Water Heaters Wear Out and Things are Fine Anyway

I’d have to guess the water heater’s days are over. If memory serves me, it’s never been replaced in the twenty years I’ve lived in this house. Couple of things: 1. I have this nifty insurance policy where they send someone out to fix it or replace it – and the most I ever have to pay is $55.00. 2. I have a second shower in the pool house. I turned off the power to that unit years ago, but in about 20 minutes, I’ll go check and hopefully there’ll be hot water for bathing. Let me go now – hold that thought. Yup, I’m in business. Just have to move all the kayaking equipment out of the shower and I’m good to go. My fellow employees and customers will appreciate that, I am sure. The service call is scheduled for Monday, between 9-11am. Hope they get here closer to 9, since I’ve got to go to work at noon. It is the “is-ness” of the moment. There’s little reason to not believe it is exactly as it is meant to be.

Speaking of work, what I’ve learned from reading A New Earth is being put into practice there with much success. Customers and co-workers alike are responding to the calm, in the moment Selah that they are faced with. I am able to separate the egos and pain bodies of those who believe by complaining long and loud about things over which I have no control. I am remembering to be the duck with the human mind, the one Tolle talks about where the two ducks are fighting, and then swim away. The duck flaps his wings, and settles right back into being a peaceful duck. He’s not thinking, “I can’t believe he got so close to me! He acts as if this lake is his and his alone! He’s probably over there right now plotting his next move. I’ll show him!”

With regard to ducks with a human mind, I’ve had to rethink participating in Oprah’s message boards due to this individual who reminds me very much of Omarosa of The Apprentice fame, who consistently attacks each and every time I post. I’ve come to realize there’s little value to setting myself up for that sort of abuse, and she’s relentless – probably in no small part to the irrefutable truth that she is likely delusional. So I am flapping my wings and swimming over to the other side of the pond.

On another note, I’m delighted to report that the City of Tampa has once again, outstripped St. Petersburg on being progressive and responsible. In my email today:Tampa Becomes Fifth Florida City to Oppose One of Factory Farming's Worst AbusesTAMPA , Fla. (March 20, 2008)— Tampa joins a growing number of cities supporting the move away from one of the worst forms of factory farm animal abuse. Today, the Tampa City Council approved a resolution to oppose cramming egg-laying hens into tiny battery cages so small the birds can barely move. The resolution states that the Council “opposes battery cage egg production, based on the inherent cruelty of confining egg-laying hens in battery cages,” and further “encourages consumers of eggs not to purchase eggs produced by caged hens.”

Tampa is the fifth Florida city (and eleventh in the nation) to pass a resolution on battery cage confinement. “ Tampa ’s council members should be applauded for taking a stand against one of the most egregious forms of animal abuse,” said Paul Shapiro , senior director of The Humane Society of the United States ’ factory farming campaign. “The confinement of laying hens in battery cages is out of step with mainstream American values, and it‘s time for the egg industry to end this cruelty.”Facts· Tampa joins Hollywood, West Palm Beach, Winter Springs and New Port Richey in passing such a resolution. Florida-based Burger King is moving away from selling eggs from caged hens, as part of a national movement away from supporting battery cage confinement.· U.S. factory farms confine approximately 280 million hens in barren battery cages that are so small, the birds can’t even spread their wings. Each bird has less space than a single sheet of paper on which to live.· While cage-free does not mean cruelty-free, cage-free hens generally have 250-300 percent more space per bird and are able to engage in more of their natural behaviors than are caged hens. While cage free hens may not be able to go outside, they are able to walk, spread their wings, and lay their eggs in nests—all behaviors permanently denied to hens confined in battery cages.

Timeline· February 2008—Safeway announces a far-reaching animal welfare program, including a purchasing preference for cage-free eggs.·

December 2007—Compass Group, the world’s largest food service provider with over 7,500 U.S. clients, begins phasing out cage eggs.·

March 2007—Burger King announces that it has started phasing in cage-free eggs in its North American locations.·

March 2007—Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck announces that he will no longer use cage eggs.·

September 2006—Ben & Jerry’s announces that it will phase out cage eggs in its ice creams.·

May 2005—Whole Foods Market announce that they have ended sales of cage eggs.·

November 2003—The Better Business Bureau rules that it is misleading to label eggs from battery-caged hens as “Animal Care Certified.”

