Road Trippin'....

Ah! see this beach behind us? nice clean waves? I can't help but think of the Gulf Of Mexico on the East Coast...and how it was once as lovely and pristine...

Thank Goddess the California Gov'ner has now declared off shore drilling of California to be off limits...it seems our country has had its environmental wake up call--are you listening Congress??

so here we are on our "road trip"--we drove up the Northern California coast and then up the Oregon Coast. The last day it was very rainly with hardly any visibility--so we headed inland to Portland earlier than we had planned....but all-in-all it was a great trip.

I'm still on-the-road...so more later!.....check back....

Memorial

NASA photo of Gulf Oil

Twenty years ago I wrote a Memorial Day letter to my local newspaper (Bellingam Herald) to commemorate Prince William Sound. Exxon had dumped 10.8 million US gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound on Good Friday and I thought we needed to include the Sound in our memories that May.

Back then, after the "clean up" we hoped we would never see another oil "spill" of that magnitude. I spent the summer after the Exxon spill working on the Sound, so I saw first-hand the effects the oil had on the fisheries and the wildlife.

My heart bleeds and I cry daily tears for the Gulf of Mexico and the oil still erupting into the ocean there. So, this Memorial Day, I am including the Gulf--the ocean and seashore, the people who live and make a living there, the fish, the plankton, birds, sea mammals--all sea and shore life---in my memorial prayers. I am sending prayers to them, like I do for the men and women who have died or been maimed in senseless wars.

If you are reading this please take a quiet moment to hold the Gulf---in its entirety---in your thoughts and prayers. We have wounded this part of our nation, and it may be maimed forever. If we had a Memorial Day just for the Exxon Valdez "spill" every year---would this current oil disaster in the Gulf still have happened?

Most of use know we must switch from an oil economy to a more sustainable and healthy-for-the--planet energy economy---time to start NOW. I believe each little action each individual can take does help, so go ahead! Drive your car less, ride a a bike, turn off your lights more--better yet, put some solar panels on your house. You know what to do.

If we ALL WORK TOGETHER toward healing our planet, we can make a difference. Here is one place to start: 350.org

Saving the Earth One Step at a Time

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."---John Muir

All week I have been thinking about the terrible devastation of the living ocean and environment of the Gulf Coast as deadly oil spills---STILL!!!---into the sea. My heart mourns for the destruction we have caused...and I am vowing to change my life. I want to live a car-less life again. Vehicles consume half of the world's oil, and spew a quarter of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions. Leaving my car at home even one day a week can save a lot of gas and emissions over a year. (hint: you might try this...)

So, after spending the summer in Alaska--working in a small community where there are no roads or cars (instead we have outboard motors and skiffs, which are used considerably less than a family automobile )---I plan to live somewhere I can divest myself of my car--and become someone who doesn't own a car!!!

I will probably join zipcar or some other shared car organization...but I learned through my experience here in the Bay Area with City Car Share that I used a car much less when I didn't actually own one. There is something very liberating about not owning car--one less "thing" in my life to maintain, and I definatly got more exercise as I walked and biked more to get where I needed to be. And when you have to reserve the car ahead of time--you really think about using the car, instead of just taking car use for granted. This causes your relationship to car use to shift quite a bit---at least mine did.

I know this might seem rather futile---faced as we are with climate change and gallons and gallons of oil now spilling into the ocean...but lately I have begun to think that if we are going to save our planet--it will have to be us people who do the saving. If we wait for our leaders---it is going to be too little, too late. So we must each--individually--take whatever actions we can: reduce our oil consumption, protect our environment by buying only organic, reduce our consumption of all natural resources and live sustainably, share our wealth and knowledge with people less fortunate, convert to alternative energy sources, use a cloth bag for shopping, grow a garden....this list can go on and on.

Most of this we can do on an individual level, and I now believe that is how real change will come about...one individual at a time, one step at a time...all moving toward the same goal...a healthy, viable, livable planet where everyone has enough to eat, adequate shelter, enough clean water, education, a job with a living wage and healthcare....we can do this (despite our governments) if we work together for the common good.
And, pray, let us begin with our oceans....

World Oceans Day Today!

I worked over 20 years on the Pacific Ocean--in fact, you might say I owe everything I have today to the ocean because of this work : commercial fishing off the Alaskan coast. One doesn't spend that many years on the ocean without developing a healthy respect for it, plus an awareness of how much our planet depends on healthy oceans.

The oceans are our planet's life blood : they generate most of the oxygen we breathe, help feed us, help to regulate our climate, and clean the water we drink. Today is WORLD OCEANS DAY and I urge everyone to stop and think how you are contributing to the healthy preservation of our oceans.

"The concept for World Oceans Day was proposed in 1992 by the Government of Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and it had been unofficially celebrated every year since then. Official designation by the U.N. is a significant step in conserving and protecting our world's oceans. World Oceans Day provides an opportunity each year to celebrate our world ocean and our personal connection to the sea. As of 2009, "World Oceans Day" has been officially declared by the United Nations as June 8th each year!"



