Friday Featured Friend -- Return to Sender

Each year, 22,500 cemeteries across the United States bury approximately:

• 30 million board feet (70,000 m³) of hardwoods (caskets);
  
• 90,272 tons of steel (caskets);
  
• 14,000 tons of steel (vaults);
  
• 2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets);
  
• 636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults). ~ Wikipedia

Our featured friend this week is Return to Sender, a company that has impressed us immensely with its sustainable business approach that has taken New Zealand design overseas to one of the world's most prestigious design exhibitions at the Smithsonian. Based in Auckland, Return to Sender designs and manufactures eco-coffins. It is run by both founder and leading sustainable designer Greg Holdsworth and his clever and inspiring wife Leanne Holdsworth.

Return to Sender was born from a moment of awakening for Greg on the death of his own father-in-law, Mike Jones. An avid woodworker, Greg’s father-in-law was laid to rest in a coffin that he “would have deplored”, says Greg, adding that, “I came into the house and he was set up in a coffin made of MDF coated in plastic woodgrain, with plastic handles and synthetic linings. This didn’t reflect his values or his passions during life.” This jolting experience sparked Greg’s fervor to find a way of both honoring the life of our deceased loved ones and ensuring that the practices surrounding burial are sustainable.

Studying a Bachelor of Product Design degree at UNITEC, Auckland, Greg focused this passion into creating an eco-coffin for his final year project. He created a coffin that had minimal environmental impact and was also able to reflect the style of the individual deceased, as well as being both attractive and convenient for the mourners gathered around their deceased loved ones. Deservedly, Greg’s resulting Artisan coffin received two Design Institute of New Zealand awards in 2007, being commended for a "willingness to challenge the norm in an industry whose traditional practices have very deep cultural roots. Not only do their products have aesthetic appeal, making it easier to effect changes to peoples’ perceptions and willingness to adopt a new product, but they have very significant and measurable environmental benefits.” It was this design that went on to form the basis for Greg’s Return to Sender business.

Greg isn’t only designing and selling a particular product; Greg is promoting a "full cycle" way of living, by helping us to return to Earth in a sustainable way, completing the cycle as we lived it, with care, love, and consideration. Greg says that "Return To Sender offers a final opportunity to make a positive gesture towards the planet that sustained the deceased throughout their life." Indeed, Greg is no stranger to designing products that give back to the world, for prior to developing the eco-coffin range, he co-designed the World Crutch – a low cost ($1.50!) medical aid for use in developing countries. Greg sees himself as "neither a luddite nor a 'knit your own sandals' greenie, but as a pragmatic, while always looking for changes that represent the greatest benefit to the planet and humanity." For Greg, launching this business was an opportunity to influence a change of behavior in the funeral industry, and he says "put simply, humanity can't continue to consume finite resources at an alarming rate, combine them together in often toxic ways and then throw it all away... If we don't get it right, at least our coffins no longer need to add to the problem." Through creating award-winning eco-coffins, he hopes to raise awareness of the environmental cost of traditional burials and seeks to enable people to find affordable, sustainable alternatives.

Greg explains that in the United States, the resource use for making coffins is intensive, with coffins made from such materials as reinforced concrete, steel, etc. In addition, it is common practice in America to put coffins into a vault rather than directly into the ground, requiring even more material than the coffin itself, often using reinforced concrete and other materials as well. Noting that the manufacturing industry of casket making requires bronze, copper, and steel for the majority of its product, Greg points to Mark Harris' sobering words: “[a]ll-wood caskets, which account for not quite twenty percent of all caskets sold, consume some forty five million board feet of lumber every year — most of it oak, cherry, and maple — enough to fully build more than 3,500 homes... and [t]he end product isn't just the casket. The major casket manufacturers make the EPA's biennial list of each state's top fifty hazardous waste generators, and they are required to post to the agency's toxic release inventory the quantities of chemicals they release into the atmosphere: methyls, xylene, and other regulated emissions generated in the spraying of coatings onto casket exteriors." Greg hopes that the potential environmental benefit from increased consumer awareness and change in selection of burial products will have an enormous positive effect on reducing our footprint on the planet.

The Return to Sender range is unique in both design and material usage. For example, the Essence coffin is designed to use minimal timber and is easy to carry as a result. The Woodstock coffin is made from untreated radiata pine, thereby avoiding chemical emissions, and the Archetype coffin is crafted from certified sustainably harvested North Island rimu, helping to ensure that wood usage is not unsustainable. The Artisan coffin (Greg’s award-winning design from 2007) has a striking appearance that has made it popular with architects and artists, as well as with members of the public looking for a more stylish, greener alternative. Its unique design includes low sides, allowing mourners to sit beside their deceased loved ones, rather than peer down at them. And, all of the coffins are supplied ready to use with a wool fleece mattress, pillow, and biodegradable lining. If preferred, there are also ceramic urns for ashes.

And apart from this business’ wonderful sustainable journey, it's a business that keeps turning heads for design innovation, receiving worldwide attention. In a New Zealand first, Greg’s work has been selected for the Smithsonian world-acclaimed Cooper-Hewitt 2010 National Design Triennial. The Triennial exhibition is America’s most highly regarded design show where world-leading designers are showcased before an international audience. This year, it’s Greg’s award-winning Artisan coffin that will be featured along with David Trubridge’s (a fellow New Zealand designer) three Spiral Island seat/light pairs, marking an incredible and deserving milestone achievement for New Zealand design. We are so excited by this news! The exhibition opens on May 14th, 2010 and runs till January 2011, so if you’re in the vicinity, take the chance to view this New Zealand design excellence for yourself.

