Regenerative Love

I watched the film "Symphony of the Soil" last night.  It was about soil health and different ways that agricultural practices either deplete the soil or regenerate it.  Soil depleting practices lead to weaker and weaker soil that needs more stuff added to it to achieve its goals of sustaining life.  Regenerative practices actually make the soil more resilient year after year, providing higher yield of foods.

At this Valentine holiday, I look around me and see people in soul depleting relationships as well as in regenerative relationships.  It seems that the soul depleting relationships also require more and more stuff added to them in order to be "sustainable."

I am so greatful for the loving relationships in my life that are regenerative.  I've also been cultivating my own rich soil, dense with hope.  I'm stronger, healthier, happier because of the lovefest I cocreate!

Let love rule.

Love Song

I am feeling you tonight, missing you, feeling the presence of your absence, and I am sending bubbles of love to you, love and light, particle and wave. 

My tarot cards show me your archetype everywhere in everyone--I miss you because I am reminded of you in his smile, her sideways glace. 

Connection, relationship, right relationship to reality.

Alignment, Integrity--Alltogethernow.

How can we be apart when we are all together now?

Right-here-now.

San Luis Valley WannaBeekeepers, LLC

I am the owner of a business, San Luis Valley WannaBeekeepers, LLC.

I mentor people through the set up of backyard beehives and answer questions about organic and sustainable beekeeping practices. 

I am available to care for others' bees if they do not wish to be that "hands on."  I am a "Beebee"sitter.

I gently relocate bees who have decided to make homes in inconvenient places.

I teach classes and workshops on beekeeping as well as making gift products from the hive such as hand salve, lip balm and mead. 

I have equipment for rental as well such as honey extracting equipment.

Dia de los Muertos

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican celebration of those dearly departed on November 1st, All Souls day, the day after Hallowed Evening.


Last night I saw the Crested Butte Dance Collective's Dance of the Dead performance at the historic Ute Theater in Saguache, CO.  It was a wonderful performance and a timely moment for me to reflect on the family members I've lost this year and the friends far away in time and space whom I haven't seen for a long time and may never see again.

The shorter days & the brilliant last color of the tree leaves of the 'dying time of year' inspire reflection of what and who we have and how all things change. 

Take some time this season to love on your peeps and remember those who were with you before.

October 3, 2012 lecture Kellogg Institute/Dev Ed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ffrqr_dYfc&feature=edu&list=PLE7615019A4F25BA5

Maybe I should make an educational porn video

In class today, we had Joel Korngut, the Equal Opportunity Officer/Omsbudperson talk to students about legal ramifications of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Joel met with the male students for half the period, and then met with the female students for the remainder of the class.

Joel was going on about how women need to protect themselves from risk, how 25% of college students are sexually assaulted, how men predate women.  (see also mansplaining)

It didn't sound fun at all.  Sex equals bad.  Risk. Trust no one.

I interrupted.  "I'd like to give a woman's perspective. Sex and parties can be fun, and there are safe ways of going out/meeting people.  Here's how my girlfriends and I do it when we go out: we have a way of communicating with each other, 'hey maybe I might hook up with this guy' and we all carry condoms and make sure she's got one, and then tell her to give me a call next week" etc.

These first year female students--many of them appear to not yet 'hookup'--who is their role model for this sort of good communication behavior?  Do they know what their own voice sounds like when they 'give consent'?  Do they know how to make sure their partner wears a condom?  Do they have a plan for how they want to react to the "I don't like the way it feels" or whatever speech for not wearing a condom?

So, perhaps I should make an instructional video.  Not the panting/moaning kind, but the comedic play-by-play where I can pause it right there to say "here is where I explicitly give consent--when I reach into the bedside table drawer to pull out a condom."

And then show the outtakes: here is where he said, "oh, duh, I don't have a condom.  I promise I'll pull out." To which I replied, "no problem.  I have a condom!" etc

Food Security, I want it

This summer I spent some time at the fantastic restaurant F.A.R.M. Cafe eating well-prepared local food and occasionally serving/cleaning up.  F.A.R.M. stands for "Feed All, Regardless of Means," and the model of the cafe is that people may pay a suggested sliding scale donation or volunteer for an hour to receive a meal.

One of the things I learned talking with the chef/director was that a number of the students at the local university participated in the volunteer/eat program.  Some of our students experience "food insecurity"--hunger and the inability to access food.

The USDA defines food security as "access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life."

There are a few things that distress me about students and food insecurity.  1) Their hunger is largely invisible.  People who are hungry generally don't want to look like it, and will go out of their way to hide any sign of vulnerability or need.  I am grateful for programs like F.A.R.M. cafe and the student-run food bank at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, for making food accessible in a way that preserves the dignity of the person. 2) I want to expand the definition of food security.  We are not certain that GMOs, for example, are a safe "edible foodlike substance" to ingest, and in fact there is some evidence that GM wheat is toxic because it contains a protein that humans haven't evolved to digest.  Have you tried eliminating wheat from your diet for a week?  I've been off wheat for a few months and my gut feels much better. In addition to GMOs, what is the risk of the prophylactic antibiotics used in Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFOs) to human health?  What is the risk of pesticide residue on human health directly and through its environmental impact?

In fact, maybe more of us are less food secure than we think.  Do you think organic food is too expensive for most people to buy?  Isn't there something wrong if I can buy 2 toxic taquitos with whoknowswhat kind of meat in them for 99 cents? 

Fort Lewis College's student-run Food Bank