Hi There:
Welcome back. As with my last writings post, I’m going to dip into my ‘Future Me‘ archives. The following contains some great quotes from others that really made a difference for me…
Love,
Mike.
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Hi Folks: Very, very early on in our relationship Marcia and I decided that Anniversaries are too far apart, and so while we celebrate every day together, every month we honour our Monthaversaries as well. A couple of months ago we celebrated the 200th Monthaversary of the day we met, on a wintery hillside very early one morning. But that’s another story. We generally have four Monthaversaries every month – the day we first met, the day we became a couple, the day Marcia proposed to me, and the day we were married. If you want another reason to celebrate the gift of love with those who are close to you, we recommend Monthaversaries very highly!
Love,
Us.
P.S. I made this for Marcia today, and I wanted you all to be the first to see it:
Forever and For Always
Now go ahead and make your own!!
Hi Folks:
Last Friday I decided to dedicate one day a week to information related to green building on the basis that I subscribe to (and hence receive) several different e-newsletters every week. This week has been quiet in that department, but that doesn’t mean I’ve run out of things to share. Not by a long shot…
First though, the November 2009 issue of Environmental Building News is now available, here. And GreenBuildingAdvisor.com has a white paper available titled, ‘Stand Out from the Pack: How to Position Yourself as an Expert Eco-Builder’. It’s available for free download, here. Also, recently announced are the final specifications for the US EPA’s ‘Water Sense’ program. More on that here.
Last week I wrote a little bit about Greensburg, KS, and I wanted to insert a reminder that part 2 of a webinar on Greensburg is coming up next Tuesday, December 15, 12:00–1:30 PM EST.  ‘Admission’ is free, but you do need to register in advance, here.
There are a number of places where one can learn more about green building online. The Canadian Home Building Association (CHBA) has developed the Canadian Home Building Institute (CHBI), and they have a series of courses one can take on a number of aspects of construction, some of them online and some ‘in person’. This includes ‘Built Greenâ„¢ BC Builder Training‘. For more information, check out http://www.learnyourliving.ca. Both the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) and the US Green Building Council (USGBC) offer on-site and online courses as well, including information on becoming LEED certified. Two sites where one can take free online courses and earn AIA-certified credits are http://www.aecdaily.com and http://www.architectces.com. There are webinars concerning a wide variety of products and systems, and a test at the end of each session. That’ll get you started…
One aspect of green building that I hadn’t thought about until I heard of it is green-certified real estate professionals. Ecobroker.com was the first that I heard about, but since then I’ve come across some others. GreenRealEstate.com offers courses to certify real estate people, and the National Association of Realtors has developed the Green REsource Council to offer their own certification programs and courses.
Finally for today, according to Environmental Design and Construction magazine, 29000 people visited this year’s GreenBuild conference. There’s a series of short videos on the ED+C website, including this one, entitled, ‘Why Green?’ The others are here.
Have a great week, and if you have a link to share, post a comment here!
Mike.
P.S. If you have people asking you why this is important, I highly recommend the TED talk by William McDonough on ‘Cradle to Cradle’ design.
P.S. II, the sequel:Â Came across this short article today: “Perspectives on Sustainable Design – Sustainability is More Than a Scorecard“, by Dan Heinfeld FAIA, LEED AP
Hi Folks:
I came across this article in my e-mail today. It’s one that I’ve read several times, and (as with pretty much everything on the http://www.consciouscreation.com site), it’s one I like a lot. Definitely a site worth visiting. This particular article can be found here: http://www.consciouscreation.com/journal/articles/F3-TruthLove.htm
Enjoy!
Love,
Mike.
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Hi Folks: When Marcia and I were in Sidney recently, we picked up a copy of the December 2009 issue of a magazine called the ‘Seaside Times‘. There were some excellent articles in there, and the magazine is well worth reading – on paper or online. Included was an article by Cathy Hanan on remembering to take a step back when you’re feeling a little extra stress. She titled her article ‘Put on Your Patience Pants This Holiday Season‘, and I liked it so much I wanted to share it with you:
“While the holiday season is supposed to be about family gatherings, friendship and good tidings, more often than not it becomes a season filled with stress, obligatory parties, overcrowding and endless traffic.
This year I’m going to try a new technique to deal with the inevitable chaos that surrounds the holidays – patience.
Last summer I was driving from the Peninsula to Langford to take care of a friend’s dog for the weekend. The gentleman in front of me at the McTavish four-way stop was kind enough to let all the other cars have right of way – twice. Then I was cut off by a truck as I merged onto the highway and into ferry traffic. With the traffic came impatient drivers zipping between lanes (but not really getting anywhere), and the “oh, look at the lovely lake” slowdown at Elk Lake. It took 20 minutes longer than expected, but I eventually made it to my destination
As my friends left to head up island for the weekend I quickly remarked “put on your patience pants, it’s one of THOSE days on the road.” We laughed at the thought and they headed on their way. When they returned on Sunday they said they had laughed all the way over the Malahat – the traffic was chaos and they had needed their patience pants.
