6:30

The land of ice and snow may be finally giving itself to spring. I anticipate the end of cold, the smell of the earth and the feeling of outer and inner warmth afforded by the end of winter. I give myself to the idea of new green, the new start. Oh Canada you are glorious in your glaring coat of winter white, but give me the joy of your green and your praise I will sing to the top of the world. Corny but nonetheless, This is a time of rebirth for all of nature and for my spirit. Our backyard is my utopia and is not far from perfect.

In Our Own Water

My Dad came out of the bathroom magazine in hand, "can you believe this, these people shit in there own drinking water" he said with dismayed disgust. As I recall it was a third world country that was embattled by an ever growing population and Dad was not getting the sympathy part. The society in question used the same river to wash, drink and excrete and of course the village upstream did the same. My question was innocent and poignant in the discussion, "Dad where does the water we drink come from?" Dad was quick to respond that our water comes from some of the best deep wells around and we enjoy delicious safe water. He had some civic pride in his voice and I felt good myself listening to his voice. "Where does our toilet water come from then Dad" I said with eager anticipation of an equally prideful response. This question of course stopped poor Dad dead in his tracks he hesitated for more then a second then in a low voice said, "we have a system" and left the room.
The real answer of course is that we shit in our drinking water.

Beauty

The snow covers everything and life slows down to look it over, and judge it to be beautiful. We are buried in snow, but in reality we are buried in our own rush. Lets take it down a notch and see the world as it is not as we perceive it to be. Drive yourself to complete abandon of process not to work! allow yourself the right o relax and enjoy life if only for a day. It is Saturday, let it be Saturday. Let beauty invade you let it take over your mind.

Dream

Of Community
Of Peace
Of Hardwork
Of Equality
Of Strength
Of Sunshine
Of Clean Air
Of Front Porch
Of no taking
Of giving without strings
Of death
Of birth

Lets take the best part of ourselves and add it as ingredients to ourselves and others. Lets see community as the next building block to family.

Disappointing

Why are we so great?
Why are we so bad?
Why are we so disappointing
Why are we human?
Why is humanity so disappointing?
Can we grow?
I hope so.

Paddling Grundy

Driveway of sand
road of water
Soft Moss on hard rock
boulevard of trees
close to the pulse of life
scent of life
shining eyes of wonder in my young
nothing but a ripple from the blade
Grundy has delivered us

Contain Yourself

Keep Yourself to Yourself
Lower your impact on the world
Go with little ripple
Be a canoe not a motor boat
Be a bicycle not an SUV
Carry your life in a knapsack not a steamer trunk.

Citizen

Citizen, rise against MacDonald's
Rage against Walmart
Tear down the Malls
Build up the local farmer
Buy a burger from Bob's Drive In
Buy your shoes from someone who can fix them

In 1940s a good bench drill press made in Canada cost a man a weeks wages. Today a good bench drill press made in Canada still costs a weeks wages.

The trouble is, there is a huge selection of substandard but workable merchandise made by poor working people all over the world in environmentally terrible circumstance that "will work" for the average person for a while. It is impossible for a person to choose the good Canadian made product as it makes no sense to buy the best when less will work. And it make no sense to make things that last forever.

Wait! Does it make sense?

If you buy the good item made in Canada then:

- a person in your country has a job (people in other countries deserve jobs too but at a fair wage that would of course drive the price of the product up)
- the products manufacturing will likely be done in a environmentally sound manner (not necessarily but in Canada we do have laws and restrictions)
- you will pay much more for a product but that product will last for ever (I have a 1940's drill press and it is as good today as it was the day it was built) (building products that last means that less are built and this has a huge positive impact on the environment)
- the person who manufactured to product is available to you to troubleshoot and advise.

If you buy the inexpensive item:

- you will someday need to buy another one and your children will buy several thus causing the need to manufacture more creating more jobs . (but the cost to the environment will be high and the jobs will substandard and sometimes dangerous.)
- you will save a lot of money (see the point above)
- you will need support for the product and you may get it?

What is the bottom line? What should you do? How about living with less, how about buying those things that are important to you, only at a fair price based on quality and not every whim that takes you. Focus your work and hobbies. Rely on others to do some things for you (don't buy a drill press for one job a year go to a pro and pay to get it drilled) hey that creates jobs.

I Can See!

A world without greed
Religious without Religion
Safe without suffocated
Beauty without control
Chaos without hatred
Love for love's sake
I can see that the gate to heaven is here on earth not on some lofty plain, but no one walks through. The path is too hard for any one person or small group we have to go together.

Little Blue Ball

Your slogging through your day at the office and you feel like you couldn’t be more bored, always remember you are sitting in that desk chair in that office in that building on a little blue ball mostly consisting of water and molten rock and the ball is rocketing through space at break neck speeds.

The truth is if life is boring you are doing it wrong, I could not be bored if I tried there is just too much to do, see. smell, well you get it.

Another thought that kind of matches is: If a job (or life) is too easy or too hard you are doing it wrong. Have a look at the way you are living if there isn’t some hard work involved then you are missing something. If you are coasting through life without commitment or strife of any sort you need to examine your tactics.

In reverse if you are breaking in g your back every day and have your nose permanently welded to as many grindstones as you can then you are on the wrong track.