LIGHTS OUT

Earth Hour will be 8:30 to 9:30 PM local time

on Saturday, March 28, 2009. For one after-dark hour once a year, electric lights will be turned off in many cities, organizations, homes, and governments.

Think of the energy savings! It may seem like just a demonstration, but think of the progress of Earth Day over the past 40 years. Sydney, Australia had 2.2 million participants in 2008.

The United Nations building has pledged total darkness for tomorrow night. Other places with a concerted effort will conduct star-gazing parties. Are you able to see stars in your sky over your home?

Are you willing to sit in the dark for one hour for Mother Earth?

I will refer you to Wikipedia for more information. Please pass it on. Thanks.

Spring In Her Step

Callie was here yesterday (along with Ruth, Chad, Uncle Zack, and Stephanie). We assembled for a family dinner and time together.

This child constantly amazes me. She walked in the back door, chattering away, looking for the puppies (Lexie and Katie). Then she looked for the drum, then she went out to the game room and asked for the "balls". (We took all the billiard balls from the pool table and put them on the floor.) She walked around the pool table, placing each ball into the pockets. Her maneuvers reminded me of a Sunday comic strip called the "Family Circus". Sometimes, the strip would illustrate the circuitous route that Billy would take going next door...stopping to pick up a rock, eying a trash can lid and stopping to play with it as a shield to his imagined role as a conquering soldier, etc.

Then she wanted to go out back. Everyone sat around on the patio and we watched her go about her explorations. If she tripped and fell, she got back up, dusted her hands off, and continued on. After the patio was fully conquered, she wanted to make her way through the yard. Chad walked her around, with Callie pointing the direction to proceed. I watched them walk around the yard, noticing that as they came to the back fence, Callie wanted to peek over the other side, so they did.

Callie saw that I had a glass of tea. She marched up to me and said "Drink (dink), please." She took big drinks, and some spilled out onto her shirt. This child didn't stop moving, always on the look-out for the puppy. At one time, she couldn't sight Lexie who had gone around the side of the house. "Puppy, puppy, puppy?", while scanning the area. More tumbles, asking to go in and out, looking for GaGa to say "Hi!"; working her way back to the patio...kneel on the floor of the game room, peering out to the patio with her nose and hands pressed to the window pane.

When dinner was served, she sat in her high chair, expertly stabbing her cantaloupe and sausage and vegetables with her fork. Mom and Dad commented on their ambivalent feelings about her dexterious accomplishments--they were proud but also sad that their little girl was making her growing up progress at what seemed to be lightening speed.

Callie has always been a thrill-seeker---never afraid to try something new. And if she hasn't mastered something on the first attempt....she persistently tries again and again.

What a joy it is to experience this sweet child's exploration of her world!

Evolution Revolution

Bill Cosby used to open his stand-up comedy routine with "I started out as a child." Me too. True for us all---not an awakening or an aha moment.

Over the past year I have had time for reflective thought. I have thought about my journey of life...where I started and the experiences of life and persons that have shaped my persona up to this point.

I don't mean for this to sound narcissistic...I remember one moment in my life in my pre-teen years just like it was today. I was standing in front of a mirror, thoughtfully studying my reflection, and wondering who that person REALLY was looking back at me from the mirror. I was aware that I actually did not know that person; and I asked things like "will I ever know her...how can one really know their self..."

None of us will know ourselves as others know us. We are different people at 13, 33, 53, and 73. We open a book, pore through chapter by chapter, and at some point we will close the book. When the book is finished and we think about all that transpired within the various pages, will we be pleased with epilogue, will the book serve as an enlightenment to our souls, will we be better for having read that book?

I'm about to begin Chapter 58. I'm not anxious to reach the end of the book to find out what happens. Each chapter stands alone and piques my interest. I just hope that at completion, the book will have been worth the read!

On The Lookout For The Blues

On my journey across the George Bush this morning, I was traveling slow enough (rush hour--a misnomer if there ever was one!), I spotted a small cluster of bluebonnets on the south side of the toll road. I was surprised to see them so early this year.

They were a welcome sight. I was on the same route last Thursday, but did not see any.

I suppose this means no more freezing weather, even though jacket weather is forecasted for Wednesday through the weekend.

Enjoy your Spring--enjoy your first sighting of the blues this year! I'm sure there will be a "Callie in the bluebonnets" photo op very soon!

One Year

Today is the first anniversary of Clu Flu's death. I have approached this day by concentrating on all the good things this man gave to me. I miss him deeply. And I don't think that will change.

