Weekly Photo Challenge: Broken

In 2006, a UN Environment Programme report estimated that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. While I don’t know how much plastic is in the ground, I know that whenever I dig in the empty lot behind my house, I find plastic in every shovelful. I have lived in this house since 1973. Most of the plastic has been there longer than that.

In March, a friend helped me cut down and remove many of the blackberry vines in that area. Later, I cleared the remaining brush from one 36 square-foot section so that I could plant potatoes.

The pictures below show the trash I found when I made the holes for the potato starts. (I did not dig out the entire 36 square-foot area. These objects were found only in in the holes I dug.)

I took the first two photos when the garbage was still in the yard. The third was taken after I spread the trash out on my deck table, The fourth is what it looked like after I gave it a light washing. Notice how little decomposition there has been in the decades this trash has been in the ground.

Written for Weekly Photo Challenge: Broken

Protecting Mother Nature From Straws

When I was in India recently, I used so many straws to drink coconut w to the world’s plastic garbage problem in my face. It also reminded me of a short article I wrote recently for one of our GreenFriends Newsletters. I am going to reprint that article here both to give you information and to remind myself of the importance of changing my behavior. Continue reading “Protecting Mother Nature From Straws” →

Recycling: A Model for the World

There have been recycling efforts of one kind or another at Amma’s Amritapuri ashram since 1999. Over the years, the program has enlarged and become more refined. The Recycling Center moved to its current location in 2012 and is a model for all of India and the world. Continue reading “Recycling: A Model for the World” →

Protecting Mother Nature- Plastic

I once read that every piece of plastic ever created still exists. For example, it is estimated that it will take 450 -1000 years for a plastic liter bottle to decompose. Even biodegradable trash doesn’t disintegrate in a landfill because of the lack of oxygen. Continue reading “Protecting Mother Nature- Plastic” →

A Different Walk

In May, I wrote about a walk I took in my neighborhood. These are some of the pictures I snapped that morning.

Today I took another walk. This time I strolled along some of the bigger city streets. My pictures from today are very different from those I took in May.

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So sad. It is a never ending service opportunity though.

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The Beginning of a New Passion

During the last week of June 2011, I had a series of eye-opening experiences. As the week came to a close, I realized I also had a new direction in my life, the beginning of a new service project. How this project came about seemed almost mystical to me.

Some background first. Amma* has asked us for years to chant the Sri Lalitha Sahasranama** (also called archana) daily. While I have not been consistent in my chanting, I have had numerous powerful experiences when I have followed her direction to chant it daily. This was one of those times.

My normal practice is to read/chant the text while walking. I generally take one of four routes so that I know the terrain and can be focusing on the chant rather than my feet! This is what unfolded during those seven days in June 2011:

Day 1

I chanted the archana while walking the perimeter of the play yard in a grade school that is a block from my house. After reciting the first 850 lines, I started walking back home. A minute or two after leaving the school yard, I looked down at my feet and saw I was walking through an area of the sidewalk that was full of dog poop. I felt very irritated that the dog owner hadn’t cleaned it up and worried that I had stepped in the poop either coming or going from the play yard. Scowling, I continued on with the archana. Continue reading “The Beginning of a New Passion” →

Bastet’s Pixelventures: Playing with Apps

I was excited when I read that Bastet’s Pixelventures challenge for this week was to do some creative editing on an existing picture.

I have belonged to the Pacific NW Litter Project since it began in July of 2011. I decided to use a picture I had taken at the end of our first work party. We pulled a lot of garbage out of a forested area of Seattle on that day! Continue reading “Bastet’s Pixelventures: Playing with Apps” →

Making Crocheted and Woven Items from Trash

In my young adult years, I loved to knit and crochet. I remember making blankets, sweaters and vests. Decades later I worked with a group of Amma devotees knitting and crocheting hats and scarves for Seattle’s homeless. We also crocheted quilts for poor women who were moving from the street to transitional housing.

In 2007 or 2008, we started crocheting purses, hats, bags, and other items from materials that would normally be thrown into the garbage. Some of the trash could also be woven into baskets. By making crafts such as these, we could, in a small way, reduce the amount of garbage going into a landfill and polluting the earth. Below you can see pictures of some of the items I made during that time. (If you hover your cursor over a picture, you will be able to see what the item was made from. If you click on any of the pictures, they will become a slide show.) Continue reading “Making Crocheted and Woven Items from Trash” →