I shared the phrase with my friend Sarah. She promptly used it with her young nephews, who thought it was funny, but understood the concept while waiting in line for ice cream.
Not long after she was in the post office, waiting while the clerk carefully assisted a woman with the same task over and over. She turned to the woman in line behind her and whispered, “wow, she must have put her patience pants on this morning.” They both laughed, then chatted for another few minutes until the clerk was free.
It’s a silly phrase but it reminds me to take a deep breath and put the whole situation in perspective. Is it really that important? Will five extra minutes make or break my day? Our daily lives have become instantaneous and with it we’ve lost patience. We expect everyone to have a cell phone, we demand immediate response to emails and we’re constantly searching for ways to make life faster and easier.
As we enter the holiday season, remember it’s nobody’s fault the rain is pelting or the parking lot is beyond capacity. The overworked waitress is doing her best to get your meal quickly and the clerk behind the counter is not responsible for the debit machine being out of service.
You probably can’t control the situation, but you can control how you react to it. Take the extra five minutes in line to chat with the person behind you. They are probably just as frustrated and your patience might rub off.
It’s all about how you look at it. So this year – before you head out to shop, celebrate or travel – stop and take a minute to put on your patience pants and have a happier, healthier holiday season.”
My sentiments exactly!
Love,
Mike.
Each Wednesday of the week Mike & I shall choose a poet to honour, a poem that inspires us or may even share one of our own poetic creations.
Today’s poetry dedication is to one of my very favourite poets – Mattie Stepanek, the young boy who died at the age of 14 having inspired millions of people with his personal Heart Songs – encouraging each of us to find and sing our own. Mattie was one of Oprah’s dearest guests, having appeared on her show several times over the course of his short life.
Today I honour Mattie J.T. Stepanek with one of his own poems:
Crystal Celebration
Sometimes,
Sunrise is like a heavenly crystal ball.
Everyday,
In the little bit of time between night and day,
The Angels look at the earth
To see how things have been and
To see how things are going and
To see how things will be.
The sky changes from dark
Into Angel-whites and Angel-golds.
The blackness of trees starts to glow with
Pinks and purples and oranges from their hearts.
And during each dawn,
All the Angels gather up and have
A celebration in God’s honor!
And sometimes,
You can even watch
And join them in the celebrating.
Just look out into the sunrise,
Then jump into your own heart,
Float into the air like in a dream,
And pray with love and praise and thank-yous
For your life, for your spirit, for your sunrise…
And for being a part of this heavenly crystal ball!
*******
Written in December 1996
Printed in his book
By Mattie J.T.Stepanek
And be sure to check out Jeni Stepanek’s (Mattie’s mother) website: http://www.mattieonline.com/ as she continues her son’s legacy and, in turn, travels her own journey to healing.
In Light & Laughter & with the deepest appreciation to Mattie,
Marcia
Hi There:
Dum de dum dum…
Okay, welcome back!
As it happens, my writings for the past couple of months have been rather disjointed, and until I have time to rope them into line I’m not going to share them with anybody. However, in one of my first blog posts I mentioned a site called ‘Future Me‘, that I appreciate greatly and use quite regularly. I’ve recently received some ‘Future Me’ posts from last year, so I thought maybe I’d start with those. Sometimes I look back on what I wrote a year ago and realize how far I’ve come on certain topics, and other times I find I’m still looking at the same things, albeit perhaps from a different perspective.
Without further ado, here are some of my writings from last year…
Love,
Mike.
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Hi Folks:
As a writer and a storyteller, I love stories. Over the centuries stories and songs have fulfilled many roles, from entertainment, education and enlightenment to geography, history, genealogy… even becoming a central core of a People. For example, the People from the Trobriand Islands can sing back nearly 200 generations of their history. I was at a conference years ago and one of the speakers was an elder who spoke about ‘ownership’ of stories, and that it was necessary to have permission from the story’s owner before one could tell them. For my part, I respectfully disagree. Stories must be told, must be shared to be kept alive.
This story remains one of my favourites. It was told to us by a man who approached us after a talk given by Dr. David Suzuki. I trust he won’t mind my sharing it with you, although I must say that I’m writing this out from memory and any errors are mine alone. For the sake of privacy I’ll call the gentleman who shared this story with us just W.
This story happened in northern Ontario, in a town named Cochrane. I’ve been to Cochrane a few times, even did a little work up there. One of its claims to fame is that it’s the southern terminus of the ‘Polar Bear Express‘, a train that runs north up to Moosonee and Moose Factory, near the shores of James Bay. It’s also the home of the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat and Heritage Village.
Anyway, the story begins when W. was a boy growing up in the Cochrane area. Like many other boys he loved nature and spent half his time hanging out on the Reserve or wandering around the woods. When he grew up he went south to university and work, but at the time of this story he was back up in Cochrane acting as liaison on behalf of the local band. Cochrane has a half dozen hotels now, but there was a time there was only one, and he was staying there. One day he looked out the restaurant window and saw a large U-Haul truck, packed to the gills, stuff tied on the roof… ‘Just someone passing through’, he thought. The next morning the truck was still there. At dinner it was still there, and the following morning it was still there. He also came to associate this truck with a woman who was sitting alone in the restaurant. Finally the restaurant manager came over to him and said, “You speak city, go and talk to her.” So he did.