For us, it is simply fantastic to see the meshing of sustainable beliefs with solid, practical, and viable outcomes that people can make use of in their everyday lives in a way that helps all of us lead a more sustainable way of life. It has been such a pleasure learning more about what Return to Sender has been able to achieve in a short space of time, and we’re really looking forward to its continued worldwide success. And a big thank you to both Greg and Leanne for taking the time out of their intensely busy lives to share their story with us; Leanne was especially kind in taking extra time to explain things with us in detail. If you’d like to know more, please visit the Return to Sender website. If you live in Wellington, New Zealand, you can also see the Artisan on display in the New Dowse gallery in Lower Hutt.

Real-world responses from the MiniMonos kids

This week I thought it would be fun to share with you some lovely things MiniMonos kids have been saying and doing that make us smile:

1. One of our players, BetaMonkey wrote the following comment about Earth Day, last week:

I told everyone in my class about earth day they didn't even know lol not even my teacher knew. So when my teacher heard about it we went outside and start picking rubbish with some other classes. Check out my new post about Earth Day.

2. Another player Viper, submitted her cool art, painstakingly created  for our Earth Day competition:

 

3. Ivax commented that for Earth Day:

My mom got some dirt from Ireland and we are going to plant some potatoes. Of course we are already recycling.

4. Morty told us:

I did a school report on a plant called Jatropha. It can be used to produce jet fuel (biodiesel). Air New Zealand tested it on flights to the USA. It worked great.

5. And Emini showed us a picture of herself cleaning up trash on her local beach:

We're totally privileged to have these cool kids in our community who inspire us and each other with their commitment to the environment, while engaging and having fun on MiniMonos. One player, Alvin told us after we released our first episode of MiniMonosTV yesterday: "U guys do so much for us it's amazing." No wonder. It's completely mutual.

Biodiversity -- a conservation issue we all own

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB). Since 1959, the United Nations has held international years as a way of drawing attention to major issues with global impact, hoping to encourage international action to make changes for the better. The theme of the IYB is: “Biodiversity is life, Biodiversity is our life", a motto that urges us to understand that without biodiversity, we’d have no food, clean water, medicines, shelter, and that we'd be spiritually and culturally bereft.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban ki-Moon, has asked “each citizen of our planet to join together in a global alliance to protect life on earth.” It’s a stirring call to action and it’s worth watching the video to get a feel for what’s at stake:

Good intentions, slow results

I remember studying the Convention on Biological Diversity at university – it was fresh off the press and my incredibly enthusiastic lecturer Hilary Charlesworth brought it to life avidly. Back then, we held dreams of becoming international environmental champions, destined to tackle wrongdoers, hoping to rely on strong laws to protect biodiversity. Even then though, we could foresee trouble in the biodiversity convention's elegant, inspiring language and philosophy that left it highly aspirational in nature. Since then, much of the good intent has failed to translate into laws and policies that adequately slow the decline of biodiversity. The toll continues, and as Julia Whitty explains, it's a scary picture: “The overall numbers are terrifying. Of the 40,168 species that the 10,000 scientists in the World Conservation Union have assessed, one in four mammals, one in eight birds, one in three amphibians, one in three conifers ... are at risk of extinction. ... [F]ully 40 per cent of the examined species of planet earth are in danger, including perhaps 51 per cent of reptiles, 52 per cent of insects, and 73 per cent of flowering plants.”

So, after hearing the Secretary-General ask us "citizens of the planet" to “join together”, I am left thinking that I really do want to know that “each citizen of our planet” feels enabled to do something about our tragic biodiversity loss and that our efforts will be taken seriously, and will have an effective impact on helping arrest the decline in biodiversity.

Our own backyard

The good news is that there is plenty that we can do and we don't need to feel bewildered or overwhelmed by the mammoth extent of the problems. Our personal involvement can make a remarkable difference, even through simply raising awareness and making biodiversity a conscious, everyday issue. While it is important to know and understand how dire the situation for biodiversity is, it is equally important not to give up hope. It is heartening to learn that biodiversity awareness has increased dramatically in the past year, a sign that we "citizens of the planet" are feeling a greater sense of ownership of the conservation challenge.

I want to share with you some of the things I think we can do together to help our biodiversity. As individuals, families, and communities, we’re best placed to look in our own backyard, our own local community, and it is reassuring to know that small actions at this level can, and do, feed back into the global level – after all, biodiversity doesn’t know the artificial boundaries we humans call borders. With this in mind, here are some suggestions for getting involved in the IYB, and beyond:

• Don’t hide your passion. It doesn’t serve anybody to cloak your concern for our world’s species. Share your passion with everyone and anyone who crosses your path, whether you’re a parent, a bureaucrat, a football star, or a high school principal. Unleash that passion for biodiversity!
• Show children the wonders of biodiversity. It’s never too early or late to teach children what biodiversity is and why it matters. Children understand the power of nature innately - awaken their curiosity by example: Take them gardening, hiking, beach cleaning, snorkeling, camping, etc. Get them out into nature, learning to love it, appreciate it, thrive in it. The Children and Nature Network has fantastic ideas to help you find fun ways to connect children to nature.
• Do small things that make a large difference. For example, keep your pets inside at night and keep your dogs within your yard. Wandering cats and dogs can be especially devastating to local wildlife at night. Don’t get me wrong – I love cats and dogs – but I don’t love some of their habits and we're the ones with the responsibility to contain our pets' impact while still ensuring they lead a fulfilling life. Avoid growing invasive species in your garden, or find effective ways to keep your plants within in your landscaped space. Plant native trees and grow your own food. Leave dead trees for nesting and shelter hollows.
• Recycle, reuse, reduce, and refuse as much as possible. Less packaging waste and less garbage means more habitat and less pollution for all species, ours included.
• Read up on biodiversity. There are many incredible books about biodiversity, from those written for children to academic tomes. Learning more about the breadth and wonders of biodiversity is not only inspiring but it gives you good facts and stories to share with others about biodiversity. Don't forget that even reading books about species and habitats is learning about biodiversity, so don't limit yourself to searching just for this term.
• Write letters to the editor of every newspaper and magazine you read, both online and offline. Help to make biodiversity as mainstream a topic as economics and celebrities, by sharing your concerns with readers, and tell people how they can do things to help protect biodiversity by explaining what you're doing.
• Get involved in a local conservation group. From tree planting to making shelters for endangered species in their natural habitats, there will likely be a group in your very own community that is working hard at making a difference by actively trying to conserve biodiversity. Get in there at least once a month and get your hands dirty.
• And get involved online. Whether you just want to read about biodiversity, tweet about it, find educational materials, or actively participate in petitions to save endangered areas and species, there is a website for you. I’ve rounded up a smidgen of a sample to get you started:

• Check out the IYB worldwide celebrations
• Check out the IUCN red list species of the day (and you can add species of the day to your website)
• See what's happening with the International youth conference on biodiversity
• Look for upcoming events celebrating the IYB
• Visit UNEP's home page on the IYB
• See the days of 2010 tick down on Biodiversity Countdown 2010
• Visit the Biodiversity Heritage Library for many articles
• Read Anup Shah's Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares?, a very detailed article with good links
• Add a Google alert for "biodiversity" updates to be emailed to you
• For children, some fantastic places to visit include Globio and The Green Wave; and naturally, you can't beat having them play MiniMonos, where the monkey diversity is an important lesson in caring for species too!
  

And we'd love to know what you're doing to help biodiversity - it's exciting to learn about what inspires you and what you're doing to make a difference on your own patch.

Friday Featured Friend -- Primarily Primates

Our featured friend this week is the wonderful Primarily Primates, a non-profit sanctuary located in Bexar County, San Antonio, Texas. This incredible 75–acre sanctuary houses, protects, and rehabilitates over 450 various non-native animals, focusing primarily on apes and monkeys (caring for members of 32 species of primates), along with a number of other rescued animals, such as birds and big cats. The story of what Primarily Primates does is always unfolding but what the people behind this sanctuary have achieved already is simply remarkable. We'd love to share with you just some of the amazing, intensely caring, and focused work that this sanctuary is doing to make sure that many animals lead a fulfilled life.

Founded in 1978, Primarily Primates became a Friends of Animals refuge three years ago, and the animal-advocacy group Friends of Animals manages the sanctuary, with responsibility for key administrative functions and fundraising. The Executive Director is Stephen Tello, with the wonderful Priscilla Feral from Friends of Animals volunteering as president of the Primarily Primates Board. Since affiliating with Friends of Animals, the sanctuary has been renovating to provide expanded sites and upgraded living spaces for birds and primates, as well as providing on-site veterinary support. Priscilla told us that it is important to understand the role of sanctuaries, as she feels that this is not always well understood; she explains that “sanctuaries differ from exhibits and other repositories for animals who belong in nature but must live in confinement. Sanctuaries don’t breed, sell, trade, or end the lives of healthy resident animals, nor are these monkeys and others put on public display.” 

Primarily Primates cares for many non-native animals, including ducks, cows, an African lion, servals, and numerous monkeys and apes that have been abandoned. In the case of the monkeys and apes, many of them are cast-offs from the entertainment industry, closed-down zoos, the exotic pet trade, and biomedical research institutions. Due to their past circumstances, all of them are dependent on human care; it is not possible to release captive primates back into home territories because primates raised in captivity lack survival skills and pose a threat to local populations through disease and could potentially harm to the integrity of existing wild populations from their unknown genetic backgrounds.

Some of the more well-known individuals in the sanctuary include chimpanzees who were once used in space training and testing protocols by the United States Air Force. Then there is Oliver, a chimpanzee who was once paraded on TV shows as the “humanzee” because he walked upright. A particularly heart-warming rescue is that of five chimpanzees, Okko, Willie, Harry, Luke, and Arthur, originally sold to 20th Century Fox for the film production Project X, a film about helping chimpanzees to escape from radiation tests in an air force laboratory. Post filming, in a heartbreaking twist of irony, 20th Century Fox planned to sell the chimpanzees to... a laboratory. Fortunately, every single one of the chimpanzees found a new home at Primarily Primates, after a studio adviser pointed out the potential public outcry. Some of the primates come from zoos and exhibits that fail and wind up, such as Bukama, a 20 year old black and white colobus monkey, who came to Primarily Primates from a zoo that ceased operating in September 2009.

One of the major challenges for primates in the United States has been the ownership of primates as pets; indeed, Stephen Tello estimates that 60% of the animals at Primarily Primates are discarded pets. Priscilla explains the problems that have arisen from humans trying to keep monkeys, apes, and lemurs as pets: “We should understand that while we may be fascinated with lemurs, monkeys, and playful, adorable infant apes, the interests of these animals cannot be met in pet homes. The proliferation of the exotic pet trade is a misery for primates and these animals are routinely deposited in sanctuaries after the pet-owner is bitten or otherwise fed up with the demands of caring for a primate.” A good example is that of Rowdy, the marmoset monkey. Rowdy was purchased as a pet when just four weeks old from a dealer who spun a line to convince the lady buying him that small primates are “easy to raise, delightful”. The reality is that small primates are not easy to raise, and Rowdy’s owner found herself giving round-the-clock attention and care for the next two years. This created a relationship of deep dependence and Rowdy became protective of his owner, biting and harming other people when out of his cage. There was little choice left but to find Rowdy a new home and fortunately, Primarily Primates was able to accommodate Rowdy, who is pictured here in all his beauty. 

Sadly for the captive primate, owners can take years to accept the inevitable. As primates mature, usually between the ages of four and eight, their owners discover the increased assertiveness that often surfaces as aggression toward other people and even the owner. The deep-seated, natural need for continued contact is rarely met by busy owners and there is a tendency to react by locking their “pet” away in a small cage, removing their teeth, or to consider abandoning the pet at zoos or humane societies which are ill-equipped to cope with the needs of primates. At their wit’s end, when frazzled owners finally find the sanctuary, Stephen says that some have even threatened to kill or set loose their pets if Primarily Primates cannot make room. Naturally, it would be far better if people understood that it isn’t acceptable to own primates as pets in the first place, but there is a pressing need right now for ensuring that abandoned primates are well cared for when the result of people's ill-informed pet choices comes to these extremes. Yet, despite the fact that Primarily Primates steps in as both a source of respite for the owner and a savior for the primate, the stark reality is that once rid of their pet, only a handful of former owners continue to sponsor their primates, or even bother to send toys, or to meet promised donations.

