Today marks the global observance of Earth Hour — where hundreds of millions of people across the planet turn off their lights and other electronics for an hour. According to the EarthHour.org website run by the World Wildlife Federation, this one hour in the dark is “a vote in favor of action on climate change.”
Turning off all our lights and gadgetry for a single hour is a great way to disconnect from the technology that often dictates our lives, and to tune into simpler pleasures — like a candlelit dinner with friends, or chasing fireflies in the yard with the [...]
Do you know what you believe? Really?
I thought I knew what my beliefs were. But as I related in my essay/review on Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s “Fingerprints of God,” I’ve found all too often that I don’t have ready answers for tough questions.
The easy challenges I can handle — such as, when a friend or family member points to the recent East Coast blizzards as evidence against global warming. I just try to explain that the term “global warming” is often misunderstood, because it refers to the warming of ocean temperatures (which impact weather patterns, resulting in more severe and catastrophic [...]
Taking a cue from a good friend, I decided to start the day by drawing a Tarot card — something I’ve not done in ages, but that’s another discussion.
I was hoping for something light and airy, inspirational. A card that would stimulate my creativity and help me launch into a particularly productive and joyful week. But that’s not the card I drew. Instead, the card that came into my hands was Judgement (20).
Yeah, I never have been one to start with the easy stuff.
The Judgment card is about a day of reckoning. It speaks to self-judgment, and how our own [...]
I had been thinking of offering a list today of my favorite “green” folks on Twitter, until I got this message from Astrology.com’s GreenScope:
The law of karma gets restated in a hundred different ways. In environmental terms, it’s simple: whatever you do will literally come back to you. So look for cleaning products that can go safely into the water supply system. Baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice work on almost anything and are completely biodegradable.
I’d written previously about green cleaning products — and yes, baking soda, white vinegar and lemon juice make for some excellent “mean green clean.” Apart [...]
Yesterday’s new moon — 8:11 a.m. EDT / 5:11 a.m. PDT — is in the sign of Gemini.
As an air sign, Gemini is concerned with all things intellectual. Symbolized by the twins, Gemini is associated with dualities and pairs of opposites. The Gemini moon is a time of sociability and curiosity but can also be marked by distracted superficiality and nervousness.
Any New Moon is a time for new beginnings. Productive magic — building toward an intended goal — is worked during the waxing moon, and this New Moon in Gemini offers an opportunity to let go of rigid thinking that [...]
An interfaith gathering in the United Kingdom on May 15 helped dedicate the country’s largest woodland burial park.
Green burials — ranging from simply foregoing embalming to home funerals, woodland burials and sea reef memorials — are becoming increasingly popular, with good reason. To start with, embalming uses chemicals that pose health risks to morticians and which can seep into ground water, and the casket industry uses a tremendous amount of lumber, copper and other metals every year.
Much as many of us struggle against it, death is a natural part of life. No amount of body preservation, concrete grave liners or [...]
Since I missed yesterday’s Green Soul Guide posting and am a bit slammed today, I am borrowing content from another blog of mine, thoughts from the spiral. This entry — from last summer, about celebrating Shabbat in Portland’s Laurelhurst Park with Havurah Shalom — is particularly appropriate, now that the weather is turning more favorable and we’ll all likely be spending more time outdoors. It was this “shabbat in the park” experience, and blogging about it, that prompted me to start the Green Soul Guide to begin with.
shabbat in the park
23 June 2008
When it comes to shabbat services, I’m more [...]
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Recent articles
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Salon.com.
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Skirt! Magazine. National.
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The Oregonian. Portland, Oregon.
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Aish Hatorah. Jerusalem, Israel / International.
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Christian Science Monitor. National.
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The Oregonian. Portland, Oregon.
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Christian Science Monitor. National.
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Portland Tribune. Portland, Oregon.
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Portland Tribune. Portland, Oregon.
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