BUY ONE GET ONE FREE FAJITA NIGHT

AND THE PAIN-BODY/EGO FEST

One of the last dates I went on was to Cody’s Roadhouse on a Wednesday, otherwise known as two for one fajita night. It goes without saying the place was jam packed with those who’d called ahead, and those who chose to show up, get a playing card, and hope for the best. We showed up oblivious to the two for one offer. We were told it would be a half hour to forty five minutes before we could be seated. I’ve no issue with waiting, even though Cody’s was not exactly my idea of a fun place to eat. I am vegan. I don’t eat meat, eggs, or dairy. I don’t go to circuses with animal acts and I don’t attend rodeos. I don’t buy new leather, but have old shoes and bags and feel it best to not add them to the landfill, so wear them until they wear out. But I won’t buy any new leather.

I adopted a vegan lifestyle for numerous reasons. Of utmost importance is the environment, and the knowledge that in order for Gaia to recover from the damage we’ve willfully inflicted upon her, I must make sacrifices. Along with that, I truly believe that we are connected to all sentient beings, and as such, are stewards of them, not murderers of them. I believe the only way to end the horrors of factory farming is to vote with my wallet. As such, I don’t contribute in any way to their profits. I am aware that by reducing my meat and dairy consumption, I am making a massive contribution to reducing (and hopefully in my lifetime eliminating) the death by starvation of 60 million of my fellow human beings.

Within the first few minutes, I heard numerous impatient complaints from the egos of those standing nearby. Within the next few minutes, my date joined in the complaining. Then he asked me to return to the host’s podium to verify (read interrupt and make her stress even more than she was already) when we’d be seated. Perhaps he thought she had some very special psychic ability to be able to guess when all the guests would finish consuming mass quantities of dead animals and their byproducts. Against my better judgment I complied with his wishes. Of course the answer was the same.

While waiting, I began to feel the collective pain body around me. It was a tangible presence that only amplified when we were seated. Apparently I was not alone in my sensing of the enormous amount of agony in the immediate area. We were seated next to a booth populated by four morbidly obese women, one of whom tried without success to calm a toddler whose pain body was causing him great discomfort. He wailed, and truly, I could feel how deeply unhappy he felt. Mostly because as I sat watching others around me get served platters of steaks, shrimp wrapped in bacon, salad soggy with mayonnaise based dressings and dripping with shredded cheese, steaming plates of chicken and beef fajitas, and butter laden rolls, I could feel little else other than the suffering of the animals at the moment of their death, and the collective poisoned pain bodies of those whose jobs required them to do the killing.

It was a cacophony emanating from every person in the restaurant, servers and guests alike. I was aware, and watched quietly, listening to snippets of conversations floating about my head, mostly complaints and judgments. The majority of the patrons were, to the naked eye, unhealthy. One man had an oxygen tank, and most were exogenously obese. The noise was deafening, the rank smell of death hung in the air, the pain body expanded like a massive black cloud that enveloped the entire room, like a roach fogger, poisoning everything it touched.
I won’t be returning to Cody’s and within a week I terminated the four year relationship with the man who is apparently oblivious to how much pain it causes me to be in such surroundings. I’d rather be alone than contribute, by default, to the suffering of the animals, those who have to kill them, and the planet.

Vegan is Cheaper

Lately I've been posting in the Oprah boards about Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth about veganism, how important it is to the environment, and how it is the simplest, and best way to reduce one's impact on Gaia.

