JoAnn and Kailasa in concert (video in next post)

JoAnn and Kailasa were two of the performers in the Benefit Concert for Free the Slaves organized by Desiree Dennis as her senior project at State College High School. Desiree and her mom Terri and sister Emily give voice lessons and all their students had the privilege of singing in this wonderful concert. There were about 25 students who sang a variety songs. The benefit also included an art auction of original art by the high school students.
JoAnn and Kailasa performed two of JoAnn's original songs. JoAnn sang "Blue Twilight" while Kailasa danced a solo dance. Then they sang "The Heartbeat" with the Dennis family and several other students. Inspired by the Free the Slaves organization and their work in countries around the world to end slavery, JoAnn wrote "The Heartbeat" for this concert. She wrote "Blue Twilight" last winter and Kailasa contributed some lyrics. Desiree Dennis arranged the music for both pieces, while Emily played the violin for Blue Twilight. Thank you so much to the Dennis family!!!!!
Many, many of JoAnn & Kailasa's family and friends were able to come to the concert and they are so thankful to everyone who supported them! Love to you all.

JoAnn and Kailasa -- "Blue Twilight"

Keeping Vigil: an Act of Supreme Love

Tonight my sweet son got sick right as he was going to bed. My husband and I were both there to help him and tuck him back in. We went to bed soon thereafter, but I could not sleep. Something inside would not let me fall into slumber. On the couch in the living room, I began to pray for his healing and to speed his recovery. Not long after, I heard him get up again. I was there-- right away-- rubbing his back, soothing him. I had been keeping vigil and arrived just in time.
What could be more comforting for a child than knowing that his mother is there for him, keeping a watchful eye over him as he tries to rest? What could aid his full healing more than knowing that his beloved parents are there to support him when he feels so sick?

I once went on a ten-day Deep Ecology retreat in the woods with 150 other seekers. Deep Ecology is a philosophy that teaches us that we are all (humans and non-humans) interconnected in a vast web of life. Deep Ecology is a deep, long-range view of ecology as opposed to short-sighted and shallow views of the environment.  During this extended week of workshops and experiences, one night, we kept a vigil for the earth. About 25 of us chose to stay up all night, talking around a bonfire until the sun rose. At each hour of the night, we would stop and pray for whatever area of the earth was experiencing dawn at that moment. It was a beautiful event, a life transforming moment. Out of all the workshops and discussions and lectures I was a part of that week, I felt this was the most significant episode of them all.

There is something special, vital, critical, yet indescribable about keeping vigil over someone you love. It is an experience worth having, an act of supreme love.

 Penn State students hold a prayer vigil for victims of sexual abuse in November 2011. Over 10,000 people came.

Guerilla Gardening

I almost did guerilla gardening yesterday. Guerilla gardening is putting flowers or plants in surprising or unexpected places, where they show up suddenly without warning. There are guerilla gardening organizations all over the world; people taking over public spaces with a bit of beauty, whimsy, function, and/or food. It is simply one easy and fun way to 'pay it forward' and make this world a better not to mention more aesthetically pleasing place.


To engage in guerilla gardening, you being by coming across an orphaned piece of land, or perhaps some corporate piece of land that could really use some bright pink flowers! Then you need to plan your mission, find some lucky blooms and under cover of dark, or at a minimum with anonymity, go and plant them. Better yet, plant wildflower seeds in spring and watch them transform a small parcel of land. What I love about guerilla gardening is that it does require stealth, occuring often in the light of the moon. Virtually no one needs to know

your good deed, but everyone whose heart is kindled by an unexpectedly tended patch of earth will benefit.

So, I said I almost got to do guerilla gardening yesterday. I walk or drive down a certain road in my neighborhood every day and saw two large flowers that had nothing in them, even though the rest of the neighborhood is teeming with abundant color. I also ran into that particular neighbor that day and she seemed down to me (I might have been projecting here!)  So I went out to the store with a plan to fill those planters on my way home, as long as their car was missing from the driveway. Happily I went and picked out a 6-pack of the brightest flowers I could find. But on the way home, I saw .....the planters had just been planted! Maybe some other neighbor beat me to it. I guess I'll just have to find another spot for my surprise strike!

Prescription for Joy

Dr. D's Prescription for Joy

1) “Road Trip it”: “Sometimes you have to journey out to journey within.”

a. Go somewhere warm; see ‘big nature.’
b. Drive across the country- twice. Sleep outside when possible.

2) Nurture your relationship with Nature:
a. Hike, bike, walk, kayak, ski, etc.
b. Be in silence.
c. Skip school or work & be in nature when no one else is.
d. Notice nature- even from your window.


3) Serve other, serve others, serve others:
a. As much as humanly possible, share your financial, emotional, physical resources with others.
b. Schedule it into your week, like any other event.
c. More than anything else, this will open up the door to joy.

4) CREATE/ENJOY music, the arts:
a. Concerts-Ipod-Cds: Listen, dance, move.
b. Sing in the shower.
c. Join the world drumming ensemble- make music with others.

5) Play like a kid/ play with kids:
a. Ride a swing & swing REALLY high.
b. Volunteer with children.
c. Color with crayons.
d. Get a pick-up game of football, Frisbee, baseball together

6) Get healthy- stay healthy.
a. hydrate like crazy; ten glasses a day is not too many.
b. eat whole foods; eat something that looks like what it is called: fruit not fruit roll-ups.

7) BREATHE, SURRENDER to God, PRAY
a. Learn to notice your breath and posture all day long. Take time to pause.
a. PRAY DAILY- fortify yourself each day like a daily vitamin.
b. Start slow (Pray 5 minutes a day); then slow down (2 min a day); work your way up slowly.
c. Make it a part of your essential daily planning.

8) Go “Unplugged”
a. Go tech free for a day;
b. shut off your cell phone, laptop, Ipod, etc. just for one day. See how you feel. Do it again.

9) More fun, less stuff
a. Give up consuming for awhile
b. Give your stuff away.

10) Take a fast from the Fast Lane!! Take a day off; schedule it now.

Storytelling and the Importance of Coffee Diplomacy

"The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them, and learn to give them away as needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. This why we put stories in each other's memory. This is how people care for themselves (and each other).

---Barry Lopez

"Writing becomes an act of Compassion toward life, the life we so often refuse to see because if we look too closely or feel too deeply, there may be no end to our suffering. But words empower us, move us beyond our own suffering, set us free.

This is the sorcery of literature: We are Healed by our Stories."

---Terry Tempest Williams

I often place these quotes at the top of my Sociology course syllabi, especially for my Cultural Diversity or my Environmental Sociology classes. These passages came alive for me the year that I created and worked on Project H.O.P.E. (helping other people and the earth), a community collaboration project between the small university where I worked and the tiny Catholic school located in the same town.

The goals of Project H.O.P.E. were to facilitate and enhance community ties between the university and the grade school as well as to provide hands-on, community-based instructional opportunities for both sets of students. We planned to educate our constituents about the Pennsylvania Environment and Ecology standards by building and planting a large native plant garden at the entrance of elementary school, creating an enormous mural of indigenous plants and animals inside, and by fixing up their playground. Our final goal was to “Pay it Forward,” to literally use the good will generated from the little children we were working with to send funding and help to a community in Mississippi whose homes and lives were lost during Hurricane Katrina.

In order to meet our goals, we needed to raise several thousand dollars for materials as well as to make a donation to another Catholic school in Waveland, Mississippi that had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. In that community, 90% of the people had just lost their homes and businesses.  Their community was completely destroyed but they were determined to start over, together. We wanted to lend a hand.

One of the tenets of Project H.O.P.E. was that we valued using local businesses. So for several months, I went out with my then 1- year old daughter Kailasa, and one of my students Michelle, to solicit monetary or in-kind donations from local businesses. We met these folks in their storefronts, or just as often in the back of their homes or on their property. Almost universally, we were invited in for a ‘cup of coffee.’ How could we refuse such hospitality? We needed to engage in coffee diplomacy.

We quickly realized that part of the ‘exchange’ was to sit and listen to people’s stories, and often to share ours. Most people want to give, but often they first need to be heard. They wanted to share their history with either the university or the grade school, and talk how they were personally connected to the communities we were working with. Some of them had their own stories of lost homes, or lost lives. Sometimes, it was as seemingly tenuous as their aunt’s daughter used to work at one place or the other back in the 1980s, but it was vitally important to them that their story be known.

We recognized that they were interested in our story as well: how did Project H.O.P.E. come about; what was motivating a bunch of undergraduate students to take on such an immense project? We revealed how a small group of 15 sociology students travel

ed to the grade school purely to complete an exercise assessing their resources and needs. When they came back to my class, they all insisted that we figure out how to follow through on the evaluation and actually create the changes that the school so clearly needed. Thus, Project H.O.P.E. was born.

Though at first, we merely wanted request a donation and simply obtain the goods or money that we needed. In the end, this coffee diplomacy was an essential part of our community collaboration. We had to plan to give not just our dollars but also our TIME.  By listening to these stories and sharing our own, we were weaving together the tapestry of this joint venture and making the bonds between the members even stronger than before. We became the keeper of the stories and it is our duty to keep telling them.

Everyone needs Stories. Stories can Change your life. Stories can Heal and give HOPE. Hope takes roots in the mind. 
Hope grows in the Heart. Hope is born into the world.

Five Steps to Completing Community Projects for Social Change

Do you see a problem or issue in your community or organization? Are you interested in making some changes in your community or organization? You can use the following five steps to help you guide on your journey toward social change.

1) Assessment: Assessing the community or organization's needs and resources.

a. What are a community's resources (finances, people, physical and material resources, structural layout, community map, individual's time);
b. What are the community's needs?
c. What organizations are connected to and support this organization or community?
d. You can use Social Mapping: Asset Mapping and Social Network Mapping. Where are the natural and material assets located; what kinds of natural social networks already exist? What the natural pathways for resources? Where are the highest concentrations of community resources? Where are the areas of lack?
e. Identify community characteristics:

• i. Aspects of material culture (dress, architecture, food)
• ii. Cultural values, symbols, norms for behavior, language, beliefs/attitudes

f. For community participation in the assessment:

• i. Assure complete voluntary participation
• ii. Protect anonymity when you can. If not, maintain rigorous standards of confidentiality.

g. RESEARCH other similar projects to get ideas for how to proceed.

2) Develop goals and objectives: These two are the guiding forces for your entire project. You will need to refer to these for each action you take.

a. After compiling the data from your assessment, you can analyze the results looking for core themes and patterns. Summarize the quantitative and qualitative data in order to discover the needs of the community. Afterwards, write goals and objectives for each of the community's needs that you are able to address with the current project.

b. Some questions you should consider are: what problems can be reasonably addressed with the current community members and potential collaborators? Is this the right season (literally spring, summer, fall or winter) to tackle this problem? How should we prioritize projects?

3) Planning: In this part, you are answering the question, how can this community be mobilized?

a. Assemble a core team of leaders that will coordinate the entire project. Keep this team relatively small: 4-6 members. The core team needs to be organized, committed and most of all enthusiastic.

b. Create a plan and timeline: Sketch out a time line with appropriate dates, spaced well to accommodate fundraising needs;

c. Make sure your plan meets your goals and objectives; revise if necessary.

d. Create teams (with community organizers, collaborators, and participants) who will tackle specific parts of the project; try to work with individual's strengths.

• i. When contacting collaborators, volunteers and participants, know the culture of your community. Do phone calls work better than email in this situation? Can we use Facebook to organize meetings?

e. Hold regular core team meetings for planning.

4) Fundraising:
a. In pairs, go to local community members, national organizations, local businesses or any other potential funder and ask exactly for what you need; nothing less.

b. Take time to listen to your potential funder; most people want to give; they just want their own story to be heard first.  practice coffee diplomacy

c. Organize FUN fundraisers, based on the theme of your project, if possible.

5) Take Action: Put your plan into action to meet your goals and objectives.
a. Organize the necessary short-term volunteers and plan for work parties or work sessions, whichever your particular requires.

b. Always have an agenda or work plan and a presider. You need one point-person at each work party or work session who knows the overall plan, someone people can turn to with questions as they arise.
c. Have snacks and water. You can get these donated for your event.

d. If possible, show up with gifts for participants and recipients.

e. Hold ceremonies and hold rituals (Have a project Launch party, an opening ceremony, closing ceremony, blessing of land, project blessing, any ritual that your project calls for)

f. Keep it fun; You need a 'fun raiser' at each work party, someone whose sole job is to keep things enjoyable for the participants.

g. Applaud yourself (send press releases to local newspapers, high schools, churches). Get the word out! And celebrate your community project along the way.

h. Send periodic feedback to participants through Facebook, email, e-newsletters; keep enthusiasm high!

There is one last ingredient that can make your community project especially successful and rewarding: pay it forward. Partner with the community you are serving to look for another community that needs the help of all of you. As part of your community project, together make a donation of money, resources, or time in their direction.
Finally, keep your team energetic with an inspiring mission and message! Come from the heart and the urge to serve and surely social change will come to your community.

How to Cultivate Mindfulness through Your Connection to Nature

There is weather in Seattle, not just rain. Someone told me, when I first moved there, that all the glorious sunshine we have for days on end all summer long, would simply end one day. As if someone turned the faucet on and forgot to turn it off.

Puget Sound

Well, it does rain in Seattle, but not just any rain. There are MANY different kinds of rain in the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes, we are wrapped in a damp blanket of drizzle. It took awhile after I moved there, but the rain and I are finally developed a relationship. We bonded.


Sometimes, it is simply a steady springkling, not too hard. The kind of rain that when it hits the hood of your REI-Gore-Tex-Rain-Jacket, it sounds just like rain hitting your tent as you sleep in the rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington.

I often spent the day at Seward Park, the only state park left within the city limits of Seattle that still has old growth forest. Seward Park sits on a peninsula of sorts that juts out into Lake Washington, so it is surrounded by water on three sides. Well, make that four sides- water from above as well. You can walk the perimeter of the park, along the lake, and you can walk in the midst of the forest on trails that take you back a hundred years or so into wilderness, into wildness.


Bald eagles still nest at Seward Park and I often saw one. Since many days are shrouded in mist, sometimes I could not really tell if it was an eagle or not, but I could tell that it was an enormous soaring bird. That is one of the benefits of Seattle weather...it blurs the real with the surreal...so my bird becomes an eagle for me, if only for the day. A small gift to soothe my soul.

The rain here protects us, reminds us to retreat every once in a while, to slow down, to be present in each and every moment. November rain provides the advent of our season of contemplation. The rain is a reassurance, a constant. You know that no matter what you do each day, the rain will be there- comforting- like an old friend. In Seattle, you can rely on the rain.


Before I lived in Seattle I lived in the high desert of Walla Walla, WA. I remember writing to my grandparents on the east coast: “We don’t get weather here. It’s just sunny, blue sky everyday. I’ve been here two months and I have not seen one cloud yet.” I said this, almost as a complaint, wishing for just a little bit of dark relief from the relentless sun. 

Columbia River Gorge

I discovered the meaning of Big Sky when I moved to eastern Washington. The rain gets trapped on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, so eastern Washington is a veritable desert. I learned to appreciate the many different shades of brown: deep, rich earthy browns- the color of the fields when the dirt has been turned over after the harvest. Golden light brown, the color of the wheat as it sways silently across the Palouse, juxtaposed with the bright sun and deep blue sky, where you can see for miles and miles in any direction. No large evergreen trees, not many trees period, but lots of sagebrush. You grow to love sagebrush when you live in the open desert.


There is so much healing in our connection to nature, in our connection to the landscape around us: so much mystery and peace. I experienced this myself over a decade ago when I moved to Washington state. I was drawn to the wide-open spaces and I cherish them. For 15 years in my Sociology classes, I assigned the wonderful book Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams. One of the themes of the book is our healing and spiritual connection to nature, and the importance of having a sense of place, a connection to the land. A dear environmental sociologist friend first shared this book with me, and my life has never been the same. He has since died from lung cancer, though he never ever smoked. He was a “down-winder,” a victim of the nuclear testing ground of Hanover, WA to the west of Walla Walla.


Over the years, my students have come from a wide variety of ages and backgrounds, but they all have resonated with the idea of a spiritual connection to nature. Almost every person has had a story of a sacred encounter in nature. Some described how a love of the ‘outdoors’ was often cultivated in them from childhood on. We discussed how connecting with the Earth, for some unknown reason, brings us into a larger, deeper connection with our God and brings us into a deeper connection with our inner self, our soul.


Living out in the Pacific Northwest, you have no choice but to connect with your surroundings. The contradictions in the landscape between the east and west side of the state speak volumes, and you are propelled to become mindful of who you are and become aware of where you are.

Mt. Rainier and Seward Park to the left

When it is not raining in Seattle, the Cascade Mountains call to you from the east and the Olympic Mountains call to you from the West.

Mt. Rainier, a 14,400 foot volcano looms valiantly above the city, humbling and awing us all at once. On a sunny day, Mt. Rainier causes more traffic jams than a fender bender...one simply must stare and Pay Attention. The beauty we find in nature reminds us of that as well- to be Awake in our lives to the beauty in others.

 
These have been the themes that nature has taught me so far: to become awake, to pay attention to the mystery of life, but to also remember to retreat, slow down, and reflect. My connection to the land, and to nature, has provided me with these life lessons and so I honor God and what He has created in return.

How to Have Beautiful Skin

Did you know that many nutrients that are crucial to excellent brain function are the very same nutrients that give us vibrant, radiant skin? Read the following story to hear how they are connected.

