This is not for everyone, but I send it none-the-less as it may be helpful for some-one. A follow-up to the last post on Fields of Blood, today’s Glimpse is another reflective approach to recent events.
http://usa.rigpa.org/teachings/glimpse-of-the-day
Following the Thanksgiving rituals and the conclusion of visits from umpteen out of town family members I finally found time to get back to my Portuguese journal. But when I tried to write, I found myself with an unusual case of writer’s block. Poor Portugal. Feeling sick from the recent events in Paris and more senseless killings that followed, I had to put pen aside while I tried to make some sense of it all. There is no excuse for the killings, but I felt I needed to come to some kind of helpful, personal understanding about the events.
A few days into my processing I passed by The Avid Reader, a longstanding Davis, independent bookstore. In the window I noted Fields of Blood, by Karen Armstrong. While I did not find the title appealing, I have found Armstrong’s writings incredibly informative. A Ted prize winner among others, she has been called “one of the greatest writers on religion…” I entered the bookstore, perused her book and purchased it. Shortly, I settled into my favorite reading spot. After reading the introduction, I felt grateful that the book had landed in my path at this particular time. I have never recommended a book on this blog, but in this case I cannot but do so.
Check it out if you wish….
This morning as I was working on my Portuguese journal, editing and getting ready to post more on my experience of this beautiful and under-the-radar country, a newsletter from Mother Nature came across my desktop. One of my favorite newsletters, I read it weekly. I am forwarding the Health Benefits of Sweet Potatoes. A good read, it should help our favorite tuber go down easily this coming Thursday.
Happy Thanksgiving
Unlike the pilgrim of The Way, who trekked across Russia, ours is through a country about the size of Indiana. And unlike the pilgrim who traveled the rural paths ours is mainly through towns and cities.
As we work our way through the large and small cities, Tomar, Coimbra, Aveiro among them, I have noted an unusual line of commonality threading its way through each site. Continue reading
In preparing for Portugal, I decided to follow the example of the itinerant pilgrim in The Way….and select a practice that would help me to stay centered through the hustle and bustle of travel. I chose a Tibetan practice I had learned from a monk several years back. And like the “Jesus Prayer,“ it is meant to be done “unceasingly.”
Other than reserving a room at the Art Inn, having made no other plans, I opened myself to wandering the streets with the practice in mind. We began the pilgrimage by hiking the stairs near the Art Inn to Alfama the heart of the old historical district. Continue reading
As we drove into Lisbon towards the Art Inn Hotel in the glossy Mercedes, I began to have second thoughts about my plans for a pilgrimage. Pilgrims let go of normal life; they walk, carry little, face deprivation, and visit sacred sites. Like the pilgrim in The Way of a Pilgrim, I had chosen my mantra and a practice that I planned to use as I made my way around Portugal, but, with my “way” so paved in luxury, could I realistically call it a pilgrimage? With some reflection, I soon realized that I had to let go of my antiquated parameters and allow the tao to unfold. Facing what it brought my way seemed much more in alignment with my intentions. Continue reading
Well past midnight the train pulled into Lisbon’s main station. My partner picked up our backpack; I handled the stuffed tote. Walking out onto the dark and quiet street the late August night felt warm and sticky. In our levis and t-shirts we could easily have been mistaken for a couple of American hippies. Without a reservation our hope was to find a place open and willing to give us a room for the night.
Next to the station we spotted a hotel ablaze with lights, a beacon of hope at that late hour. The elegant entry matched the name, Avenida Palace. With four stars etched into the glass door, I knew that a room would be far more than our meager budget could afford.
Dear Friends,
While poking around in my library, a book inadvertently, but not accidentally fell off a shelf. I picked it up, mused over it a bit and noted a quote on the back cover from Jacob Needleman. He called it one of the most influential spiritual books of the 20th century.
