Spend Nothing April

Personal finances are in bad shape this month due to a very slow winter, workwise. When I start seeing red it's time to get thrifty. Not that I'm not usually a spendthrift but this month I need to get cheap. Yes, that's right, cheap. If it's not free, I'm not interested.

This doesn't apply to groceries and the regular bills that keep us warm and dry. Everything else is a luxury this month. I love to explore all the ways I can make life work without paying for fun. No spending months wake me up to just how much cash I bleed for small things that don't add a lot of joy to my life.

There are some things worth paying for, I just forget how much they matter and what they are. It's as though small, cheap thrills fog up my judgment apparatus and I can't see the big picture anymore. April is like a deep cleanse.

Today marks the first week of the month and it's not too late for you to join me.

Continuous Partial Attention

Over the past few years I've noticed a dramatic increase in my distractability. I'm barely able to focus on one task for more than 30 minutes at a time and even a stretch that long feels like a marathon. In fact, I started writing this post in the middle of reading an article on distraction. It's possible I will finish the article eventually, maybe.

The term Continuous Partial Attention was coined by tech theorist Linda Stone, someone I've never heard of but who sounds to me like she's on to something. This haze of rapidly shifting attention I live in is usually only moderated by a healthy dose of nature exposure which brings me to the coining of another appropriate term NDD or Nature Deficit Disorder. I wonder if there are any pharmaceuticals available for that? The nifty little term comes to us courtesy of Richard Louv who wrote a book in 2005 called Last Child in the Woods. His theory is that children are spending less time outdoors which might explain why they seem to be overwhelmed by so many behavioural problems. I think the same can be said for those over the age of 18 as well.

Now, where was I going with all of this? It had something to do with the benefits of spending time outside the confines of home or office and actually interacting in a physical and psychological way with plants, animals, dirt and air. Oh yes, and water. Bodies of water are nature too. It's just hard to imagine getting wet when it's winter outside. All I can think of is hypothermia and a naked, frozen corpse. Come to think of it, people are nature too and people are so much more interesting and easier to touch in person than through e-mail.

Of course, I haven't finished reading the article yet (it's kinda long) but it's very well written so I trust that the second half is a good as the first and I will be so bold as to recommend you read it right now, regardless of whether or not you're on the phone with your client or mother. However, I do recommend you not read this article while driving.

And by the way (in case you don't get that far), there is really no such thing as multitasking.

http://nymag.com/news/features/56793/

From Invasive to Useful

I went for a walk in a nearby park yesterday and I noticed many of the trees were wrapped up in strangling dog vine, an aggressive and invasive weed. As far as I know this weed is not native and has recently been introduced (gee thanks) to this area.

It's quite an easy plant to spot. It's thin, vine-like stalk will be seen strangling every living thing in sight, clinging noxiously to tender, native trees and shrubs as well as fences and other immobile objects. If you're still not sure it's dog vine try pulling it out. If it cuts into your palm as you strain and struggle, totally ineffectually, to remove the damn thing then it's definitely dog vine. Or you could just verify it here.

It will have menacing, pointy pods on the vine which do contain a fluffy seed that is very useful for starting fires if you are in need at certain times of the year. The one other thing this plant is good for is making cordage (that's rope or twine in survival-speak). I tested it out after collecting a bit on my walk and it made a nice strong twine even though I spun it quite thin. The photo shows the result. Since it is a member of the milkweed family this would make sense as other milkweeds make great cordage.

Considering how prolific and aggressive this unwanted invader is it therefore makes the perfect plant to harvest in large quantities while maintaining a clear conscience. If you haven't tried it yet, making cordage is easy, fun and it gives one the feeling of accomplishment, even if you never use your cord for anything although it does make a great emergency shoelace replacement. I certainly wouldn't use it for climbing or hanging yourself though, unless you have a death wish or just want some attention in the former and later case respectively.

Learning to make cordage is best done when someone else teaches you directly but there is an article here that might be helpful. I do think it's my responsibility to warn you that once you learn how to make cordage it is highly addictive.

Goodbye 2009

Hello to a new decade. Although it's been a few weeks already the year still feels fresh. Could just be the cold Canadian air but it's not too late for a great bluegrass rendition of Auld Lang Syne by Lostmychops

In Awe

One of the many things I love about nature is the way it often leaves me in awe. The natural world is of such great depth, power and beauty that our little human tribulations seem small and pathetic in comparison.

This is a good thing.

