There really are no coincidences. No mistakes, no accidents. This is how the journey happens, I promise. Just remember to keep your eyes, mind open.

There I was, in the woods with the dogs (again). We somehow disturbed a nest of yellowjackets - the dogs got the worst of it - those buggers burrow right into their fur. We got into a creek fairly quickly and I was pulling the stubborn bees off the dogs as fast as I could. I felt a few stings on my hands, but kept going until a bee found it’s way down the back of my jeans  - eek - sorry, girls, you’re on your own now! We finally outran the swarm and collapsed on the grass near the house.

BEE STING REMEDY: Within about 15 minutes, I was able to give the homeopathic remedy, Apis Mellifica, and a dose of baking soda dissolved in milk to all of us. (It works great if you can act fast!). Ayla’s eye swelled but went down again within 30 minutes of dosage and, as for me, I barely knew I was stung after an hour (I normally react to all bee stings with long-lasting pain and swelling). Moral of the story? Keep these remedies on hand, especially in the Fall, when some bees become more aggressive. But, the story has really only begun…

At this point, I realized I had thrown the leashes somewhere in the woods. I bravely returned to the scene of the crime that evening, but since the leashes were leather and the color of the ground, I couldn’t locate them. This is when the unfolding began. Need leashes…but I don’t want more toxic nylon or leather…time to search for more sustainable options. Of course, Hemp! I knew they were available, but I didn’t know how much I would learn and be inspired by the company which offered me the most simple, undyed version.

Rawganique made my day. Not just with the discovery of their many good for people and the planet products, but with their inspiring, hopeful and unambitious story of life and work. The founders of Rawganique, Touch Jamikorn and Klaus Wallner, former accomplished academics, set out to share information on sustainable living for humanity and the environment - and a way to live lightly and work mindfully. Living completely off-grid on Denman Island, BC, they co-founded a “human-scale” family business in 2000, replacing bad goods in the marketplace by offering products and clothing made of naturally organic and sustainable cotton, hemp and linen.

Their About Us page reads like a good book - one that leaves you hopeful and encouraged to find your own way to peace and balance in your life and in your work. They don’t take all the credit for finding their way to success, health and wholeness, but share the names and ideas of those who have guided and inspired them along the way. After all, this is how it works.

Watching. Listening. Sharing. Growing. Healing. All from a few bee stings~

My long-time friend, nutritionist and guest blogger, Greg, has moved to CO. Here’s his latest update!

It’s been 7 weeks since landing in Glenwood Springs, CO, my new home in the Rocky Mountains and being car-free could not be any easier.

With free local bus service that runs every day and great bike lanes, I am impressed. I commute to work by bike and take the bus on rainy or on the soon to be cold winter days. Many people use the bus and more and more are jumping on board. The buses run every 30 minutes and start at 6am and finish at 9pm.
If you want to access the nearby towns of Carbondale, Rifle, Basalt, Snowmass and Aspen, pay a small fee of $2-$6 and sit back, enjoy the scenery and relax. Aspen is 40 miles north of Glenwood Springs and the buses that run between the various towns keep running until 1am. (WOW!)

Some of the buses accommodate bikes and I took advantage of this a few weeks ago by riding to Aspen and riding home on the Rio Grande Trail, a 40 mile pedestrian/bike trail that follows the Roaring Fork River. It’s nearly all paved, with a small section of hard pack dirt for about 5 miles. It’s a beautiful trail and that’s not all. The Glenwood Canyon Trail goes for 15 miles through the Glenwood Canyon, following the Colorado River.

I rode that one last month for a beautiful 30 mile round trip.

Add the hiking trails that start right in town and this place is a gem.

The Boy Scout trails starts on the 8th street, three blocks from my house. It gains 2700 feet in three miles, going from 5700 feet to Lookout Tower, 8400 feet. From there, the Boy Scout trail splits into two other trails that journey on for many more miles.

To top it off, the Amtrak station is right downtown and it is staying busy. One day, I will jump aboard and go on down the line to Denver, for a 5 hour majestic trip through the Rockies.

Go Car-FREE-DOM!