The Way of the Pilgrim is the story of a man who made his way across 19th century Russia carrying a Bible, a bit of dried bread and a prayer rope, obviously, a traveler with purpose. As he walked, he focused his mind on an ancient orthodox practice known as The Jesus Prayer. I have witnessed a similar process in India where orange robed sadus walk the country, mala beads and begging bowl in hand, reciting mantras.
If the book is as influential as Needleman pointed out, perhaps it indicates that while most of us may not be called to the life of a wandering sadu or mendicant, the thirst for inner spiritual growth is innate.
For several weeks I had been thinking of a trip to a European country, but for no apparent reason I could not bring myself to make the necessary arrangements to get there. I felt conflicted. Then the migrations from Syria turned to a major issue in my intended destination. With that, I decided that the trip would have to wait until a later date. Fortuitously, the conflict cleared unexpectedly, and “out of the blue” the sound of Portugal entered my mind like the kind of mantra that called me to hyper-loop to Baku in Azerbaijan several months back. On the spot, I decided to go, but having dallied so long and my allotted travel time closing in, I was faced with last minute reservations. Flight schedules and hotels were put together almost as the plane was gliding down the runway. I know so little about Portugal, the customs the ways of its people not to mention the lay of the land, but the omen of the falling book lead me to understand that the trip is metaphor. It is indeed a pilgrimage. As to why Portugal, that will be revealed as I journey.
I write from the plane, a US Airways jet. The recent merger of American Airlines and US Airways created the largest airlines in the world. An agent told me that on Oct. 16 the merger with all changes to planes, flights, etc. would be completed. My pilgrimage begins under the old regime; when I return on American the new will be established.
Yesterday Jackie Lovato blog consultant and my teacher of all things teckie, changed the opening photo to a shot I took on the Mekong Delta two years ago. It feels far more suitable than the old photo for the pilgrimage I am commencing. Jackie, not only a great photographer, college teacher and web site consultant, she is as her name indicates, a love. Need blog or web help, wedding photographer, fashion shoot, she is your woman. This is my first commercial in a post. Just cannot help but promote such a wonderful person.
If you follow the pilgrimage I would welcome your comments.
From the air and the airport in Philly,
Penelope
This is the month for news from UCDavis. My partner forwarded another email with news of the latest research on winery wastewater. Again, I could not resist sharing.
WINERY WASTEWATER A VIABLE WATER SOURCE FOR VINEYARDS
Making wine requires water beyond what it takes to grow grapes. There
are bottles to wash, barrels to scrub and floors to clean. But what
if the water left over from all that cleaning was treated and reused
to irrigate vineyards? It sounds like a promising practice,
especially during a drought, but would it hurt the vines, the soil or
even the wine?
To find out, scientists at the University of California, Davis,
assessed winery wastewater samples monthly over two years at 18
wineries in the Napa and Lodi regions of California. In two recently
published studies, they conclude that, under the right conditions,
winery wastewater is a viable water source to irrigate vineyards.
The research provides the first data to support the California wine
industry’s reuse of treated winery wastewater, and it describes
recommended conditions for the practice, with a key focus on salinity
issues.
“This is a good baseline data set to look at and say, ‘Now we know
what’s in our wastewater and what we can do to deal with it before we
put it on the grapes,'” said lead author and UC Davis researcher Maya
Buelow. “Vines are a high cash crop, and growers need to proceed with
caution and gather site-specific soil and wastewater data, but there
are wineries successfully doing this.”
Salt water solution?
The researchers learned that most wineries in the study were already
doing a good job of treating their wastewater through a series of
retention ponds and other treatment systems. Salts, however, remain a
challenge.
Salt concentrations affect how water moves through the soil. Salts
are usually introduced into the wastewater by cleaning agents, and
they are not removed by treatment systems.
However, the study found that levels of salts at the wineries were
usually below thresholds for most wine grape rootstocks and soil
salinity hazards.
There’s also a trend within the wine industry to switch from
sodium-based to potassium-based cleaners. The study examined the
risks and benefits of such a shift for specific soil types. The
scientists emphasize that further research is needed to develop best
management guidelines, but their results indicate that:
* Soils dominated by montmorillonite, a clay mineral, could benefit
from shifting to potassium-based cleaners.
