Power down for the planet

The 1st of February 2007:

Participate in the biggest mobilization of Citizens Against Global Warming! The Alliance for the Planet [a group of environmental associations] is calling on all citizens to create 5 minutes of electrical rest for the planet.

People all over the world should turn off their lights and electrical appliances on the 1st of February 2007, between 1.55 pm and 2.00 pm in New York, 18.55 for London, and 19.55 for Paris, Brussels, and Italy. 1.55 pm in Ottawa, 10.55 am on the Pacific Coast of North America, 1.55 and 2.00 am in Vietnam.

This is not just about saving 5 minutes worth of electricity; this is about getting the attention of the media, politicians, and ourselves. Five minutes of electrical down time for the planet: this does not take long, costs nothing, and will show all political leaders that global warming is an issue that needs to come first and foremost in political debate.

Why February 1st? This is the day when the new UN report on global climate change will come out in Paris. This event affects us all, involves us all, and provides an occasion to show important an issue global warming is to us. If we all participate, this action can have real media and political weight.

Life stories: it's all in the telling

Lisbeth's back from her travels and has been talking a lot about one of the things she did on her sort of retreat. It involves how we tell the story of our life.

It seems that we may have a preferred style of narrating our life to others and to ourselves. The exercise she described involves experimenting with different ways of telling the various stories of our lives. This doesn't mean that the facts are altered. It is more a case of changing the lens through which they are viewed. So, for example, they practiced talking about a fairly ordinary time slot in their lives, then retelling it in one of the following genre styles: Heroic, Comedy, Detective, Social Realism.

Lisbeth says that this simple exercise had quite a profound effect on her and has given her much food for thought. She has become aware of her own tendency to narrate the significant events in her life as if she were the villain of the piece. This, I am convinced, can't be the case, so I will be encouraging her to re-tell some of her narratives in a more constructive way.

For those of you who are interested, the theory behind this is George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory.
http://www.pcp-net.org/encyclopaedia/pc-theory.html

A tale of sad blogging

Lisbeth is still away so I have reworked all my labels (think deckchairs) to use as section labels on my blog (Titanic?). Oh how time flies! Will it help? Who knows. Do I feel better? Yes, I do.

BUT it has taken forever as I have had to change the label for every post to date! Am I becoming a bit of a geek sheep? I think I am.

Bookcrossing

As there's still no word from Lisbeth, I've been browsing - as you do - and I've discovered 'bookcrossing'.

This is a really cool site for book lovers. It involves what they call the 3 Rs: Read, Register and Release. You register a book you own and have enjoyed on http://www.bookcrossing.com/ and then 'release it into the wild' by leaving it in a coffee bar, restaurant, hotel, on a park bench or on a train etc. The finder can then read it and, in their turn, pass it on again. A label inside the book explains the process and encourages each new owner to make a journal entry for that book on the site.

In this way it is possible to track the book's journey around the country or, in some cases, around the world. As I write, the most travelled book has 230 journal entries!

Thanks for the photo

I love the sheep family photo. Thank you

I have it in mind that you like birds, Sally. This is the Buddhist quote for today:

"In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence." Robert Lynd

Sheep family photo

As there has been very little contact with Lisbeth - 'er bein' on retreat an' all - her friend has sent me this great photo to keep me company.

I enjoy receiving things when I'm on my own and Lisbeth isn't talking with me. See more at Sally's Animal Kingdom

On retreat

Lisbeth's away on some sort of retreat at the moment, hence nothing much to report. The retreat is called 'In-depth Enneagram'. She has been working with the Enneagram for many years and says that it has helped her turn her life around both emotionally and practically. She says she wouldn't be in France if it wasn't for the Enneagram, so I am all in favour of it!

With Lisbeth away, I have taken the opportunity to have my own kind of retreat: simple standing. However, Lisbeth says that my standing will be more meaningful if I 'invoke a quality' at the same time. I'm not sure what she means by that, especially as this 'quality' is invoked in the form of a question. (I know, I've probably lost you already!) Anyway, if you're still with me, I admit to having given it a go. I try to get my energy to connect with the earth then say to myself "If I had more '..............', how would that be? (The quality can be things like 'presence' or 'openness' etc.)

Well, it's interesting. That's all I'm prepared to say. No doubt Lisbeth will be full of it when she returns (which won't be for a while), so I'll find out more, then.

