Woolly Mutts

Who will make things right. Or, maybe left.

I work in hippie-ville, and I say that in the most positive way possible.  For those unaware, I work in a not-for-profit fair trade store, meaning that everything we sell comes from about 50 different developing countries and the artisans are paid a fair, living wage to provide us with product to sell.  We also ask them to take care of their workers, children and the planet.  You can read more about fair trade on our website if you so choose. We have a wind turbine on the roof, frequently house concerts and green group meetings. Every flavor of organized religion (and probably a few that aren't organized), color, race and lifestyle choice walk through our doors at one point or another. In addition to our store, the building also houses the office of the esteemed Stanley Campbell and RUM (Rockford Urban Ministries). 

This pic makes Stan look a little intense, which he certainly can be, but in truth he is sweetheart and a champion hugger.  He is also a fierce activist.  He calls me Dearest (I used to think it was because he couldn't remember my name, but I'm pretty sure he's got it now), always says thank you and can talk anybody into doing anything.(the good kind of anything.)  The only person I know who wants peace more than I do is Stan, and that's saying something.  

Stan writes a weekly column in a local progressive newspaper.  You can read this weeks submission here. In the article he explains that he has the button pictured (click to embiggen) for sale here in the building.  Early in the day we had  already had signs of interest.  (For those local, if you want one ask at the desk. $3)  I have to admit that while I appreciate the sentiment and have nightmares featuring Sarah Palin I'm not sure I have what it takes to wear the button.

Here's what I love about Stan; HE has no problem with it AT ALL.He'll wear that button and hope you ask him why.  The whole oil spill thing just makes me crazy.  I'm torn between wanting to go down there and clean off animals until I drop, or find someone, anyone responsible and slap them silly.  But, exactly who is responsible? I mean, I'm all for hanging the CEO and any and all henchmen of BP by their toe nails, but really, who is asking for the oil in the first place. I am.  We are.  As Stan wrote in his intelligent column, if we drive or use petroleum based products we have to shoulder at least some of the blame.  Sure BP was hugely in the wrong to drill without a safety protocol to deal with events such as this, but if there was not such a huge appetite for the slimy, black stuff there would not have been a drill in the first place.  

Ah, the grim truth.  Stan had some great suggestions of actions to prevent feeling, or being powerless in the face of such overwhelming ugliness. Someone asked me today if I thought the spill was a sort of Divine wake up call. I can't answer that, but I think Mother Earth has tried to get our attention in countless more subtle ways and it appears that humans, in general, need to be reminded of our charge to care for her in bolder terms. 

As Ghandi said, we have to be the change.  Nobody else is going to make things right if we don't take our own personal responsibility.  Right, left, middle...it shouldn't take such a disaster to make us sit up and take notice. Take notice and take action.

Holly's philosophy on weeds.

There aren't any.  There are just displaced plants.

Before I go into any more detail on my weed philosophy, let me say that I'm a nobody in the field of botany.  My brother-in-law is a Master Gardener and while he practices his green art with as few chemicals as possible, his weed philosophy is even more succinct than mine; kill them.  I also live in an area where what goes on in my yard is in no way censored.  There is no neighborhood association that tells me what I can or cannot do in my yard.  I do have one neighbor that spends some serious dinero to have lots and lots of very bad chemicals used to insure sparkling green grass.  I figure that if my dandelion seeds float in that direction they might just cancel out some of the chemical drift coming our way. Ying and yang of the gardening process. But I digress. (Surprise!)

So, weeds.  What classifies them as such?  They live in places we don't want them.  Now I've got garden areas that I would prefer the grass and dandies avoid and I yank them out (with whispered apology).  Otherwise, whatever decides to come up I welcome. Anyone who has acquaintance with me knows how I love the dandies.  I also adore wild violets, clover, pussy toes, creeping charlie, just to name a few and all reside in my yard. I just can't wrap my head around the "if it isn't dark green and a straight blade of grass it has to die" mentality.  It's like plant racial profiling.  "Whoops, yellow, you're outta here. Purple, take a hike." And, if that isn't bad enough, horrible chemicals are sprayed or spread that seep into ground water, or get picked up on the feet of small animals (and pets, btw) and sicken and kill them as well.

However, there are always exceptions.

 

In my area it is these guys.  Garlic Mustard.  Bad dudes, the GM.  Around here they are referred to as alien plants and are growing in such profusion that they are wiping out many native plants.  We have a creek bed in our back yard and it's full of them.  They are more than just plants growing where we don't want them; they doing environmental damage as they do so.  Other parts of the country struggle with other types of alien plants. Sad, but true.  Again with the ying and yang.  Dark and light in all things.

I believe that all things that live on this planet are connected and intended to be so. Plants, insects, animals, birds, fish all sharing and in harmony with each other.  Or, at least, that is the dream.  Certainly, that is my dream. 

