When things fall apart...embrace it

I  started thinking about the ways in which we deal with loss more recently then I ever had before. I believe now that 'things' whatever they may represent are not guaranteed to last; 'things' can be defined as anything you would miss once its gone.  We are not taught as a society or as individuals to actually deal with loss at all in any form. Its brown bagged, its hidden, its ignored, its thought of as a taboo subject. Shedding skins and losing things is so personal so estranged from our lives that when in fact it, the loss, happens to us or a succession of losses happens, which is more of the case than the latter we are crippled emotionally and supported by those around us into the avoidance of the emotions associated with the loss or losses. 

When I first started losing things a few years ago I kept ignoring the reasons why and the emotions of the loss it just felt like too much. The advice I received was more annoying than it was helpful.  I guided myself through the mourning of losing my home and all it stood for, I felt the grief of love lost when in one day my dogs and partner moved out. I felt raw, wounded, and crazy even. How could all of this have happened?

When I look back I feel relief, I was trapped in a life I never wanted to have I was going through the motions I was not really living I wasn't embracing life. I was fearful.The life I wanted was the opposite of what I had so losing it taught me so much about who I was and who I was becoming, that now I am grateful for the experience. So the 'loss' was a shedding of the skins of society's pressure: house, kids, BBQS, and  noodle salad.  When things fall apart when they fell apart for me,  what it felt like was the sky was falling around me I felt alive I was learning the most important lesson in  life. That life is a full circle that what you really want happens when you think it wont that you can make it happen. I remember always feeling trapped and stuck, tired of being typecast and labeled it was a slow agonizing death for me. The life I dreamed of was of this woman who traveled and read, who took chances and felt the freedom of dancing, of kissing hot strangers who laughed and wasn't afraid to be who she really was.

When I finally let go of the loss the albatross I carried around with me a calmness fell over my shoulders like a warm blanket I realized that losing things is the same as gaining them it wasn't about the separation  of gaining /losingthe separtion never existed it was a false perception.The profound moment the realization that they are the  same the ebb and flow the tides of life when you let go of the tragedy the real truth comes out and life becomes free life becomes amazing life will always be full it will always be  both and when you embrace loss you gain things.

"Marcel Proust probably one of the greatest writers since Shakespeare. He gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, 'cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? total waste. Didn't learn a thing."

So we can be happy no struggles no loss never evolve or learn anything about those around us or more importantly ourselves. or we can embrace life with the struggles the loss the fear the love the whole viscous circle and live really live unobstructed by the periods of uncertainty. 

I suppose I continue to choose the whole life: the uncertainty, the pain, the struggles,  the greatest loves, and  the most intense life possible. Why not the pendulum swings both ways. 

Solutions from the Green Economy

January 15, 2008

Everyone now understands that the economy is broken.

While many name the mortgage and credit-default-swap crises as culprits, they are only the most recent indicators of an economy with fatal design flaws. Our economy has long been based on what economist Herman Daly calls “uneconomic growth” where increases in the GDP come at an expense in resources and well-being that is worth more than the goods and services provided.  When GNP growth exacerbates social and environmental problems—from sweatshop labor to manufacturing toxic chemicals—every dollar of GNP growth reduces well-being for people and the planet, and we’re all worse off.

Our fatally flawed economy creates economic injustice, poverty, and environmental crises. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can create a green economy: one that serves people and the planet and offers antidotes to the current breakdown. 
Here are six green-economy solutions to today’s economic mess.

1. Green Energy—Green Jobs 
A crucial starting place to rejuvenate our economy is to focus on energy. It’s time to call in the superheroes of the green energy revolution—energy efficiency, solar and wind power, and plug-in hybrids—and put their synergies to work with rapid, large-scale deployment. This is a powerful way to jumpstart the economy, spur job creation (with jobs that can’t be outsourced), declare energy independence, and claim victory over the climate crisis. 

2. Clean Energy Victory Bonds 
How are we going to pay for this green energy revolution? We at Green America propose Clean Energy Victory Bonds. Modeled after victory bonds in World War II, Americans would buy these bonds from the federal government to invest in large-scale deployment of green energy projects, with particular emphasis in low-income communities hardest hit by the broken economy. These would be long-term bonds, paying an annual interest rate, based in part on the energy and energy savings that the bonds generate. During WWII, 85 million Americans bought over $185 billion in bonds—that would be almost $2 trillion in today’s dollars. 

3. Reduce, Reuse, Rethink 
Living lightly on the Earth, saving resources and money, and sharing (jobs, property, ideas, and opportunities) are crucial principles for restructuring our economy. This economic breakdown is, in part, due to living beyond our means—as a nation and as individuals. With the enormous national and consumer debt weighing us down, we won’t be able to spend our way out of this economic problem. Ultimately, we need an economy that’s not dependent on unsustainable growth and consumerism. So it’s time to rethink our over-consumptive lifestyles, and turn to the principles of elegant simplicity, such as planting gardens, conserving energy, and working cooperatively with our neighbors to share resources and build resilient communities.

4. Go Green and Local 
When we do buy, it is essential that those purchases benefit the green and local economy—so that every dollar helps solve social and environmental problems, not create them. Our spending choices matter. We can support our local communities by moving dollars away from conventional agribusiness and big-box stores and toward supporting local workers, businesses, and organic farmers.

5. Community Investing 
All over the country, community investing banks, credit unions, and loan funds that serve hard-hit communities are strong, while the biggest banks required bailouts. The basic principles of community investing keep such institutions strong: Lenders and borrowers know each other. Lenders invest in the success of their borrowers—with training and technical assistance along with loans. And the people who provide the capital to the lenders expect reasonable, not speculative, returns. If all banks followed these principles, the economy wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in today.
 
6. Shareowner Activism 
When you own stock, you have the right and responsibility to advise management to clean up its act. Had GM listened to shareholders warning that relying on SUVs would be its downfall, it would have invested in greener technologies, and would not have needed a bailout. Had CitiGroup listened to its shareowners, it would have avoided the faulty mortgage practices that brought it to its knees. Engaged shareholders are key to reforming conventional companies for the transition to this new economy – the green economy that we are building together. 

It’s time to move from greed to green.

--Alisa Gravitz 

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2009 Resolutions

1. to wear more dresses
2. Eat Healthy overall wellness blah, blah, blah workout more, etc.
3. Travel to new places
4. to see lots of Live music
5. Mountain bike regularly
6. write more letters use more semicolons
7. Stop procrastinating/over committing which leads to Flaky Fawne nicknames
8. no smoking even with cocktails...that's the hardest part.
9. Take more photos
and last but certainly not least,
10. Accept my entire self: mind & body... especially body and be comfortable with being just Fawne no attachments

Another Day