when I realized I was walking next to the ocean watching the seals bask and the waves lazily lap in, with my boyfriend in the middle of a Monday afternoon. When most people are working normal jobs. Then when I was in my car booking massage appts, I thought...hmmm...maybe this is working. As I type in this blog with friends quietly writing across from me I am thinking...Yeah, this is working! How cool is that?
Sometimes looking at my part time employment and self employment I often think that there is better than here. You know, there...we all have our 'over there' where we are not yet. When I make this amount of money or have that relationship or have this body...over there.
Self employment is not different. There is there in self employment land too. When I have this many clients, when I have published that article, when my income is bigger than my bills... And the magical mind always finds another there to put over there as soon as one gets actually accomplished.
Re-framing is about seeing in the moment...hey, maybe HERE is pretty cool. I am happy right here. I had one of those moments when I realized I was walking next to the ocean watching the seals bask and the waves lazily lap in, with my boyfriend in the middle of a Monday afternoon. When most people are working normal jobs. Then when I was in my car booking massage appts, I thought...hmmm...maybe this is working. As I type in this blog with friends quietly writing across from me I am thinking...Yeah, this is working! How cool is that?
Monday, August 2, 2010
Hats Off to Mom
I can remember in my twenties and early thirties when I was still in the corporate world selling television commercials that would tell people what to buy so they could be sexy, happy and rich. That job came with the full meal deal; way more than enough $, full health benefits and retirement.
My mom lived in Orange County and I would go visit her either in her one bedroom apartment or a studio apartment. She kept it neat and because she was an artist, she would have her weavings displayed on the walls. When I was down there, she would splurge and fix us steak dinners and serve it on fold out t.v. dinner stands. It was delux.
Us kids called her the 'freeway flier'. She worked three part time jobs at various community colleges teaching people new to this country how to speak English. Her classes always loved her. Imagine going to a new country and not knowing the language and trying to make it. They loved my mom because she cared about them and was able to help them in their lives. Each class would give her presents and she would proudly put them somewhere in her apartment.
She worked part time because of a few reasons...one is that California community colleges try and save money by not hiring many (sometimes any) full-time ESL teachers so they don't have to pay benefits. But the other reason was, "I want to have time to write." I can remember hearing that from her for decades.
But she did not have a lot of time to write slogging her big bag stuffed with student papers and her books on rollers to her car and from college to college to pay the bills. She kept her schedule on her car dashboard so she did not forget which college she was teaching at on what day.
I look back on that now with such respect. At the time, I thought she could do better. Me, in my soul-sucking job that had all the things that I took for granted while she went without health insurance for decades. But she did make her way.
Getting married at 18 without having had a job or having ever supported herself, I see what an achievement it was to have the courage to get out of a bad marriage and find a way to pay her own bills in her mid thirties. She did make it work and she touched a lot of lives while doing it.
So, hats off to my mom...the 'freeway flier' who gave people the gift of language and all the doors that can open for them in their lives. For me, she gave me the gift of language too...words on the page...page after page, as I too take time to write.
My mom lived in Orange County and I would go visit her either in her one bedroom apartment or a studio apartment. She kept it neat and because she was an artist, she would have her weavings displayed on the walls. When I was down there, she would splurge and fix us steak dinners and serve it on fold out t.v. dinner stands. It was delux.
Us kids called her the 'freeway flier'. She worked three part time jobs at various community colleges teaching people new to this country how to speak English. Her classes always loved her. Imagine going to a new country and not knowing the language and trying to make it. They loved my mom because she cared about them and was able to help them in their lives. Each class would give her presents and she would proudly put them somewhere in her apartment.
She worked part time because of a few reasons...one is that California community colleges try and save money by not hiring many (sometimes any) full-time ESL teachers so they don't have to pay benefits. But the other reason was, "I want to have time to write." I can remember hearing that from her for decades.
But she did not have a lot of time to write slogging her big bag stuffed with student papers and her books on rollers to her car and from college to college to pay the bills. She kept her schedule on her car dashboard so she did not forget which college she was teaching at on what day.
I look back on that now with such respect. At the time, I thought she could do better. Me, in my soul-sucking job that had all the things that I took for granted while she went without health insurance for decades. But she did make her way.
Getting married at 18 without having had a job or having ever supported herself, I see what an achievement it was to have the courage to get out of a bad marriage and find a way to pay her own bills in her mid thirties. She did make it work and she touched a lot of lives while doing it.
So, hats off to my mom...the 'freeway flier' who gave people the gift of language and all the doors that can open for them in their lives. For me, she gave me the gift of language too...words on the page...page after page, as I too take time to write.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Write Now, Bow Wow
It is an interesting thing to see the shyness that writers and artists have about calling themselves writers or artists. Today I was in the parking lot of Trader Joe's when I ran into a fellow massage practitioner student. We talked about what we are doing for livelihood. She said she is an esthetician and a single mom raising two kids alone.