Purpose

I love my job.  I know, I am such a broken record about this, but each and every time I drive home from work I am just amazed at how much I have enjoyed my day.   I've had some great jobs in my life; library, yarn store...hard to beat books and yarn, but this job, this job just sings to me.

I love that on my drive in I pass the Cadbury plant and some days can clear my sinuses with one good whiff of whatever batch of gum they are processing that day.  I love that the drive takes me past the river and Sinnissppi park, and very soon all the holiday lights there.  I love the diversity of religion that comes through the door and the way each and every one is embraced by all involved.  (Makes me get all dreamy about the possibility of peace.)  I love the concept of fair trade, the commitment to green practices and general earth kindness, but most of all, I LOVE the people.

Poor Ernesto from Guatemala who was searching for the Rescue Mission because he drinks too much beer and how we all struggled with our poor ability to speak Spanish in order to help him on his way.  He made the sign of the cross and blessed each of us before he left, and honestly, I really felt that blessing.  Arthur, who is at least 80 and walks down to our store from the senior high rise at least once a week.  Yesterday he told us about the coat he was wearing that he purchased right there on 7th street in 1956.  He bought 3 African canes to add to his stylish collection and wrote his check so carefully in large print while carefully checking his math.  He jokes and flirts and I just want to hug him he is so adorable. All the volunteers who give of their time and hearts to help make the vision of fair trade real in Rockford.  I wish they all knew what gifts they are to me.

On Friday one of our suppliers came in to the store and it was my first time to meet her.  She and her ex husband (I could write an entire post about the complicated and fascinating relationship between those two) own a clothing and jewelry company in Nepal.  Noga is originally from Israel and her accent is incredibly beautiful to hear.  When she realized that I was an interested ear, she told me all about her early life and how she came to find herself in the US and then Nepal.  She spends half her year in Nepal with her boyfriend, Shiva.  Shiva is a guide in the Royal Chitwan National Park and they live just outside the park.  The land the park sits on has been in Shiva's family for some astounding number of years.  She had pictures and she was kind enough to give me this one.

 

Elephants!  Elephants all decorated and ready to participate in an elephant race that is held every year.  See the second one is still a baby?  When I voiced my concern that perhaps the elephants didn't want to race, she laughed.  They are wild and wander around the park and her yard and are apparently quite pleased to be the center of such attention.  She explained how the Nepalese love their country, including all the animals that live there and I could tell she really meant it.  So cool.  So, so cool. 

This job has showed me that I have lived a very cloistered life.  While I want see the world as one place we all live and not a series of countries and borders, my experiences with other cultures has been limited.  If this job does nothing else but help me to keep my mind and heart open I'll consider myself privileged.

An open letter to our neighborhood late night party people.

Dearest Teenage Cool Crowd,

   Just a quick note to bring to your attention that our field is not a garbage dump.  I realize that in your illegal intoxication it may be somewhat difficult to distinguish between a trash can and whatever is outside your car window when you open it, but I just know if you tried a little harder, you could master this one.  The trash containers are generally located around fast food establishments or gas stations.  Our field is where we run and play and mow and I have to say that it gets on my last nerve to have to get off the mower and throw away your trash.  I have no interest in what you ordered at McDonalds (a perfect example of where a trash can could have been found) or how large the Slurpy was you almost finished.  I especially dislike the large glass bottle of booze that you jettisoned so no evidence would be left on your person.  Not cool, Dudes, not cool at all. So lets try and find some courtesy in that young, reckless soul of yours cause I gotta tell you, karma is real and what goes around comes around (even Justin Timberlake says so).  Start racking up those karma points now for a much happier future.

Peace, Love, and Happiness,

The crazy hippie chic who lives on the corner

And while I'm on the subject of pet peeves and trash,

Dearest Smokers,

     Perhaps it has not been explained clearly to you, but the world is not your ash tray.  I swear if I see one more person open his/her car window and throw out a cigarette butt I'm going to lose all good sense, ram their car and make them eat that disgusting thing. Same thing goes for those that drop it, step on it, and then walk away. I understand that it's a hard habit to kick, but not unlike the teenage party crowd, a little courtesy please.  I'm quite sure that ash trays have not been banned from the planet.  If you have to light up, keep your butts to yourself.

Not so much, peace, love, and happiness,

The asthmatic hippie chic who has no patience for rude behavior.

Have a nice day!

Fair Trade

The other day someone who is a loyal blog reader mentioned to me that I don't write much about Just Goods.  I spend every Tuesday and Friday and whenever else they have a need there, so why don't I blog about it?  Good point.  I've thought about blogging more about my time at Just Goods, but before I can just slip it in more frequently, I first have to tackle what Just Goods is and what it stands for.