Fortune favours the bold

There you go! What was I saying yesterday? Today's 'quote of the day' couldn't be more apt. I will add in: "Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it." David Starr Jordan

Stressing about having courage

I will be really pleased when Lisbeth comes back to France. She is getting quite stressed in England with her situation. So much so, that she ended up with pains in her chest, last night. She's never had pains like these before so looked up symptoms of heart attacks on NHS Direct. Come on, Lisbeth. Have courage and do what needs to be done. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face...You must do the thing you think you cannot do." --Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962, Social Activist and Former First Lady.

Honora de Sousa has the following advice for you, Lisbeth:

1) Understand - in every fibre of your existence - that what you're about to do is terribly frightening. Understand with every cell in your body and every thought in your mind that you are, in fact, scared of doing this thing and don't want to do it at all.
2) Contemplate how facing this fear will help you or someone else you care deeply for. Consider for a moment, despite all of your feelings of fear toward this thing, what it would mean, what it would change in your life to be able to do it freely!
3) DO IT!

Honora de Sousa http://www.oddchild.co.za/sections/blog/5

Hurrah for Harold Pinter

It is good to see that the French have honoured British playwright Harold Pinter by awarding him the Legion d'Honneur, one of France's highest awards. What a man! http://www.haroldpinter.org/home/index.shtml

Blowing out the electricity

The weather has not been good for me in France nor for Lisbeth in England. In fact, Lisbeth has been without electricity for nearly 30 hours as a result of gales and high winds. She says that although cooking and hot water have been problematic, filling the house with candles does make for a nice atmosphere in the evening. I wonder how many households have been thrown by what to do without a TV? Maybe some families have rediscovered the art of conversation or the pleasure of playing games with the children.

The sound of paint drying?

I’ve been pondering this phrase from my last post. I know it's usual to talk about ‘watching paint dry’ to indicate that something is boring. E.G. Watching golf is like watching paint dry. And watching paint dry is boring because there isn’t actually anything to see. (Although I expect there is actually something to see if one uses technology to magnify and speed up the process.) However, for something to be ‘watchable’ there needs to be some activity that can be observed in real time. (Like the telly?)

In my last post I talked about Lisbeth's daily progress log in terms of "listening to paint dry". My contention, in this post, is that 'listening' to paint dry would be similar to 'watching' paint dry: no discernible sounds audible in real time.

Do you think paint, drying, makes a sound?

According to this site, you can see paint drying via the 'paint-drying-webcam' and hear a musical interpretation of what it sounds like………………

OR
You can visit this site: SOUND+VISIONx5 = “Watch Paint Dry”

From Lester’s Journal, June 14, 2005:

"What an amazing experience! In a mere 30 minutes, John Climenhage came up with a painting on a piece of plywood that matched the avant-garde nature of the evening. It is definitely there, on the top left hand corner of the painting, he's painted the screen on which the live image of the painting itself is projected."

OR
You could read the book: The Sound of Paint Drying by John Hegley, in which John writes about a trip he made to France to paint a scene once depicted by his father. He muses upon his trip, painting generally, romance and blancmange.

I rest my case……….if I had one

More garden progress

Oh dear..... It's like listening to paint dry!

The last load of chippings has arrived and sit in two identical bags ready for spreading later on. Some, bought for the front, have been spread around that back where there wasn't enough. The liner is pegged down, adjustments made to the path markers and a new front door is ready for fitting. Lisbeth's workman has measured the old gate and is ready to make a replacement as the current one is rotting and doesn't fit the gap properly.

Lisbeth says that, if I don't like writing about what's happening in England, I should talk about something else. I'll give it some thought.

Moving forward in the garden

Lisbeth is nearly half way through her trip to the UK and the front garden progresses. The design is pegged out. The earth raked and odd bits and bobs of wood and nails have been removed from the walls. Another full load went to the tip in Postman Pat and measurements have been taken of the gate, the space either side of the front door and the area for chippings. Lisbeth has also done some work on line and caught up on her e-mails.

Ending the weekend

Monday tomorrow (although technically it's Monday now) and Lisbeth will be glad to get on with things. It hasn't been a great weekend and she is not in particularly good spirits. Sorting out her life in England is difficult for her as it involves relationship stuff. That being said, compared to life for those in Guantánamo, it's been a breeze.