dumpster birthday surprise!
“Love is like a good cake; you never know when it’s coming, but you’d better eat it when it does!” – C. Joybell
I was that little girl standing in line before the birthday girl/boy to make sure I’d get the biggest and best slice of cake. I call this condition “Birthday Cake Syndrome”: awaiting my piece of cake excitedly, to behold it as a sweet luscious opportunity, and to scarf it down joyously as if it was a last meal.
Dumpster diving sends me to that birthday cake place. It’s a reminder of the giddy little child I am when I do what I feel. It’s an opportunity to be in ecstatic love with every moment as a surprise.
Last night, Maggie (right) and I found a whole decorated birthday cake and cupcakes on top of the overflowing bin. It’s as if they were there for us to celebrate the dumpster fare of the evening. Man oh man, did we celebrate! We found organic corn and breadcrumbs for our hens, organic chips, a pound of flour, organic juices and cereals, oatmeal, along with all the fruits and veggies we could ever need.
Rustic hands for roosting hens
Today I awoke to begin work on the Garden of Eden chicken co-creation project. I remembered an old friend and neighbor Gladys, a witty hard working 80-something-year-old. She’s a serious powerhouse of a woman! One day I remarked about her strength and capability. She shot back quickly, “Can’t sit on your rustic hands!” I looked down at her hands in wonder and laughed realizing I’d misheard her in a beautiful way. What she really said was, “Can’t sit on your rusty cans!”
I was in pure admiration of her strong hands and her unwieldy self-attitude. I used to dream of being that kind of woman. Today I know I AM that woman.
Rewilding: myself and the worms
“[Rewilding is] returning the land to the creatures that once flourished there.”–Eric Dinnerstein
spiritual body
One body in a wave. Motion, shape, and color
plump as a cherry floating on the sea.
Our organs feel pain, a desire–implosions!
An expulsion, impulsions to be free.
An orchard of feelings: breaking of a vase.
The vessel is my body.
There is no danger in letting go.
I stare into plasma oceans
awaiting this supercilious birth.
Crab dropping fertilizer
like manure on a lazy baby–
Growth.
We look upon the green coast
for breath. Deep breath. I’m home.
You’re home. You are my home.
I dismember you to remember me.
Passion and stuff
Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant. Ralph Waldo Emerson
I wake up to sun risen birds at The Garden of Eden, a co-op farm in Kennedale, TX. I drink organic orange juice harvested from the dumpster and sweet potato harvested from the earth. I go out into the garden to check on the tractor tire greens that slept under the frosty moonlight. I take a deep breath. I am thankful to be me.
Last night I fell asleep in front of the wood burning stove, laughing and playing music with my house mates. We peeled sweet potatoes for pies and did yoga exercises together. I am surrounded by passionate, open people. I am in daily meditation with community, food, laughter, dance, music, nature, and honesty.
A lot has changed for me lately. I quit my job and I am separated from my husband. But before you think “how sad” or “I’m sorry to hear that”, please know that I don’t have any remorse. I am grateful to be living true to myself, passionate in whatever expression it takes at each moment. I am happy.
Of course, my feelings and experiences are in a constant state of evolution. I hold them in the palm of my hand. I observe them like a bird, but I don’t harbor them in my heart. Expectations are flighty. I let go of them freely to welcome each experience fully.
I’m breathing and living moment to moment. I don’t want to miss a passion-filled heartbeat.
Life lessons
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Preserve the Rainforest, ocelots and all
In wilderness is the preservation of the world. Henry David Thoreau
Now is your chance stand up to destructive industrial practices and, yes, Save the Rainforest.
I received the following urgent message from Third Millennium Alliance calling for donations to prevent rainforest habitat and endangered species from ending up in the hands of developers and logging interests: (They give the good news first)
“Good News: Throughout the forest we’ve installed “photo trap” cameras that are automatically triggered by infrared motion detectors, to assess animal populations in the Jama-Coaque Reserve. These cameras have revealed the presence of a surprising list of endangered species, most notably the extremely rare and elusive ocelot, which is a slightly smaller cousin of the jaguar. Prior to these findings, ocelots were believed to have disappeared from this part of the country. Their existence in our reserve is one of the most tangible successes of this project thus far.
ocelot in the wild (image captured by 3MA interns)
Bad News:
The new coastal highway has brought with it real estate speculation, land development, and other new threats to these last fragments of Pacific Equatorial Forest. This past month, a 200-acre tract of forest along the northwestern border of the Reserve was bought by a gentleman who made a name for himself by clearing the last mangrove forests to build shrimp farms. We were aiming to acquire this property in 2012, but we were too late. He is already lining up logging contracts with large industrial buyers, which effectively ends our hopes of expanding the Reserve northward. Meanwhile, our immediate land acquisition priority–172 acres of forest along the southwestern border of the Reserve–is being surveyed by real estate speculators from the regional capital. We are $15,200 short of closing this deal before the property is sold out from underneath us, a blow which would effectively end our chance to expand forest protection southward. Now is most likely our last chance to make a significant addition to the Jama-Coaque Reserve. This one of the very last remnants of one of the most biologically wealthy ecosystems on the face of the earth, and its fate is hanging by a thread of a few thousand dollars. If you have the wherewithal, now is the time to help. Thank you in advance.”
I’ve lived in these forests. They cannot and should not be in the hands of industrial interests. Please consider donating what you can: money, time, and words are all valuable. For more information visit www.3malliance.org or wordsprout’s conservation page.
Don’t forget to share this with friends, family, and social networks! The ocelots thank you!