I love to do research, not every does. In fact, some people dread it. But I have fond memories of combing through the library stacks to find articles relating to my dissertation topic and then spending hours reading them to find the threads of commonality. So, when I was faced with the onset of a (rather unslightly) facial skin condition this past fall, what does someone like me do? RESEARCH! And lots of it.

I was officially diagnosed with rosacea and peri-oral dermatitis, but I was not satisfied with the standard treatment for these diseases (oral and topical antibiotics). I know from my years of studying natural health that the skin is an organ of elimination, like the kidneys and digestive tract. And if something is showing up on your face, it usually means that something pretty important is happening on the inside. Moreover, a skin rash is quite literally inflammation, so I needed to get to the cause and the cure for inflammation. What I found out changed my approach to this problem completely.

Did you know that many nutrients that are crucial to excellent brain function are the very same nutrients that give us vibrant, radiant skin? I was so surprised to discover in my research that it all starts in the WOMB: the same layer of tissue from which the brain is derived is also the source of the skin! So, naturally, there is a very strong connection between the two structures in our bodies.

So, what are those nutrients that feed both the brain and beautiful skin?

To keep this simple I will only tell you part of the answer. In other articles, I will relate more about the anti-inflammation eating plan, which covers more of what you'll need to eat for maximum brain function and beautiful skin. The following four nutrients will minimize wrinkles, smooth out skin tone, reduce sagging, and add overall glow to your skin. To find much more detailed information and additional resources on this topic, I suggest you read Dr. Nicholas Perricone's various books on skincare from which I derived some of the facts listed below.

1)            Water. You have heard this a hundred times, but I have tried it for myself: the minimum amount of water needed for beautifully hydrated skin is eight glasses a day. I think ten glasses is even better. Not only does water hydrate skin, but it also flushes harmful toxins out of the body, toxins which are causing skin to look old and sallow.

2)            Good fats. It is a myth that a fat-free diet is good for you. You need to ingest good fats in order to burn and release the bad fats that you have consumed, even in the distant past. The good fats consist of essential fatty acids such as flax oil, oils found in fish especially salmon, and olive oil. You can also add coconut oil, avocado, and raw nuts to your food plan. Think about it: you can't have delightfully soft skin without some oil lubricating your system.

3)            Antioxidants. Any fruit or vegetable with very bright colors tends to have high levels of anti-oxidants, but choosing berries such as blueberries every morning with breakfast keeps it simple. And of course, ingest lots of Vitamin C (3,000-6,000 mg), a water soluble anti-oxidant found in many fruits and vegetables. Finally, alpha lipoic acid is considered to be the mother of all anti-oxidants because it is water and fat soluble and very powerful. It is hard to obtain this one via foods, so a high quality supplement is best.

4)            DMAE. Eating salmon (only wild Alaskan salmon contains DMAE) on a daily basis is a good idea because it is the highest source of this natural compound. DMAE is not only excellent for memory and overall brain health, but can actually lift the skin on your face naturally, greatly minimizing sagging.

Try to consume these four food items each day and notice the change in your appearance over the course of a few weeks. While you are feeding yourself high-quality brain food, you are also nurturing your skin. Personally, I started eating canned Wild Alaskan salmon for breakfast each day, covered with ground flax and chia seeds (yup, like the Chia Pet, which happen to be super high in iron), sprinkled with flax or olive oil and sea salt, and a small side serving of blueberries. An unconventional breakfast, yes, but it wakes me up better than coffee ever did.

Finally, you can put it all together by applying these nutrients to your facial skin. Many products are available that contain Alpha Lipoic Acid, DMAE and Vitamin C for topical application. I have literally seen the redness and rash disappear from my face through this regimen. I hope it helps you too!

Singing from the Heart

Today my son’s 5th grade class sang to the elders at a local nursing home. Later, I saw their music teacher who said the concert was fantastic and that several audience members were so touched that they cried. I know those tears. I call that kind of crying “truth crying,” when you are hear something so pure, that you are reminded of the truth of who you really are, and of the love in your own heart.

I knew their concert would be great even before I heard about it at pick-up today. Yesterday, I was lucky enough to accompany this same class on the pig heart dissection field trip, where the lab instructions read to cut the pig heart in half like a bagel (a bagel??? not quite). I don’t know what it was about this lab that got the kids singing. Maybe it was being told that the pig heart is most similar in size and type to the human heart. Maybe it was just touching and holding an actual heart in their hands. Whatever it was, on the way home, they gave the six adults on that school bus a spontaneous dress rehearsal of their concert.

Though they sang loudly, they were not shouting the lyrics like many children their age do. And they were actually in tune with each other, which was very pleasing to the ear. The pure love and joy emanating from their voices completely lifted my spirits and I found myself unable to stop smiling, even while trying to sing along with them. That is the power of music; music is the messenger from the abode of the Heart.

So, I know what those elders felt like today. They were responding to these children giving so freely of themselves, singing directly from the Heart.

Thank you Park Forest Elementary for giving our children the opportunity to help other people in this way!

The Mother's Day Report Card: Acknowledging Invisible Labor

This spring, I watched with great pride and admiration as my children brought home stellar reports cards and received glowing remarks from their teachers; my husband received the same during his annual review at work. I am a stay-at-home mom now, after 14 years as a sociology professor, and I thought, “Where is my report card? When do mothers get evaluated and their good work acknowledged?”

So, this year for Mother’s Day, I have asked my family to make me a report card, to literally create one on the computer with all the pertinent categories (outlined below) and then give me some grade and a narrative report (I want the real deal!). Just coming up with the myriad categories for them to use was an instructive exercise for me; even I was unaware how much invisible labor I accomplish on a daily or weekly basis.

In any given family (or community or organization), it is wise to consider what works needs to get done for the household to run well and then divide it up fairly amongst family members. It seems best to play on people’s strengths and utilize their particular talents. This method works to some extent, but there is always a residual category that is called invisible labor, which includes repetitive tasks that are unpaid, usually undervalued, and most often done by women. Invisible labor is denoted as such because it goes largely unnoticed by those who benefit most from it. Invisible labor also includes mental and emotional work, which are inherently obscured.

