Gaia Community: christiana's Blog

Z3: Zymposium on Green Business and Conscious Capitalism

http://christiana.gaia.com — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:00:44 GMT

I am the third post in a series of 5 posts on the topic.
To see the previous posts:

Check out:

Julian's announcement
Siona's Meditation on Conscious Capitalism
Brian's The "Consciousness" in Conscious Capitalism

I have just emerged from a Conscious Capitalism Retreat. This was sort of a shut in of some great minds; intellectuals, philosophers, business leaders, investors, civil society activists and humble student-me, the only representative of the Millennial Generation.

I am marinating in all of these thoughts over the weekend, and after pages and pages of notes, I am seeing that there is some sort of order arising from this.

We are having multiple conversations on different aspects of Conscious Capitalism and Green Business and pretending like we are talking about the same thing.
It seems essential that we begin with what Conscious Capitalism means as a term, and have a working definition. And yet, as soon as that process begins, it doesn’t take long to notice that we all have different definitions.

Lets start from the basics. Wikipedia gives these definitions for conscious(ness) and Capitalism respectively:

Consciousness is a characteristic of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment. It is a subject of much research in philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science.

In common parlance, consciousness denotes being awake and responsive to one’s environment; this contrasts with being asleep or being in a coma.

Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are all of mostly privately owned and operated for profit and in which investments, distribution, income production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a market economy.

SO here are some of my early musings…

Some want to talk about the philosophy of Conscious Capitalism as an ideology, or socio-economic structure, and the potential of this concept, if implemented, to “change the world” by solving a lot of the worlds problems. (Or at least upgrading them) Some would like to play with this idea and play out the scenarios in the developed and the developing world exploring what policy is needed to support this, what is the role of government in the first place. This is something I am incredibly interested in and that I know the LEAST about. I need to read A LOT more about Macro Economics, International Policy, and the promises of Free Markets, as well as Communism, Marxism, the anti-globalization movement, the WTO and Free Trade, popular Republican, Democrat, Libertarian beliefs, and then try to asses what dynamics are at play in my culture and those of our Global neighbors, before pretending like I can have some sort of educated discussion in this space. But I want to outline it as a vital topic of discussion.

Some want to talk about what a Conscious Business looks like. And from here you can dissect it even more, looking at what would the creation of a business like this look like and then what would it take to transform a business. Within this bucket we have a LOT of terms like: Green Business, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Sustainable Enterprise, Good Businesses, Purpose-driven, Values Driven, Mission Driven, Triple Bottom Line (Profit, People, Environment) Multiple Stakeholders, Whole Systems Approaches to leadership.
(Perhaps Jeff will write more about this?)

Another thus-far proven world-changer in this domain in Micro-finance/credit:
The extension of very small loans (micro loans) to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not considered bankable. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of financial services to the very poor; apart from loans, it includes savings, microinsurance and other financial innovations.
Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in using Micro-finance to alleviate poverty in Bangladesh.

And then another sub-category (which lately has been very popular) of discussions here about Business and Spirituality: Meditation in the workplace, the Soul of a business, The Meaning of Money, Money as Energy, The Metaphysics of Money, Manifesting, Right Livelihood (good for me, good for you, good for all living beings) Enlightened Enterprise, Enlightened Entrepreneurs.
The arguments for this are that businesses that are more “Conscious” are more profitable. And this is the proof in the pudding.
Another sub-category here is the culture of a business, and whether the leadership cultivates a workplace in which the health, well-being, and actualization of employees are considered.

And then the role of business in the world: Business as a force for good, a force for change. Business is the Hero! Here to save the day!

Some want to talk about the role of the individual, and the upward flow of human consciousness, and each of us living to our highest potential, our connection to our higher purpose either as entrepreneurs, work-as-service, right livelihood, or in our role as consumers, shopping in alignment with our values. Or as conscious investors perhaps, helping provide “conscious capital” to fuel the future. (This has been the majority of our discussions so far)

Some of us want to talk about the cultural “paradigm” and the role of the media in perpetuating a consumer culture and abusing the collective unconscious by targeting their marketing efforts towards our desires for beauty, indulgence, and plain old entertainment (and primal desires for food and lust.) Consumers are the Sleeping Giant (a metaphor which works well with the current definition of consciousness denoting "being awake." Much of the efforts of NGO's are focused here, on creating a Demand for Consciously produced goods by educating/ bringing awareness to the impact of our purchasing choices.