Surprise! Those of us talking about this enormously important subject have been met time and again with opposition. These are the reasons given:

1. I have been told by my doctor that I MUST consume meat and dairy.

(OK, I'll bite - I'm to assume you do EVERYTHING your doctor tells you to do. )

2. But what about the tomatoes? They are living things too! Who knows what kind of pain they endure!

Ummm yeah. But we are addressing sentient beings with a central nervous system here - and we know that the cows and pigs and chickens who live out their lives in fetid CAFO's are denied the most basic comforts of light, liberty, their young, and ultimately their lives.

3. "I buy all organic products! That's good enough for me!"

Well, ackshully...... the organic label simply means your cow's milk didn't come from a cow who was shotgunned antibiotics, that's all. It doesn't change the reality that she was forcibly bred via artificial insemination, and then had her baby ripped away from her breast around the three day mark. If her baby was a boy, he's destined to be kept in the dark, forcefed milk, never get to feel what it is like to run (to do so creates muscle, and we want our veal tender and milky white, right?) If the calf was a girl, she's destined to Mom's fate of being milked until her production drops and then having some vicious sicko scramble her brains at the end of her usefulness.

4. I've visited all the places my food comes from and it's all very clean, healthy, and humane.

Not unless you boycott fast food restaurants, never buy or consume processed foods, never buy nachos or cheese fries at a baseball game, and don't eat at friends or families homes. Oh, and it is nigh onto impossible to obtain any pork not produced by the Big Guns - Hormel, Smithfield Foods, which increased capacity following the purchase last year of Farmland Foods and Alliance Farms; Premium Standard Farms; Seaboard Farms; Christensen farms; Iowa Select Farms; Prestage Farms; The Pipestone System, which also owns Ellison Meat; Cargill, which has announced plans to exit the state of North Carolina; Goldsboro Hog Farm and the Hanor Company, a Wisconsin-based shareholder in Triumph Foods.

That said, my very favorite response for the "Why I can't go vegan" answer is this one -- Ready???

5. It's more expensive! I can't afford it!!!

So today I conducted an experiment. I pulled a recipe for the classic American Macaroni and Cheese from http://www.cooks.com/ and the vegan version I whipped up last night, courtesy of the http://www.fatfreevegan.com/ (which, by the way, was mind expandingly good. Now since both recipes are copyrighted, and I am all about not ripping off other writers, photogs, or any other creative talents - I will not be reproducing the recipes here. However, I printed them out and went shopping. Using the organic argument, I put together a price list for each dish. The dairy heavy heart clogging model came in at (approx - I couldn't waste time computing the amount of money for the 1/2 teaspoon of paprika....) $10.30. The vegan version came in at $6.35. You do the math.

WHAT IS GOING ON IN MY CORNER OF THE UNIVERSE

Of late I’ve been reading, praying, meditating, studying, observing, learning, seeing, feeling, really focusing on the smallest glimmering bits of truth and beauty, (as if THEY were exclusive of each other!) I’ve also been walking…. with the pack of two… a lot. As you can see by the date of my last entry, I’ve been sidetracked away from blogging, for which I apologize to my loyal and very singular reader (you know who you are…) I am here, now.

Historically books habitually jump off shelves and foist themselves upon me willy nilly (as IF there were no coincidences!) Throughout the years I’ve come to view it as the Universe’s way of letting me know what I am to do next. Well, when Reverend Temple said recently, “if you pray for big things to happen to you, get ready for some big changes!” she was NOT kidding.

In the past, oh, I don’t know…. eight years (Has it been eight years already?) I’ve undergone some major paradigm shifts, truly life changing experiences of the sort that really get your attention and caused me to question everything I thought I knew up to that point. Without resorting to one of those “me and my story” litanies, suffice it to say I hit one of those fork in the road spots in life, and while I may be on the road less travelled, I am so not second guessing my decision.