Here is a list of examples of invisible labor: Remembering to make (and keep) doctor, dentist, eye doctor, and veterinary appointments for each member of the family; Arranging for playdates for children, and making time to get to know the parents/mothers of said playdates; Remembering that the car/van inspection is due this month and scheduling the appointment; Buying thank-you cards for teachers, grandparents, etc and then supervising children actually writing those thank you cards; Noticing that the cable bill is wrong and spending 25 minutes on hold waiting to talk to the cable company; Keeping up correspondence with out of town extended family members (sending out photos of kids; alternatively, updating the family blog); Reminding the children to take their vitamins, allergy medicine, etc; Sensing that something is wrong with your children at school, and spending an afternoon or two trying to figure out what it is.

Invisible labor alone deserves its own report card; the women who do invisible labor deserve to brought into the light and their work openly acknowledged as a important part of the running of any household (or any organization for that matter). Imagine for a minute what would happen if all the mothers in the world or women in general ceased- even for just ONE day- doing all their hidden tasks? I do not think it is too drastic to say that some households, communities, and organizations might literally stop functioning.

So, if you choose to make you mom a Mother’s Day Report card, here are some categories to consider (not in any particular order). Each category carries with it some invisible labor.
A) Food-related: cooking, grocery shopping, lunch-making or remembering to update lunch money at school.
B) Housecleaning: vacuum, dust, bathrooms, kitchen, basement, etc. etc.
C) Laundry: washing, putting away, changing sheets regularly.
D) Outside: gardening, growing food, herbs, flowers.
E) Health: scheduling doctor/dentist/eye doctor visits; taking children to them, scheduling exercise for family, cooking whole foods.
F) Stuff: buying household stuff (i.e. clothes for kids, towels for the bathroom), getting rid of stuff (i.e. organizing yard sales), cleaning out stuff.
G) Community Work: scheduling playdates, dinners with other families, making phone calls.
H) Activities: children’s sports, activities, family events, birthday parties.
I) Repairs: household, autos, items.
J) Vehicles: repair, maintenance, filling with gasoline.
K) Love: snuggling, reading books, playing catch.
L) Other: things that only your mother does.

Honor your mom or the women in your life today with a glowing report card! Better yet, decide which chores you can take over for her this year!

The Stress of Too Many Choices

Today I became completely overwhelmed (and quite stressed) by too many choices, and thus too many decisions to make. From 2010-2013, I was privileged to teach a class at Penn State called Action Methods for Stress Management (KINES082). One of the concepts we learn in this class is that in U.S. culture, we actually derive quite a bit of stress from having too many choices.

Think about it: we have a myriad of choices we can or need to make on a weekly, daily or potentially hourly basis. Some of which are very important, while others are very mundane: which bank should I choose? which doctor? which cereal? What sport should I encourage in my child? What club should I join at Penn State? What class should I take? and on and on. Having variety is one of the great advantages of living in an affluent and free society. Surprisingly, it can also be one of the drawbacks.

My husband was in the Peace Corps in Paraguay for two years and I lived there with him for 7 months. Rural Paraguay is NOT a place of abundant choices. Yet, I felt the most content and stress-free in my life while living there. With fewer consumer goods to care for, I had less to fix or clean. With limited options for entertainment, my choices were often made for me. With virtually no grocery store to roam in, the food available at the corner market and what we grew ourselves would suffice.

With too many choices to face, our brains become simply overloaded. What is the scientific recommendation? Literally take a mental vacation: read a novel or magazine, daydream, take a walk in the woods. It works. It gives our brains time to discharge all the frenzied mental activity and reset itself to a more restful place.

By mid-day I had become completely frazzled and had to take my own advice: I took a break and ventured off to my special spot at Shingletown Gap. One hour was all I had. Sitting next to the tumbling stream, with only the sound of the wind, the water, I could feel my own breathing.

The brief respite enabled me to recalibrate; to re-establish my own list of true priorities. I gathered the space I needed to later become truly vulnerable with my family and have a little breakdown of tears (which my husband calls a break-open). At the same time, my walk gave me a sense of gratitude for all the options that exist in this society. From a more grounded place, I can say no thank you to some, and gleefully accept others.

The Power of a small group of committed citizens: the birth of Project H.O.P.E.

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In fall of 2005, I was asked to teach a class called Applied Sociology and I intended to take the title literally. Each week, I asked myself, how can I get these 15 college students more hands-on involvement in the local community? This course focused on how to assess the health and needs of a community, and how to attempt to fulfill their needs.

One evening, I was sitting down to meditate. I had a pen and paper nearby as I usually do to capture insights, or more realistically, to write down a to-do list, so I can actually relax into meditation. I realized before closing my eyes, that I did have a question on my mind, so I simply posed that question: “What can I do with my class tomorrow?” I was truly only focused on the next day’s class, and was unprepared for what happened next.

When I closed my eyes, I literally saw Project H.O.P.E. (helping other people and the earth) unfold before me. I saw my class go to our little local Catholic school (St. Michael School) and conduct interviews: asking students, faculty, and staff about what improvements they would like to see in their school. I then saw us and many others creating a beautiful garden in the front of the school, fixing up the playground, and painting the inside hallways; just simply beautifying a school that did have the extra resources to do so on their own.

My immediate reaction was to say, “Have you lost your mind? I am not doing all this!” But it quickly became clear to me that I would not be doing anything; I just needed to facilitate the process and let it unfold as planned. Moreover, I would have to believe in the power of a “small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” (--Margaret Mead)

I still did not intend to follow through on this ‘crazy’ idea. In fact, I completely dismissed it as unrealistic. However, I did take my class to St. Michael School that week to conduct the interviews and outside analysis for our assessment assignment. When we returned to our class room to debrief the exercise, I was utterly astonished by MY students’ reaction. The first words out of their mouths were, “Dr. D, we HAVE to DO this project! We can’t just go there and get their hopes up and not follow through!” Now is when I began to realize that the divinely-inspired plan I saw in meditation was going to unfold whether I wanted it to or not.