Green Business summary and how it plugs in:

When we refer to Green Businesses we are generally referring to the small but rapidly growing market for products or services that may consider some or all of these factors:

Sourced from Rapidly renewable resources, sourced from recycled materials, produced without toxic by-products, does not off-gas toxins within its lifespan, uses energy efficient manufacturing and transportation practices, improves the efficiency of the consumer’s energy use, reduces the toxicity in the consumer’s environment, can be recycled or biodegrade, has multiple functions, has a high quality or long life span reducing the need for replacement, does not contain or use pesticides or petrochemicals in production, was produced locally minimizing transportation costs, provide a sustainable livelihood for the producer (fair-trade)

Buzz words: Eco, Organic, Natural, Environmentally Friendly, Sustainable, Fair Trade, Conscious, Cradle to Cradle, Holistic, Free Range, Compassionately Raised or crafted, Hand made, Sweatshop free, sustainably harvested, Carbon Offset, Chemical free, Locally Produced.

What is GREAT about these businesses: These products are available today because of a reaction to the care-less-ly produced goods that have become common practice since the age of the industrial era, but much expanded since post-World World 2. There has been an increasing availability of goods to the consumer. It is possible to manufacture goods extremely cheaply because the cost of managing the 1) the cheap energy fueling production (coal, nuclear, oil) 2) waste or bi-product from production (such as CO2 being released into the atmosphere, Dioxins from the production of plastics entering the air and water stream, Livestock waste being washed into the watershed) being put onto the commons.

So, even if these products are not perfect, many of them are carrying the banner and proving the point that business CAN be done while minimizing or reducing their impact on the environment.

Many of the producers care about the impact of their practices on the planet, on the health and livelihoods of the people involved in the production of these goods. They CHOOSE to internalize the previously mentioned externalized costs.

And I will also mention here Green and Socially Responsible Investing- (are there are distinctions between the two, but i will lump them together for now.) SRI funds, Windhill Climate index, Venture funds specializing in Green companies, Community investing, Spectra, Calvert, Green Bull Fund, Social Venture Network. And then conscious wealth Mangagement services available to help one sift through all the options, like Abacus Wealth.

And Green Finance- New Resource Bank is a Green Bank. It redefines community as a boundary-less network of folks with shared values. People who choose to bank there know that their money is going toward loans being given to Green Businesses, often providing the start-up capital to get them off the ground.
RSF Social Finance- has been providing socially responsible investors, donors, for-benefit organizations, and social enterprises innovative investing, lending and philanthropic services to promote environmental social, and economic sustainability for over 20 years.

BUSINESS CHANGING: Can a company transform?

Can a company previously founded and operated with a single bottom line (ahem, $$$$) BECOME conscious? In this case, lets keep the word conscious in this case meaning, aware of their impact on the environment? Will Walmart go green? or BECOME conscious? What about Nike? HP? Does a company have to be 100%green to be considered green? Does it have to be socially/envirnonmentally responsible for the "right" reasons? Or does it earn them any brownie points if it just makes good buisness sense. Many Corporate Sustainability Consultants have had great success at getting businesses to make significant changes by making the business case. Want to increase efficiency, reduce energy cost and increase profits? Increased profits as well as PR are motivators. But many Big Businesses these days are "waking up." Not just GreenWashing. (a term that is used to describe the actions of a company, government, or other organization which advertises positive environmental practices while acting in the opposite way.)

So, I have no prescriptive here as of yet, more of a collection of observations.
I could launch on a long stream of ideas for each of these categories. But I wanted to introduce the idea that Conscious Capitalism means different things to different people, and I believe that it is important to outline these different idea “buckets” if you will so we begin to have a framework from which to communicate.