Peace, Greg

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Remember Green Dimes? I joined last year and yep, for just a few dimes I’ve gotten off and stayed off most junk mail lists. However, another holiday season is approaching and I’m seeing some new catalogs have found me. I’ve been calling some of them to get of their lists, but it usually involves a long hold period, and reciting my name and address endlessly.

Just in time, I heard about a nonprofit, founded in October of 2007, which gets consumers OFF unwanted catalog lists. The online steps are simple and quick and once you’re in the system, you can return conveniently any time a new catalog shows up. This means you can still receive the catalogs you want, but, think twice (or three times) about how much you really get out of these when you can use their websites to browse products and place orders.

CatalogChoice.org is free and does not share your information with ANY lists of services. They already have over one million members and have kept over 13 million unwanted catalogs out of the mail. Catalog Choice also has a program for merchants which can help them clean up their distribution lists to save mailing costs, while actually increasing their customer base and respect customer preferences.

I’m signing on today, before the holiday mailing madness really gets in gear. Join me.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

It’s a time of Heroes - courageous, creative and determined And, man, do we need them. Fortunately, they are stepping up come all walks of life artists, musicians, designers, writers, photographers, athletes, small farmers, business owners, students, you’ll even find them in Hollywood. Every one of them moves and inspires me. Some of them bring tears to my eyes.

That was the case when reading the story of Chad Pregracke, one dedicated river keeper dude. About 10 years back, as a skateboarding college student broken-hearted about the state of his beloved Mississippi River, he dropped out of school to spend his days in a flat-bottomed boat dragging out trash. He didn’t have a master plan or hoards of people to join him. “It was just something I knew should be done and needed to be done and nobody was doing it.” (That gave me the first gulp). It can be that simple, yes?

After being discovered by roving reporters and curious eyes, Pregracke himself discovered a wealth of enthusiasm from friends and strangers, some longing for a chance to get involved. “You gotta create an opportunity for people to do something.” he said.

True to his word, he soon founded Living Lands and Waters, a non-profit with 12 employees. With a fleet of barges, he and his crew travel down 6 rivers, including the Missippi, Missouri, Ohio, Anacostia, Potamac and the Illinois as part of the annual event, X-Stream Cleanup. The latest and 4th annual expedition covered 31 sites, involving over 1,500 volunteers. To date, they have hauled in over 4 million tons of garbage, recycled much of it and stirred up interest in concerned communities along the way. Rivers get a shot at restoration as they remove numbers of tires, metal scraps and barrels still partially filled with toxic chemicals.

Corporate sponsorship has helped grow the group’s budget, allowing them to extend their efforts and influence into educational workshops and other local programs. Yet, when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Chad dropped everything to be part of the relief efforts. Planning to stay 4 weeks, Chad and his crew stayed 10. To learn more and get involved, go to livinglandsandwater.org.

2008 UPDATE ON CHAD AND LL&W:

IN 2006, Chad and his crews executed 64 cleans ups and hosted the first Big River Workshop, on the Mississippi River.

In 2007, Chad and LL&W founded the Million Trees Project. With the help of communities collecting acorns, a nursery was established with the goal of planting a million trees within the following 5 - 10 years. Chad and National Geographic release, FROM THE BOTTOM UP, the story of the creation and evolution of his river passion and his non-profit organization.

Chad continues to write a weekly column in the Quad City Times in Iowa and has delivered over 300 presentations to corporate, public and student audiences worldwide.

The workshops expand to the Missouri and Illinois Rivers and the LL&W crew plants over 20,000 trees in a five-state area.

2005
LL&W keeps on doing what it does best until Hurricane Katrina strikes the Gulf Coast.  Within days, LL&W cancels aall projects, doubles the crew size, unloads the barges of garbage and fills them up with building supplies.  The fleet and crew head to New Orleans to assist with the relief efforts.  Planning to stay for 4 weeks, the crew stays for nearly 10.

2006
LL&W continues to make an impact, hosting 64 community-based cleanups along seven of the nation’s largest rivers.  Working with over 30,000 volunteers to date, LL&W estimates total refuse collected to be over 3 million pounds!

LL&W’s Big River Workshops host their first excursions–taking 60 teachers on a 3 or 4-day voyage up the Mississippi River.