I will never forget that day in the classroom: their eagerness was contagious! They began to brainstorm ideas at once and we had the entire year’s worth of work fleshed during that one class session.

Our intention was to build community relations between our college and their grade school; beautify their school with gardens, murals and playground improvements; and “Pay it Forward” by partnering with the grade school to raise money for another Catholic school in Mississippi that had been entirely wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.

By the end of the day, we had our Kick-off party planned. Within three weeks, we were going to have an ice-cream party at their school, and unfold our ideas for the project. I will never forget Carla getting on her phone right there in the classroom to call Vale Wood Dairy about donating all the ice cream we would need for our event. (I can still see Carly, Moe, and Renee dishing out ice cream that day!)

We wanted to go there bearing gifts so Michelle offered to solicit sports equipment donations from her softball team and the rest of athletics, while Anna quickly researched buying pencils for each student with our two names on them to demonstrate our unity. Without delay, Neil stepped up to organize the equipment we’d need to eventually create these gardens.

In the end, the main Project H.O.P.E. team that worked together for the rest of the year consisted of Michelle, Anna, Neil and myself. By late April of the following year, we had raised over $3000; completed the gardens (we built two-foot high stone garden walls which enclosed two large 9foot by 9foot garden plots); with the art skills of one of the moms, we created an enormous mural which covered an entire hallway; fixed up the playground; organized dozens of students, local community members, faculty and various student groups to participate in the work parties; and finally sent $1000 to Saint Clare School in Mississippi to help rebuild their school.

Throughout the many months of service work, we were sustained by the energy and enthusiasm of that first class that said, ‘hey, we need to DO this!” and that was a call that a few committed citizens could not ignore.
Thanks to all of you former students who still inspire me to this day!

Easy Ways to Explore the Wilderness Within

In the final component of the technology-free/nature journal assignment, I asked students to write about their experiences with the “wilderness within.” What is nice about this part of the assignment is that it can be done anywhere at any time. If it is cold or snowy or rainy outside, or you just don’t feel like heading outside, you can simply create a special spot somewhere inside. Maybe it’s seat with a nice view of the outside, maybe it is a clean corner of your bedroom; whatever works for you can be a pleasant contemplative spot indoors or out.

The questions I asked my students to write about in their journals concerning the Wilderness Within are ones you can ask yourself after spending any time in nature or a few quiet moments inside.

Here they are: What about your ‘spot’ invokes special appreciation in you? How does your body react after 20 minutes in nature or in quiet? How does your mind react? Explore your answer. What is your emotional reaction to spending time in nature or in quietude? Trace the changes in your emotional state over time. Does the weather/climate have an effect on your mood today? What kind of weather & what kind of effect. How does it feel to spend 20 minutes or so away from all technology? Do you miss it? Do you feel relieved? Investigate your reaction. Think about what you value in your life while in your ‘spot.’ Now think about what you actually spend the most time doing during the day. Do these lists match/overlap substantially? Explore your answer. How has spending time in nature changed you, if at all?

Just to give you a sense of some of the possible connections that can be made, here is a small sample of my students' “aha moments.”

Power of Nature: “I was in awe when I saw the (giant) willow tree and got to sit under it. I feel like it represents such strength & power and I love the indestructible feeling I feel when I sat under it….It was so relaxing and peaceful I feel like I could have fallen asleep…My spot captured my heart because I felt like I was being guarded by someone. I feel like nothing could hurt me at the time I was in my spot….I almost felt more confident and headstrong about life in my spot.”

God: “When I was in my spot, I just thought about God’s amazing ways to make something so big & powerful like a tree!”

While riding on the bus to a match at Juniata: “I was looking out my window and all I saw in the distance were mountain ranges among mountain ranges. They looked so strong and stable, tree covered and massive. I now understand why mountains represent strength, solitude, and stability for so many people throughout the world. Also, why the mountain pose is such a simplistic yet strong pose.”

The terrain in our own minds and bodies can mirror our experiences in life, so you can use these questions to get to know your inner landscape a little better and help you navigate the circumstances of life.

In Honor of Earth Day: four little lessons from a real earth hero

I was going to write today’s blog about the Wilderness Within (which will come tomorrow), until last night, when I saw my husband reading to his daughter before sleep. He had just come home from another jam-packed day at work, helped coach his son's little league team's first game, and finally had his "play-night" with his daughter.
I mean, I saw him, I really saw him for first time in a long time and realized here is a person who completely exemplifies “helping other people and the earth” and I get to live with him! Truly, I am in awe of what this man accomplishes and gives in the space of a single day.

My husband is the Director of the Campus Sustainability Office for Penn State (all 24 campuses). He is also an amazing dad of two school age children, a fantastic husband, a (soccer, basketball, baseball) coach, a friend, a son, a noon-time basketball player, amongst many other roles.

Since blogs are supposed to be short and pithy, I am going to extract just four little lessons from his life that make him a true hero, as well as true earth hero! In his life and work, he has embodied theses teachings:

1) Make Going Green fun: “Whoever has the most fun wins!”that has been our personal and professional motto for 15 years. We decided that for environmentalism to be successful we had to making going green as much fun or moreso than consuming. As much as possible, Erik uses stories, games, laughter, and especially humor to engage his many disparate audiences.
For example, amidst all the presentations he does for adults, he took time out recently to talk to all the first and second grade classes at Park Forest Elementary, including his daughter's class. He talked to them about how they can be Earth Heroes and save energy, water, and resources. In the midst of his talk, he had set his phone to ring so he could receive a pretend phone call from Mother Earth asking for their help! Needless to say, all the 6 and 7 year olds absolutely loved hearing from Her! And to this day when they see him up at the school, they ask about Mother Earth.

2) Make Going Green profitable: the whole impetus behind Erik getting his MBA (after being an Environmental Studies-Sociology double major) was because he knew (long before it became popular) that organizations and institutions were more likely to change if he could demonstrate for them an improvement in their fiscal bottom line as a result of going green. He went to graduate school, got the tools he needed to make his case, and has been doing so ever since.