These are a few questions have emerged for me so far:

What is the goal? To change the world! Yeah- ok, but can we get a little more specific?
Do you have to be spiritual to be conscious?
Are Conscious Businesses necessarily Green?
Are Green Businesses necessarily conscious?
(If ya wanna play the Spiral)- Are we talking about asking what do Integral/ or Turquoise Businesses look like manifest?
Do Green Businesses tend to lack healthy Orange Business language and acumen?
Do Orange Businesses lack Green Values, or at least have less expansive/ inclusive values?
That if you believe that there is an upward flow of human development, then as consciousness evolves it naturally becomes world centric and takes the charge of including the impact of all world citizens in all of its decisions. This will naturally occur as we evolve.
If only 15% of the world’s population (max) are considered to be at a world-centric level of consciousness, then is it enough to have 15% of the world’s citizens participating in Conscious Capitalism? Or is it up to those Pioneers to create the patterns and embed them in culture for any and all to use regardless of incentive? (example for this- John creating WFM, but if others copy his biz practices just because they result in high quality product and profit, not necessarily because they have any interest in Love and Service…)

The relationship of Green Business to Conscious Capitalism I will summarize with a wiki definition:

Free Market Environmentalism is a theory that argues the free market is the best tool to preserve the health and sustainability of the environment. This is in sharp contrast to the most common modern approach of looking to government intervention to prevent destruction of the environment.

MY PERSPECTIVE:

I think the most essential element for me comes from the wiki definition of Conscious(ness)
“the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment”

(Think of Brian’s Spoon Example)

The more aware I am of the relationship between myself and my environment, the more responsible I feel to care for and work for the flourishing of the life-support systems of the earth that support all other sub-systems. (Although increasing awareness does not necessarily assume care, or taking action to do something about it for everyone….)

Ahem.. we are all connected. Through the web of life (biosphere), web of the Market (where did that cheese come from, why does your rent cost what it does?), web of social ties (I think I’m getting closer to Kevin Bacon…), web of digital representation (cybersphere—uh, internet)

Most of the people in the world have a very limited ability to perceive these relationships. Acting from these contracted perspectives in what has become a global marketplace, does not serve the flourishing of our species, our planet, and the quality of life on our planet.

I am not an economist. I am an autodidact with a passion that moves through me for change. What does change mean to me? It means that I have suffered, and witnessed suffering. That my heart is open. That I hold within that open heart an ever-expanding sphere of care and compassion for those I hold dear, for those far away, for those without voices, without power. And I am determined to do all that I can within my lifetime to work for a more just, safe, clean, peaceful world for myself, my family, my country, mankind, and all other beings alive today as well as future generations.
I believe in taking responsibility for my life choices. I try my best to ensure that my choices have positive consequences. I bring an awareness of interdependency to all of my choices, be they lifestyle, work, purchases, and then trust that it will make a difference.

Tags: Conscious Capitalism, Green Business, Green, Sustainability, Economics, Free Market, Capitalism, Organic

Z3: Eco Business and Conscious Capitalism

http://christiana.gaia.com — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 03:51:15 GMT

Copied from Juian's Post:

Eco Business and Conscious Capitalism: Z3 Final Line-up!

Posted on Oct 6th, 2007 by Julian

eco business earth

*** This just in, Our Final All-Star Line-Up for
Zymposium Three: Eco Business and Conscious Capitalism:

Mon 10/8 Siona van Dijk (Gaiam)

Tues 10/9 Brian Johnson (Zaadz Founder & Philosopher of ThinkArete.com)

Weds 10/10 Christiana Wyly (Green Mountain Energy)

Thurs 10/11 Jeff Klein (Flow)

Fri 10/12 Tommy Rosen (Eco Gift Expo)

Sat 10/13 C4Chaos (Zaadz Team and Blogger Extraordinaire)

Stay tuned to this powerful and timely conversation that will kick off at 9 a.m. each day of this coming week from Monday to Saturday!

My Zymposium series brings together extraordinary presenters from around the world to host group discussions that bring thousands of readers into the growing edge of a host of disciplines and areas of thought and action. Imagine a virtual concert hall that can hold 5 to 10 thousand people - 6 presenters take turns each day leading off on a panel discussion with their colleagues - and what's more everyone in the audience has a microphone!

Eco Business and Conscious Capitalism are bold new concepts in a re-imagining of how to change the world that is less oppositional, outside the box, more pragmatic and imaginative - and therefore likely to succeed in the future we are rapidly blossoming into…..

Bring your questions, your inspirations, your doubts, challenges and support to our stellar group of participants for this third Zymposium (Zaadz symposium). There's nothing like it anywhere!

You can stop by here each day to link through to each presenter and participate in the discussion. I'll be coordinating and directing traffic and then sitting back to listen and learn from these expert voices.

See you Monday!

Hello all, from Texas where we have been deeply steeped in conversation about Conscious Capitalism. I have had the opportunity to learn from some top tier successful entrepreneurs who are industry leaders who lead purpose driven businesses and prove that you can not only do “well by doing good” but that business is a force for social and environmental change that we all seek. I look forward to sharing some of the jems that I have gleaned as well as my own personal journey arriving at this. Thank You Julian for hosting!

Tags: Conscious Capitalism, Z3, Zymposium, Green Business, Sustainability, Green, Eco, Environmental, Capitalism, Consumer, Conscious

5 tips to Reduce Global Warming Pollution from Global Green USA

http://christiana.gaia.com — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:54:18 GMT

5 Tips to Reduce Global Warming Pollution This Earth Day
Global Green USA Offers Smart Solutions

Global Green USA is urging people to reduce their global warming pollution this year and offering smart tips on how.

These tips will help people celebrate Earth Day in eco-style this year- and make a real difference in years to come. The simple tips Global Green is offering have the potential to make a big impact. By just implementing these smart solutions people could reduce their own global warming pollution by 4000 pounds this year.

“Individual actions are the way to solve the climate crisis—and that includes letting corporations and politicians know you want them to be a part of the solution,” said Matt Petersen, President and CEO of Global Green USA, “We all need to be a part of the solution, and Earth Day is a great time to start.”

•    TURN IT DOWN, TURN IT UP – Turn your heater down and your air conditioner up by three degrees and save 1050 lbs. of CO2 per year. After the refrigerator, air conditioning is the second biggest consumer of electricity in an average household. If possible, eliminate air conditioning all together. In addition to stemming climate change, eliminating air conditioning will also significantly reduce a household’s electricity bill.

•    ASK YOUR MAYOR TO SIGN CLIMATE PROTECTION AGREEMENT – Global Warming is a global problem that demands local action. So far, over 300 Mayors, representing more than 50 million Americans have signed The U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Tell your mayor to do the same today!

•    LIGHT UP - Replace three incandescent bulbs with fluorescent bulbs in your home and eliminate 300 lbs. of CO2 (lasts longer, burns less). Benefits: Energy efficient lighting reduces energy consumption and lowers utility bills. One compact florescent bulb will pay itself back over ten times over the course of its life through reduced energy use.

•    TUNE UP – Take your car in for a tune-up. Clean oil and properly inflated tires increase fuel mileage up to 15 percent, eliminating up to 1000 lbs of CO2 per year. Collectively, we can save up to 2 billion gallons of gasoline a year through basic vehicle maintenance.

•    WASH COOL AND FULL – Use cold water, instead of hot water for laundry and dishwashing machines. Washing two loads of your laundry per week in cold or warm water instead of hot (and hang stuff out to dry when you can), saves 500 lbs. of CO2 a year. Always wash full loads of clothes and dishes - Washing machines use 30 to 60 gallons of water for the wash cycle.

For a fun way to learn more about what you can do, play Planet Green Game at: www.planetgreengame.com.

More tips are available at www.globalgreen.org.

Global Green USA - the American affiliate of President Gorbachev’s Green Cross International was founded in 1993. Global Green USA focuses on fostering a global value shift towards a safer and more sustainable world. They are a national leader in advocating for smart solutions to global warming including green building for affordable housing, schools and communities. For the past five years Global Green has highlighted smart solutions to global warming through its Red Carpet/Green Cars campaign. In 2006, Global Green launched its Sustainable Design Competition for New Orleans chaired by Brad Pitt and is currently building the first green affordable housing project in the 9th Ward.
Planet Green Game is a joint project with Starbucks Coffee Company. In Planet Green Game, players select an avatar (digital character) to explore Evergreen, a fictional city, with six landmarks. Players can choose their mode of transportation and explore these destinations and throughout their journey, learn about environmental factoids and tips that can be incorporated into their daily lives – whether it’s properly servicing a car for improved fuel efficiency or learning techniques to influence local public officials and corporate decision makers.