LL&W expands Adopt-A-River Mile program to include the Illinois River.

2007
Chad releases From the Bottom Up, with National Geographic–the story of the creation and evolution of LL&W, its successes and challenges.

LL&W launches its newest endeavor—The MillionTrees Project.  By starting its own nursery and soliciting the assistance from the community to collect acorns, this project aims to plant a million trees within the next 5 to 10 years.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

A friend shared a story the other day about her experience of a would-be city mugging several years back. Though a truly frightening moment, it had a happy ending with the mugger running off. The punch line, only amusing in retrospect, was that for unusual reasons, my friend happened to have $2,000 cash with her at the time.

It got me to thinking about how some decisions are darn simple - based on an innate instinct of survival - one that could not be ignored. If the mugger holds a gun to your head and says, “Your money or your life?” It’s a no-brainer. You’re either James Bond, or you give up the money.

So, why, in contrast, do our sustainable “life and death” choices seem so difficult to make? For me, it goes back to my early work in nutrition. I could easily convince people to by supplements and exercise, but hit a road block when, with the organic food movement still young, I struggled to convince people that paying more to eat organically was truly a choice between their money or their life (and the life of the planet.) It took not just facts, figures and threats over pesticides in our bodies, water and soil, but the willingness of my clients  to see the larger, long-term picture that shed light way beyond their wallets.

I started to take small groups through the natural food store (newly owned by Whole Foods) stopping in each department to talk about the truth regarding conventional and organic choices. I knew my stuff and was nothing if not passionate about the topic. I even shopped on a tight budget myself and managed it while committing to eating close to 100% organic food. Surprisingly, my conversion rate was a mere 40%, leaving me feeling not just disappointed, but baffled. Wasn’t the choice obvious? Wasn’t this something that could make us healthier right now and protect our future? Wasn’t it simply a matter of money  - and not all that much of it?

I’m an idealist, if not an optimist, so the wake-up call was difficult - though I did (not surprisingly) get offered a position at that store, where I continued to share my excitement about the whole foods/organic food business for several years. Local eating came along later and the transition by consumers has been similar in many ways - slow in coming, wrapped up in the long, arduous process of getting enough information out to enough people and the commitment of small groups of dedicated farmers and consumers.

Now our money and life choices have extended to living sustainably in many other ways and perhaps the questions change slightly when it comes to our cars, our homes, our use of resources, our wasteful habits. Your life or your luxuries? Your life or your conveniences? Your life or your ego?

The answers still feel knee-jerk certain to me - more no-brainers. What’ll it be? Your money or your life?

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Do you like lists? I do. A to-do list is like cliff notes to a good book, only the book is your life. Each time I look at my list, I’m reminded how much there is to do, to share and to be. Even if I don’t “do” everything on my list, the things that drop off most often lead me to another place, idea or action. Lists also help me remember the more mundane things that make up daily life, you know - chop wood, carry water - which is, of course, what brings balance to life and helps you stay humble.

And I like looking at other people’s lists, just in case there is something I haven’t thought of yet. (Ever found one in the street? You can’t help looking at it, right?)

I came across several lists today worth sharing. One is from my favorite eco-blogger, No Impact Man. He and I have both posted several green-minded lists over the last year - his new list of eco-steps is up to 40. He must like lists, too.

The other is a compilation of lists on GoodHumans.com. Although this site is supposed to be known for being a family owned and operated leading retailer of environmentally responsible products, lists make up much of their site. They call their steps, “Guidelines” and cover every topic I could think of. Each section has a very long list since it is an interactive site where you can add your own, which is a cool idea since there’s always something someone hasn’t thought of yet. Or, maybe we have, but never wrote it down. Writing it down is always a good idea for humans like us because we tend to be not all that aware in the moment. I’ll tell you the topics so that you will be enticed to go visit soon:

Clothing, Education, Entertainment, Gardening, Government, Health, Household, Housing, Nature, Personal Finances, Pets, Relationships, Transportation, Travel. It’s interesting that the topic with the biggest list is “Relationships” - reaching 141 -  which must mean that the most important reminders we need are to be kind and realize that we are all in this together.

