Within You: Jesus and the Self

Jesus devoted many teachings to the subject of the self, meaning the bundle of aspects we call “me.” In this bundle are wrapped the ego, the personality, and the soul. They aren’t neatly arranged into separate compartments but bleed confusingly into one another. Sometimes we feel close to the soul, sometimes very far away. More often we feel confused, unable to understand what the soul really is and what it wants.

Jesus spent a great deal of time clarifying this confusion. He said, “You do not understand me,” in support of a deeper truth: “You do not know who you really are.” By telling people who they really are, he delineates a new kind of human being, one who accepts that being one with God is our natural, higher state.

Adapted from The Third Jesus, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2008).

Around You: Organic Wool Instead of Synthetic Wool Comforters

Sleeping under organic wool comforters, duvets, puffs, and blankets is deeply regenerative.

Synthetic fabrics have an electrostatic charge, and you’ll sometimes get shocks when you put on a recently dried piece of synthetic clothing. When you sleep cocooned within this electrostatic charge, positive ions are generated and can impact your sleep. It’s negative ions like those around natural material like wool, not positive ions from synthetics, that you want to surround you when you sleep or need rest, recuperation because negative ions promote healing.

Adapted from Home Enlightenment, by Annie Bond (Rodale Press, 2007).

Deepak Chopra is a world-renowned authority in the field of mind-body healing, a best-selling author, most recently of War of the Worldviews with Leonard Mlodinow, and the founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing. Annie B. Bond is a best-selling author, green living expert, and editor-in-chief of TheWellnessWire. com and Terraspheres.com.

Photo from RogueNaturalLiving.com.

Within You

Imagine that your nervous system is hardware, and all the chemical changes that occur in your body are the software. The software, or program changes according to your thoughts, feelings, interpretations, and desires. But there is a programmer. Who is the programmer? The programmer is the inner self, the silent witness, the ever-present awareness that witnesses everything. And when you get in touch with the silent witness, this gives you the ability to rewrite the program.

The silent witness is the one part of you that doesn’t change. If you find the part of you that doesn’t change then you’ll be able to cause transformation in the part of you that does change. …You can spontaneously cause transformation in your body.

Adapted from Power, Freedom, Grace, by Deepak Chopra (Amber-Allen Publishing, 2006).

Around You

Carefully choosing what enters and leaves the kitchen is, in every sense, to steward the health of the household and, in turn, the planet. All of us bring food, packaging, cleaning products, building materials, appliances, and more into our home. Many of us also pour toxic cleaning products down drains, put packaging in landfills and incinerators, throw broken refrigerators into dumps–the list goes on. All of us has an impact on the environment and our health. By monitoring the products brought into our homes, using them wisely, and disposing of them responsibly, we can, in the words of Wendell Berry, “make ourselves responsibly at home in the world.”

Adapted from True Food, by Annie B. Bond et al, (National Geographic, 2010).

Deepak Chopra is a world-renowned authority in the field of mind-body healing, a best-selling author, most recently of War of the Worldviews with Leonard Mlodinow, and the founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing. Annie B. Bond is a best-selling author, green living expert, and editor-in-chief of TheWellnessWire. com and TerraSpheres.com.

Yes, I’ve read the articles and listened to the reports and watched the documentaries. I really do believe it’s happening but from my little home in the woods of Vermont I haven’t paid much attention until this year. Suddenly a few things are definitely out of whack.

Dyed-in-the-wool Vermonters tend to be a stubborn lot and I heard a story about one farmer that I found very poignant. “Sugaring off” (tapping Maple trees for sap) has always been a part of his life. Every year he started tapping on the same weekend in the spring as did his parents before him. This year his sister told me “the stupid cuss won’t start until Washington’s birthday and the season will be over before he even starts!!” and it was – just about.

That was February into March. In the spring I took the risk of planting hot peppers and tomatoes mid May thinking I was a fool. My entire life in the North Country, planting has been June 1st for a very good reason. Almost without fail there is a late May frost. This year it wasn’t even close. I probably should have planted my peas earlier – they love the cold and definitely not the warmth.

The next thing I became aware of was my perennials. On a walk one day I noticed Phlox growing wild in the field. This brought back an NPR discussion I heard several years ago about how as climate changes cultivated flowers will start to seed themselves in the wild…hmmmm.

In past blogs I have mentioned how the wood thrush leaving and heading south harbors the arrival of Autumn – albeit not for several weeks. I always take note of this for the thrush is a bird of joy and light and I miss its song dearly. As long as I can remember it has left the first week in August – from the time I was a little girl because my father always mentioned it … “the thrush has gone – time to start winterizing”. This year it didn’t leave until the third week of August. I couldn’t believe it and was both thrilled to have its wonderful song a little longer but definitely puzzled.