Just Goods is a fair trade store here in Rockford.  It is a not-for-profit organization that is staffed mostly by volunteers.  To appreciate what JG is, we first have to talk about fair trade.  To get things rolling, let's start with the principles of fair trade:

• Paying a fair wage in the local context
• Offering employees opportunities for advancement
• Engaging in environmentally sustainable practices
• Being open to public accountability
• Building long-term trade relationships
• Providing healthy and safe working conditions within the local context
• Providing financial and technical assistance to producers whenever possible
• Ensuring that there is no abuse of child labor

In a nutshell, fair trade provides an honest, hard working person in a developing country a chance to provide for his/her family and do so in a healthy and safe way.  Although the majority of what our store carries is from developing countries, we also carry domestic goods manufactured by small companies or cooperatives that are in danger of being squeezed out by huge conglomerates.  We get soap products from The Enterprising Kitchen in the Chicago area and beans and soup mixes from The Woman's Bean Project in Colorado to name a couple.  In each case, both domestic and outside the States, the money provided to them from the sales of their products help to provide a better, safer life for the employees.  To learn more about fair trade a simple Google search will keep you busy for a good long time.

Just Goods  is located here in Rockford, IL on the corner of 7th st and 1st ave in the Midtown District.  Street parking is available, but there is great parking in the back.  The building itself is privately owned and features 3 rooms, 2 of which are retail stores and a center room that serves the community by providing a space for groups to hold meetings or for events or concerts.  Charlotte's Web holds its concerts there during the winter months.  We carry organic chocolate and coffee, pottery, textiles, clothing, jewelry, paper goods, olive oil, cranberries, soaps, the list goes on and on......and at extremely reasonable prices.  That is one thing that always surprises people when they first come in the store, the prices are, well, fair and the products are beautiful.  

Spending time at JG is a real treat for me.  It's the first time I've felt like I was truly with like minded people working toward a common good.  I encourage you to check out our website, though it is seriously under construction. Sign up to get our email newsletter (I'll be working on some of those) and look around at the pictures of the shop itself.  I'm generally there Tuesday's and Friday's 2-6. 

I like to think of fair trade stores as the anti-Walmart.  Each and every item that you purchase from a fair trade organization was provided to you by fair and honest means and by making that purchase you have contributed in a positive way to some one's life.  You help the people and the planet.

Sudance Channel- Eco Trip: The Real Cost of Living.

Through the wonder that is Netflix Watch Instantly and my beloved Roku box I have been watching the absolutely fabulous series "Eco Trip". Eco Trip takes something that you or I use every day (the first episode I watched was about chocolate) and tracks it's journey from beginning to end.  The host, David de Rothschild is very British and obviously very committed to the green cause.  He is also adorable and actually rather funny. 

Being me, who loves this planet in a tangible way,(If you know me you probably know what I mean by *tangible*.  If you don't and want to know, just ask. I'm trying really hard to stay off my soapbox here.) I could go on and on about the wonders of this series.  It's well produced, chooses it's topics wisely and while it certainly highlights all the many creative ways we humans are destroying our planet, it doesn't do any real finger pointing.  It's more like, "here's the info, do with it as you will".  Again, being me, I don't completely understand why every person who breathes isn't doing everything they can to be kind to the planet, but I try not to point any fingers either.  Oprah once said something to the effect of " we make our choices based on the information we have.  Once we have the information, we can't say anymore, I didn't know."  I have thought of that bit of wisdom as I have watched each episode.  Everyone needs to know these things.  If you hear it and ignore it, that's on you, but if you hear and are inspired to act ....there lies the beauty.

So, Sundance Channel, Eco Trip.  Go forth and be enlightened.

My footprint just got a little bit smaller.

Yesterday, as it rained, Amazing Husband and I decided that it was high time to stop talking about getting  a rain barrel and actually go get one.  It took a little research to find a place here in town that had one and finally ended up at our local Farm and Fleet.  This barrel is made by Fiskars, which was a bit of a surprise to me since I associate Fiskars with cutting tools, but there apparently they do a line of garden products as well.  So, the idea here is that the rain comes down the spout (you can see it there on the right side of the barrel) and is diverted to the rain barrel by a little tube. (AH was still working on the hookup when the pic was taken, hence the level.) There is a sturdy lid to keep debris out and a nifty little nozzle to get the water from the barrel into the watering can.  We have quite a number of plants in pots as well as several gardens that need regular watering and I was always a bit concerned about the amount of water we use during the warm months.  Now all we need are a few rainy days and we've got good, free of water processing plant chemicals, water to keep our garden alive.  If this works really well there is an option to get more barrels and have them link to each other.  It make me happy to feel like I'm working with nature instead of against it.

No outdoor job can be completed without the supervisors. :-)

Living the LUSH life.

Before I even get started on this little Lush lovefest let me give the usual no affliction disclaimer.  I don't know a soul who is profiting in any way by my purchase of LUSH products, but boy I wish I did.

