Carbon Offsets

So, as you know one of my requirements this year is that I am going to write one blog every month about ways I am trying to reduce my environmental impact. I don't guarantee that they will all be successful, nor do I claim to be a scientist, but I have been doing a lot of research this month on air travel and it's negative effects on the environment.

My family and I are going on a vacation to an island called Roatan off the coast of Honduras. We're all very excited, although this will be our last big trip for quite some time, I've decided to just let everything go, and enjoy this exciting trip with my family.

I've heard a lot over the years about the impact of air travel on our environment. I'm not going to go too much into the science of flight, and why it impacts our environment so much more than say, driving, but I am going to share a link to the article that inspired me. I've purchased carbon offsets for this flight for myself and Dan. Although I don't have a lot of disposable income at the moment, I decided I wanted my flight to be more of a reflection of the true cost to our environment. I had no idea what carbon offsets even were before a couple of months ago. Sure, I'd heard the two words put together, but in my mind they held no meaning. Fortunately, David Suzuki comes to my rescue once again.

It took a lot more research than I thought to make a conscious purchase. I wanted to carbon offset to go to a company that is dedicated to change and not just someone looking to make money off of something different. There are a lot of different carbon offset programs and they're held to different standards, so it took me some time to decide where I wanted my money to go. Unfortunately, the only Canadian program I could find, I couldn't buy offsets for directly which I found disappointing and ultimately I decided to purchase offsets for the protection and rebuilding of rain forests in South America. There are some fascinating ideas in the works in many places though and I had a fun time learning about them. The only Canadian one I could find was the capture of methane gas from a landfill. I thought that was a super interesting idea, and it's not like we don't create enough trash to fuel the world 10 times over. Anyways, here's the link that started it all. I hope you all get a little something out of this month's project.

http://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/reduce-your-carbon-footprint/travel-sustainably/

Happy 70

This Saturday was my Grandma Beckett's 70th birthday party. You know, it's amazing to have people in your life that constantly remind you how lucky you are. My dad's mom died when I was two. She had severe rheumatoid arthritis and was taking some trial medicines that eventually caused her liver to fail. I never knew her, but I've heard she was an amazing lady.

My grandpa remarried in 1989. Grandma Bev taught me how to make pickles (one of my favourite foods), she's always called me on my birthday, and when I was sick she came to the hospital at least once a week and gave me Reiki. She's been super supportive throughout my life and she's always introducing me to her friends so that they can all be awed at how awesome I am :) Bev was a massage therapist and started her own very successful massage practice. She only retired last year at 69.

She's an alderman for Leduc and is very involved in their arts community. She's always inviting us to music events at the Maclab theatre and keeping us informed of improvements to their city hall; such as adding solar power. She still makes pickles and I'm amazed by her green thumb. She's always showing me her sweet peas when they're in bloom.

Bev is one of those people that as you get older, inspire you to be a better person. She's just turned 70, and for her 70th birthday she went on a trek to Machu Picchu and to the Galapagos Islands. She did things she never dreamed she would be doing at 70, and she said she's had the grandest adventure of her life so far. I've never seen someone that was excited to be turning 70, but she's been planning for this for years.

We threw her a surprise party that somehow, actually stayed a surprise. She was so excited and kept telling us all how blessed she is. I have to say though, I feel like I'm the lucky one. When I grow up, I'd like to be just like her.

Emotions

I don't know if this post will be very clear. I'm still processing some of what Sifu Brinker was talking to us about in black belt class; the difference between reacting and responding.

I understand the concept, although I'm not sure if I'm responding or reacting sometimes. Usually if I can analyze it afterwards, I can see what my mindset was. He brought up the different brain function and was talking about how the alpha brainwaves are different than the beta that we generally walk around in. He mentioned that martial artists spend more time in Alpha than the average person and he also said something about how Zen masters like Thich Nhat Hanh walk around in Alpha all the time and I got to thinking about emotions and the way I deal with stress.

If I can be in a more alpha state of mind generally, I assume that rather than reacting to stressful situations and confrontation, I would have more ability to choose to respond to those situations. I like to think that I'm pretty cool and collected but I know sometimes I speak too soon, or I can antagonize people unintentionally. Would this mindset give me the power to be more aware and in control of my thoughts and feelings? Would I be able to deal with irrational thoughts before they really get under my skin?

Excuses

Sifu Brinker was talking to us yesterday in the meeting about unexcused absences. Although, I've been working really hard at being compassionate with myself the last couple of years because I do get more tired than I used to. I am physically still weak in a lot of ways, which I am currently working on, but I have been advised to make this process a slow one. So no, I'm not making all of the physical requirements. But some of the requirements I set even though I knew initially, I would not be able to meet them. I guess in a way, they are like a target. Which is the idea. I don't want goals that I can already achieve. How are they goals then? I want goals that I have to work my way up to. Something that I struggle to achieve. Maybe I don't achieve them. But I am consistently improving. I think that's what I am getting at.

But there are still times when I'm making excuses. Excuses for why I'm not going to meditate tonight. Excuses for why I still haven't really improved my calligraphy. Those kinds of excuses. But then I was reminded of this quote I read in a book recently, and it made me question not necessarily missing practices, but the other excuses I make to myself. Throughout the day, every time I brush off something that is important to me.

I've been keeping this in the back of my mind ever since I heard it. I think it will help me on my journey this year.