Turning to the positive, deeply dedicated work undertaken by Primarily Primates, it is clear that the caring people involved in the refuge are making the world a better place for abandoned animals. At the moment, the sanctuary is continuing to expand its facilities to enable the animals, as Priscilla says, to “enjoy themselves in a slice of nature”. As resources permit, the sanctuary is moving away from the type of caging typically used in the 1980s, to providing improved outdoor areas for the primates. The focus is on continuing to develop enclosures and habitats in a way that will enhance the socialization of each of the groups of animals, and give them as natural an environment as possible. For example, for the tree-climbing primates such as the spider monkeys, climbing trees are provided so that they can move across the tree tops. The enclosures are large, and filled with trees, shrubs, and bushes, in order to create a naturalistic and complex environment for such primates as lemurs and spider monkeys. The enclosures for the chimpanzees are grass-bottomed and have large climbing structures; and not to be overlooked, is the sanctuary's two-acre pond (used as a native rehabilitation area for injured and infirm ducks, swans, geese, and cranes) that the chimpanzees can look over during their contemplative moments. There are temperature-controlled enclosures to ensure that in Texas’s hot summer months, the marmosets and tamarins, who generally like to play outside, have air-conditioned rooms set around 80ºF (27ºC).

The sanctuary is also eco-minded, recognizing that its space is within a larger ecology. Powered by both wind and sun, the sanctuary has a 50-foot (15 meter) wind turbine to help offset the rising financial and environmental impact of electricity and fossil fuels. The turbine powers lights, security cameras, and cooling systems, and it even feeds power back into the grid during recharging. Priscilla points out that the turbine hums to warn and protect birds and bats not to come too close to it. There is also a solar panel powering the lighting for the living area of the former US Air Force chimpanzees and there is an overhead solar-powered street light keeping the large natural aviary for parrots well lit. Priscilla says that “the use of natural energy will bring our refuge in line with our concern for the ecology and the beings that inhabit it.”

And we can’t not let you know about feeding time at the sanctuary. Apart from following their usual healthy diets carefully selected for the inhabitants, if you’re following the sanctuary’s tweets, you’ll soon realize that delicious treats are shared with the animals, from bananas to watermelons, when generous donations are made. In fact, rather than being wordy about it, here is a video of the delightful watermelon party (check out the great human watermelon cracking technique!):

There are so many amazing stories from Primarily Primates that we couldn’t tell you everything these fantastically caring people are doing, nor about all of the marvelous inhabitants, but it may just be a case of introducing you to some of the individual primates as future Friday featured friends in their own right! We want to say a very big thank you to Priscilla for taking the time to share her thoughts and to Primarily Primates, including Stephen, for taking such great care of the abandoned primates and other animals in so much need. You’re a resource that is under-recognized and unceasingly dedicated to doing good and we’re so proud to have had the chance to share your story.

If you’d like to know more, to donate funds or resources, or to become a sanctuary partner, visit Primarily Primates. You can also follow the refuge’s tweets at @Primate_Refuge, Priscilla’s Friends of Animals tweets at @pferal and Stephen’s Primarily Primate tweets at @MonkeysAndBirds.

Restoring a neglected plant for Earth Day 2010

We were pondering what would be an ideal way to celebrate Earth Day in our house. Even a very small search online revealed that the internet abounds with ideas of how to celebrate Earth Day, including celebrating in 40 ways (given it’s the fortieth anniversary of the event this year), and many other sparkling, wonderful ways to express our solidarity with Mother Earth. Yet, none of these ideas seemed to gel for my son. What did strike him as interesting was Melissa’s discussion of what she and her daughter were intending to do for Earth Day, and that was to plant a plum tree or a kiwi vine. My son wanted to plant a round garden of flowers, to create a magical floral circle. I was all for the idea but it was awkward – last season’s garden is in need of at least a good three days weeding, digging over and mulching, and here was Earth Day almost upon us. What to do?!

The next best answer hit out of the blue, as spontaneous and fresh as children’s answers always are, on the walk back from school. “Why don’t we replant that plant over there ?” I was asked. It was a fine plant, yet long neglected in a small pot and nourishing an entire ecosystem of its very own in weeds, no doubt at the expense of its own growth. We’d bought a pot for it ages ago but “never got around to fixing it”. At first I thought, that’s not a very momentous way to celebrate Earth Day, we need to do something grand, something that gives life. Yet, as we examined the plant while our cats frolicked around it, it dawned on me that here was a lesson of great value about our role as stewards on Earth, about our ability to tend nature and nurture that which is already growing and needs restoring.

So, we’ll leave what we learned from our Earth Day action for the end of this blog post. First, we want to share with you how to renew the growth of a neglected, pot-bound plant in the hope that if you've a few 'forgotten plants' around, this might just give you the nudge that's needed to restore their vigor in honor of Earth Day:

1.    Choose your neglected plant. Hopefully there aren’t too many to choose from!

2.    Remove all the weeds from the plant.

3.    Water the plant in its original container. This is especially important if the soil is very dry and compacted and the plant is pot-bound, as was the case with ours. We tugged and tugged but it didn’t come out until soaked through. (Poor plant!)

4.    Open the potting mix. You can also use quality soil straight from the garden if preferred. In our case, we had a marvelous surprise – upon opening our potting mix, we discovered a fern growing inside it. We rescued the fern and potted it as well, giving another plant a new lease of life.