3) “Family first”. Schedule play time with your kids: Wednesday night is playtime with his daughter; Friday night with his son. Erik has been upholding these weekly playdates with his children for years, and they eagerly look forward to it. Date your wife: spend time with her (buying gifts works well too). Coach or assistant coach, if you can. Erik’s example illustrate that loving his family isn’t just a feeling, it is a choice of how he spends his time.

4) Come from gratitude: This is his personal adage. He is the first to recognize & honor all those who have supported him over the years, including all the Grace that streams into his life to aid him in his endeavors. Even though he gets up every day at 5:30Am to do the part of his work that requires writing in solitude, he then makes time to meditate and be thankful.

Thank you Erik for being a true Earth Hero, and one who really does help other people and the earth! You are an inspiration!
Who is YOUR Earth Hero? HONOR the earth hero you know today!!

Three Simple Ways to Connect with Nature: finding your special spot

As children, many of us naturally adopted a ‘special spot’ somewhere outside where we felt peaceful or playful, or maybe it was place we went to when we needed a little solace. Throughout the years, I asked my students about their special childhood place. Nearly every student fondly recalled their ‘special spot.’ For me, my special spot consisted of playing in the creek that ran through my neighborhood and spending countless hours floating ‘leaf boats’ down the stream until my mother called me in for dinner.

In part 2 of the technology-free day assignment, students are asked to spend 6 separate occasions in nature, preferably finding for themselves a special spot. Each time, they need to spend a minimum of 20 minutes alone in nature, without the use of their cell phones, or iPods. They are also given journal questions: those that pertain to “Wilderness Without” and those that pertain to “Wilderness Within.”

Anyone can find a special spot. Families can enjoy time in nature and get to know their place at the same time. Students in a class of any age can also engage in this project.

Here are three easy ways to connect with nature:
1) Find your own special spot: a place that you like to go outside in nature, maybe it is simply in your own backyard; maybe your special spot is at a local park; maybe you are lucky and you can still visit your special childhood place.
2) Promise to go there once a week for the next several months and spend at least 20 minutes there.
3) Use the following questions to get to know your special spot and write down the answers in a nature journal. Wilderness Without Questions: How much sunlight does my ‘spot’ get? How does it look in the morning, afternoon, evening? Is there water in my ‘spot’? Take one day and track the source. Orient yourself in your ‘spot.’ Find north, east, south, and west. From which direction is the wind blowing? What kinds of sounds do you hear? Which ones are nearby? Which are further away? Are they all ‘natural’ noises? Describe the soil in your spot today. (i.e. crumbly, moist, dry, flaky). Are there trees in your ‘spot?’ Are they native trees. Are there any wildflowers? Do you see signs of animal life? Insect life? Describe them. Are there any edible plants, resident or migratory birds? What kinds of rocks are there?

How does this undertaking “help other people and the earth” you may wonder? Well, for one thing, it may help you and YOU are part of the earth, by giving you a place of peace and repose. And secondly, it helps us to get to know our place on this planet, and we are more likely to care for what we know and love.

Tommorow, you can learn the Wilderness Within questions!

The Technology-Free day experiment

“What?! A technology-free day? I did not get a vote in this!” is how my ten-year old son woke me up on Sunday for our technology-free day. Truthfully, our tech-free day consisted of no TV, no computer, and no cellphones. We still used a CD player, our land-line phone, and my mp-3 player for my first ‘run’ in nearly a decade.

Needless to say, my son was not very enthusiastic about technology-free day. He quickly warmed to the idea when we decided to play over an hour’s worth of Monopoly, but his enthusiasm waned in the afternoon when he realized we were not going to back off of our tech-free plans and he wanted to play computer games. Indeed, he was miserable about it.

My husband on the other hand was thrilled with the idea and could not stop extolling the benefits of the day. He happily “unplugged,” and put the Blackberry that he uses for work on a shelf until Monday morning. Time seemed to expand for him as he used it to go outside and double-dig half of our garden, preparing it for summer vegetables.

I pondered their dissimilar reactions and realized that a tech-free day is going to have different impacts on individuals depending on how much they use technology during the week, and the WAY they utilize it. For my husband, using communication tools is part of his job. He emails on his blackberry, occasionally looks things up on the web, and spends countless hours on the computer sending emails or creating presentation materials. By Friday, he is experiencing ‘communication overload.’

My son, on the other hand, gets comparatively very little “screen time”. During school, they do occasionally use laptops, to create their ‘zines for example. But at home, he plays computer games or Playstation about 5-6 hours per week. Otherwise, he is playing sports or running around outside or reading a book. For him, using the computer is a special treat, something to look forward, a variant activity that uses a disparate section of his brain. Not yet overloaded on Facebook and email, for him, playing computer games can actually be a mental reprieve.

I think there is a missing link here; the story is incomplete. In the original assignment for my Environmental Sociology students, they were asked to substitute their time using technology with time spent in nature and I think that experience in the natural world is the key to making a tech-free day really successful.
For instance, my husband used his tech-free time to dig in the garden. It wasn’t until my son went outside in the woods with his buddy that he forgot about tech-free day. There is something about putting the two pieces together that matters.
A lesson learned: next time we have a tech-free day, make sure we pair it with something fascinating in nature too.
Stay tuned: tomorrow, I will write about the rest of the assignment- exploring wilderness within.

Going tech-free for a day and having fun!