Tags: Earth Day, Global Green, Energy efficiency, Sustainability, Global Warming, Eco, Environment

7 Ways Your Investments can Fight Climate Change

http://christiana.gaia.com — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 04:55:32 GMT

From Co-Op America

7 Ways Your Investments
Can Fight Climate Change

Climate Change ImageTo change course and turn back the climate crisis, we can all use our investor power to advance clean energy, and to push polluters to clean up their acts.

You can make a difference whether your investments are large or small — even by using your checking or savings account. Our list below tells you how.

When you invest, remember to do your reserach, read all the materials, and consider consulting a financial advisor. (As they say, past performance does not guarantee future results.) We know we need to change corporate past performance on climate change — using your clout as an investor is a powerful way to do just that.

1. Choose a mutual fund that invests in clean energy — You can find green mutual funds in the financial section of our National Green Pages™. These funds invest in clean energy companies, as well as innovators in other fields that are advancing clean energy through their operations. The examples are many, and include Green Century Balanced Fund, Portfolio 21, Sierra Club Mutual Funds, the Winslow Green Growth Fund, and the New Alternatives Fund.

For example: The Winslow Green Growth Fund reported having almost 30 percent of its holdings in green energy companies as of December 31, 2006. Other holdings in the Green Growth Fund included companies committed to sustainability in their fields, such as a Fair Trade coffee company that uses renewable energy, and a carpet manufacturer that has been a leader in sustainable technologies.

NEXT STEP: Our National Green Pages™ and Financial Planning Handbook (free when you join Co-op America) offer directories of socially responsible mutual funds. Find a green mutual fund today.

2. Choose an energy-focused community investment — Community investments help direct capital toward communities that are underserved by traditional financial institutions. Community development loan funds can go to many different kinds of recipients; you can find funds that specifically direct capital toward energy investments in inner-city or developing world communities. (You can also open checking or savings accounts with community development banks or credit unions to make a difference for climate change while building sustainable communities.)

For example: E + Company is a community development loan fund with the mission of empowering locally based, sustainable modern energy businesses. With a presence in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, E + Co.'s investments provide renewable energy services to households, businesses, and communities helping to meet the growing demand for energy services in the developing world. (Shorebank Pacific offers checking accounts, lending money from their "EcoDeposits" program to businesses and non-profits that are committed to improving their environmental footprint.)

NEXT STEP: Search the Community Investing Center, our joint project with the Social Investment Forum, for environmentally focused community investments. (Click "advanced search" and then choose the "environmental" sector under "social impact.")

3. Vote your proxies — If you own stock in businesses connected to the climate crisis, such as coal companies, oil and gas companies, automobile companies, and electric power companies, concerned shareholders like you may have already filed resolutions to urge them to take action. Review your proxy ballot when you receive it by mail, and be sure to cast your vote in favor of progress on climate issues.

For example: Shareholders have withdrawn 13 resolutions this season already, because companies have shown signs of progress on climate change. However, 21 resolutions remain, asking for companies to set goals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions for their products (cars) or their operations (coal plants), or to report on their energy efficiency, in the case of big-box stores.

NEXT STEP: Check out our 2007 proxy chart, presented in partnership with Ceres, which shows you the companies that have climate resolutions outstanding.

4. Choose a mutual fund that pushes for change — Socially responsible mutual funds often incorporate conventional companies into their holdings so they can hold companies accountable for their business practices and push for greater environmental responsibility. Mutual fund companies, just like individual shareholders, are part-owners of the companies in which they invest, and can use that staus to arrange dialogues with company management, or force votes on company policies at annual shareholders' meetings.

For example: Walden Asset Management, which hosts a family of mutual funds, has long been pushing for change on climate issues. Walden includes global warming skeptic ExxonMobil in its mix of investments, and has been active with shareholder coalitions in pushing the oil-and-gas giant to explain and defend its position on climate change. This spring, Walden has been meeting with top management of an other holding, the Chubb Corporation (a security systems company), which resulted in Chubb's agreement to develop a sustainability report discussing its climate change policies.

NEXT STEP: Our National Green Pages™ and Financial Planning Handbook (free when you join Co-op America) offer directories of socially responsible mutual funds. Find a mutual fund that holds corporations accountable today.

5. Choose a clean-energy ETF — ETFs (exchange traded funds), are funds that track an "index," but can be traded like a stock. An index is essentially a list of stocks assembled to track the performance of a particular market segment, so that when an ETF is attached to an index of, say, clean technology companies or renewable energy companies, you can feel secure that your investment is helping to curb climate change.

For example: The PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Fund was launched in 2005, as one of the first socially responsible ETFs. This ETF mirrors the performance of the WilderHill Clean Energy Index, which tracks companies involved in wind energy, solar energy, and hydrogen fuel cells. Last year, PowerShares launched two more clean energy ETFs, the PowerSharesCleantech Portfolio, and the PowerShares Progressive Energy Portfolio.

NEXT STEP: Learn more about how ETFs work in our Real Money newsletter article, which goes into greater depth, and points you toward how to start investing.

6. Work with a green financial planner — A financial planner can help walk you through all of the above strategies and help you decide what type of responsible investment might be right for you and your financial situation. (Co-op America does not recommend any specific investments and strongly encourages consulting a financial planner.) Tell your planner that you're greatly concerned about climate change and emphasize that you want your investments to reflect your values, and she or he should be able to steer you toward investments that bring a positive return for people and the planet.

For example: Light Green Advisors is a financial planning company serving the Seattle area. Light Green tells potential clients that it "believes companies that demonstrate effective environmental leadership have a competitive advantage that will result in sustained top-tier financial performance." Their services include directing your investments toward their list of "top tier" clean companies, and offering their own ETF tied to their clean energy index.

NEXT STEP: Find a financial planner in your area in the National Green Pages™.

7. Raise your voice — Join Co-op America's action campaigns to convince investors and financiers to say "no" to coal and dirty energy and "yes" to a renewable energy future. As an investor and a consumer, you have a powerful say in how companies conduct their business.

For example: Co-op America members, in partnership with a coalition of environmental action groups, recently demanded that Merrill Lynch and Citigroup stop funding the TXU Corporation's plans for 11 new coal plants in Texas. Our members contributed a powerful voice, and TXU's new investors agreed to cancel 8 of the 11 plants.

NEXT STEP: Join our actions! With more than 150 new coal plants planned nationwide, we're telling investors to say "no" to coal. We're also working to convince conventional mutual funds to join responsible mutual funds in voting their proxies against climate change.

Tags: Climate Change, Earth Day, Co-op America, Conscious Capitalism, Conscious investing, SRI, National Green Pages, Green Investing, Global Warming, Environment, Sustainability

Before the water boils

http://christiana.gaia.com — Tue, 16 May 2006 03:46:38 GMT

Before the water boils
The room will change
It will be flooded
with a Light
That makes the lamps and their tiny bulbs superfluous
They could only light a little space, give a little relief from the darkness
While the dawn brightens everything
With magentas and violets that wash the sleeping burdens off sky scraping windows

The colors slide upward across the skyline
And for a moment I see the buildings differently
For a moment there is as much life in a traffic light as there is in a tree

Before the water boils
I will change my mind         twice
About whether I am glad my life has turned out this way
Or whether I should have done everything differently
I made do with very little
When I could have done better with less

“My cup runneth over…”

A flame indeed
within the belief of a frame of mind of body that I think it is
If I change my mind         my tribe     my daylight to twilight mold of thought
and sculpt accordingly
if I forgive the flowers for being so orange so open so obvious and adore instead
their intent
The gift in me blooms and beholds—out side my window, the yellow construction tape yielding the letters CAUTION flutters in the warm winter breeze and catches the glow of the streetlight in tiny sputters
it looks like lighting flashing along the side of the highway.
Some things too are beautiful, when you don’t know they will be,
even when you fight against it.
Some things prove me wrong
Tell me I know nothing
Of beauty in the first place.

Birds sweep the color from the skyline with their wings
And the city is a dull gray
I notice a new neon sign
And think the world is coming to an end

And then realize that it is not new at all
It was here before me
Before this standard apartment
Before I called it home

It was there the whole time
I just never noticed

Maybe we will be alright
Me, the apartment, the birds and the dawn and the world.
Maybe tomorrow I will look the other way and not even notice

The water is boiling over

Tags: beauty, Change, dawn, perspective, poetry, city, sunrise, Dallas

Sound familliar to anyone?

http://christiana.gaia.com — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 06:11:01 GMT

ITS BEEN ONE OF THOSE YEARS
BY JAMES KAVANAUGH

Its been one of those years of colds and strange infections
When immortality gets shakey and I wish poets could afford insurance that covers more that terminal something

so i decided to start listening to the half of californa that makes a living giving holistic health tips to the other half

i began by drinking two gallons of water a day as advised to flush out all the poisons
until i learned at a wedding reception that i was abusing my kidneys and absorbing aquatic impurities

so i turned to milk at the suggestion of a bearded nutritionist with puffy cheeks
Until I heard that all "dairy" was dangerous after infancy and cheese giveaways were related to genocide

later a lean ascetic insisted that citrus fruits were suitable only for people in the tropics
and since the experts said I wasn't far enough north for red meat, nor far south enough for dedicated vegetarianism,
I either had to move to Alaska or rely on vitamins

When I chose vitamins out of deference to high interest rates, an oriental homeopath insisted I needed minerals.

Everyone agreed that green vegetables were outstanding except a stanford nutritionist who said they caused depression

And truly sensible digestions inclided cereals, brown rice, and four asprin a day.
An eminent doctor with two books once in print said to listen to my body.

But when my body requested two dozen chocolate chip cookies and a quart of rocky road ice cream, he sighed and said I was starved for protein.

So without water, oranges, red meat, green, vegetables, or chocolate cookies, I've been living on Jack Daniels and fritos and haven't felt better for months.

Tags: Nutrition, Diet, holistic health, poetry, funny, James Kavanaugh, Health

Yep

http://christiana.gaia.com — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 02:24:23 GMT

" Last night I saw the reflection of the moon in a cool crystal pond, and nothing else happened at all."

Ken Wilber
One Taste

Tags: ken wilber, Simple, quote, One Taste

"This ABOVE ALL...

http://christiana.gaia.com — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 16:01:39 GMT

to thine own self be true."

Seriously y'all.

Tags:

5...4...3...2...

http://christiana.gaia.com — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 08:00:08 GMT

Brian and I flew to San Francisco yesterday for an awesome and inspiring lunch meeting with Aaron, Huy and Jeff Klein from FLOW.

On our much delayed flight home we were gazing out the window as our plane circled Los Angeles.

The city I am always leaving, and always coming back to.

This view of Los Angeles always brings heaviness to my chest. My breath becomes dense and I find myself praying for salvation in a way I haven’t believed in since Sunday school.

What I always imagine is that every light is a life, a body, a person.

I see myself below as just one light.

I consider my genuine efforts to tread lightly on the earth.

I think of how much food I throw away, how much plastic and paper (of coarse I recycle) I consume daily with all the packaging, and magazines etc.How much STUFF I have and how many resources it took to manufacture and deliver all my possessions. I imagine what an Eco-drain I am converting virgin resources into landfill mass at an unsustainable rate. And then I look down at the lights and imagine me multiplied by millions.

“Things are getting worse…”

Brian put his hand on my arm and stirred the silence. He said “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Brian was sitting right next to me, sharing the same view but seeing the world from a different perspective.

I jump into his perspective for a moment- Look at what man can create! We can conduct, channel and concentrate energy, we can organize our environment and build these complex webs that are cities and somehow have a sense of order. That really is AMAZING! That there are millions of people, living stacked together, navigating massive machines at 60mph and we do not have complete chaos.

Everything is natural. Everything beneath us extracted, collected from the earth, designed, transformed and sculpted by human minds, human hands, and human sweat.