5.    Prepare the new container. You don’t need to buy a container unless you want to. There are many items around a house that can be used as a plant container, provided you drill drainage holes into it; there should be at least one decently-sized drainage hole at the base of the container (centered), and depending on the type of container you’re using, you might need more. In addition, be sure to cover large holes to prevent the soil from leaking out; here we used a twig generously dropped in by one of our cats.

6.    Tip some potting mix into the new container. It is best to fill it about a quarter to a half the way, as you’ll need to leave room for the plant. We used a cut-down plastic milk bottle to act as a jug for transferring the soil from the bag to the pot. The jug was also used to water the plant. Wash it and keep it for reuse after.

7.    Take the soaked plant out of its original container.  At this point, it is important to gently tease out the roots of the plant so that they are loosened and dangle freely. This will help them to settle comfortably into the new home.

8.    Gently lower the plant into its new home. Fill in the sides and top with potting soil. Pat down the soil gently.

9.     Water. Admire. Take lots of photos of your children’s big grins at having been such a big help!

At the end of our planting, my son and I had very dirty hands, fresh with soil and decomposed matter. We’d managed to drop the camera in dirt, get soil all over our clothes, and smear our faces, but how good we felt – we’d not only replanted the neglected plant and made it appear brand new, but we’d also rescued a forlorn fern that wouldn’t have seen the light of day had it not been for our spontaneous Earth Day restoration. We felt we’d answered Melissa’s question of “what will you be doing?” in a very earthbound, connected, outdoor classroom way that helped my son learn that gardening is about making beneficial choices as human stewards. Just as we can choose to create beauty and nourishment, we can also choose to ensure that a garden continues to flourish for its own innate value, with just enough help from us without being either neglectful or overbearing. And hopefully, in some small way this is a little lesson writ large for approaching our own mindful input into planet care. Happy Earth Day everyone!

Floating the idea of interconnectedness: Why do I swim?

My daughter says I swim to become a better person.  When I swim, all is well with world, and my intentions are clear.

Today my swim coach sent me a lovely link about meditation and swimming.  I have never talked with him about the human spirit -- only how many lengths, how fast, and how well. I have been a competitive swimmer for most of my life.  I have also spent much of my life examining my soul, asking who I am and what I am about.  I never considered questioning myself when I am swimming.  When I am swimming I both “know” and “don’t know” who I am -- indeed I “know” and “don’t care”.

My favourite place to be is in water.  Preferably the sea, but any lake or river will do, even the bath if nothing else is on offer.  For my whole life, it has been the one place I am elegant and unfettered, where life is simple, and I can just be. 

I cannot remember learning how to swim.  I can remember years of before-school training, of checking my times, of swimming races in elementary school, high school and University.  Of club meets, and regionals and the nationals, of visiting foreign teams and water polo games back when there were only boys’ teams and I was desperate to play. I love the competition of swimming in a squad.  I didn’t always.  When I was a teenager, I didn’t realise that competition and collegiality go together.  I just swam to compete, and always found myself wanting. It was reading Guy Kawasaki many years ago -- he talked of finding a “worthy opponent” in business -- that made me realise how much I love to both compete against and swim with others.  There is no point in competing with those whom we do not respect.  It is the same in business as it is in a race.

When I swim, I focus on improving with every stroke, with every breath.  It becomes effortless -- even when I emerge from the fifth sprint gasping, I am smiling. During every stroke I wonder if I can move more than a metre through the water.  I wonder if I can lengthen my reach, if I can make my catch “catchier” , if I can make my recovery and entry smoother, and if I can push the last volume of water past me (and because my kick is weak, I should be thinking: am I engaging my legs?).

When I swim in the sea I am connected to all life.  I cannot bear that we are devastating the oceans and the life in them.  I feel the push and rise and fall of the waves (even the wild rough ones) as a caress, a sign that we live in a planet that is alive.  There is nothing better than swimming with my children, from snorkelling in Hawaii to helping my daughter and her friend achieve their long distance goals in the harbour.  Maybe swimming in an ocean race comes close: up to 1000 swimmers, swimming the same course in open water.  I no longer race to compete, I race because I love the day out with other swimmers.

I swim to become a better person.  I swim to remind myself that hard work and effortless elegance are not mutually exclusive.  One day I hope that being an entrepreneur will feel the same way.  Here at MiniMonos, we launched to the public in Alpha (it felt like pre-spring training); now we are out in early Beta (spring training).  Any minute now, we hope to really hit our stride; we are growing our team, our functionality, and our community at the same time.  Just in time for the American summer, we hope to swim like all that training was worth it.  We are building MiniMonos to make the world a better place.  We believe that if we do it in harmony with each other, using all the skills we have (including the children we have as members and the adults who love them), we can make the future more appealing.  Just like swim training -- can each game be more compelling?  Can our art be more delightful?  Can the rewards for taking action in the real world become effortless?  Then we will have done our part, and the reward is to keep doing it --  effortlessly, with joy in our hearts.

What is your meditation?  What will you do today that is effortless and elegant?  What do you do to make the world a better place?

Friday Featured Friend -- Kasey Collins

“My goal is to make people aware of the world around them, so that they will be moved to protect it.” ~ Kasey

This week we’re introducing everyone to an amazing nature photographer, Kasey Collins. Kasey hails from Wisconsin and she has an exquisite eye for taking photos that take away your breath. We’re lucky enough to be able to put some of them on display here and fortunately, you’ll also be able to take some time to explore her photos through the links to her work below. We’re honored to be able to share with you Kasey’s very personal and touching journey; through Kasey's story, we discovered a wonderful person who has found both healing and inspiration in nature and who continues to share nature's beauty with us, hoping to remind us just how vital nature is to our well-being.

Kasey's childhood was filled with visits to many National Parks and historical sites in the United States, instilling in her an early appreciation of the beauty and magnificence of natural and creative places. At the age of 17, Kasey spent a year in Australia as a foreign exchange student. Her host family lived on a farmette, and she loved every moment of helping to raise the animals there. Kasey found that she enjoyed Australia so much that she returned for another stay after finishing high school, spending time horse riding and seeing more of Australia’s nature. Kasey says that, in looking back, she “learned, from my childhood, that I loved nature… all nature, everywhere.”