Finally the fall colors. Where I live the changing of the leaves is something we all take note of – both for their beauty and the many visitors they bring to our state. Because we notice, this year
is especially odd. Without fail, since I can remember, the leaves have reached their height of color around Oct. 3rd give or take a day or two. This year it is the second week in October and they are just getting close.

I know there are many documented studies about ice caps melting, oceans rising and weather patterns changing. These are real events and we acknowledge them but there is something very frightening about changes in day to day patterns that have been here as long as one can remember. The very foundation of our lives is shifting and the people who have the power to do something about it are too disconnected from the real and living world to see it- or be willing to see it through their haze of greed and ego.

Carolyn Keck lives in West Newbury, Vermont with her tuba playing husband Bill, two newfoundlands and an obnoxious cat. She teaches music and gets great joy from cooking, fly fishing, gardening, quilting and being a grandma.

I love gardening.  I love my hands in the soil and the wonder as each plant peeps up in the spring.  I love watching and nurturing all summer and reaping the bounty in the fall. I love the harvest but it heralds the coming of winter and darkness and cold. Harvest is so very bittersweet.

Carolyn Keck lives in West Newbury, Vermont with her tuba playing husband Bill, two newfoundlands and an obnoxious cat.  She teaches music and gets great joy from cooking, fly fishing, gardening, quilting and being a grandma.

I heard the geese last night.  The air is still and cold.  Getting colder. The last wood thrush has gone – several weeks ago now – and the hummingbirds have left. My father used to say that when the thrush left you knew that fall was not far away..  The first leaves are turning and the sounds are the sounds of autumn- crickets; a few birds – an occasional chickadee or raven- but not the joyous cacophony of spring and early summer with the mating in its full swing.  No, fall is coming and with it the first frost.  Thus, I turn to my garden.

I am a struggling vegetable gardener.  First bad soil, then a herd of cows made me leave it for several years to focus on perennials.  Now, with several raised vegetable beds, new and good soil and a terrible economy that has me wanting to fill my freezer for security, I have thrown myself whole heartedly into my gardening.

My garden has its own personality.  Kale, slow to start has turned into a monster, towering over everything. Where I planned to grow a few small pumpkins, I have 5 giants, so big I can’t lift them.  My cukes and carrots were pathetic, my beans great as were my herbs and peas.  Lettuce was so-so, winter squash incredibly wonderful and zucchinis unpredictable to say the least.  Sadly I planted tomatoes in a garden that had had the tomato blight.  They did really well until one night it looked as if a brutal frost had hit just those plants.  The blight was back!  My other tomatoes in another garden are thriving.  My great triumph, however, was my hot serrano and cayenne peppers.  In past years I have harvested maybe 2 or 3 shriveled up peppers.  This year they are here in abundance – beautiful and lush….so back to the first frost.

It came at the end of a long week of work but the predictions were insistent. The cold deepened as the evening fell and there was just no way I was going to let my peppers get ruined. They were the first to be covered.  Then the pumpkins with grandchildren’s names on them and finally, all my squash, herbs and a few thriving tomatoes.

There is no doubt now that fall is here.  Harvesting has begun in ernest and on my counter in full splendor sit 14 jars of Ba’s Red Hot Pepper Jelly.

Carolyn Keck lives in West Newbury, Vermont with her tuba playing husband Bill, two newfoundlands and an obnoxious cat.  She teaches music and gets great joy from cooking, fly fishing, gardening, quilting and being a grandma.

Photo by Carlos Porto, courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

What exactly are the dangers of indoor air pollution?

Adverse health effects from indoor air pollution can be experienced shortly after
exposure or it could develop years later. Immediate and short term effects can include irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, headaches, dizziness and fatigue. More severe symptoms of diseases such as asthma, dermatitis, and allergic rhinitis can also be triggered soon after. Serious and chronic health effects may appear years after exposure or from prolonged or repeated periods of exposure.

The effects of indoor air contamination include heart disease, some respiratory diseases,
reproductive and developmental problems, and cancer- all of which can be severely
damaging or even fatal. Most modern materials are processed, exposing them to
chemicals that are known to contribute to air contamination. They are then absorbed and
carried into the finished products. Unknowingly, consumers bring the products home,
possibly being exposed to conditions where they’ll emit chemicals into the air.

You may be surprised to learn that the toxic emissions from many of these sources are
not controlled or are only partially controlled by federal, state or local law. The USEPA
encourages voluntary standards for indoor pollution, like those set by a third party
organization such as the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI) to help establish
federal, state or local regulations.

What can you do to avoid indoor air pollution dangers?

