What planet is this?

After the past month it feels like I've just recently returned to Planet Earth, having survived the life-absorbing world of Election Year 2008. For the entire month of October, every time I thought "I'd like to blog--just for a little while--or I'd like to...whatever," November 4th would loom large in my mind. Must...keep...going. Must...do...something...to...help...Obama's...campaign.

I guess it worked because millions felt that same way, and acted on it. But I must admit that it wasn't just Obama that inspired me to get involved. It was also Bush and Cheney and McCain and Palin. All in all, a very inspiring bunch.

[I have to take a moment here to say that way back in the spring, before Obama had even won the nomination, Aaron was adamant that Obama was going to be the next president. No, son, I said, this country isn't ready for a black man to be president. So...who's my new political guru?!]

Now it feels like we can take a tiny break, a little breather, and then jump in again. All the pieces of my life that I relegated to "after the elections" are now staring me in the face. So in order to avoid them a little longer, here I am back at Courtney's computer...blogging.




While I sat hunched over my laptop, furiously sending out emails and letters to the editor, donating to moveon.org and Brave New Films, reading Michael Moore's letters and who-knows-what-else, Courtney had the good sense to take his camera, get out on his bike, and document the gorgeous autumn happening all around us. Above's our little lane changing colors.




Everywhere there's such an explosion of color and daily change. Below is the last of our wonderful Romano beans that Courtney planted for three years in a row. I love picking them, the way they grow and how beautiful they look, how yummy they taste dipped in mayo (very healthy!) and the enormous amount of beans produced in a small space. Very efficient food.




Now our yard is a totally different color than it was a month ago. The former carpet of green grass is now red with oak leaves in the back and golden with maple leaves in the front.



Courtney's raking them into piles and using them for mulch on the new garden plots, right on top of the horse manure. Biomass, they call it. I love the idea of nothing being wasted in nature and everything having its use, in each different stage. And I love that Courtney's reading and learning and thinking about how to use what and where. Getting our little homestead in order.



On the right of the picture above is our side yard fence. This is the little path/neighborhood park that goes from Bell St (in the distance) to our street, Crystal Lake Dr. Lots of people in the 'hood use it for walking and biking. Our maple tree shades it in the summer and now provides it with a soft leafy ground covering.

We are fervently praying that at least some leaves stay on the trees for Jer and Pamela and Ruby, who will be here next weekend for the Cal/OSU football game. This will be their first trip to Corvallis and I oh so wish that they could see it with the fabulous colors of fall, rather than the less-fabulous gray of winter.

Speaking of visitors!! Below's a series of photos of a very scary visitor we had on Halloween night. EEEEEEEEEEE!!! A dinosaur at our door! And rapidly the dinosaur stormed into our house and pulled out our toy box and went to work.



How danged frightening can in get on Halloween?!?




Maya and Eder got this costume for Ben the day before and I think he kept it on for two days straight (all except the adorable hood that he'd have nothing to do with).





That couldn't be comfortable dragging that heavy tail around, but he didn't seem to mind one bit. He was one happy prehistoric creature.




Two days after Halloween comes another, much more interesting holiday, in my opinion: the Day of the Dead (El Dia de los Muertos) in Mexico. The belief is that this is the time of year when the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is the thinnest. People in Mexico, especially the indigenous in southern Mexico, spend all night in the cemeteries, Christmas lights strung everywhere, making alters for their dead ancestors and adorning them with food, liquor, flowers, candies, whatever the ancestors would want.

It just so happens that my birthday is the same day as the Day of the Dead (but that has nothing to do with why I'm so partial to it) and I've always wanted to be in Mexico for my birthday.

Alas, I still wasn't this year, but we did the next best thing. We had a Day of the Dead party at our house and invited friends from different segments of our lives--work at the Co-op, the neighborhood, and political circles. People didn't necessarily know each other at the start, but they met and mixed and all seemed to have a very good time. I know I did. (It was fun to see people exchanging email addresses and phone numbers as they hugged and said goodbye. A great bunch of networkers.)

I tried to make my birthday party more of a multi-cultural event than just a Swedish mutt celebrating a Mexican holiday. So I added to the mix that the party was also a fundraiser for the orphanage of Tibetan refugee children in northeast India, where Lobsang Dolma lives (remember her from the Dec 23, 2007 entry? And there's a great Prayer For Peace at the end of that entry, that's worth re-reading.)

So once everyone got here and had a beer or wine, relaxed, got hungry, I took advantage of a captive audience (plus they thought they had to be nice to me since it was my birthday) and got up on my soapbox, and gave a pitch for donations...


...with the faithful, hungry crowd dutifully listening (in the photo below, there's Ben and my mom on the right).



They were cheerful and generous (we raised $185!), and obediently poured into our living room for a group photo, which I'm sending to the orphanage, along with a card and a check.



Too bad that by the time we got it together for the photo Ben had already melted down and Maya, Eder and my mom had escorted him home, where he could recuperate in the privacy of his own home from a long night of partying.

So, November has so far been a fairly exquisite month. First my birthday, then the elections. Then on Thursday night I had the privilege of hearing Kathy Kelly speak. She's a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, a teacher, author, peace activist/organizer who helped initiate a campaign to end the UN/US sanctions against Iraq. She's organized and participated in nonviolent direct actions and humanitarian efforts in Haiti, Bosnia, Jordan, the West Bank and Iraq. She's also served many months in prison for acts of civil disobedience.

Kathy's a petite, attractive Irish-American lass with a talent for story-telling. She had us all under her spell, telling stories of her 26 or 27 times in Iraq, or in front of a judge in Ireland, or walking from Chicago to Minneapolis in time for the RNC this August. (My feet finally quit hurting about four days ago, she said.) Her most recent book is titled "Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison."

Throughout her talk Kathy had two re-occurring themes. One was "what will rise us up?" (said with her lovely Irish accent). In other words, what will fire us up? What story of suffering will make us say "Enough!" and compel us to work harder to end the suffering? She was speaking specifically about the suffering of the Iraqi people, and more specifically, the children.

The other theme was: Live simply, share resources, and always choose service over dominance. By living in that way, we cause less harm, less suffering, and we make ourselves available as part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. What a fabulous post-birthday gift, to hear Kathy Kelly speak, to feel her commitment, to be inspired and bouyed by her words. Now to take her advice....

Last but not least I have read so many wonderful books, late at night while worrying about the election being stolen, etc, and trying to put myself to sleep. One is "Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future", edited by Melissa Nelson, with contributions by Chief Oren Lyons, John Mohawk, Katsi Cook, Winona LaDuke, and Tom Goldtooth.

Another is "The Way We Will Be 50 Years From Today: 60 of the World's Greatest Minds Share Their Vision of the Next Half Century," edited by Mike Wallace, with contributions from Jody Williams, Kim Dae-jung, Richard Clarke, Lee H. Hamilton, Marian Wright Edelman, Leon Panetta, Carl Pope and Carol Bellamy.

Another great read is The Sun, a monthly literary magazine from North Carolina. All I'm going to say is check out their website www.thesunmagazine.org. and give them a try. Great stories and photos. Stuff to make you weep and laugh and appreciate life so much.

Also my friends and family make me appreciate life. That's you! Thanks for reading this very long piece. You'll be hearing more from me in this post-election world, and that's a threat,

Valori