Author: jennynazak

Just now on my DEEP GREEN Book page on Facebook, I posted a photo of my new sparkly necklace & earrings set (purchased from a local business). Why am I posting this? To dispel several widespread eco myths!!

1) Myth: We can’t fix all the problems of the world; every human endeavor requires manufacturing, petroleum, etc., so there’s no point doing anything. Like, since everything uses energy, we might as well drive whatever gas-guzzling car we want, etc. Fact: This is just defeatist thinking. There is always a place for minimizing consumerism, minimizing one’s consumption of resources.

2) Myth: If you want to be an environmentalist, no treats or indulgences are allowed. Fact: Not true! We can treat ourselves. Being DISCERNING in our consumption does not mean we never get to buy any fun stuff.

3) Myth: Since so many people are suffering, how dare you have fun! Fact: Actually, we owe it to the world to show how it’s possible to have fun and enjoy treats while still living at a tiny fraction of the average USA resident’s footprint. Also, enjoying life doesn’t preclude taking a variety of daily steady actions to ease the suffering in the world.

Texas friends, and anyone else dealing with unusual extreme cold, I am sending warmth your way. 🌟☀️✨💛🧡❤️🧡💛

I remember back in the days when I was doing without heat in a little trailer in Austin, the lowest temp I remember was maybe 19. Now it’s 10 or even lower that some of you are experiencing.

The best tips I know are probably the most well-known, but there’s a reason why they are well-known!! And just in case you haven’t heard them, or need a reminder:

(From a friend who has spent much of her life in cold climes; this also matches my experience):

• Layers – Avoid cotton. Silk/poly/wool etc are great.
• Cover your head. Always.
• Mittens are better than gloves. Gloves with the finger flaps are better than mittens.
• Sock layers are magic. But (if you put shoes on) you have to have giant boots otherwise the sock layers get squished and they have less insulating value.

(From my own reading and experience):

• Get all the people and pets into the warmest room, or smallest possible room. Bring bedding and all the blankets in there. Cozy up.
• If you have a tent or EZ-up, pitch a “room within a room” and pile in there. (This can actually become a fun thing for the kids. And for some of us “adults” as well!)
• If-when you have power, boil up water and put it into thermoses so you can drink hot drinks throughout the day.
• During the day, if it’s safe to go outside AND if you have adequate clothing, you can get VERY warm from your core by performing tasks such as shoveling snow, chipping/scraping ice, chopping wood. Or brisk walking, if the roads & sidewalks are not too icy. I found I was able to get and stay remarkably warm by exerting myself in these ways. (If you do this, make sure your attire includes under-layers that will wick your sweat; otherwise you’ll get cold from your sweat. I recommend silk, capilene, duofold, or merino wool as under-layers.)

On a personal note: Voluntarily doing without heat was harder when I first started. (I think my first winter of voluntarily doing without heat was in 2006-2007), because I was very skinny back then. However, even back then I was able to manage, because I have a lot of experience dressing in layers, hiking/camping for days, etc. My vulnerability to cold always scared me, so about 30 years ago, while I was living in Japan, I started aggressively tackling my fear by joining a group that went on multi-day winter camping trips.

Sending love and warmth your way. Stay safe!

Further Reading:

Southwest Power Pool Declares Energy Emergency Level 3; Rolling Blackouts Are Imminent for Their Utilities (kfyo.com): State of emergency ranges from the midwest all the way down to Central Texas. Because most of their power plants are powered by natural gas, and the natural-gas wellheads and line valves are freezing, it is difficult to supply the natural gas that powers the electric generation stations. Dire situation. Yes, if we needed more proof — fossil-fuel dependency makes us brittle.

I just got a huge compliment today. My across-the-street neighbor said to me that if the Zombie Apocalypse comes around, he knows who HE wants to hang out with (yours truly). That is exactly my intent, for my house and me to be a Zombie Apocalypse Safety Zone for my neighbors.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The best security is well-fed neighbors! (I still don’t know the source of that quote, but just now when I was trying to track down who said it, I found this article “12 Good (Financial) Reasons To Be Friends with Your Neighbors.” (The reasons they give are actually more than just financial. And the comments on the article are full of great examples.)

One task of a grassroots reduction movement is to help people get past the “never-enough” mentality that is baked into our culture. The quickest way to do this is to strengthen people (including ourselves) from within, so we feel truly secure. Then we don’t feel compelled to use excess material stuff to suppress our feelings; fill a hole that’s existential or spiritual.