The GREENGUARD Certification programs refulate low-emitting interior products and building materials. Founded in 2001, the GEI is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the health of people and improving quality of life, especially when it comes to indoor air, by reducing the amount of exposure to toxic chemicals. The organization works to provide a third-party certification program to help consumers avoid products that contribute to indoor contamination. When a company’s products are certified, this signals that the product meets specific emission standards in the home or in surroundings where humans are.

One common household product that is often submitted for GEI’S manufacture certification is window treatments. Drapes, shades and blinds are made of processed fabric, and often exposed to direct heat and humidity. Manufacturers who wish to receive this certification must design a window covering that is safer for the home, using fewer chemicals in the production process. They then submit for review with the GEI.

What is the review process like?

Materials will be tested and reviewed for more than 10,000 individual volatile organic compounds and required to meet stringent health-based emission levels for over 350 of these individual VOCs. Products are also tested for emissions of formaldehyde, aldehydes, respirable particles, ozone and other pollutants that are know to cause serious health problems. Testing takes place in dynamic environmental chambers designed to simulate product use in typical indoor environments. Many certified products will be required to pass annual re-certification testing and quarterly monitoring tests to safeguard against potential changes in the products or manufacturing that could affect indoor air pollution factors.

Look specifically for products that meet Greenguard’s Children and Schools Certification standards. The program offers stricter criteria for products used at home and can assure consumers that it should be safe to use where they live. It is up to the consumer to be aware of indoor air pollution & toxic chemicals and to look for and even demand products with this level of certified approval from a reputable third party organization.

There are only a few manufacturers who have actually produced products which have been able to receive this seal of approval from Greenguard. You can view a full list of Greenguard certified products through their website here and avoid the pitfalls of indoor
air pollution.

For more information regarding indoor air pollution, please visit http://www.greenguard.org.

By Tom Vatury. Tom has been in the window treatment industry for over ten years. Horizon Window Treatments is the largest retailer of window treatments in New York City.

One of my favorite online newsletters was A Pause for Beauty. I say was just because it appears to have stopped being published about a year ago. This moment I had with the grass, in the midst of a hectic, head-to-the-grindstone day, was my pause for beauty. Even though I was still on the phone I went inside to get my camera and took this picture.

Such a simple thing, seeing beauty in nature, but the one moment of my day  looking at the grass drifted into all those hours at the computer and made them easy and insignificant in comparison.

While the flood waters had receded, I was astonished at how much mud was churned up. The water was a churning reddish brown and full up onto the banks.

Flash floods are something I have never had experience with, gratefully, and had never understood how water could just rise so fast without people knowing it was rising. During Hurricane Irene I understood. After 8″ of rain even a stream near my house that is usually, in August, flowing at barely a trickle , was suddenly roaring whitewater. The stream exploded and it seemed it happened out of nowhere.

Imagine a river like the Sawkill with every little stream tributary like mine feeding it. Yes, it suddenly exploded, taking homes and livelihoods.

During Hurricane Irene, during such torrential downpours and flooding rivers, everything was surely very wet. It is hard to imagine the drought in Texas when so inundated. We are just at the mercy of dramatic weather, whatever type we have. We can’t share it. We had more than enough to go around, I wish we could have.

My local health food store carries Tera’swhey, so I bought some cocoa to try. I had been very tired all summer, sluggish even, and felt to just take a walk was a drag on my body. This wasn’t like me and I was getting a bit worried!

Let me tell you first that nobody is paying me for this and I am not writing an affiliate blog.

Now let me tell you that my energy went from about 20 to 100% within 10 minutes! I have felt wonderful all summer ever since starting the whey powder. I have the drink every morning for breakfast, mixed with unsweetened SO Delicious Coconut Milk. Yum. Sometimes I even have half a version at the end of the afternoon if I am having an energy dip as often happens around “tea time.” I am flabbergasted at how well I feel, and how clear headed. I even started Weight Watchers and the combination of one serving of Tera’sWhey and coconut milk is only 4 points. Even better.

I should note that my central nervous system has had quite an assault as those who know my story know that I have had two severe poisonings that damaged my central nervous system. Those who have similar problems take note of my experience with whey? Maybe it will help.

Tera’swhey is organic and one serving results in 22 grams of protein, 120 calories, 1.5g of fat, and 5 g of carbohydrates.

The room is my in-house spa, a place of genuine rest and relaxation. In the winter I can be soaking in the tub watching a blizzard through the windows. In summer just watching the clouds from the tub can be meditative.

I read the other day that everyone needs to have a place in their home where they can create, feeling free to make a mess as they do so. I thought that this was inspiring advice.

I’d add that everyone needs a place in their home where they can make their own in-house spa, a place for genuine rest and relaxation. Just knowing it is there, if there is a need, is a calming thing. Reassuring.