Please take a moment to celebrate the power of the oceans in your life today...

WATER week

WATER WEEK : I worked for over 20 years on the ocean on commercial fishing boats in Alaska; one does not spend that much time on the sea without developing a very healthy respect for the power of the oceans and water. I have been in storms at sea where the waves were towering over our 65 foot boat, and I feared for our survival. I learned to think of the ocean as a living being which we must treat with proper respect in order to survive our travels upon her. I have great concern and care for our Earth's oceans and the way we are currently mistreating them; for we "will not survive a dieing sea." For me, water week is all about my long relationship with salt water and the sea....

I like the concept of Soul Coaching : Day 9

Going to the Source of Meaning: " You cannot always choose the circumstances of your life, but you can choose the meaning that you give those events."

I have never thought about the various events in my life quite this way. For some reason, this notion made me think of this poem by one of my favorite poets--Mary Oliver.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Today's Quote:
"Life is now in session. Are you present?" --B. Copeland

Art & the Environment : Sustainability and Slow Cloth

I just found this fun website with numerous free vintage knitting images---doesn't this one just spark your imagination?

And I have a few other links I want to highlight for you all----my brother, who lives in Juneau, Alaska is a board member of a local organization ---TURNING THE TIDES : "Turning the Tides is an Alaska-based nonprofit grass-roots organization composed of citizens, students, Alaska Natives, scientists, educators and musicians who are concerned with the health of the ocean. We promote ocean-friendly practices, clean-up efforts and waste reduction through various projects." He has created a visually appealing informative short online video OCEANS OF PLASTIC The film starts and ends--fittingly enough--with Alaskan Natives drumming and singing....



Since I spent much of last year creating cloth bags for BYOB (bring your own bag)---and replaced all our plastic bag consumption with cloth bags---the trick now is to always remember to have a cloth bag with me (!)--have you noticed how often businesses try to give you a plastic bag? Anyhow, my brother tells me the cloth bag I made for him is in the video---can you spot it? Hint: it has a bright pieced quilt pattern with black and white checks.

If you read my blog often you already know I have a love for our Mother Earth, and I am concerned with the current "climate crisis" facing all of us--in fact, I consider global warming/climate crisis to be the most pressing problem we all face. Much of my artwork reflects these concerns. Just scroll down here to my Jan 6th post about my "Homage to the Trees" small quilt for an example.

I recently found this great website THE STORY OF STUFF. "The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. "

This website--and her blog--are well worth a visit, and please watch her video and pass this on....as well as a succinct recap of how our consumerism adds to environmental problems, she has many good suggestions for actions all of us can take to help heal our planet.

How does this relate to knitting and craft? ah well, check out this blog---the The Red thread Studio--Slow Cloth, New Cloth, Art Cloth. For me, a sustainable lifestyle and the concept of SLOW CLOTH all go together.

Mourning for the Sea and Sea/Beach-life

Human error--a large ship hits the San Francisco Bay Bridge, and oil spills out...we all pay for our oil habits--but right now the wildlife in the San Francisco bay are paying--in death and sickness.


As of Monday:
New numbers on oiled birds in care:

652 live birds
126 washed of oil
485 dead

All of the birds are being treated at the OWCN's San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center in Cordelia.

In case you are thinking that this is not very many injured/dead birds---consider that these are only the ones the rescuers have found or captured, and how much other sea and beach life is affected by this oil spill of bunker oil. The oil is still shifting around the bay--each day we read and watch the news and another favorite beach---with abundant wildlife---is oiled. Many of the beaches impacted are in national parks --the gooey bunker oil is in football size globs---and threatens the dungeness crab fishery in the bay as well as wildlife.

I find myself saddened and in mourning for what we do--in the name of "civilization" to our ocean and planet. If the oceans are in trouble--and there is increasing signs that this is so--we are in deep, deep trouble in terms of human survival on our planet. After 20 years of a livelihood on the ocean as a commercial fisherwoman, I feel deep empathy and affinity for the ocean, and so I feel her pain when we mistreat her.

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I no longer own a car. After I saw the Al Gore movie "An Inconvenient truth" I got rid of my car (and did that feel good!), and joined our local City Car Share. I urge you, dear reader, to consider your carbon footprint and what you can do to curb your use of oil---and please take a moment to say a silent prayer for San Francisco Bay.

In the words of Bay Area folksinger/songwriter Malvina Reynolds:

"The sea, the sea, the fragile sea,
Our source, our provider and our road to liberty,
Now we use it for a dump hole in this mad economy,
And we never will survive a dying sea."

San Francisco Bay resources and nonprofits that need your money and help:
Baykeeper
Oiled Wildlife Network
Save The Bay
International Bird Rescue Research Center