In order to deliver some awe to your desk on a Monday morning I offer up the following video as a pleasant distraction. http://www.vimeo.com/7566422

The Constraints of Language

I don't know about you but I usually think in sentences. Thoughts that do not take the shape of words are nearly unreachable to me. I know, because I attempt to shut off the faucet of words from time to time and the best I can do is restrict the flow to a slow drip for a few, fleeting moments.

Yesterday I asked myself, in words of course, what it would be like if I did not have language and was not able to form sentences and paragraphs to describe how I felt. I would be left with only feelings. I would be free from the unending dialogue in my head and the connection to myself and my environment would be profound. I think. But I wouldn't really know that (or would I?) and I certainly wouldn't be able to tell anyone about it.

While walking the dog I've tried to use the experience as a meditation. I've made an effort to avoid a running commentary on everything I see. I usually fail miserably. "That's a really beautiful tree, I wonder what it is", "My goodness what a hideous colour, who paints their porch turquoise?", "What are you looking at?", "Oooh, a for sale sign. I wonder what the asking price is". And so on. If I had no words what would I feel? What would I think? Would the walk look something more like:

Sees tree: [warm feeling in heart].
Sees turquoise porch: [disgust] looks away.
Sees person looking back: [hello].
Sees a for sale sign: [confusion - can't read] inspects sign by sniffing and tasting. Discovers it is not food and moves on.

People often say that we are better connected to our emotions and intuition when we are young and that we loose our intuition as we mature and are molded into responsible citizens. If this is true I wonder if the disconnection between our minds and bodies occurs when we begin to learn and develop mastery in language. It would be at this point that we would begin to express ourselves in a more dignified manner - through words and sentences rather than laughing, crying or throwing things. Of course, remnants of these expressions cling tenaciously to our communication styles throughout our lives but they have been dramatically curtailed. And probably for the better.

One of the interesting aspects of language is it's inability to accurately express emotion. I've lost track of the number of times I've felt something but been unable to evoke a deep understanding of that feeling in another person simply through words. And even if we were able to reach someone with reasonable accuracy there is the matter of interpretation which further complicates communication.

I'd like to say that when I am surrounded by nature, in a place where there are no man-made sounds except those in my head, that I am able to find that connection that I've nearly lost, but that would only be partly true. The dialogue with myself slows but it never shuts off completely. The words come to me like wipers on a delay setting. There's a pause, and then then they hit me again, followed by another pause until I forget about the exercise completely and just start rambling to myself or fall asleep.

Language has many benefits to us but it does seem to fall short in a few areas. As a writer I cannot deny the incredible power and freedom that language affords. Before I go I'd like to remind you that this post was brought to you by today's sponsor - language.

Why Freecycle Doesn't Work

I just discovered a (potentially) great magazine out of the UK called Permaculture. It's major flaw being that it is a UK based magazine with content that is inspiring but not directly applicable to a Canadian climate. While we're still worried about frost everyone in the UK is harvesting vegetables already. Big difference. Anyway, the Winter 2009 issue had an intriguing article on Mark Boyle, the founder of Freeconomy, who lives life without legal tender.

This is certainly a feasible endeavour and something I've considered but I believe it is only a surface solution and does not address the heart of the problem that is consumerism. In the article, Mark mentions Freecycle as a source of finding necessary supplies without the burden of currency and it was this very comment that reminded me about the flaw in denouncing the culture of money. And I have been waiting so long to gripe about Freecycle - this one has been brewing in my brain for some time.

I've used Freecycle in the past but not recently. I have only been able to acquire one small plant (that I have since ripped out) but I have been able to "re-gift" many unwanted household items that were collecting dust in a closet or the shed (oh the poor shed, collector of all that is unloved yet fiercely necessary). Giving away items on Freecycle is like tossing a bone to a yard of ravenous dogs. Within minutes my inbox is flooded with requests for whatever discarded contraption or household oddity I happen to be availing myself of. After weeding through the requests to select someone who does not come across like a spoiled mooch, I then have to arrange for a pickup, usually from my front porch which makes life much easier for me. I've been fortunate in that most people pick up the items when they say they will but when they don't... it's incredibly frustrating. And then some people change their minds or they want only one of the items I'm offering not the whole lot or they need some kind of special accommodation which is ludicrous since I'm giving them something for free, may I remind you.

All this furious activity makes it very clear to me that it is not currency that binds us to a consumerist culture but rather an innate desire to acquire. This powerful drive may be an ancient habit expressed in a gene yet to be discovered or it could simply be learned and passed down lovingly from one grasping generation to another. The only thing I am sure of is that money is not the cause of it but rather another tool to assist in the acquiring process like two hands and a basket are tools for collecting berries.

I know because this drive expresses itself in me from time to time and I need to actively remind myself that everything is okay just as it is.