In a city with a persistent haze, in a country with chronic cloud cover, the past week of clear, absolutely cloudless, deep blue skies has been glorious. 

Could such skies have been the effect of the flight groundings?

By 7.30 this morning, the answer was clear.

Husband’s Christmas vacation is commandeered for decluttering.

Official notice – we gotta move.

More decluttering. Thank God for charity shops and  freecycle.

Found a new flat – 550 sq feet and that has to include my office.  And on the 3rd (4th in US) floor. Got lots of character, though, and great light. But no lift/elevator…

Where did all this stuff come from? Donating, selling, donating, tossing. (Oh, the guilt – how could we generate so much garbage? Really, we did recycle and donate everything we could!)

But we’re beginning to feel that we are living lighter, less tied to our stuff, clearing out the excess that we never used anyway. (How could so much accumulate in 3 years?)

Get boxes from a friend and through freecycle – yeah! no need to purchase new.

Packing up…after all that decluttering…still finding another corner, another drawer…where does it all come from???

The removals/mover guys arrive. Lovely guys. They tell us we really don’t have that much stuff really. Really lovely guys.

Then they see our new flat.

And tell us we have way too much stuff.

For many, with the New Year comes a new round of resolutions. Why is that?

Obviously, the New Year represents new beginnings. It is a time to evaluate our lives, look at the past year and, where we’ve gone off on tangents, get back on the path towards our goals. We’ve passed the longest night; it’s slowly getting lighter. We are moving toward spring and with that comes new creative energy.

This is certainly true for me. You may have noticed I’ve been a bit absent on this blog the last couple of months. I had started a process of re-envisioning my business, and with that an assessment of the blog. Is it working? Is it interesting? or is it preachy and academic? I’ve gotten some lovely comments but I still had many doubts, along with continued struggles with WordPress (it really is a great program – just a bit frustrating at times).  And, of course, life events intervened as well. 

While I’m actually not one to make resolutions, with the New Year I am refocusing on the blog, and I could use some help.

What works (and doesn’t)?  What do you like (or not)?  What would you like to see?

I’d love to hear from you!

I do try to ignore the hype, the sensationalist headlines, and the drama, and read between the lines to get to the basic message.  But sometimes I need a reminder.

Just in time, I got this article delivered to my mail box. I’m a huge fan of Christine Kane and her inspirational messages (you may know her through her music). Her viewpoint: use these crazy headlines to “flex your resistance muscles.”

Media, Mindsets and Muscles: How to Get your Thoughts into Shape

by Christine Kane

Years ago, I was on the road and happened to catch a snippet of the news while waiting in an airport.

“…the Washington DC area was plunged into darkness this evening as storms raged…”

Plunged? Darkness? Rage?

Quickly I grabbed my phone and called my mom to make sure she was okay.

When she picked up, I said, “Hey! Are you all okay?”

She sounded surprised to hear from me. “Yes. Why?”

I told her that I had just seen the news.

“Well, the lights went out. So we lit candles.”

In other words, no one plunged. Nothing fell. In fact, there was no descent to speak of.

In my mom’s words: “The lights went out.”

But that’s not news, is it? Plunging, on the other hand. Now THAT’S news!

————-

It’s no secret that the media hooks us in with subtle twists of language. After all, if we don’t get hooked, then we don’t need to find out more, do we? If we don’t need to find out more, then we won’t be watching when the commercials run.

Let’s say the guy on the news tells you: “It’s all good!”

That just sends you on your way, doesn’t it?

“Phew! Everything’s fine. Back to my day!”

But “plummeting” and “crisis” and “slumps” (oh my). Those get us every time.

Those headlines sell ads.

Here’s some breaking news for you: The news is not a public service. It’s a business. As such, it needs you to live your life reactively so you’ll keep watching.

——-

Now, some people choose to look at all these media messages and get outraged. “Look at those media people! They’re just trying to get us!”

But this just keeps you hooked – only it’s from a different angle. The media watch dog types provide another perspective – but they still remain at the level of the drama. It’s still reaction.

There’s another way. You can rise above the negativity completely. And then choose to see the media and all of its doom and gloom as “resistance training” – actually helping your mental muscle to grow, and training you to get better and better at creating your own reality.

Does this sound a little stupid?

Well, consider something.

Think about your muscles. Whether you’re a world-class athlete or just someone who works-out to stay in shape, your muscles do not grow or change without meeting resistance. Resistance training is required for the building of body and muscle strength – even if it’s just the weight of your own body, as in Pilates or Yoga.