Finding Tranquility in Busy Times: technology-free days and an experiment in awareness
“My technology-free day was a nightmare,” exclaims one student at the very beginning of her final presentation on technology, nature, and her inner experiences of both. This exclamation has amused me so much that I have repeated it often through the day when describing this project to other students and colleagues at Saint Francis University, a small university tucked into the hills of the Allegheny mountains in central Pennsylvania. As part of the curriculum in my Environmental Sociology class, students are asked to journal on two different but related kinds of experiences: two technology-free days and 6 times in nature, in solitude without cell phones or iPods. Their reactions to these types of experiences are both startlingly profound and surprisingly life changing, but in actuality, life-enhancing. IN this blog entry, I will talk about their experiences with technology-free days. In another entry, I will write about their nature reflections.
For this assignment, I have given them some instruction, but I have left it up to them how they want to define a technology-free “day.” Knowing how addicted most of my undergraduate students are to their cell phones, laptops with Face book, and iPods, I am loathe to tell them how long they should go without such supports. Some students really stretch themselves and define a day as an actually day- from sun-up until after dinner. Others can only go so far as to define one hour as their ‘day.’ I ask them to consider the following questions and write about them in their journals.
Technology-Free Days
How does it feel to spend a day without technology? What effect does it have on your mood? Your mind? Your emotions?
What differences do you notice between a technology day & a technology-free day? Similarities? What are some things you like about a technology-free day & why? What did you not like and why?
How has being technology-free affected your social interactions? Explain.
Please describe any other observations.

In our culture, most of us have become dependent on communicatin technology in some form or another. And most of us have become dependent on that technology without being aware of how much we rely on it. For example, we text friends, we blog (!) and we ‘facebook’ (and create a new verb in the process). With college students, I am amazed, and secretly touched, by how often they call their parents. Many students claimed to call their parents every single day. Others said they called their parents, usually their mom, between each & every class. Some students complained about missing meetings or practices without technology (apparently, their schedule changes each day & this is how they are informed).
On the other hand, I am also dismayed by how much computer interaction has replaced face-to-face interaction with college-age students who live right down the hall from each. They report to me that they might IM their friend, rather than simply walk down the hall to say hi.

I have used this assignment for hundreds of students over several years in dozens of classes. I am always amazed by the insightful awareness this simple exercise brings to them about their social interaction and their lifestyle.
The following are a SELECT FEW of their personal reactions:
Being Present: In a day without technology, you are completely concentrated on what you are doing & who you are with. You have no distractions to take you away from that place. My mind was into what I was doing.
Becoming more social: “this activity made me more social because in order to see what time to go to dinner and the time I had to go up to people and ask them instead of texting them or instant message. I also notice(d) how beautiful this campus really is”
‘Technology-free days (have) improved my social interactions. I engage in more conversations with my friends & girls in my dorm than just sitting in the room talking on instant message and through texting. Talking face to face with people is more personal than just sending IMs and texts
Waste of Time: “Ultimately, it wastes my time. The thought crossed my mind, ‘What do I really get accomplished with using technology?’”
Addiction to technology: During a 7.5 hour bus ride to her basketball match, without technology, “I didn’t think I was going to make it. When we stopped at our first rest stop, I was tempted to ask the bus driver to open the bottom of the bus, but instead my teammate encouraged me and I decided not to. When we got to the hotel, I immediately reached in my book bag for my phone because I really wanted to see my missed calls, text messages, and voicemails. I felt like a drug addict. I realized how obsessed I was with my cell phone.”
(without my phone), I did not know what to do with myself. I felt like I was going crazy. It definitely mixed my emotions up and had me feeling sad at some points, but then again happy because I accomplished not using my devices on the bus.”
Spending time with family: Ons student extended the Tech-free day to her family: “As I was sitting in the living room yesterday, the phone rang. I glanced up and looked at our television. Our caller id comes up in every TV in the house. Just as I looked back down at my laptop, my sister instant-messaged me and asked who was calling. It was that moment that I realized how severely dependent my family is on modern technology. Later that night, I told my mother the story. She knows that my sister & I live in separate rooms and just message each other if we need something. So I asked her if for one night, the four of us could do something as a group. She thought this was a great idea!
They went on to play 2 games of SORRY and 1 game of SCATTERGORIES. “To our surprise, we had fun…..Who knows! Maybe this will become our new tradition!”
On Sundays, our family usually engages in on our own technology-free day! We had gotten aware from the practice, even though we love what games and entertainment emerge on that day. But tomorrow, we are re-committing to the practice in honor of Earth Day. We will save electricity and have some fun with each at the same time!

Sustainability and You: a kid's perspective

Today on Sustainability Now Radio, join host Peter Buckland as he interviews principal Donnan Stoicovy and teachers and students from the Park Forest Elementary School
How do you teach environmental intelligence and an ethic of environmental care?
Join Rainier Foley-DeFiore in the 5th grade and his teachers from Park Forest Elementary as they try to answer this questions from many perspectives, including gaining the wisdom from "the mouths of babes." The radio show that brings global and local sustainability issues to central Pennsylvania. Every Friday from 4 to 5 pm on TheLion.fm 90.7fm WKPS.

The Great Bread Exchange

When I first moved to Seattle in 1996, I had no idea how daunting it would be to move to an enormous city, 3000 miles from home, and not know a soul. I found a wonderful little one-bedroom bungalow with a spectacular view of the Mt. Rainier and all the Cascade Mountains. This stunning view of nature was truly solace for my soul; however, I longed to have some friendships as well.
So.... I started baking bread: zucchini bread, banana bread, French baguettes, you name it.
I could not wait for the neighbors to welcome me, which might not ever happen in a large anonymous city like Seattle. Instead, every few days, I knocked on a new door and made a new acquaintance. I made my first real friend in Seattle this way, a single mom who lived across the street from me.
I also got to know two of the most interesting women I would ever meet. Two of my neighbors were elderly African American women who lived side by side. One of them, it turns out, was an original Rosie the Riveter. She came all the way to Seattle from the South during World War II to become a welder for the war effort, and never left. Later, she raised her family there.
I visited with these two women regularly and hearing their stories about leaving their homes so far away and making a new life in Seattle made me feel more confident about my own choices. I also got to taste and enjoy some of their bread recipes.
Now, I am not saying it was easy to go door to door with my meager offering of homemade bread. On the contrary, before each outing, I had to ready myself with lots of deep bracing and a little pep talk. But, in the end we all benefited from the great bread exchange: I got to meet my neighbors and make friends, they got to share their stories from their past, and we all got to eat some yummy bread!