One of my favorite mystical/spiritual writers is Rumi. Here’s a quote from him I just stumbled on:

“This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor…Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” — Rumi

Go here for other mystical quotes from Rumi: 22 Mystical Quotes by Rumi, via adamsiddiq.com

Insightful article on evolving our collective consciousness; moving beyond the “unfillable hole of never-enough” that characterizes our culture:

“As part of their map to the coming decade, The Institute for the Future has laid out four post-pandemic scenarios for the United States, with echoes and implications globally. They range from a collapse scenario they term ‘Ungoverning,’ characterized by a civil war between ‘blue masks and red hats’ to a transformation scenario they call ‘Social Solidarity,’ characterized by a sharing economy and well-being as a basic human right. In between is a growth scenario that shores up existing capitalistic systems and a constraint scenario with Orwellian levels of health monitoring and contact tracing. What these scenarios highlight are the high stakes of the transition we are living and leading through. They share in common a set of forces most assuredly shaping the decade to come: economic and racial inequality, political and social division, broken healthcare systems, technology supplanting human workers, all set upon a planet in a climate emergency. Where they differ is in whether we face into these wicked issues by evolving our consciousness, regressing in consciousness, or muddling through without much change in consciousness. … The sign of great leadership is that it advances consciousness, it pulls people up. Practices that evolve our consciousness, that can grapple with paradox and borrow from permaculture can help us create a future of work that is a future we want.” (From “Enough: How Practices, Paradox And Permaculture Can Create A Future Of Work That Works,” by Ginny Whitelaw in Forbes magazine online, February 9, 2021.)

If it seems like I do a lot of posts about the mind, you’re right! Ultimately, navigating life is a mind-gig, and the path of sustainability is no exception.

Often I’ve written about the importance of learning to surrender; let go of attachments to certain outcomes, certain viewpoints. This isn’t the same as not caring about an outcome, or not having a viewpoint; it’s just a willingness to open up to the possibility that yes, I can go on living even if my preferred outcome gets “outvoted,” so to speak.

Sometimes, the word we use can affect how we feel about something. Like, for me, sometimes “surrender” feels a little too passive; a little too much like “giving up.”

I feel the same way about the word “non-attachment,” as in “cultivating non-attachment.” It has sort of a numb feel to me, like some “spiritual” people I’ve met who seem so nonattached that they hold everything at an abstract distance, even their own feelings. Our feelings are part of our moral compass; we need access to them.

And yet I know from experience that surrender, cultivating non-attachment, whatever phrase you prefer to call it by, is an extremely healthful and helpful practice, not only for increasing one’s peace of mind but also for accomplishing one’s mission of good works in the world.

A new article from DailyOM–one of my favorite blogs about managing our inner landscape (or “Zone Zero-Zero” as we call it in permaculture)–uses a phrase I really like: “developing a flexible mind.” This is really what surrender and nonattachment boil down to: expanding our minds; becoming more flexible and supple as opposed to rigid and brittle.

Same concept; different feel. Use whichever word(s) or description(s) work for you, but I cannot overstate how powerful this practice is.

Further Reading:

• Mind Stretching (DailyOM.com): “Having a flexible mind makes navigating life much easier, as you are not thrown off course easily. Flexibility is the capacity to bend without breaking, as well as a continual willingness to change or be changed in order to accommodate new circumstances. People with flexible minds are open to shifting their course when necessary or useful; they are not overly attached to things going the way they had planned. This enables them to take advantage of opportunities that a more rigid person would miss out on. It can also make life a lot more fun. When we are flexible, we allow for situations we could not have planned, and so the world continues to surprise and delight us.” Go read the rest; it’s a goodie. Enjoy!

• “Adopting another way of looking at things is a simple act that can have magical consequences.” — Harry Palmer, in his book The Avatar Path: The Way We Came. (Harry is the author of The Avatar Course materials and several books. The ability to deliberately change viewpoints is one of the skills I got to learn and practice by reading Harry’s books and taking the course.)

We can never hear too many “pandemic pivot” stories. Pivots in response to major challenges often end up improving the foundational structure of an enterprise (or a household, or a community, or all three).

Here’s a recent one: A restaurateur’s “Pandemic Pivot” has ended up boosting local food resilience! (And helping his employees and other locals through hard economic times as well.) Win-win-win!

“Before the end of the year, the restaurant changed its name to Scratch & Co. and launched a retail brand, Scratch & Co. Made Brand. The goal is to cut through the global supply chain and offer locally sourced provisions such as pickles, lunch meat and sauerkraut while ensuring local farmers and commercial ecosystems have an advantage over global and national supply chains.

“‘If I hadn’t been taking that approach I’d be talking to you as a former business owner,’ Mahaney said. “The only reason we’re still in business now is because we changed our entire business model.”