And we use what percent of our potential brain capacity? Things are changing, people are wising up, and people will demand businesses that help design and charge whole-heartedly towards a sustainable future.

“Things are getting better…”

How many times will I look out this window and see the world differently?

How many perspectives can I possibly hold on the same phenomenon, how many contradictions, how much confusion?

How will I cultivate enough wisdom, compassion, and courage to communicate to all those tiny lights beneath me?

Will they listen? And when they do--- what will I say?

How can I trust in Divine Perfection, that I feel at work, at play in every moment?

“Things are already perfect”

(Quotes from Integral Ecology. Part 1. Things Are Getting Worse, Getting Better, and Are Already Perfect. Sean Esbjörn-Hargens Michael Zimmerman

Tags: integral, Los Angeles, Ecological Footprint

Bodhisattvic Blogging

http://christiana.gaia.com — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 03:40:51 GMT

So…Since the day I met our friendly philosopher CEO or perhaps the day after- Brian has been trying to convince me to blog.

Hmmm… I had heard about these blogs- some kind of Internet fad, right?…

I remained suspicious as to why anyone would want to launch random thoughts into cyberspace, and why anyone would want to read them.

The other day Brian and I were sitting outside Native Foods (awesome awesome vegan restaurant) and reading our respective books-

His- on shifting culture through education-

Mine- Green Remodeling- changing the world one room at a time by David Johnston. (I knew it was a good book when I read the Ken Wilber endorsement in the book) When I remembered that I had underlined the following quote for Brian.

“We are using our natural resources at an unsustainable rate. According to Paul Hawken, author of The Ecology of commerce, “Today’s population uses in one day what it took nature 10,000 days to create.” To say it another way, we are living on our energy capital (store petroleum and coal) and squandering our income (solar energy.) If you ran your company on your capital savings and ignored current income, you wouldn’t be in business very long. Green building is a step toward reversing that trend.”

As an “Environmentalist” I am always struggling to communicate a mountain of aggregated knowledge about the state of our planet to others in a way that is constructive, non- alarmist, practical and digestible.

That quote struck me as one that I might share with Brian because it speaks to him in a language that he understands.

I grew up between Los Angeles, Milan Italy and Texas- speaking English, Spanish, Italian and Texan.

I grew up with a love of language, an insatiable appetite for words, and a fever in my fist that kept me scrawling on every notebook and napkin within reach.

I grew up longing to translate one language into another, to translate the world I witnessed into words, to translate pain into wisdom. I grew up asking myself the question:

How is it that we are all saying the same thing but none of us can understand one another?

Now I speak Poetry, Politics, Spirituality and Ecology.

Brian also speaks many tongues. Among others, he speaks Compassion, Economics, and Spirituality mellifluously.

Today we found common ground when we came to the realization that it is our Bodhisattvic obligation to the world to Blog.

Again, as always, it comes back to intention intention intention…

This morning I read Heather (Art Czar’s) most recent Blog about so many things that have been humming in my own mind lately-

Fear as fuel, True Value, Being a Powerful and imperfect mother.

Then Matthew (Youthful Maturity’s) Blog- Blind Faith vs. the Gift of Faith.

And then Brian’s 80/20 principle article…

It would be a crime for these people to scribble into their journals and keep their enlightened humor and inspired intelligence to themselves.

What potent, generous, awe-inspiring people we have gravitating to this nexus!

Zaadz has just barely sprouted and already the planets have aligned, the trumpets have sounded and the cows have come home.

What do we all have in common? Our intention.

We’re gonna change the world. Does anyone doubt our ability to do so?

We are out there doing it already. Healing others with our hearts, our hands, our words. By Green Remodeling- one room at a time…Making small choices that DO (Yes they really DO make a difference.)

With every exhale, each one of us- improve the atmosphere- charging each molecule with purpose. With promise.

Riding the crest of Brian’s enthusiasm I encourage everyone in our ever-growing Zaadz tribe to Blog blog blog blog blog.

Share with me your thoughts, your journey; the little words you read in a book that change the way you see the world. Help me change the way I see the world and therefore change the world.

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