* Both types of cleaners may negatively affect soils dominated by
vermiculite.
* Neither type of cleaner reduced infiltration rates in soils with
kaolinite, also a clay mineral.
Not just grapes
“This is very applicable to nearly every agricultural system out
there,” Buelow said. Many other segments of the food industry produce
significant amounts of wastewater, such as dairy, pig, poultry and
food processing operations. “There are opportunities for them to
reuse wastewater, as well,” she said.
The winery wastewater survey was published in the American Journal of
Enology and Viticulture and funded by the Kearney Foundation of Soil
Science. Co-authors include Kerri Steenwerth, Lucas Silva and Sanjai
J. Parikh of UC Davis.
The salinity and soil study was published in the journal Agriculture
Water Management. It was funded by the Kearney Foundation, as well as
the Henry A. Jastro-Shields Scholarship, and co-authored by
Steenwerth and Parikh.
Dear Friends,
Shortly after listening to Francis address Congress this morning I received the following email from my partner. I can only imagine what the Holy Father’s response might be to this news. After reading I felt the need to share it with all of you. You may want to leave those anchovies out the Caesar salad.
University of California, Davis
September 24, 2015
PLASTIC FOR DINNER: A QUARTER OF FISH SOLD AT MARKETS CONTAIN
MAN-MADE DEBRIS
Roughly a quarter of the fish sampled from fish markets in California
and Indonesia contained man-made debris — plastic or fibrous material
— in their guts, according to a study from the University of
California, Davis, and Hasanuddin University in Indonesia.
The study, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, is one
of the first to directly link plastic and man-made debris to the fish
on consumers’ dinner plates.
“It’s interesting that there isn’t a big difference in the amount of
debris in the fish from each location, but in the type — plastic or
fiber,” said lead author Chelsea Rochman, a David H. Smith
postdoctoral fellow in the Aquatic Health Program at the UC Davis
School of Veterinary Medicine. “We think the type of debris in the
fish is driven by differences in local waste management.”
‘Waiter, there’s some plastic in my fish’
The researchers sampled 76 fish from markets in Makassar, Indonesia,
and 64 from Half Moon Bay and Princeton in California. All of the
fragments recovered from fish in Indonesia were plastic. In contrast,
80 percent of the debris found in California fish was fibers, whereas
not a single strand of fiber was found in Indonesian fish.
Indonesia has little in the way of landfills, waste collection or
recycling, and large amounts of plastic are tossed onto the beaches
and into the ocean. The problem is made worse by a lack of purified
drinking water that forces its residents to drink bottled water.
“Indonesia has some of the highest marine life richness and
biodiversity on Earth, and its coastal regions — mangroves, coral
reefs and their beaches — are just awash in debris,” said co-author
Susan Williams, a professor with the UC Davis Bodega Marine
Laboratory who has worked on projects in Indonesia for the past
several years. “You have the best and the worst situation right in
front of you in Indonesia.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. has highly advanced systems for collecting and
recycling plastics. However, most Californians wash their clothing in
washing machines, the water from which empties into more than 200
wastewater treatment plants offshore California. The authors theorize
that fibers remaining in sewage effluent from washing machines were
ingested by fish sampled in the state.
“To mitigate the issue in each location, it helps to think about
local sources and differences in waste management strategies,”
Rochman said.
It takes guts
The scientists emphasize that the plastic and fibers are found in the
fishes’ guts. That means humans are likely to ingest the debris only
if the fish is eaten whole, as it is in Indonesia, or such as with
sardines and anchovies, rather than filleted. However, researchers
are still studying whether chemicals in plastic can transfer into the
meat.
The study was funded by a UC Davis Outreach and International Program
SEED Grant, the National Science Foundation’s Graduate K-12 and IGERT
programs, and the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences’ Superfund Research Program.
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