Mercy me, the ecology

April 12, 2008

This time last year I was posting about once a day.  Now, it seems my frequency of posts is way down to about once a MONTH.  Dramatic difference.  What can I say?  I’m just not in the mood these days to write blog posts and I see no reason to force it.

Still, every now and again, I do make an effort to come and post at least an update.  So what’s new with me? 

First, I’ve settled in at a new job somewhere in Redmond, WA.  Since March 6 I’ve been busily developing a newsletter for the team that will bring Microsoft Surface to the world. Exciting product and a great team of people.  I am also working on a few other projects for the team, but the newsletter is perhaps the most fun.

I’ve gone car-free.  My husband and I have decided that the cost of regularly driving a private vehicle far outweighs the benefits, so we have arranged to return the car to its rightful owner, Lexus Financial.  It’s a great vehicle and we’ve enjoyed it for the 18 months we’ve had it.  Now we are ready to release it and move on. 

We’ll be busing and walking everywhere we need to go for the next 2 months.  We figure 2 months is enough time to try a car-free lifestyle. If we absolutely feel like we need a car, we can buy a used car with cast after our two month trial.  For those who don’t know, one of my primary inspirations in choosing to give up our car is my friend Carla and her wonderful husband, Adam.  Bus Chick (who blogs about car-free living and public transportation) and and Bus Nerd actually met on the bus.  Now that they have a little Bus Chicklet (baby Rosa who was born last November) they remain commited to car-free living.  If Carla and Adam can live a full and interesting life (with an infant) in the Seattle area without owning a car, I feel confident that John and I can too.  Although I don’t have any plans to blog regularly about my life without a car, I may provide the occasional update, so stay tuned if you’re interested in how it goes.

On a related note, today I went down to the Wa State Convention Center for the 2008 Green Festival.  I will be volunteering as a box office clerk for the festival tomorrow, but today I attended a couple of lectures.  The first of the two was given by Bruce Poon Tip, founder and CEO of GAP Adventures, a leader in eco-travel offering small group adventure tours to more than 100 locations around the world.  Bruce talked about how to travel sustainably.  He really opened my eyes to how I can see the world and experience other cultures in a more mindful and meaningful way than say, the typical cruise or resort vacation.  I’m particularly interested in the idea of “voluntourism” where some or all of a vacation is spent giving back or working for someone else’s benefit for free.

The second talk I attended was given by author and activist Sharif Abdullah, of the Commonway Institute.  His talk, entitled “Creating a World that Works for All” was attention-grabbing and inspirational.  Sharif is putting philosophy into action in by working to bring peace and justice to a troubled world.  He spoke at length about the work he’s done over the years to heal the wounds caused by warfare in Sri Lanka.  He’s working with the people to recreate their society in a way that makes sense for the people, not for the leadership.  As they succeed, we in other parts of the world (including the United States) can look to their example to also recreate our society in such a way as to restore power to the people where it belongs.  If interested, do some research on the Vision Declaration created by and for the people of Sri Lanka. 

It was a gorgeous day here today.  We had sunshine and 75 degress F.  The Dalai Lama has been in town for a few days now and lots of people came into Seattle to see him.  On the bus I socialized with a nice family from New Mexico.  Now I’m home again and considering if I should take a brief nap before watching a new episode of Battlestar Galactica online.  I am quite content and full of gratitude for a good life! 

Until next time,

Char 

Posted in Authentic Living