We had been talking at least five minutes before she confided, pounding her fist to her heart..."but my real passion is art, I am an artist. I will have a show in a month." And then came the mumble, but I can't yet make my living there. It is like we feel we have to pull out a pay stub that says this much came from my x number of sold paintings, articles, books, etc...before we can say, "I am a writer" or "I am an artist."
When I look at my dear furry friend Mashie, conked out sideways snoring at my feet...I see she has no such complex. She is a dog. She is not aspiring to be a dog, she is not envying all of the other dogs that can prove they are dogs, she simply is a dog. Bow Wow.
I have written all of my life. Since a wee peanut little kid. Like my mother, I have treasure chests (or garbage bins) of journals. I have poems, I have short stories, I have articles, I have finished and unfinished manuscripts and yet...if it does not meet the phantom image in my mind the words, "I am a writer" stay unspoken.
So in my right livelihood, WRITE NOW blog it only feels right to claim it right now. I am a writer, damn it. Like my dog is a dog, I am and have been for many years, a writer.
We had been talking at least five minutes before she confided, pounding her fist to her heart..."but my real passion is art, I am an artist. I will have a show in a month." And then came the mumble, but I can't yet make my living there. It is like we feel we have to pull out a pay stub that says this much came from my x number of sold paintings, articles, books, etc...before we can say, "I am a writer" or "I am an artist."
When I look at my dear furry friend Mashie, conked out sideways snoring at my feet...I see she has no such complex. She is a dog. She is not aspiring to be a dog, she is not envying all of the other dogs that can prove they are dogs, she simply is a dog. Bow Wow.
I have written all of my life. Since a wee peanut little kid. Like my mother, I have treasure chests (or garbage bins) of journals. I have poems, I have short stories, I have articles, I have finished and unfinished manuscripts and yet...if it does not meet the phantom image in my mind the words, "I am a writer" stay unspoken.
So in my right livelihood, WRITE NOW blog it only feels right to claim it right now. I am a writer, damn it. Like my dog is a dog, I am and have been for many years, a writer.
BOW WOW---WRITE NOW!
Friday, July 30, 2010
The Cat's Business
The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this lovely path, I walk in peace.
I was not feeling so peaceful on my walk with my big German Shepard, Mashie, today. We saw a tiger striped cat that was intently hovering over a sandy hole in the ground. Suddenly it pounced. My dog....thirteen years old and so not interested, could care less. I, on the other hand, immediately needed to intervene. "Psssssssssssssssst!" I hissed. "You leave that alone!", I shouted. The tiger cat looked up at me intently. Then went back to the attack. It pulled out some sort of mouse/squirrel...unfortunate soul and took it by the nap of the neck off to the bushes.
The words of Byron Katie rang in my ears..."There's three kinds of business. There is your business, there is God's business, and there is other people's business." Hmmm...Well in this case, it is the cat's business. How many times do I get myself in trouble by taking on the suffering of my interpretations of whatever I see around me? How many times do I judge what others are doing or not doing. In this case, that cat for sure should not harm another being. Except for, it is cat nature to do what I saw it do.
So a great question is...what is my business? Hmmmm. Well on that front I can report having given a great massage and booking two more clients. How would things go in my business if I spent a little less time in other people's?
I was not feeling so peaceful on my walk with my big German Shepard, Mashie, today. We saw a tiger striped cat that was intently hovering over a sandy hole in the ground. Suddenly it pounced. My dog....thirteen years old and so not interested, could care less. I, on the other hand, immediately needed to intervene. "Psssssssssssssssst!" I hissed. "You leave that alone!", I shouted. The tiger cat looked up at me intently. Then went back to the attack. It pulled out some sort of mouse/squirrel...unfortunate soul and took it by the nap of the neck off to the bushes.
The words of Byron Katie rang in my ears..."There's three kinds of business. There is your business, there is God's business, and there is other people's business." Hmmm...Well in this case, it is the cat's business. How many times do I get myself in trouble by taking on the suffering of my interpretations of whatever I see around me? How many times do I judge what others are doing or not doing. In this case, that cat for sure should not harm another being. Except for, it is cat nature to do what I saw it do.
So a great question is...what is my business? Hmmmm. Well on that front I can report having given a great massage and booking two more clients. How would things go in my business if I spent a little less time in other people's?
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Joy in Uncertainty
Looking for security in all of the wrong places the automatic momentum of thinking a traditional job is the same as living happily ever after...even though I have done that and was happy to make it out alive. There is an illusion in me that I must have certainty to be happy.
The empty space of the unknown, we have been trained since early years to fear. Dancing in the mystery, joy can be my partner. Even if I don't know the steps at this time the joy will lead.
There is no there over there, it is time to invite joy over here now.
The empty space of the unknown, we have been trained since early years to fear. Dancing in the mystery, joy can be my partner. Even if I don't know the steps at this time the joy will lead.
There is no there over there, it is time to invite joy over here now.
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