The Hills Are Alive!

About a week ago, we were visiting with another newborn family of four when the father of a  four-month-old and four-year-old confided, 

"I heard there's a drug that law students take so they can get by on only four hours of sleep.  Whatever it is, I want some.  Just a few more hours in the day to focus on my lost interests."

I felt no empathy for this weary father because I HAD been getting by on adrenaline for a solid three months.  But sure enough, the fourth-month burn out settled in after a week.  I was taken down by a flurry of cheesy urps, and working overtime to fight random illnesses migrating from kindergarten.  Out for the count and feeling disconnected from EVERYthing, I started bubbin' away my worries with late night snack-a-thons.   

I reached out to Bunny with a plea for some personal time in nature, and she complied. 

On a summery Sunday morning, we headed out to hike in the Columbia Gorge with our friend KP who recently moved back to town after a decade in San Francisco.  This time of the year, Dog Mountain is infamous for its grand displays of wildflowers.  The trail is short and sweet, but steep as hell.  To keep the pace rolling, Kelly and Bunny belted out spontaneous Gospel rhythms while I carried a sleeping Wub.  They also 

invented a wacky rule - if you feel like complaining, then start quackin' instead.  That's right, like a duck, "Quack! quack! QUAck!" Lilly was a good sport being the only kindegartner krazy enough to challenge the mountain with her first blister and only a few quacks.

Climbing a thousand feet in a mile, we reached the first sun-soaked flower field overlooking panoramic vistas of the Gorge.  From this particular spot, the glaciated valley always reminds me of Julie Andrews spinning down color-splashed meadows in the Swiss Alps.  Throw in our choir, and literally, the Hills were Alive with the Sound of Music.   Wubby was in heaven - a real nature boy!

After eating a scrumptious Hawaiian PB & J (peanut butter, sliced bananas and passionfruit-pineapple jelly from Maui), Bunny & Lilly worked on a wildflower crown while KP & Wubby played in the grass.   This was my chance to breakaway for a half-hour speed-hike to the next flower field .  

Listening to the soul-searching spells spun by Mogwai (get inspired by these Argentinian images!), I charged up the mountain and found my lost confidence as a husband, father and integral piece of the community puzzle.  Inspired by the wisdom of nature, I returned from the mountain recharged, refreshed and ready for the week.  Good thing, because I have another round of ankle surgery today, and it drains about all I've got.  

I'm not one to follow daily horoscopes, but I stumbled upon the following Cancerian forecast randomly this morning: 

Today, all the different elements of your life will come together and be more connected.

Dia De Las Mamias

Great Gaia!

On our last Sunday in Maui, an island Earth Day celebration was hosted on a local's beach nearby.  The North Shore of Maui is much like Portland's inner Eastside: a creative, friendly, conscientious, healthy and resourceful community.  When their event permit fell through, the Earth Day organizers got the word out by radio and internet that this year's celebration would be an acoustic, unplugged potluck rather than the usual amplified, food-vendor event.   An unplanned, perfect model for any Earth-friendly congregation.  

Back in Portland, Earth week was underway with the National League of Cities meeting here under a conference theme of Sustainability.   

During the closing panel, Annapolis' warm and fuzzy mayor called for a national climate icon.  How about Mel-T the Bear:  "Only WE can stop global warming."

On Earth Day, Lilly's school asked everyone to dress in an Earth theme.  At first I was a bit dumb-founded as we have no prints of the Earth, but then flipping through her dresser, I found a second-hand sweater covered in butterflies.  It was a timely and sweet chance to explain the Butterfly Effect to my daughter.  

The following day happened to be "Take Your Child to Work Day," and  although Lilly finds my office job to be mundane key-punching and paper-shuffling, this evening I had the opportunity to share the City's newly released Climate Action Plan (check it out!) with our neighborhood association organizers, SE Uplift.   They were hosting a family-friendly open house to celebrate a forthcoming Neighborhood Climate Action Planning Guidebook.  The guide was developed with a group of urban design grad students from PSU - half of whom were classmates in my final course last Spring.  It was a hopeful neighborhood gathering, and I was fortunate to have Bunny & Wubby there, too.  

Lilly was my sidekick during the presentation, and at the end, she said, "Daddy, I want you to tell them about 'the Butterfly Attack'."  

It was an empowering end to the evening recognizing how one individual's actions can change the entire world.  

The next day, I received an email from the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) proposing that we partner on climate action outreach with their splendid courses.   I participated in an NWEI discussion course with my engineering firm's green team back in 1995:  Deep Ecology.  It was the first time that I heard of the Gaia Hypothesis:  the earth as a whole living organism that adapts itself to support life just as its ecosystems and organisms evolve over time.   From there my fascination with natural cycles, chaos theory and systems thinking began along with a recognition that maybe life's coincidences are not just pure chance, but rather small signals in a complex, interconnected world.  

Our Earth week ended with 5-year-old friends and families at the annual City Repair Earth Day celebration at a community park followed by viewing the new film simply titled, "Earth".   Later that night, my family was on a neigborhood walk passing by the City Repair office where volunteers were packing up from the big party.  One of them, noted that he attended my Climate Action Plan presentation at SE Uplift, and was reassured that a whole city could organize to minimize our global impact by taking BIG steps toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  Another volunteer, invited us back for tea in their community cob house.  Ain't Gaia Great?