So, why would it be any different with creating new thought patterns and better responses to the world around you?

It’s not!

So rather than waiting for the negativity to subside so that you can feel okay about the world, use it as training! It’s a form of resistance training. It is helping you become a better creator, a better leader of your own life, and someone who can self-generate happiness and results. As opposed to being someone who waits for the outside world to tell you that you’re okay, that you’re gonna be okay, and that you are productive, abundant, and peaceful.

Here’s how it works:

1 – You consciously choose the thoughts you want to think and believe.

2 – Every time you hear the news, or find yourself in a conversation with doomers and gloomers, become an athlete. See how your mind and its thoughts hold up to the resistance.

3 – Remember that no one goes into a gym for the first time and bench presses 300 pounds. (Or 100 for that matter!) It takes practice and awareness.

4 – Congratulate yourself each time you notice that you hold your mental strength and keep your desired perspective. That’s the beginning!

When you get good at this, you’ll see powerful results. You’ll notice that you instantly see through the drama and the language that used to hook you. And best of all, you’ll recognize that your thoughts are far more powerful than anything that plummets, descends, or has a crisis outside of them.

Performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane publishes her ‘LiveCreative’ weekly ezine with more than 4,000 subscribers. If you want to be the artist of your life and create authentic and lasting success, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to LiveCreative at www.christinekane.com.

The reality can be somewhat frustrating, however, with all the queues, traveling around London, and various opening times of sites. So I was a bit annoyed by the time we got to our last stop on Saturday, but oooh did that one make the whole day worth it!

This architect-designed and lived-in house starts off on a plot of land 8 feet wide. Seriously. It’s basically the gap (hence, dubbed “Gap House”) between two other houses. (No clue why I didn’t get a photo of the front, so you’ll have to just believe me.) Along that corridor is a really lovely staircase of sustainably harvested wood.

After passing a mechanics closet (which packs in a lot including tanks and pipes for things like the ground source heat pump) and a little loo, the house widens a bit for the kitchen.

But it’s the view from the kitchen where the house really opens up.  Tucking the living room (with an office loft above) behind the neighbors house allowed for both the kitchen and living room to have sliding folding doors opening up to the garden. 

Can’t you just imagine living here!?!?

Now, if you are getting a little lost in the floorplan, the view from the back of the garden ties it all together. The floors cascading up contain the bedrooms.

Other eco features include passive solar design, highly insulated building envelope, and using rainwater to flush toilets and water plants.

I love this house because it is well designed, yet not at all ostentatious. From an incredibly awkward plot comes something very livable, very real, yet elegant and modern.

This home was designed by Luke  Tozer of Pitman Tozer Architects.  His blog (not so up to date but with more pics) is Architect’s Self-Build Eco House.

Luke – if you ever read this, thank you so much for sharing your home with so many.

Climate change: melting ice will trigger wave of natural disasters 

by Robin McKie, The Observer, 6 Sept 2009

I actually rarely read these articles – I have enough tendency toward overwhelm and depression without feeling like the earth is coming to an end. This one was no different, but for some reason it sucked me in. It’s poignant and scary, but worth reading. 

I keep thinking… at some level has there always been this sensation that the world will come to an end? Is this part of our human existence - a repeated message that our reptilian brain won’t stop sending?

My entire childhood was overshadowed by the possibility of the planet being annihilated by nuclear war. Then there was that strange fear over the millenium…water supplies being cut off because of computer malfunctions, no access to money because entire banking systems would melt down. Oh yeah, the banking system did melt down – but that was 7 years later.

How is our thinking about the environment different to the fear based worries of the past? How is it similar? How can we move beyond the fear and act in environmentally sustainable ways?

My battle to cut carbon: a baffling, frustrating path to a more honest life 

by Madeleine Bunting, guardian.co.uk, 6 Sept 2009

This incredibly well-written article gets at the heart of the confusion about trying to go green, as well as the rewards. Since paraphrasing wouldn’t do it justice, here are some excerpts:

“The truth is that reducing household carbon (by far my biggest source of carbon) is complicated and confusing. Even trying to establish your carbon footprint produces wildly varying estimates (our house produces either 12 or 22 tonnes of carbon a year, depending on the modelling used)….Nor is it cheap. This is the horrifying bit. Our small budget was pathetically inadequate….But the bottom line is that more affluent households have a far bigger carbon footprint and at least some resources to cut it, so they should get on with it….”