Turned out she was from New York state originally. Her husband had passed away suddenly and she found herself alone. She had a friend who lived out on an island off BC’s coast, and her friend suggested that since there was nothing keeping her in New York, she should pack up and move to BC to be with her friend. Well, she made it as far as Cochrane, but now she was stuck.
Before I go any further with this story I should explain that Cochrane is situated along Hwy 11 in northern Ontario, and the highway on both sides is rimmed by endless miles of black spruce forest. It’s an amazing ecosystem, but to the uninitiated it looks like one mile is the same as the next and the next and… And well, she got to Cochrane and she froze. She couldn’t go forward, and she couldn’t go back. “What would happen if I broke down on the highway?” she asked. “This is northern Ontario” was the reply. “If you break down the first vehicle to come by is going to stop and ask you what you need – food, a place to sleep, a tow truck, blankets, some gas… whatever.” “What if I got attacked?” she asked. “This Is Northern Ontario!” came the warm reply again. “People look out for each other up here.” “And all these people keep coming up and talking to me!” she said next. “This is northern Ontario… ” “Look”, he said. “You see the trees out behind the hotel?” “Yes.” “Okay, this is what I want you to do.” I want you to walk back there, not too far – stay within sight of the hotel – but walk back into the forest a bit, find a place where you feel comfortable, then sit. After you’ve sat there for a while and you’re feeling relaxed, I want you to pick out a tree that you like and I want you to give it a hug. And don’t let go until it hugs you back.”
Well, after giving it a moment’s consideration she got up and left, taking a walk toward the trees behind the hotel. She was gone an hour, two hours, three hours… and W. figured either she was doing okay or she was lost, but either way it would work out alright.
The next morning when he got up there was a hotel envelope slipped under the door of his hotel room. He opened it up and all the note said was, “It hugged me back.” And she was gone.
*
Thanks to W. for sharing this story with us! If you drop by here sometime, you can check out the ‘Our Stories‘ section and from time to time I’ll post some of my own experiences.
Love,
Mike.
Hi Folks: There are about a bazillion websites on photography today… I’d hate to hazard a guess on how many of them I have bookmarked, so I won’t try. However there are some that I visit daily or at least regularly, so I thought I’d add them in here (in no particular order):
Mike.
P.S. Someday I’ll add these and some other links to the main page. Someday… I promise.
P.S. II, the Sequel: You can find more of our posts on photography and Lightroom tutorials here, and you can find links to over 200 other sites that have Lightroom tips, tutorials and videos here.
The month of November introduced much that was new into my – our – life. I took on the challenge of, and exceeded, my own expectations with Nanowrimo (http://nanowrimo.org) writing a 52,885 word novel in a mere 28 days.
During this same time, Mike and I opened up our personal writings to the blogging world through https://www.wolfnowl.com
As a result of the emergence of our skills and talents to the public at large, if you will, the topic of copyright surfaced in our conversations. We, Mike and I, have differing views on the subject. It is because of this difference that we chose to tackle the subject through this newest blog idea:
He Says/She Says.
Please come back each Sunday to read up on whatever topic might have triggered our latest discussions during a given week. Sometimes we’ll have similar views. Other times…well, we’ll let you decide!
In Light & Laughter, Marcia
Since everyone has their own perceptions of, well, everything, we thought that once a week we’d post our views on the same topic – two different points of view on the same subject. I thought I’d start with:
The Perception Wheel
Our first understandings of the perception wheel came from the book ‘Seven Arrows‘ by Hyemeyohsts Storm. A shortened version of the story is here:
Imagine a circle with four people around it. We’ll call them A, B, C, D but you may substitute any four names you like. In the middle of this circle we’ll place an arrow.
Now person A looks at this arrow and, being a reasonably intelligent person, thinks to himself, “That arrow is coming toward me.” Person B looks at that arrow and, being a reasonably intelligent person, thinks to herself, “That arrow is going from left to right.” Person C looks at that arrow and, being a reasonably intelligent person, thinks to himself, “That arrow is going away from me.” And person D looks at that arrow and, being a reasonably intelligent person, thinks to herself, “That arrow is going from right to left.” But they’re all looking at the same arrow. Now if we remove the arrow and replace it with an idea, a concept, a Way of being, an understanding, a religion or a government, and if, instead of four people we have a thousand or six billion, we can see that everyone will see things from their own unique perspective.
There are two ways to deal with this. The first is to say, “Well, this is my circle and my arrow and you have to see the arrow the way I do or I’m going to take my arrow and go home.” That’s possible, happens all the time, but it’s also very limiting in terms of what can be learned from it. The other way is to say, “Well, I don’t see the arrow that way, but I understand that you do. Perhaps if we work together we can reach a new understanding that is common to both or all of us.” Understanding the perception wheel is the foundation for teaching and for sharing.
Mike.
Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says on Copyright: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View
_____
December 26, 2009
Update: Read Seth Godin’s view, here.
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