My road led straight to First Unity Church , a concept I’d resisted for many years. My wily pal Claudia wooed me there with a trip to the Wings Bookstore in its’ previous incarnation when it was located within the church. The bookstore grew, almost as fast as I have, and was relocated to its’ own home on the church campus. See photo

After numerous full price purchases, I’ve succumbed to being a member of the Wings Bookstore Frequent Flyer club (thereby saving 10%) where the ever effervescent manager Sharon Jebens artfully arranges all manner of books, angels, aromatherapy objects, yoga wear, Zen cards, oracle cards, incense, Feng Shui materials, greeting cards, bumper stickers, stones with inspirational sayings, and on and on and on. (If time permitted, I’d make an exhaustive alphabetical list of the fabulous offerings, but I want to get to the tofu of the matter. And that is this – every book I’ve read recently is sending the same message, in different language perhaps, but the same underlying theme of “what it’s all about, Alfie and it is just for the moment we live.” Every single page I turn has reinforced the concept of a collective consciousness, that we create all that we see, experience, our lives, our very lives are formed initially by our thoughts. Our thoughts, negative, positive, and neutral, all become prayers and prayers are always answered. I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the confirmation I am getting about how what is necessary to be happy is to be aware, conscious, present in each and every moment. It’s to see each and every human being (and aren’t those two powerful words interconnected – can’t have one without the other!) through the eyes of the Almighty as perfect, and whole. In that way, I will be surrounded - bathed by love; pure, sweet, love.

Recent influential and mightily uplifting books:

1. The Book, On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, by Alan Watts. Alan writes extensively about our ego, about how the concept of loving your enemies makes perfect sense, about how until we all recognize we all have components of “good” and “bad” and that it is how we view those parts that makes a difference. He writes that if he asked me what happened yesterday, what did I hear, smell, see, taste, etc. that likely my answer would be a thin sketchy outline, and how much better it would be if I could answer, “oh a zillion things but it would take forever to tell you and I am much more interested in what is happening right now.”
2. Of Monkeys and Dragons by Michele O’Donnell. I heard Michele speak at First Unity, bought the book and couldn’t believe what I learned about the how and why of dis-ease and healing. I couldn’t believe finally(!) someone understood how and why I feel the way I do about the medical profession, about illness, about many things…. Too many to mention, but again, the recurring theme that what we believe we see is what will be presented to us. If we choose to see all as through the filter of the eyes of G-d, then that is what we shall see.
3. A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle This is the kind of book I’d like everyone I know to read – not because I want to “change” anyone else, but because it is precisely what the world needs to know to change our collective consciousness for all living creatures up to and including Gaia. Eckhart Tolle addresses our ‘pain bodies’ our egos, and how and why the ego needs to complain, whine, and gossip to get what it needs to stay in control. But only by defeating the ego can I find a way to be present in the moment….and that moment, this moment, is all I have. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow never comes. If I’m sitting around waiting for something to happen, I will surely miss millions of moments. Oh, here’s one from earlier today. I saw a dandelion, as if for the first time in my life. When was the last time I picked a dandelion and blew the tiny wings into the air? A hundred years ago? I looked at that dandelion, and was filled with wonder at its exquisiteness. . Oprah and Eckhart Tolle will be conducting a webcast and I am participating. Please join me!
4. A Complaint Free World by Will Bowen First Unity handed out the bracelets, and I committed to going 21 days without complaining, gossiping, or criticizing. So far, I am working toward the completion of day five. My dear and very bright friend Claudia says it’s a piece of cake for me since I work from home. That may be true. My tests arrive in the form of telephone calls, visits to the post office, driving, grocery stores, etc. And I do admit it likely IS easier for me with limited contact of the co-worker/customer service variety. However, I still could use support from my friends and family – in the form of a gentle smile when something slips from my lips… and my bracelet slips ever so easily onto the other wrist.

So here’s the thing….. I’ve read (Michele O’Donnell AND Eckhart Tolle agree) that seeing violence as in tv shows like CSI and Numbers, illness in the form of tv shows like ER and Grey’s Anatomy, and movies that are of a similar vein is counterproductive for my goal and objective of being happy. That said, I’m dedicated to finding happy uplifting stuff on tv and in books, and movies. So if you have any suggested reading or watching material, please drop me a line or submit a comment. I’d be evah so grateful dahlin’!