“There is going to be a sharp learning curve as the ignorance which saw us cheerfully spew carbon is shifted….The funny thing is that this learning curve generates unexpected consequences. It becomes energising along the lines of “if I can do X then perhaps I could do Y”. It generates a renewed sense of agency, even a measure of hopefulness. And you begin to appreciate how we have been trapped in a debilitating apathy intimidated by the scale of the problem. Our lives are built on a web of denial about the impact our behaviours have on our environment. When you start to dismantle this, you are stumbling towards authenticity: a reconnection with the basic resources, such as fossil fuels and water, on which our wellbeing depends. Try it and see.”

“…So the myriad of tiny daily routines which need to change – such as turning taps off while you brush your teeth – are not pointless but about reconnection and awareness of what sustains your life. It is about living intelligently…”

10:10 – our chance to save the world 

by Franny Armstrong, guardian.co.uk, 1 Sept 2009

Franny Armstrong is so amazing. The creator and director of the movie Age of Stupid, she has started a new campaign called 10:10. In the approach to the UN climate summit in December, the idea is for the people of Britain to start taking action and show the political leadership that we’re not waiting for other countries (like, um, the United States) to set the agenda. She writes:

“The best deal currently on the table is that of the EU, which calls for 30% reduction by 2020 (compared to 1990 levels). If this deal were to be accepted (which is a very big if, given that Japan argues for 8%, Australia for 5% and America for between 0%-6%) and if the emission cuts were then carried out (which is an even bigger if), this would give us about a 50/50 chance of not hitting the dreaded two degrees.”

….”I was born in the early 70s as part of the MTV generation who were told by a million adverts that the point of our existence was to shop more. Daunting though the task ahead may be, I feel enormously inspired and quite relieved that it turns out that we have something important to do. The people who came before us didn’t know about climate change and the ones who come after will be powerless to stop it. So it’s down to us. Other generations came together to overturn slavery or end apartheid or win the vote for women. There is nothing intrinsically more useless about our generation and there is no doubt about what we have to do. The only question which remains is whether or not we give it a go.”

The site has a UK focus, but I can’t imagine this won’t go international. Show your support and get tips by signing up at 10:10.  I did.

The Story of Stuff

And there’s always…  “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” ~ Albert Einstein

Here my new favourite…  “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” ~ Barack Obama

So now my confession…and after all my writing about plastic and everything…I haven’t exactly “been the change”….

I was on a walking tour yesterday of green London. We stopped by this fantastic shop offering yummy-looking, convenient raw-food meals and snacks.

I picked up a freshly-made carrot and apple juice to take along. After having taken a couple of tasty sips, a participant on the tour commented on all the plastic and paper cups being used, but that there seems to be no place in London to recycle anything (so true!). Furthermore, in her country, Slovenia, you would rarely see anyone walking along with a drink. Rather, you sit and have your drink in a proper cup (although that’s changing, she said). Contrast that with the States, where it’s hard to find anyone not walking along with a drink!

So here I was, an American in London, walking along – on an eco tour even – with my juice in a plastic cup, thinking “now what am I going to do with this darn thing?”

I thought for quite a while about finding a place to wash it out, then bringing it home and recycling it.  However, as a no. 7 plastic, I didn’t have much faith that it would actually get recycled in the end. So I’m ashamed to say it went into a bin.

But it got me thinking…what were the alternatives?

• Not purchase the drink in the first place. Did I really need it? It was good, and my first thought (after thinking I wanted to drink it) was that I was supporting a great store concept with eco credentials. I also did want to get some calories in me for the walk. But no, I didn’t really need that drink in that plastic cup.
• Bring my own glass – this seems like a bit of a pain, and actually, I was already lugging around a metal water bottle to avoid buying a plastic water bottle.
• Petition London to put in more bins for recycling. Hmmm…there’s an idea…maybe while they’re at it, they could put in more waste bins too, to decrease all the litter…
• Purchase the drink in a proper cup or mug and sit down and drink it. While not exactly feasible on a tour, this is a commitment I would like to make – not only for the environment but also as a lifestyle choice – slow down, enjoy the drink.  Now to find the coffee shops that still serve in real mugs…

Photo by Cheryl Kempton.

They say it’s “basically, interesting stuff in 3-5 minute bursts surrounded by the planet’s best music”.

Check it out at www.passionfortheplanet.com.

Photo by Cheryl Kempton.

The launch concept is interesting as well.  Indie Screenings allows people do do their own screenings of movies…anyone can buy the rights and then take in money to show a movie.  How cool is that?

Age of Stupid won’t be released internationally until September.

Photo by andjohan.