Inspired by her love of nature and a desire to work in a field that would keep her close to nature, Kasey decided to pursue related studies. In order to be able to afford college, Kasey found herself holding down two jobs trying to make ends meet, to save enough money. During this time, she married, but the workload didn't ease for Kasey as her husband's work was intermittent. Ever determined, she continued working hard and succeeded in getting a small student loan toward her studies. Armed with this loan, and a full-time job by day, Kasey enrolled in a Recreational Resource Management program run by the Madison Area Technical College, enthusiastically undertaking her studies at night -- at last she felt she was on her way! During her second semester, Kasey fell pregnant; she found that she was able to continue studying, even after Sara's birth, so for a time things continued to go as planned. Tragically, however, Sara died when only a few months old. Understandably devastated, Kasey needed time to herself to grieve, so she discontinued her studies temporarily. Unfortunately for Kasey, this was the start of more hardship, as her loan became immediately repayable, with the college deciding not long after to drop Kasey's course from its syllabus. At this point, Kasey says that she felt “there was no way and no reason for me to go back.”

In response to her deep sadness, Kasey fled to New York City. While she feels in retrospect that much of her time there wasn’t spent profitably, she did find a path of healing through spending “every free moment” in the American Museum of Natural History, where she soaked up everything she could learn about nature from the museum's displays and exhibitions. Her drive for knowing more and more about natural history was a source of solace for Kasey, and she says: “I must have bought every book in their gift shop!”, as she sought avidly to build her knowledge about the natural world.

Finding her way back to Wisconsin, Kasey's strength and resilience continue to be a source of inspiration. She is now very busy, working for an auction house, and sharing her life with children, animals, and causes, being her usual giving and compassionate self. She is guardian and carer for her 11 year old nephew, whose mother sadly passed away. She spends much time sharing her love of nature with her nephew and nurturing his creativity and talents. Unsurprisingly given Kasey's empathy, the animals in Kasey's life have been saved from their own challenging circumstances -- she has three tamed ex-feral cats and a rescued shelter dog.

Kasey's photography is the expression of her perspicacious and observant personality combined with her never-ending love for nature. Kasey tells us that “though I never was able to go back to college, I don't ever stop learning, observing, studying and asking questions. I took up photography because I believe it's important to draw attention to the wonders of the world - even the tiny ones.” Kasey comprehends innately that revealing the small wonders of life is a pathway to reminding us gently that we need to cherish our world, to stop and see what is around us and be grateful for it. In her own words, Kasey says: “I want to bring to light the effect we humans have on the planet. I want people to see exactly what I see, in that place, at that moment. Whether beautiful or disturbing, perfect or imperfect, these places added together are our Earth and they all matter.” Kasey's portfolio gives a good sense of the focus she takes when photographing natural subjects, with such themes as: Birds of Wisconsin, A Closer Look, Man and Nature, and Plants, Trees, and Leaves. It is Kasey's eye for detail, for noticing the little marvels that are so easy to overlook that make her work unique and intensely uplifting. By drawing our attention to the incredibleness of nature, Kasey provides us with an opportunity to see the natural world in a new, more enlightened way that nudges us to remember the importance of accepting nature for its own intrinsic worth.

Kasey looks at the future with brightness and hope. She is currently working on a new photo project entitled “What Are We Teaching Our Children?”. This project will focus on the wasteful habits that often go by unnoticed in schools, such as how many ways we unthinkingly discard paper, or the habit of taking too much plastic to school in lunchboxes. Kasey says that she intends to involve her nephew and some of the children from his school in this project, emphasizing that “it's important to get kids involved and motivated to make changes.” We're totally on your wavelength with that belief Kasey! And after this inspiring project, Kasey is hoping to make a recycled art project -- and she also intends to get around to tuning her piano! 

Thanks for sharing your special journey with us Kasey. It has been intensely personal and truly uplifting to witness your determination to guide us into letting more nature into our lives through the power of your photos, revealing through your creativity how nature can both teach and heal us. And the journey doesn’t stop here – we urge you to take the opportunity to view the beauty of Kasey’s photography on her own site Kasey Collins Nature Photographer portfolio, and on Deviant Art. And, if you want to have a really good friend who shares great green info on Twitter, check her out at @2greenfish!

Planting a seed for Earth Day

Earth Day, on April 22, is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment.  It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, as an environmental teach-in in 1970 and is celebrated in many countries every year.  Over 20 million people participated that year, and Earth Day is now observed by national governments in 175 countries and more than 500 million people annually.

Shouldn’t every day be Earth Day?

Well , yes -- like everyday should be Mothers Day, or Valentine’s Day!  Sometimes we need to take time to appreciate the world around us.

This Earth Day, my family is going to take some time to reflect.  Here in the Southern hemisphere it is autumn.  Our garden is looking raggy!  In the Northern hemisphere it is spring.  My brother in Philly will be looking at the ground and deciding what to plant.  My parents in New Jersey will be watching the Azaleas come back to life, and my sister in DC will be looking forward to the first signs of spring in the Cherry Blossom trees.

My daughter and I will plant fruit for Earth Day – we are trying to decide between a plum tree and a Kiwi vine.  As part of our family’s commitment to reducing our need for fossil fuels, we have produced a lot of our food this year.  We have composted everything possible (including an old futon mattress) and kept egg shells to crush around the base of the plant.  We have encouraged birds into the garden by planting trees they like to eat the pests as well.  We have companion- planted marigolds amongst the strawberries and learnt about edible flowers in the process.  We visited  a friend to collect horse poop (boy, are horse’s digestive systems inefficient!).  We haven’t used pesticides or fertilisers and I squash the cabbage butterfly caterpillars one by one.  We planted blue flowered borage to encourage the bees into our garden.  Our courgettes have finally finished producing (phew), and we have harvested the cime di zucca – the last few shoots which taste wonderful steamed.   I have harvested the first pumpkin and have only 2 spaghetti squash left on the vines.  Our tomatoes (red, purple and yellow cherry tomatoes, and Italian plum ones) are stunning, and the monarch butterflies are hatching daily.  They have made cocoons all over the garden.  The neighbour’s apple tree is laden with fruit, hanging over our boundary.