ABC's of Callie B.

Ruth posted "20 on Tuesday". She listed twenty things that are characteristic of Callie. I'm making a list of twenty six things related to Callie. One for each letter of the alphabet. Here we go:

A. Apple of my eye--Callie

B. Beautiful eyes--long, dark lashes (Chad) and her eyes dance whenever she smiles (Ruth)

C. Cute, cute, cute!

D. Determined--Callie plugs away at each new endeavor

E. Entertaining--I could watch her play and go about her business all day long!

F. Funny--She is pleased when others laugh--she loves playing jokes.

G. GaGa! That's my name that Callie gave me.

H. Heart--what ever little empty spaces I have had in my heart, Callie has filled them up.

I. Independent--without being tempermental (yet), Callie tries new things and has shown us that she would like to try on her own.

J. Joy! Goes along with heart.

K. Keeper--She's a keeper!

L. Lovable--There's nothing better than holding her and she puts her head on your shoulder and stays that way so you may soak her up.

M. Mischievious--Goes without saying, sometimes she tests her limits.

N. Nothing like it! Being a grandmother, that is.

O. October 3--the day all of us were blessed to have this sweet child come into our lives.

P. Process--Everything she does, she does methodically. There is a process, it's not a ritual, but she thinks through from Point A to Point B. Ask Chad & Ruth.

Q. Quizzical--a look she may give you that makes you wonder "Whatever is going through that baby's mind?"

R. Radiant--Callie's smile

S. Sweet, sweet Callie!

T. Thrill-seeker. Ask Chad...she loves to rough-house play, she loves to swing, first time on a slide, she pushed herself off and kept coming back for more.

U. Unbelievably smart! Callie processes all information. You may think she didn't take notice of something said or done once, but she lets you know later on that she understood and uses that information.

V. Verbal! She uses many words and they are understandable, but when she is excited or is trying to explain something, you just can't keep up.

W. What would we do without Callie?

X. Kiss, kiss, kiss. She kisses her baby doll, Elmo, Bert and a duck decoy I have on my hearth!

Y. Yet. If she doesn't give you a return demonstration at the moment or she doesn't respond right away...it's not that she doesn't comprehend. She just hasn't responded YET.

Z. Zoo, of course..she has been to the zoo many times and Ruth & Chad say she enjoys it even more with each visit.

THIS LAND IS OUR LAND

I watched a movie last night that was based on the true story about two Napa Valley wineries beating out French wines in the first Franco-American wine tasting in 1976. Very interesting stuff to know that Napa wineries have been in operation for many, many years even though they were considered poor quality wines by the entire wine snob world.


To the point...the movie illustrated the passion of vitners, the symbiotic relationship that man has with the earth and nature to produce a quality wine. There was a passionate dialogue between an "up-start" vitner and an Hispanic employee who has guided the vitner along with his knowledge. The Hispanic was a third or fourth generation Napa Valley winery employee. He spoke of his heritage of migrant workers, laborers and how the only way to know wine-making was to have the juice of the grape and the grit of the soil under one's fingernails. One needed to know the sense of toil in one's muscles, calluses on the hands, the breathing in of the air of the seasons during growing and cultivation to truly be a vitner.


It reminded me of how as technology moves us along, we rely less and less on our knowledge of the earth to accomplish what we need to do to live. Even as briefly as 100 years ago, most of the world worked the earth to make a living--farming, raising animals, forestry, fishing, and building things from the natural elements of soil, wood, water, fire, and stone. How far away we have traveled from our Earth! Products are synthetic, "man-made". Chemists, machinists, industrialists, carmakers, engineers develop new and improved products that have literally transformed even those vocations that have relied on the Earth. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides; and gasoline, electrical, coal, steam powered machines pollute the very water we drink and the food we produce for human consumption. Theories abound (with some truth) that children reach puberty at younger ages now due to the prolification and popularity of the chicken nugget. Chickens are raised by huge chicken farms that utilize hormones and antibiotics to produce a better, cheaper chicken.


If you concentrate on this and think it through, you may be concerned...where are we headed? If we cover more and more soil with concrete, the earth doesn't absorb and filter rain efficently. It goes on and on.


Point is....we need to get MUCH greener. Our great-grandfathers are gone, there are fewer and fewer teachers of the Earth available. Experience/failure IS the best teacher, but I wonder
why we have to be dire situations before we learn.

"We humans must come again to a moral comprehension of the earth and air. We must live according to the principle of a land ethic. The alternative is that we shall not live at all."
~N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa~