If you can't talk, write

I have laryngitis and can't talk today. I had to take a sick day since if I can't talk, I can't teach, especially to large groups of sixth graders. Which is disappointing, since I really did want to work today...

Since I can't talk, I figure I can write. It's been a while since I've posted anything on this blog. It's been a few weeks since I returned from Nicaragua and I've slid back into my routine here: work, King's Boxing Gym, cooking, hanging out. After a January that was more like April in terms of weather, winter is back, and I'm feeling the cold here in my drafty, unheated house on 27th Avenue. We're getting rain though, so I can't really complain, and the plants are happy.

The news here is of recession, of course, and it's usually not positive. I think we would all like it if things were easier. But here we are, and perhaps we can find something good in all this. Hard times inevitably draw people together, with less, we rely on each other more. Or at least, we have the potential to. Also, I have become much less likely to complain about petty things. I don't like something about my job? At least I have a job, and I am grateful for that. In times of difficulty, there are also opportunities. This is the time to make investments in oil free energy, because for certain, as soon as the economy recovers, so will oil prices, which will stifle any kind of recovery. We have a chance to create new elements in our economy--can we begin to create an infrastructure for a society that is less dependent on cars and oil?

Recently, I've become alarmed, horrified and shocked by the actions of a certain Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Pheonix, Arizona. If you're read this far, please visit the website :

http://americasvoiceonline.org/page/content/sheriff

to find out more about Sheriff Joe and the little gulag state he is trying to run in Maricopa county. Take action if you feel that what he is doing is wrong.

Thanks!

Comments

From the cab of a John Deere 8410

Ready for another day of field work Spending long days in the cab of a John Deere 8410 belted tractor gives me a lot of alone time. When I'm not staring at the sheaths of earth left tossed up by the powerful steel disks in tow behind the tractor, I watch the rice trucks on Highway 99, which runs next to the field, or I observe the chickens, cranes and the crows as they feast on insects unearthed by cultivation. And I wonder how of all things I ended up driving a tractor on a farm in South Sutter County. It is because I spent these recent days alone on the tractor--and because Fall is the season for remembering and for contemplation of life and death-- that I have resurrected up this blog yet again. Sutter County Mornings I could go back years, trying to figure out how I ended up where I am, but a good starting point would be the Summer of 2009, when I began my fourth year as the Nutrition Education Site Coordinator, aka 'Garden Teacher' at Park Elementary...

Support the Lagartillo School Garden Initiative

As I spend a quiet Saturday reading, writing and cooking beans, my mind drifts back to the month I spent in Nicaragua. I've lost track of how much time it's been since I returned from Central America, but I know I've been back for well over a month. At work, people are counting down the weeks before our spring break--four more to go. I am thinking ahead of projects to do in the school garden where I work once spring arrives, which here in the Bay Area will be soon. I am also thinking of another school garden project--the one in Lagartillo, the community in Nicaragua where I spent a month studying Spanish this past winter vacation. When I was in Lagartillo, some of the community elders spoke of starting a garden project at the school. A nonprofit organization that supports initiatives for women and children in Nicaragua, Project Sonrisas (http://www.projectsonrisas.org/) is working with the community in Lagartillo to help make the project a reality. To quote the Pro...

Return from a Rugged Land

Ok so it's been a while since I've done any blogging. But I am on the move and have much to write about, so here I go again. About a month ago, back in February, I left my job teaching Nutrition and Garden at Park Elementary in Hayward, CA. It was a sad farewell, and I will miss many students, parents and staff there, but I was ready to move on and experience new challenges, adventures and opportunities to grow, learn and have fun. I packed up my stuff in boxes, loaded my car with supplies and headed east for the high deserts of the Navajo Nation, specifically the contested partition lands of Black Mesa. The history of the Hopi-Navajo land dispute and it's relationship to the coal interests is a complicated one. At the center of it lies Black Mesa, a rolling plateau of sagebrush and pinon and juniper forests, the traditional home of many Dine (Navajo) sheepherding families. Under their lands lie some of the largest coal deposits in the U.S. For decades, the coal in...

When the Almond Tree Blooms

Search This Blog