Natural Beauty

Last week I got shamed for all the leaf litter on the walk way up to our Education Building. "It shouldn't look like that when you have guests in the building" the woman touted. A man remarked to me about the same concrete slab over a year ago as I was sweeping it, "A good shopkeeper always keeps it clean" or something to that effect. I was proud in that moment that he acknowledged my efforts-- a use of my energy I thought was for my own aesthetic...but I had almost the opposite reaction to the woman's comments.

I am not a shopkeeper. I don't want to sell anything to anyone. I don't want anyone's money. I live frugally in a space that's as close to nature as I can get to still allow me to share my views on nature with the world. And nature has leaves. There's a fine line between showing someone you worked hard, and showing someone you're shallow... in my opinion. I can clearly value the opinion that I take pride in my space, and I want to make it accessible and inviting...however... I think our aesthetic standards for each other and this world are unrealistic, unnecessary,and uneconomic.

A few years ago I worked at a Nature Center in Rye, New York. I would enjoy the lovely bike ride over the hills and through the trees to get to work, even through the expensive department stores and Cafes the lined the small main street. I didn't mind the incredible incline of the driveway on my last leg...but I HATED climbing that hill when the local who would volunteer to blow the leaves off the driveway was there. He volunteered his time... to use a gasoline powered leaf blower. To blow leaves...off the driveway...at a nature center. I'm still dumbfounded. The same thing happens at the park I'm at now. WHY do we feel that something has to look manicured, manipulated and touched by (wo)man to be Beautiful?
*I* think it's beautiful when weeds grow in the dirt patches between the irrigated plants. I think it's incredible when a little seed can hold on through the rains and the windstorms and thrive in the environment it has adapted to. (If you think so, too...you should tell my County that they should stop spraying bee-killing herbicides...)

[I actually had to pause this blog for a couple of hours so I could admire the passing colors and shapes of the clouds from a thunderstorm at sunset. (Photos below). I wish we could all pull away from our mirrors and enjoy the simple beauty around us... supposedly some people need additional inspiration for this (like...drugz) ...but that's a topic for another day.]



So, quiz time: How much do your society-inflicted aesthetic-opinions affect your daily decision?
Example.
WHY does a businessman have to wear a suit to be respected?
QUIZ: Who do you trust more:

OR

?

Okay...that may be unfair. (The second photo is the CEO of patagonia. Not wearing a pantsuit or anything. Just chillin', dressed like she's got stuff to do...aside from a photo shoot). 

What about...which of these parks would you rather visit to immerse in nature?

(The first one is in NYC...believe it or not)

I'm sure there are dozens of more examples...of how our focus on the superficial has caused us to overlook the important, or spend tons of money and time on things that we deem important, merely to satisfy other superficial desires. 

Which is why... I plan to start a website ClosetsforCollege.com... asking wealthy people to cash in their expensive garmets to raise money for kids to go to College. (Anyone want to help me get this running?) Imagine if some celebrity sells their Oscar's dress for even a couple thousand bucks. What an incredible gift a semester of college can be to an inspiring academic such as myself. I will maintain that I don't actually remember much from my college classes, but I thrived in the closed community that a college campus provided me...and I know many young adults who would THRIVE given that opportunity. Or at least an opportunity to go to college without holding down a full time job.

Now your homework: THINK about the next time you made a judgement or a comment or have a thought about something's appearance... whether it's someone's outfit, or their car, or the arrangement of the grocery store. There are times when an appearance can tell you something-- like how great a driver the guy with two dented bumpers and a broken tail-light is... but there are other times where our optical opinions inhibit our ability to appreciate the beauty, functionality and downright Good around us.

View from my blog-spot. Check out those Mammatus!

Ideas for Getting Over Someone Special-- A Working List

[ x ] Create an angsty/sexy you tube playlist

[ x ] Learn something new

[  ] Take yourself on a date

[ x ] Turn your radio up when your heart falls down

[ x ] Get PR's in your favorite workouts

[ x ] Spend time with somebody that tells you your beautiful

[ x ] Visit family.

