Frieda

Winter Solstice

I love the way that a pot of hot coffee fills up a cold, dark house.

Something Small

Sometimes I read the latest news reports and wonder how a person can engage with the darkness of this world and move with something other than despair? 

The news swells in my head like a colorless fog. And I'll walk around filled up with it, or sink into a swamp. 

But in the end I make a conscious, or somewhat conscious, decision I'll make to stand still and pay attention to something small. The sweet smell of soap, or eating sliced apples with my kid. 

And it connects to me, this small thing, whatever it is. The tie between us like the filament in a lightbulb. It offers a sort of comfort. Allows a kind of goodness to grow again in my brain. 

And after a while, sometimes a long while, the just darkness just doesn't feel so close.

Sky Watching

 Outside Lincoln, NE - December 13, 2012

Sunsets are oftentimes the most remarkable feature of the Midwestern landscape. This one followed me all way home yesterday.

Still Open - Just Moving

http://adrianlovesowls.blogspot.com/

Pepe's Vegetarian Bistro, home of the best tacos in town, is still open Havelock through December.

Owner Pepe Ferito hopes to throw open his doors in a new location (Indian Village at 13th and High streets) on January 4 but guessed it will be February before it happens.

Through December, though, the Havelock location is taking things down, moving things around, but they're still cookin'.

Stop by.
Eat tacos.
You'll be glad you did.

Geminid Meteor Shower, 2012

 Phtoto Credit: Jason A.C. Brock NASA (Dec. 2004)

The last meteor shower of 2012 will be the Geminids, peaking late night December 13 until dawn December 14. The new moon makes for particularly dark skies, perfect for stargazing.

Winter Morning

Freezing cold. No snow. These winter mornings have a bright moon. A blue light that comes up from ground. Vapor that comes from breathing. A hard skin of ice on my windshield just from standing still.

World Travel or Anything

We're standing in the check out line at the Co-op. 

N: So, Mom, what is it you intend to do in raising me?

Me: Whu? Are you asking me what I want to do as a parent?

N: Yep.

Me: Oh. [pause, pause...think, think] I guess I'd like to raise a person who can take care of herself and generally holds the ability to be pleased with her life. 

N:That's it? 

Me: Yep.

N: Nothing like world travel or anything? 

Climate of an American Mind

A sweeping majority of Americans — more than 75 percent — say the President and Congress should make climate change and developing clean energy a priority, according to a survey conducted by researchers at Yale University and George Mason University. 

The growing sentiment is that policy-makers in the United States have failed to meaningfully address the rapidly deepening crisis of climate change. 

The GAO offers our policy-makers a cleaner energy forecast. Exact a carbon tax of $25/metric ton of CO2 starting next year. Increase that carbon tax incrementally over time in order to lead to a steep decline of coal fired electricity. That future lands coal as 4 percent (down from the 48 percent it represents now) of the United States Energy Mix by 2035. 

Conventional political wisdom, though, says, "Oooo....carbon tax...that sounds expensive...nobody, nobody would like that...". But here's the kicker: you know that Yale University survey I mentioned? It finds over eighty percent of Americans support making an effort to reduce global warming, even if this has economic costs.

Maybe the increased cost of a carbon tax sounds more palatable than the $26 to $89-billion annual cost estimated to deal with rising seal levels by the year 2040.  

Majorities of Americans at this point also support funding more research into renewable energy sources (73%), providing tax rebates for people who purchase energy-efficient vehicles or solar panels (73%), regulating carbon dioxide (CO2) as a pollutant (66%), eliminating all subsidies for the fossil-fuel industry (59%), and expanding offshore drilling for oil and natural gas off the U.S. coast (58%).

So, Congress, Mr. President, I believe the message is pretty clear.

What You Have & What You Need

Photo Credit: One Day On Earth

I hope you'll consider participating in one of the most ambitious collaborative film projects which asks people from all over the globe to film and submit "What You Have and What You need". 

All submission must be filmed or videoed on 12/12/2012. Help tell the world's story by becoming part of this project in association with the United Nations and other partners. View the video http://vimeo.com/52038148 or go to www.onedayonearth.org for more information and instructions.

Rusty

Tonight I walked onto T's tennis court for the first time in months. Rusty. To use polite terms I'll just say my game was rusty.  Outright awful would be another set of appropriate terms, but, I'll stick with rusty. 

Rusty or not I left T's court with travel advice on the route between Chicago and Michigan, a catchy Jack White tune stuck in my head, and a silly grin smeared across my face. I'm already making plans to come back next week.
________________

Surprised By: How much, after all this time, I still love this poem.

Anxiously Awaiting: The Xmas gig my band has next week. 

Crazy Endeavor: Learning how to mambo.

Recent Goodness: My friend, Leirion, announced her candidacy for Lincoln's City Council.

Sunday

"Sometimes I have loved the peacefulness of an ordinary Sunday. It is like standing in a newly planted garden after a warm rain. You can feel the silent and invisible life. All it needs from you is that you take care not to trample on it." 

– Marilynn Robinson, Gilead (2004)

Expansive Sky

It was unseasonably warm today so I went for a hike. This time of year the most striking feature of the Midwest is, without a doubt, its expansive sky. 

I like hiking. My mind works better when I'm moving. I like the way I'll fling ideas around, or just listen to the world outside of myself. This hike was a lovely moment, filled with open thinking, surrounded by greenness. 

As I've grown older I'll shut down certain thoughts as impossible or unthinkable. No. No. Can't. Can't. I'll clam up a good idea before it even gets the chance to fully form. 

So I like hiking. It gets me outside of the usual confines. That wide open sky helps me examine how big I can dream something. From that space no idea sounds too terribly silly or overly-remarkable.

Fog Drip

My Morning Run