Perhaps I have mentioned before that I listen to a really great podcast called Lipgloss and Laptops.  Two Canadian friends do reviews of beauty products and the beauty culture in general.  Good stuff and I highly recommend it.  They are funny and smart and very entertaining while giving great information.  Anyway, one episode they were discussing how much they loved LUSH and I made note.  At the time, the closest LUSH store was in downtown Chicago so I let it go.  We head to the burbs fairly often (Amazing Husband works in Vernon Hills), but downtown, not so much.  When we decided that we were going to spend Saturday in Schaumburg I looked to see if Woodfield had anything new to explore and there it was.......LUSH. 

LUSH (I'm linking you to the wiki page here, not lush.com so you can read the real scoop and not the spin version.)  is a company that makes skin products.  I think the word "cosmetics" give the idea that there is make-up in the store, but there isn't.  Bath products, creams, facial products, etc.  They do a mighty fine job of keeping their products as healthy and green as possible by making many of them in a dry form, thus eliminating the need for preservatives such as parabens which some studies have linked to certain types of cancer.  Parabens are used in their cream and liquid products, which I can live with because you have a choice.  Also, and this is big for me, they don't test on animals or use any ingredients that were tested on animals.  (YAY!)

So Saturday was my first LUSH experience and kids, I lost my mind.  I wanted one of every.freaking.thing.  I went right for the signature Karma scent and fell big time.  It's spicy and warm and smells exactly like I want to smell.  Sort of chic hippie.  I got some of the solid perfume and a jar of Karma Kream along with a few other misc things to try.  The most fun thing was the bath bombs.  If I had known what a great product they were I would have purchased ten.  Seriously.  A person needs to build a big 'ol bathtub just so they can get the full effect of these crazy little balls.  (Just for the record, I personally, do not have a big 'ol bathtub.  I have a teeny, bordering on useless bath tub, but I made it work.)  You fill your tub up with hot water, drop in a bath bomb and it goes to town fizzing up like a giant Alka Seltzer releasing fragrance and bath oils and all sorts of wonderfulness.  I used the Avobath and it turned the water a lovely green.  After luxuriating (or, in the case of my tub, moving around so that all my body parts spent some time under water) in the bath bomb water you come out smelling beautiful and with silky soft skin.  Really.  My skin was glorious.  La de da. 

Here's another fun little thing about LUSH products, the expiration labels.  That's Sara and she made my Karma Kream on July 7 of this year.  Thanks, Sara.  I've got about a year to use it up (yes, it has parabens in it.).  Isn't that fun?  Fun, ecologically responsible, and good stuff. Somebody, Mr. LUSH?, gave this company a great deal of thought.  I'm impressed.  I understand that they pack everything they ship using popcorn instead of peanuts or shredded paper.  I'll have to check that out. 

LUSH-two thumbs up and five stars from the hippie chic in Illinois. 

    

Earth Day 2008

Earth Day 2008, here in northern Illinois, began with rain and a dead modem.  We are now reconnected to the outside world and the sun is shining.  Patience in all things.

I've always had a strong sense of responsibility for the planet.  I don't think it was any real parental influence, but  just the amount of time I spent out of doors.  As the youngest child of older parents friends my age were often hard to come by.  Every summer we spent in the Wisconsin woods where I literally ran wild with the forest animals and swam with the lake creatures.  Loons and chipmunks were my best buddies.  To this day every time I see a builder take down a grove of trees because they were inconveniently placed it breaks my heart. 

Those of you that have been reading for any length of time know that AH and I live a fairly green lifestyle.  No paper plates, cups or napkins.  Limited use of paper towels and there is one box of Kleenex in the guest bathroom (I use hankies.)  We try to make good ecological choices in most areas of our lives, but there are a few that are somewhat beyond our control.  For example, AH has a huge commute (almost 2 hours each way) to work.  Compared to the commute he used to make from LA every couple of weeks, we consider it a fair compromise, but it still uses a horrible amount of gas.  Any kind of mass transit is not available, though is he able to work from home at least 2 days a week.  Another area where we (I) have been in need of improvement is bottled water.  The statistics for plastic water bottles are outrageous.  8 out of every 10 bottles of water are NOT recycled.  Over 39 billion (yes, billion) beverage containers have been littered, landfilled, or incinerated this year.  It's only April!  So, in honor of Earth Day 2008 I bought us a Britta pitcher.  Our tap water is highly chlorinated and tastes pretty awful.  I've got my fingers crossed that the pitcher will help with that.  I already had the SIGG bottle so it's time to put it to work.  It's a small thing, but each little effort makes a difference.  I'm committed to make my footprint on our glorious plant as small as possible.  Won't you consider doing the same?

Page-a-day calendar for January 29

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world."

--John Muir