The lists don’t skip the obvious things, but I think it’s a good idea to write down things like, “Tip street performers, Let the cocktail waitress through the crowd, Wash and reuse the plastic cups after keg parties, and, Be nice all the time”, so that we remember that the little things really matter.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

I’m not really into many “bodycare” products. Perhaps it’s my overexposure over the years of employment at Whole Foods Markets, but if you haven’t noticed, it’s gotten crazy out there - the numerous brands and scents and specialty cleaners and creams and body washes - bottles and more plastic bottles - eek! Thanks anyway, but I’m happy with Dr. Bronner’s castille all-purpose liquid soap, a shampoo bar, my homemade tooth powder and some moisturizer to put on my face and hands.

But with all the choices, what is a good moisturizer? First and foremost, one without petroleum by-products and other chemical ingredients. Burts Bees is made with real food ingredients, so can’t go wrong there. But then I discovered Dr. Hauschka…

Their philosophy of purity and ingredients grown and tended in harmony with nature (biodynamics) has been in place “long before the green trend began.” In fact, the company was founded in 1935 by Rudolf Hauschka, a Viennese chemist who developed natural remedies. It added skin care products in 1967. WALA, located in southern Germany, is the maker of Hauschka and is an acronym for Warmth and Ashes, Light and Ashes and based on Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy of anthroposophy, combining the spirtual world with human intellect.

The company is legally owned by the German public - a kind of co-operative - and cannot be sold. Profits support operations or go to the workers. (For more on Hauschka, see this NY Times article.)

I have to admit, there’s a magic to the products that I was skeptical about until I used them. I’m still not willing to line my shelf with bottles, but I can’t go a day without the moisturizer. It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt in or on my skin before.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

I hope that you are still following the blog of No Impact Man. He has a lot to say about changing the world. He also talks a lot about how change can make us happy. Lately, he’s been asking us to not just talk about change or to simply give up some of our excessive consumption habits, but he’s asking us to take the next step - to be pro-active. So, if you have already changed your lightbulbs, stopped eating meat and driving your SUV, but don’t know what to do now - read this post where NIM says, “When It Comes To Saving The World, Just Try, Try, Try.” (Then search the word, “happy” and see how often his efforts have made him feel that way.)

It’s something that’s been in my thoughts a lot lately. I’ve been teaching some new yoga students and I’m reminded of what it’s like to be a human trying to do something new - something that we know will benefit us in the end, but in the moment it mostly seems inconvenient, awkward and/or difficult. Because I’m the old-school trained teacher, I emphasize the importance of using discipline and will to move through the hard parts.

In fact, by watching and listening to many yoga students over the years, I’ve written my own account and philosophy of the 3 stages that we all go through. The first stage is Arrrgh  - the hard part, the second is Ah-ha, when things start to make sense, and the 3rd is Ahhh, when you find the ease in the effort - the happy. I’ve also emphasized that without the struggle, yoga would be useless. For example, one student thought she was simply not cut out for yoga, coming to me to say, “I’m not strong, I’m not flexible, and I can’t focus. I don’t think yoga is for me.” My response went like this:

“If you came to me and said - I want to do yoga because I’m strong, I’m flexible and I have great focus - I would tell you that you don’t need to be here.”

I’d also like to share one simple definition of yoga that comes from the ideas of the great and enduring teachers. Yoga is simply doing something you could not do before.

So, yoga, as life, is about growing up and out and not just accepting change, but making it happen - whether it’s within ourselves, within our communities or in the world. It is about the work. It is about simply trying. And in the end, it’s about the freedom and happiness that comes with discipline. That’s why when my students come to me with all the reasons they cannot fit yoga into their lives, they hear two words - “Practice anyway.”

So, I want to point out that maybe this changing the world stuff is not supposed to be easy. What we can gain - personally and otherwise - just might come from the fact that we had to try. If you struggle to drive less, try anyway. If you struggle to use less water and electricity, try anyway. If you struggle to do something you haven’t done before, like talk to your congressman about change, try anyway.

What you learn from a yoga practice translates directly into how you are in your life. And how you are in your life translates directly into how we are in the world. It’s up to us to make change happen and to make ourselves happy along the way.