[ x ] Post endless selfies on Social Media sites that said person has access to

[  ] Engage in guilty pleasures - like death metal and rocky road ice cream (best enjoyed together)

[  ] Explore a new religion or way of living- and try it out for a while

[ x ] Look through every picture that person has posted on Facebook

[  ] Put on a good movie and work on a craft

[ x ] Re-read a favorite novel 

[  ] Re-read a favorite novel that has nothing to do with love and romance.

[  ] Attempt to illustrate the drama between the butterflies in your stomach and the pit in your heart

[  ] Destroy something that doesn't matter

[  ] Sit on the couch and binge eat m&m's while watching reality TV

[ x ] Perform push ups to failure.

[ x ] Wax poetic on the struggles of getting older and compartmentalizing

[ x ] Watch Leonardo Dicaprio movies on repeat and slow-mo his entry scene. 

[ x ] Chat with old friends about your younger years

[ x ] Travel

[  ] Stare at at a wall and recount every interaction you've had with said person

[ x ] Ask strangers for stories

[ x ] Learn to love yourself

[ x ] Laugh

[ x ] Cry

[ x ] Revisit your favorite place

[ x ] Take photos of something beautiful

[   ] Get a tattoo

[ x ] do something drastic with your hair

[ x ] Run away into the wilderness with like-minded people and spend 10 weeks playing, exploring and living. 

Two Thousand and Thirteen: A Year of Journeys, a Time of Transience

Where do I begin to list the immense adventures that we have begun? To illustrate the scope of our travels- a list of the states we have breathed the air of in this year.

California, Oregon, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, New York, Connecticut, North Carolina.  Beaches of New York and of Santa Cruz- Atlantic and Pacific waters.

New locations we explored- Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, Ridgefield, Berkeley, Joshua Tree, Estes Park, Tucson.

Parks and monuments we got into for free thanks to my pass: Joshua Tree, Muir Woods, Grand Canyon, Fish Lake National Forest, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, Death Valley, Petrified Forest national park, Rosevelt National Forest, Rocky Mountain National Park, Ash meadows national preserve

Mountain Peaks we’ve summited: Ryan Mountain (Joshua Tree), Augeberry Peak (death valley- via car), Wildrose Peak (Death Valley), Deer Mountain (Colorado), Mt. Taylor (New Mexico), San Gorgonio (Cass), Mt. Tukanikavatz (Amil).

Notable Career changes/updates: Amil  is a professional artist after selling prints of his original pieces in North Carolina and California. as of December 20th, we have resigned from our positions as Outdoor Educators- with Amil as Kitchen Assistant and I as Support Coordinator, to accept positions as Caretakers and managers of an Environmental Education Center in Albuquerque.  

Themes/Highlights: Travel, movement (more so than other years, Amil more than Cass.) Transience, impermanence. 

Moral: Some places are more dense of beautiful things. In places where that beauty or joy is harder to find, it has to come from inward. If the beauty that comes from those very beneficial environments is not there, you have to be grateful of every place no matter how dissonant it might be.

This year we were able to see, touch, hear and smell an immense diversity of things. We breathed air of all different freshnesses. Amil got snowed on in North Carolina, tasted that snow…then ate some snow in California. He slept in deserts in NM, CA and AZ, and went river rafting in Utah, climbed a tree in Northern California, did a Navajo sweat, and listened to his voice echoling in Joshua Tree, Canyon Dechay, and Grand Canyon. This was a year of trying to find stability within- the most hectic year as far as moving around. We traveled the country but aslo traveled the spectrum of emotions to extremes. Extremes of joy and bland blankness.  A year of establishing practicality and connecting the dots between things we’ve always done, and things that compliment behaviors, beliefs, traditions and rituals. 

A year of accepting and appreciating.  Accepting the way that I am in the place that I am while addressing that I need to change. Not being stagnant. Looking forward to growth. Establishing a continuous flow of joyful living.

A year of emotional highs and lows, incredible opportunities, hopeful possibilities, vastly different landscapes and interactions with people from all walks of life… all contributing to an ideal of self and an ambition toward a great change…to come in 2014.