This summer my daughter and her friend had a goal to swim a 700-yard circuit in the open harbour.  Finally at the end of the summer they made it.  Some days we kayaked, those days we picked up trash.  Plastic bags, candy wrappers, water bottles, an old shoe and a massive lump of plastic almost too heavy to get onto the kayak.   When the water was warm, harmless Jellyfish swarmed, and we saw how easily plastic bags and jelly fish can be confused by other sea life (that’s why we have them in our lagoon game on MiniMonos).  We saw schools of fish, and swam amongst them.  We went to the local Marine Education centre and found out about the sea life in our part of the world.  This week the sting rays were playing in the inner harbour, and my daughter and a friend paddled over them in amazement. 

So what does this have to do with Earth Day?  This Earth Day,  I recommend that we think about the world around us.  Take time to wonder in the life in our back yards, or balconies -- and plant something.  You can plant seeds into the ground or pots most times of year (carrots and cherry tomatoes will both grow in pots -- plus basil for the perfect breakfast of tomatoes and basil on toast!!)  Where it is still cold, you can plant seeds indoors, ready for warmer weather.

If you live near the ocean, take time to find out about your local sea-life, or lake-life, or what lives in the streams and creeks nearby.  If you can, clean up your local beach.   Plant a tree and wonder at the beauty around us.  Understand you will be doing this with 500 million other people, even if you seem to be doing it alone.  Have you heard the saying that “it takes a lot of drops to make an ocean”?  Imagine what we could do for climate change, biodiversity, and all life, if 500 million people planted a tree or seeds this Earth Day!

What will you be doing? 

Honoring World Heritage: A Source of Cultural and Natural Well Being

Old Town Lunenburg, World Heritage Site

World Heritage Day is celebrated on April 18, 2010. This post is a brief tour of some of the amazing facts about World Heritage, with a few suggestions of ways that you can play a part in helping to protect it.

Currently there are 890 World Heritage Sites located in 148 countries around the world, so it is possible that you know of at least one site, and perhaps you've even visited one. World Heritage Sites are special for a number of reasons. For example, these Sites get selected because they are considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. In addition, they are said to belong to all peoples in the world (the common heritage of humankind), irrespective of the country in which they are found. This collective ownership is an incredible feature of World Heritage, as it recognizes the inter-connectedness of human beings, and supports the reality that wherever we are in the world, there are cross-culturally meaningful places that fulfill our need for spiritual, cultural, and emotional well-being. Moreover, World Heritage Sites are not just designations – they tend to be living, active places for people, animals, and plants, making their preservation crucial to protecting not only the past legacy of our heritage but also to protecting and promoting current cultural practices, and to conserving biodiversity, and animal and plant species.

As with so much of our world, climate change is a pressing threat for at least 830 World Heritage Sites. In 2006, the World Heritage Committee listened to concerns raised by individuals, organizations, and countries about the potential impacts of climate change. The Committee made some decisions to encourage countries to protect World Heritage Sites from the possible effects of climate change. In 2007, a strategy was developed to help countries better focus on this urgent issue and this continues to guide countries in finding ways to mitigate climate change damage to World Heritage Sites. Mountain sites and marine sites are especially in peril, and other sites will be threatened by climate shifts such as increased precipitation and droughts. Just as World Heritage Sites are icons for cultural and natural wealth, they also serve as significant beacons of how much we stand to lose when the effects of changing climate patterns kick in. Moreover, there are World Heritage Sites, such as the Cerrado Protected Areas (Chapada dos Veadeiros and Emas National Parks) in Brazil, that have served as refuges for species during prior periods of climate fluctuations, and will therefore be vital to sustaining biodiversity in the face of future climate change.

Many World Heritage Sites contain significant biodiversity, including wildlife territory and habitats supporting endangered species, both animal and plant. It is not surprising, therefore, that there has been an ongoing attempt to establish World Heritage Species, in recognition that conservation of species is an important part of safeguarding our world’s heritage. One major thrust has been to focus on the great ape species. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UNESCO have joined forces to develop the Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP) because “drastic action is needed; [t]ime is not on our side” to ensure the long-term survival of great apes in the wild and to stop the rapid fragmentation of their habitat. Although not focused solely on World Heritage Sites, some of the great apes’ range is within World Heritage Sites, so the initiatives cross over and provide one another with potentially important mutual support.

Given MiniMonos' natural affinity for monkeys, we were curious to know the extent to which World Heritage Sites are important habitats for monkeys and apes, and we discovered many World Heritage Sites are home to many species of monkeys and apes. Here we share just a few to inspire your own research and deeper understanding of the intricate linkages between World Heritage and species survival:

• Thailand – Wat Gai, Ayutthaya - macaques
• Nepal - Swayambhunath Stupa (Monkey Temple) - holy monkeys
• Japan – Nikko - "The Three Wise Monkeys" icon, snow monkeys
• China – Mt Emei - monkeys
• Guatemala – Tikal, Mayan Pyramids - howler monkeys and spider monkeys
• Democratic Republic of the Congo - Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Salonga National Park - bonobos, Salonga monkeys, Tshuapa red colobus, dwarf chimpanzee
• Côte d’Ivoire – Taï National Park - chimpanzees and 11 species of monkeys
• Kenya – Mount Kenya National Park - Sykes' monkey
• Uganda – Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Rwenzori Mountains National Park - chimpanzee, black and white colobus, L’Hoest’s monkey
• Borneo (Malaysia) – Kinabalu Park - orangutans, Borneon gibbons, leaf monkeys, slow loris, tarsier
• Vietnam – Halong Bay - monkeys on some of the islands
• Cambodia – Angkor - monkeys
• Brazil – Iguazu National Park, howler monkeys, black capuchin monkeys - there are also many other UNESCO sites in Brazil with monkeys
• Sri Lanka – Sinjaraja Forest - purple faced langur monkey

Our short journey finding monkeys and apes in World Heritage Sites has revealed that some of our interactions with them are not beneficial: Stories of overfed monkeys and overly familiarized monkeys attacking people are sadly too commonplace. When we visit World Heritage Sites, being mindful of the needs of the species found at these sites, as well as taking into account the fragility of many sites by traveling responsibly, are important approaches we can all take to help ensure the long-term sustainability of both World Heritage Sites and their species, as a legacy for current and future generations.

There are a number of activities you can do from home to learn more about World Heritage Sites. These include downloading the 2009-2010 World Heritage Map, to learn where all the sites are; reading more about World Heritage at UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, including information on responsible tourism; and thinking about what World Heritage means for you. You could even research what areas still need World Heritage protection near you, and lobby your local representative to take action. And why not take the opportunity of playing MiniMonos as a way to talk about World Heritage with your children? Ask them if they think any of those wonderful monuments and places on MiniMonos might make a good World Heritage Site! Enjoy your World Heritage - it's special.

Friday Featured Friend -- Nubius Organics

We need to keep plastic bags and plastic bottles out of our landfills, 
as Americans throw away around 2.5 million
plastic bottles every single hour.
It needs to end, and it needs to end now. ~ Colleen Bednarz

This week we’re proud to introduce you to Nubius Organics, our featured friend this Friday. Nubius Organics is a web-based company from Santa Cruz, California, owned and staffed by mothers and environmentalists. A company devoted to eco-friendly living and totally dedicated to minimizing the environmental impacts of their products and business, Nubius Organics has a philosophy and business model that is right after our own heart, so we wanted to share a little with you about what they’re doing.

Colleen Bednarz of Nubius Organics explains that the company “is all about promoting the Reusable Revolution through information, action, and awareness. We want to help people switch their habits and stop throwing things away.” Colleen paints a sobering yet factual picture about the problems resulting from this societal throwaway mentality: “The plastification of our oceans and waterways is a critical environmental problem, and our wildlife and food chain is constantly suffering because of the amount of plastic debris found in our oceans and waterways.” She is upbeat, however, emphasizing that “it is very accessible, reasonable, and responsible to take the necessary steps to change our disposable lifestyle and unsustainable habits.”

For Nubius Organics, the disturbing facts about our often routine waste habits are a chance to alert us as to why it matters that we go waste-free, and to motivate us to find reusable equivalents. Nubius Organics’ team recognize how hard it is to start on a path to sustainable living, as there is “so much information out there – much of it overwhelming and difficult to fit into our lifestyles”. Their advice? “Start slowly!” They believe that “even the most incremental changes will start to set free your inner environmentalist and things will just keep going from there!” It is this kind-hearted and mindful philosophy underpinning Nubius Organics that appeals to us a great deal: Here is a company that takes an upbeat, realistic approach to facilitating our own environmental can-do and doesn’t expect us to be 'perfect'.

The passion behind Nubius Organics is evident the moment you visit the site – it’s beautiful, engaging, and fun to browse, while at the same time making it clear that Nubius Organics values the importance of being able to live “more conscientiously to conserve what we have." In helping us to switch our habits, Colleen points out that there is a reusable equivalent for most disposable products out there, making it “easy to pledge to live a waste free life.” This reality sustains Nubius Organics’ focus on making it easier for us to join the Reusable Revolution and take a stand against garbage, through enabling us to locate and obtain reusable items with ease, for keeps.

Delightfully, the fact that Nubius Organics is staffed and owned by mothers and environmentalists is harmoniously reflected in the company's focus on real concerns about health and well-being. Nubius Organics is committed to providing safe, healthy, toxin-free, and BPA-free tools and solutions for sustainable living whenever possible. The product range is both beautiful and practical, and what you can see on the website is there because the Nubius Organics’ team has taken the time to research and “mom approve” sustainable, safe, eco-conscious, and healthy products that they stand by: products that are PVC-free, BPA-free, lead-free, organic, fair trade, and reusable.

Taking the guesswork out of our conscious consuming isn’t all Nubius Organics is doing to ease our shift into sustainable living. Colleen says that: “We feel we are a great resource for new moms, concerned parents, and green-minded individuals who want to provide their children with the knowledge needed to change the world for the better.” And looking at the website quickly confirms that Nubius Organics walks the sustainable talk. Not only does Nubius Organics sell great sustainably made and durable items, we really love that this company also takes the time and effort to create community and to give back. For instance, you can sign up to their weekly newsletter which is packed with simple tips and useful information that you can use in your daily life. In addition, there is an absolutely fantastic resource page called “Living Green” which provides up-to-date articles such as Plastic Bottle Facts, lifestyle tips, videos (such as The Story of Stuff), and links to eco-friendly sites (such as the No Impact Project). There is a compilation of “Top Ten Eco-Friendly Choices”, a list that provides great information ranging from eating sustainably through to making safe choices to avoid toxins in your products.

And still walking the talk, Nubius Organics is calling for everyone to get on board the Reusable Revolution this coming 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. They’re asking us to pledge to cut our trash in half! Colleen says that “The future of our environment is in our hands, and our children depend on us to lead them by example.” We couldn’t agree more, and we’re so happy to have had the opportunity to feature Nubius Organics this week.

You can become a fan of Nubius Organics on Facebook and follow their green living tips on the site. And if you're not sure what to give your kids for a special occasion, check out Nubius Organic's eco-conscious and fair trade selection of Gifts for Kids.